No. 20 USC vs. No. 1 Alabama
The Alabama Crimson Tide will take the field for the very first time since winning the National Championship in January. Instead of opening at home, the Crimson Tide will take on the USC Trojans in a game full of Talent at AT&T Stadium. USC is hoping that they can take the next step and win the Pac-12 this season.
For those that want to watch USC and Alabama on Saturday, the game can be seen on TV on ABC and online via a live stream. The live stream is the WatchESPN app. Here’s everything you need to know about watching the game online, including TV info, live stream info and more. Details for Saturday are below.
Date: Saturday, September 3, 2016
Start Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
Location: Dallas, TX
Venue: AT&T Stadium
TV Info: ABC
Live Stream: WatchESPN
Keys to Victory
First and foremost, Max Browne is going to have to make plays for USC to have a chance. The highly touted quarterback is finally getting his chance to take over at quarterback. The good news is that he has plenty of weapons, including Juju Smith-Schuster, who is widely recognized as the best wide receiver in the country.
For Alabama, their defensive line has to stop the run and force the new quarterback prove that he can beat them. That means that the safeties are going to have to provide help over the top when covering Smith-Schuster. It will be interesting to see if having Lane Kiffin on the sidelines will help Alabama get a familiarity of the Trojans.
Offensively, Alabama needs to simply find Calvin Ridley. The Trojans have been prone to giving up the big play. Kiffin is going to try to hit the home run early and often against his old team.
Betting Odds
Vegas sees Alabama as the big favorites at -12. However, the line isn’t so big that they see them blowing USC out of the building. There is the potential that USC should mount a solid fight and perhaps even make things interesting in the first game of the season. They have too much talent to not put up a challenge.
Prediction
The Trojans have a tremendous amount of talent and Clay Helton has quite the task in his first game as head coach. It’s also Max Browne’s first game at quarterback. That’s a lot to ask for a team that is taking on the defending National Champions.
That being said, the Trojans won’t go down without a fight and one should expect a couple of big plays of their own. Alabama will slowly grind them down and hit them with the offensive weapons of Ridley, Gehrig Dieter and O.J. Howard. That’s when they will pull away in the second half and leave their mark on the game. Still, the Trojans will leave with plenty to be happy about.
Pick: Alabama 31, USC 17