The No. 4 USC Trojans have not been able to put away the Western Michigan Broncos early in Week 1. They enter the half tied at 14 points apiece.
The USC Trojans have entered the 2017 college football season with a ton of hype. After coming alive with redshirt freshman Sam Darnold in at quarterback, the Trojans would earn a big to the Rose Bowl and defeat the Big Ten champion Penn State Nittany Lions in Pasadena.
Many see the Trojans as the favorite to win the Pac-12. Their biggest challenger will probably be Chris Petersen’s Washington Huskies coming out of the Pac-12 North. However, the Trojans have had more than their hands full against the unranked Western Michigan Broncos on Saturday. They are tied at the half at 14 points apiece.
Western Michigan may have earned the Group of 5 bid to ultimately lose to the Wisconsin Badgers in the Cotton Bowl last year, but the Broncos lost their head coach P.J. Fleck to the Minnesota Golden Gophers job.
Impressively, the Broncos have tied the Trojans at the half in Los Angeles. Should the Trojans fall at home to Western Michigan, it might seriously impact the Trojans’ chances of getting to the College Football Playoff.
Maybe Western Michigan is the next mid-major power? Or not, but the Trojans shouldn’t be dropping another season opener if they want to achieve big things this holiday season. Of course, USC has a full nine-game Pac-12 slate, but this Power 5 conference has been shut out of the playoff before. A loss to Western Michigan in Week 1 severely hurts the image of the Pac-12 in 2017.
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Chalk it up to first-half jitters or whatever, but the Trojans need to play better to come away with a certain Week 1 victory over the Broncos. USC can still orchestrate a perfect season and win its first national title since the Pete Carroll era, but Clay Helton’s teams have to stop coming out slow in season openers.