(22) USC at Texas – 8:00 p.m. ET – FOX
If only Matt Leinart and Vince Young were leading these teams Saturday night… One can always dream. That said, don’t expect to be disappointed when Southern Cal heads to Texas for a rematch of one of the greatest National Championship games of all-time.
The Trojans are coming off a 17-3 loss to Stanford, in a game where freshman quarterback J.T. Daniels never could get the offense going. However, the USC defense looked the part and held a powerful Stanford offense to 342 total yards. If the Trojans plan to turn things around this weekend, it will start with Daniels, who enters the game with one touchdown and two interceptions on the season. Although Daniels is one of the youngest starting quarterbacks in college football, he has the weapons to thrive in Clay Helton’s offense but will need to settle in and take care of the ball to do so.
Where does one start with the Texas Longhorns, the Tom Herman led team entered the season with high hopes but got off to a shaky start by losing to Maryland in Week 1. Outside of escaping with a victory, Week 2 didn’t go much better, but the Longhorns defeated Tulsa 28-21. Texas hasn’t taken care of the ball, played poorly defensively and simply don’t look like a team that had Big 12 title hopes to start the season. That said, the Longhorns have a roster littered with talent, so if Tom Herman can get his team on the same page this week, they could easily turn their season around and gain some confidence heading into Big 12 play.
Anyone tuning in should expect USC to run away with this game, but don’t think the Longhorns won’t be out for revenge after last years double-overtime loss to the Trojans.