Here’s everything you need to know about the Pac-12 South showdown between USC and Colorado, including how to bet and watch online.
Its been 20 years since Colorado last started off 5-0 but face their stiffest test on Saturday when they travel to L.A. to take on the USC Trojans. With victories over rivals Colorado St. and Nebraska, and a win over a very sound Arizona St. team this past weekend, the Buffs have a lot of confidence entering their Pac-12 South showdown with the Trojans.
Colorado has been led by quarterback Steven Montez who has 1,420 passing yards and 11 touchdowns to only two interceptions on 75 percent passing. His go-to target all year has been Laviska Shenault who is coming off a four-touchdown outing vs. Arizona State, with two of his scores coming on the ground. He will be counted on making big plays against a talented USC secondary led by Iman Marshall who figures to follow him up and down the field on Saturday.
Colorado has a well-balanced team, ranking in the top three in the Pac-12 in scoring offense and scoring defense. If they can get a win against USC, they’ll be comfortably in the lead for the South division title.
USC is 3-2 with the losses coming to Texas and Stanford, but the last two weeks haven’t been much better despite wins against Washington State and Arizona by a combined seven points. Clay Helton is on the hot seat and has to be better, so this is a must-win game for USC to have any shot at the division title and going back to the Pac-12 Championship Game.
The Trojans are led by a young but talented quarterback, J.T Daniels who has been impressive considering he should be a high school senior. He’s got some impressive weapons in Tyler Vaughns and Amon-Ra St.Brown, his former high school teammate.
USC hasn’t been excellent on defense this year, but there are still plenty of talented playmakers, especially in the secondary with Marshall and Marvell Tell III. If they can limit Montez in the passing game and make Colorado one-dimensional, they might be able to pull off the home win.
This should be a litmus test for both with the winner assuming control of the North, but if USC loses this game, they’re going to need to get awfully lucky the rest of the way to get back to the conference championship game.
How to watch and bet on Colorado vs. USC
Date: Saturday, Oct 13
Start Time: 7:30 p.m. PT
Location: Los Angeles, California
Stadium: LA Coliseum
TV Info: FS1
Odds: USC -7
Live Stream: Fox Sports
Prediction: Despite their undefeated record, Colorado hasn’t played anyone that tough, whereas USC is battle tested after games with Stanford and Texas. In addition to the home crowd that should play to USC’s advantage, I think Colorado’s defense will be unable to slow Daniels and his array of weapons so I am taking the Trojans to win and cover the spread.