USC football schedule 2020: Predicting every USC Trojans game
The USC football schedule gets more manageable after Alabama in the opener.Clay Helton heads into his fifth full season as head coach of the Trojans, looking to get them back to the glory days of Reggie Bush and national championships. To say that has been a failure would be an understatement, they haven’t been to the College Football Playoff, and have missed out on the Pac-12 Championship game the last two seasons.
It was seen by many as a miracle that he wasn’t fired after last season, but it seems that USC is willing to give him one more shot with a squad that returns a lot of players from last year’s 8-5 squad.
The biggest returner is Kedon Slovis, the freshman quarterback that replaced the injured J.T. Daniels last season. Slovis threw for 3,502 yards, a 72 percent completion percentage, 30 touchdowns, and just nine interceptions. With Daniels transferring to Georgia, Slovis will have the job no doubt in 2020.
That is a fantastic year for Slovis and while their best receiver in Michael Pittman Jr. is gone, returner Amon-Ra St. Brown is just as good if not better. St. Brown is coming off a year where he made 77 catches for 1,042 yards, and six touchdowns.
The running game isn’t terrible either, but it will be an afterthought with what should be a high flying offense under offensive coordinator Graham Harrell.
5 most underrated players in USC Trojans history. light. Related Story
The biggest reason the Trojans were only able to win eight games last season was their defense. If the offense didn’t score in bunches, they lost and that is something that has to change if Helton wants to keep his job next season.
The pieces are there for this to be a big improvement on that side as 12 of the top 13 tacklers from last season are returning.
It was a very young core on defense that went through a lot of growing pains in some difficult losses, but it should be much better this year behind a stacked defensive line and an impressive linebacker unit.
The schedule, on the other hand, will do USC no favors as, despite the fact that they play in the Pac-12, the Trojans will kick off the season against Alabama and end it against Notre Dame. That is one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country.
The Pac-12 portion of the schedule while having a lot of “should wins” on it, ramps up in November with a trip to Eugene, Oregon followed by a date with Washington at home.
The USC football schedule begins with a tough challenge against Alabama, but does the rest set the USC Trojans up for a Pac-12 title opportunity? Let’s predict every game in the USC season.