USC football schedule 2020: Predicting every USC Trojans game

The October schedule starts off tough, but like September falters late.

Oct. 2 at Utah

USC kicks off October with a Friday night showdown against a good Utah team. This is a Utah team that had a real claim to the College Football Playoff in 2019 if they could have defeated Oregon in the Pac-12 title game. This should be their only competition in the Pac-12 South too, so whoever wins this game will have an inside track to the Pac-12 Championship Game.

Utah loses star quarterback Tyler Huntley and running back Zack Moss as well as a good portion of their defense as well. The secondary is going to have to be pretty much completely retooled. The defense will still be solid up front, giving the Utes a chance, but Slovis and the athletes on offense for USC will be too much. The Trojans get a huge road win.

Oct. 10 vs California

This isn’t going to be an easy one by any stretch for the Trojans. Cal returns virtually everything on offense including quarterback Chase Garbers who had the injury bug in 2019. He played in eight full games in 2019 and won all eight. The five games that he didn’t fully play ended in losses. So it’s needless to say how important he will be to this Cal offense if healthy. He gets all of his offensive line back as well. The defense though, is a little bit of an unknown, especially in the secondary. Garbers has a nice game on the road in Southern California, but it isn’t enough to outscore Slovis and the Trojans.

Oct. 17 at Arizona

Between Arizona State, Utah, and Cal, USC survived a sneaky tough three-game stretch going 3-0. Now they travel to Tuscon, Arizona to play a Wildcats team lead by head Kevin Sumlin that has really underachieved in his two years there. This Arizona team should be a little bit better than the 4-8 squad from last season, but it just doesn’t have the athletes to keep up with USC.

Oct. 31 vs Colorado

This Colorado squad has gone 5-7 in each of the last three seasons and while maybe they get one more win in 2020. I don’t see this Buffaloes team giving USC any real challenge. The secondary was a mess last year and if you haven’t noticed by now in this article, USC’s passing offense is going to be really good. That spells trouble for Colorado in what shouldn’t be a very close game to end October.