Pac 12 Preview: USC, Cal win

Pac12 Pick Of The Week:

USC (5-5) at UCLA (2-8)


Don't listen to USC coach Clay Helton. He insists his job is safe even though his underachieving Trojans need a win over UCLA this weekend or next week over Notre Dame to get to six wins to become bowl eligible. He's delusional.  He's lucky he wasn't canned after Saturday's 15-14 loss to Cal. Yes the Bears' ferocious D was the main factorin that win but SC was a major contributor with stupid mistakes, including penalties, turnovers, dropped passes and a critical bad snap, all indicative of poor coaching.

Another rap against Helton is his QB management. Freshman QB JT Daniels helped blow the Cal game with a horrible second half, highlighted by a miserable passing yardage total-- 33 yards. Some think there's a better QB sitting on the Trojan bench. In his college debut, the Arizona State loss, Jack Sears passed for 235 yards and two TDs, looking considerably sharper than Daniels. But Helton has blundered choosing QBs before, starting Max Browne, who turned out to be a bust, over Sam Darnold a few years ago.

In theory SC, with its superior personnel, should easily dispose of the Bruins, whose most glaring deficiency is a terrible run defense, which allows opponents to control the game via rushing. SC doesn't have a great ground game but it's good enough to roll through the Bruins who, to make matters worse, bolster enemy passing attacks with a feeble pass rush.

SC should win this one, but if they should lose or if its an ugly victory, Helton is a goner.





Stanford (6-4) at Cal (6-4)


The Cal defense, ranked 16th in the country and the school's best in decades, is the key to this game.
In the Bears' last four games, no opponent has scored more than 20 points. In those games the run defense has been superb, not allowing any team to cross the 100-yard mark.

The run defense isn't even the star of the team's defense. Actually, that is the secondary. Stanford's strength, however, is its passing game. In four of its last five games, QB KJ Costello has passed for at least 300 yards. You don't hear as much about Costello since Washington State QB Gardner Minshew, who's having a Heisman year, gets all the attention in discussions about Pac12 QBs. Costello, though, is having a great year, which is a bonus for Stanford because its running game has gone down the drain, since injuries have slowed star RB Bryce Love.

Stanford is a good team with a sturdy defense. Its four losses have been to teams currently in the Top 20. Its defense shouldn't have much trouble with Cal's wimpy offense. Essentially this game comes down to Cal's defense vs. the Stanford passing game. Who will get the upper hand?

It could go either way. You know how these rivalry games are. I'm leaning toward a Cal victory, based on the excellence of its defense, in a low-scoring game, but a Stanford win wouldn't surprise me.