USC can finally move on after their bye week after firing Lane Kiffin. Ed Orgeron who was the defensive line coach will take over and players have already embraced him and I think we will see a complete 180 from them on Thursday night at home. One of their best defensive players George Uko said, "We're happy to be out here . . . we really like to go to practice . . . it's fun to be out here now . . . it just feels like there's more energy . . . it's lots of little things." That's huge because it did seem like under Kiffin the players just were not playing for him, but make no mistake about it this defense is very good. They held every other team they faced to 14 points or less before allowing 62 last week which I would just say was a bad game for a team that didn't care about their head coach. Now back at home with extra time to prepare for Arizona team that is completely one dimensional with only a running game and I think they'll dominate.
Arizona can not pass and only rely on KaDeem Carey at running back, but USC has been stout against the run allowing just 2.85 ypc at home over three games. Arizona's QB BJ Denker is only completing just 50% of his passes, 2 TD and 2 INT as well as 4.9 yards per attempt. USC will be all over the running game here and should force Arizona into third and longs which they are not capable of converting. USC has held opponents to 31% conversions on third down. USC's offense can run the ball coming up with a 6.7 ypc average in their last game and they get some added depth with Silas Redd back. USC is also more capable of passing the ball as Cody Kessler is completing 63% of his passes for 7.9 yards per attempts with 6 TD and 4 interceptions. Overall we are getting nice value here because of how badly the defense played for USC in their last game. Now they come home with a new coach who they seem to enjoy playing for and they are facing a defense that just gave up 244 rushing yards in their last game with a one dimensional offense. Trojans win big here.
