Nov 24, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Southern California Trojans coach Lane Kiffin at a press conference after the game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Notre Dame defeated USC 22-13. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports
Date: Sept. 7
Time: 10:30 EDT, 7:30 PDT
Location: Los Angeles Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA (93,607)
TV: FoxSports1
Washington State Local Radio:
- Spokane: KXLY-AM 920
- Pullman/Moscow: KHTR 104.3-FM
- Seattle KIRO-AM 710
- Full list of WSU Stations
The Washington State Cougars and USC Trojans kick off their Pac-12 slate as one of the final games of a full college football Saturday. Both are coming off of positive games but only USC is coming off of a win.
For WSU, they had several chances but couldn’t quite get over the hump in Auburn, losing 31-24 in a game that they feel to a man they should have won. That doesn’t change the fact that they’re marching into The Coliseum 0-1 and facing a very difficult first test in-conference and there are many Cougar faithful that feel as if Auburn was the reason WSU was even close. The overall belief is that WSU will get overpowered in this one, but finesse is right where the Cougs have a chance to win this game, in my opinion. Connor Halliday will try to redeem himself from a week 1 mistake that may haunt him for the rest of his career… and that could be a good thing if he never throws that pass again!
For USC, their defense literally carried them to victory in Honolulu last week and they’ve had 9 days of preparation to get ready for the Leach air-raid attack. In their last 4 meetings with WSU they’ve outscored the Cougars 193-36, but the two teams haven’t played since 2010 and both teams are at a different point in their programs. Still, the Trojans sport a ridiculous amount of athleticism and size and seem to match up better than decently at every position on the field. Lane Kiffin cannot afford a loss to last year’s last place finisher if he wants to keep his job at the end of this season.
Notables:
- Mike Leach has never coached against Lane Kiffin, nor has he coached in the Coliseum
- Both teams have depleted secondaries and whichever one cracks the most could decide the outcome
- USC ran for 192 yards vs Hawaii, Washington State gave up over 300 yards to Auburn
- Connor Halliday threw the ball 65 times at Auburn, 1 shy of a school record. With USC using a 5-2 defense, Halliday could obliterate the passing record this week
- WSU has beaten USC only 8 times, including both of their Pac-10 Championship seasons in 1997 and 2002. If they win tomorrow, does that mean another Rose Bowl?
Go Cougs!