The athletic program at USC is a mess at the moment with athletic director Lynn Swann resigning earlier this week. The prevailing wisdom is that Trojans’ head football coach Clay Helton might also be on new college president Carol Folt’s ‘kill list’ but so far his team has done their part in keeping him employed. The Trojans are a perfect 2-0 after two games (1-1 against the spread) with home victories over Fresno State and Stanford. Now they’ll take to the road for the first time to face BYU at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trojans have a big game at home next Friday night against Utah but have the good fortune of catching BYU in a favorable spot. The Cougars don’t appear to be anything special this year. QB Zach Wilson is capable but not of the pedigree expected from a BYU signal caller. Of particular concern–the BYU defense has looked ‘soft’ this year and that’s not something you expect to see from a Kalane Sitaki coached Cougar team. BYU simply couldn’t match up physically with Utah in their opening game but found the going much easier against a shockingly bad Tennessee team. The Vols led 13-3 at halftime but let the Cougars back in the game in the second half with BYU eventually winning 29-26 in double overtime. That game probably says more about the pitiful state of the Vols football team than anything about BYU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The situation looked dire for USC after losing starting quarterback JT Daniels to a season ending knee injury. Enter true freshman Kedon Slovis who turned in a magnificent performance against Stanford going 28-33 for 377 yards and 3 TDs with no interceptions. Slovis has a good opportunity for a solid encore appearance against a BYU team that appears to lack the pass rush that we’ve come to expect from their program. The Trojans team might have been revitalized by the emergence of Slovis and even should they lose to a nasty Utah team next week they’d have accomplished a lot if they’re able to enter that game 3-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BYU is in a perfect ‘letdown situation’ following a big win in Knoxville. The expectation was that the Cougars would be ‘road kill’ against Tennessee with the Vols coming off the embarrassing opening game loss to Georgia State. That was never really the case–even as Tennessee opened a 13-3 lead at the half the intensity just wasn’t there. BYU now returns home after a long road trip and a satisfying victory with what will be considered as a more daunting challenge on deck against Washington next Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The altitude in Provo is always a concern for opposing teams, but the current vintage BYU team doesn’t play physically enough or at a tempo that would really allow them to leverage this component of their home field advantage. LaVell Edwards stadium hasn’t exactly been a tough place for foes in recent years–Cougars now on a 5-8 SU\/4-9 ATS run on their home field. Cougars also on a 1-5 SU\/2-4 ATS run against Pac 12 opponents. With the college football betting odds<\/a> pricing USC as less than a TD favorite we’ll gladly lay it with the Trojans.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBET USC -4.5 OVER BYU<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n