Week 13 – UCLA BRUINS (6-5) @ USC TROJANS (7-3)
Date: November 28, 10:00 PM EST
Site: Los Angeles, CA
BetUS LINE: USC -13
Preview:
It’s likely that the non-Southern Cal fans out there are rejoicing at the prospect of USC needing to go back to the drawing board after this season. In the past several seasons, the Trojans winning the Pac-10 conference has been as reliable as the sun rising every day.
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Now that has changed, expect a dogfight in sunny southern California when the sun goes down on Saturday night. The Trojans have really unspooled in 2009, particularly against conference foes Oregon and Stanford.
The Bruins, for their part, are further behind in the rebuilding efforts under coach Rick Neuheisel. They do, however, have a very functional defense and will no doubt love to prolong the misery of Will Ferrell and the rest of the Trojan faithful. However, in Southern Cal’s house this will be a tall order. Trojans pivot Matt Barkley has made his share of freshman mistakes, with an almost equal TD-INT ratio and numbers that don’t jump off the page. However, he is able to spark the offense with a deep ball and the Bruins will also have trouble containing explosive tailback Joe McKnight, who should top 1,000 yards in the contest.
USC lost plenty from its award-winning defensive unit last year, but UCLA’s 89th-ranked attack shouldn’t give Trojan defenders heart palpitations. After UCLA went through a horrible mid-season stretch where it dropped five straight games, Neuheisel’s men have righted the ship lately and QB Kevin Prince needs to get his momentum back. Prince hasn’t eclipsed 2,000 yards passing and their leading rusher, frosh Johnathan Franklin, has barely cracked 500 yards.
Thus, the Bruins will have to rely on playing some gritty defense to have a shot at stealing this game in the L.A. Memorial Coliseum.
Southern Cal is the better team and should win this game, but I (and numerous others) have said this before and seen the Trojans crash and burn this season. We’ll see what the result is this time around, but expect a memorable tilt nonetheless.
2009 Team Stats
Total Offense: UCLA 89th
USC 49th
Total Defense: UCLA 40th
USC 48th
Trends:
The total has gone UNDER in 6 of UCLA’s last 7 games on the road
UCLA is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games when playing Southern Cal
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of UCLA’s last 5 games when playing Southern Cal
UCLA is 3-11 SU in its last 14 games on the road
Southern Cal is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing at home against UCLA
Southern Cal is 14-1 SU in its last 15 games at home
Southern Cal is 9-1 SU in its last 10 games when playing UCLA
Southern Cal is 17-3 SU in its last 20 games
Team records:
UCLA: 6-5 SU, 6-5 ATS
Southern Cal: 7-3 SU, 2-8 ATS
Pick: USC -13
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James has been naming every player on the EA Sports NCAA video game rosters for half a decade now, he’s finally putting his knowledge to better use writing for us here at CappersPicks.com. As always you’re comments are welcome below…Give Us Your Take!
