Who To Watch
USC at Utah (Sat 10:00pm ET Fox Sports 1)
Southern Cal QB Cody Kessler
(Photo: AP)
If you can’t get to sleep late on Saturday night (and let’s be honest: after last week, who can?), here’s a Pac-12 matchup on an obscure cable channel that kicks off waaay later than a football game should.
Utah’s offense shouldn’t provide matchup problems for USC’s defense, but a better metric is to watch how the Ute defense is able to contain the Trojan offense. With the Thanksgiving trip out west looming for the Irish as the final marquee matchup for the 2014 campaign, the Irish performance between now and then will be closely watched.
Strength-of-Schedule Rankings
Rank |
Team |
Record |
Weekly Change |
| 15 | North Carolina | 3-4 | +1 |
| 17 | Southern Cal | 5-2 | +7 |
| 24 | Syracuse | 3-4 | +9 |
| 25 | Stanford | 4-3 | -16 |
| 31 | Northwestern | 3-4 | -6 |
| 34 | Notre Dame | 6-1 | -17 |
| 36 | Florida State | 7-0 | -9 |
| 42 | Arizona State | 5-1 | -16 |
| 43 | Purdue | 3-5 | -5 |
| 50 | Michigan | 3-4 | +10 |
| 65 | Rice | 3-3 | +21 |
| 69 | Louisville | 6-2 | +17 |
| 105 | Navy | 3-4 | +15 |
Upcoming Opponents
- San Jose State at Navy (Sat 1:00pm ET CBS Sports Network)
- Arizona State at Washington (Sat 10:45pm ET ESPN)
Past Opponents
- North Texas at Rice (Sat 12:00pm ET)
- North Carolina at Virginia (Sat 12:30pm ET ESPN Gameplan)
- Oregon State at Stanford (Sat 3:30pm ET ESPN2)
- Michigan at Michigan State (Sat 3:30pm ET ABC)
- Syracuse at Clemson (Sat 7:00pm ET ESPNU)
Staff Waiter, #HLSrecap Inventor
Powered by SC schadenfreude, husband to Mrs. IrishElvis (not pictured), rabble rouser. TCB.
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Based on the SOS, if Southern Cal and Sparky manage to win everything but us, we might just be able to stake a fairly big claim at the playoff.
Michigan pulling an upset against Michigan State or Ohio State out of their hat would surely help too, but I’m not going to be cheering for or hoping for that by any means.
FSU’s SOS really scares me. It’s not as high as I’d like it to be and their schedule only gets easier now. Should they fall on their faces, we might just be screwed.