USC football hosts Utah State this Saturday. The Trojans play a Big Ten football game televised by Big Ten Network for the first time in their history. The game is a late kick, just after 8 p.m. local time in Los Angeles at the venerable Coliseum. The Trojans are expected to win handily. The most important thing for them to get from this game is a clean bill of health. The Trojans cannot afford a significant injury or a collection of injuries heading into the huge Michigan game on Sept. 21 in Ann Arbor. As we consider the top players to watch on Utah State, one of them is someone the Trojans know really well from last year, having played him in a different matchup.
One of the important aspects of this game for USC is that it comes off a short week. USC played LSU on Sunday. Now the Trojans will play a game on Saturday. They will have had just five days off this week instead of the usual six days off. Also, the LSU game was very physical and very draining. This is a week when USC needs to rotate a lot of bodies in and out of the game to keep guys fresh and reduce injury risk with Michigan just around the corner. The Trojans need to play a shorter game with fewer overall plays, so that guys don’t take a pounding before going to Michigan for one of the biggest games of the Lincoln Riley era in just over two weeks.
Here are the Utah State football players to watch against USC:
1. Bryson Barnes, Quarterback
With an injury to starter Spencer Petras, Bryson Barnes will be ready to go if needed against USC this weekend.
Barnes finished his first game as an Aggie completing 11 of 15 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns. Barnes also led Utah State in rushing with 88 yards. He beat USC last season in the Coliseum with the Utah Utes. It’s payback time for him. The Trojans need to shut him down and show how much they have changed from 2023.
2. Spencer Petras, Quarterback
Petras compiled a 20-11 record as the Hawkeye starting quarterback during the 2020-22 seasons. The 6-foot-5, 231 pound signal-caller completed 56.7% of his passes for 5,199 passing yards with 24 passing touchdowns against 19 interceptions. Petras also registered 11 rushing touchdowns during his Hawkeye career.
He left last Saturday’s game with a left ankle injury but should be good to go on Saturday at the Coli.
Regardless of Petras or Barnes at starting quarterback, the Aggies will try to make big plays downfield and limit turnovers in their road contest against the Trojans.
3. Rahsul Faison, Running Back
Faison carried the ball 118 times for 736 yards and five touchdowns last season. His 6.2 yards per rush attempt were sixth in the conference.
Faison was expected to split carries with Robert Briggs Jr., but Briggs is out for the season. The Aggies will need to run the ball heavily to stay in this game, control the clock, and limit turnovers.
4. Kyrese White, Wide Receiver
The redshirt senior wideout from Utah State spent his previous three seasons at Utah with Bryson Barnes, appearing in 13 games during the 2021 season.
He had a stellar performance against Robert Morris with 3 receptions, 131 yards and 2 touchdowns and will need to be the key target against the Trojans’ secondary led by Jaylin Smith.
5. DJ Graham II, Cornerback
Junior cornerback DJ Graham II spent four seasons at Oklahoma (2020-23). He appeared in 28 career games with 12 starts. Graham posted 72 tackles during his career, which included 1.0 tackles for loss, while adding five pass breakups, two interceptions and one forced fumble.
He did not play during the 2023 season due to injury but will have the task of trying to slow down the loaded wide receiver group the Trojans have, including Kyron Hudson, Zachariah Branch and Duce Robinson.
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Publish date : 2024-09-05 08:00:00
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