#13 USC vs. Utah State (Home Opener)
September 7, 2024 at 8:10pm
Los Angeles, CA: 68,110 (of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 27 minutes
On a week where many top 25 teams either fell or struggled against far less talented competition, the Trojans didn’t fall victim to the classic “trap game” scenario—a G5 team on a short week, sandwiched between two ranked matchups. Instead, they shut out the first opponent since 2011’s famous 50-0 season closer against UCLA. It’s always a good feeling when your team is playing third-stringers in the second quarter, doing mass substitutions by the third quarter, and still managing to score over 40 points.
Yeah, sure, it’s “just” Utah State, but a shutout against anyone, especially in the current day college football should be cause for celebration. I’ll probably spend 90% of this post emphasizing that. There’s a reason it hasn’t happened in 13 years. This was actually the first time a Lincoln Riley coached team has shut out against FBS opponent (other non-FBS shutouts include FCS teams Missouri State in 2020, Western Carolina in 2021 when Riley was at Oklahoma). Just take a look at the last couple of similar tier games from Riley’s past two years at USC.
| Team | Points Scored | Year |
| Rice | 14 | 2022 |
| Fresno State | 17 | 2022 |
| San Jose State | 28 | 2023 |
| Nevada | 14 | 2023 |
None of these teams scored less than two touchdowns. The hard part when you’re blowing apart another team that badly is that your backups need to come in and continue carrying the shutout. A simple field goal kick could end that, much like the 19-3 score USC ended with against Utah in 2013. Since we’re on the topic, let’s think about the kickers for a second.
If you ever thought that placekickers don’t really ever get to do much, know that Utah State kicker, Elliott Nimrod, had even less than what you’d expect. He almost had the minimum amount of kicking done in a legal game of football. After the opening kickoff, he disappeared for nearly 59 game minutes before they trotted him back out to attempt a 53-yard field goal. In real time, that’s probably like 3 hours and 20 minutes—enough time for him to run to the locker room, complete two full REM cycles or the entire theatrical release of The Return of the King and still have time to warm up before that final kick. That’s participation prize level of play. In comparison, the USC kicker, Michael Lantz, had to kick 17 times (9 kickoffs, 6 PATs, 2 field goals), which is more times than Woody Marks ran the ball and only 1 less than the number of passes completed by Aggie quarterback, Bryson Barnes. Maybe that name sounds familiar to you…
If it doesn’t, Bryson Barnes, is the name of the Utah backup quarterback that (in)famously came off the bench to beat USC in 2023. The big storyline was that he was a pig farmer prior to playing at Utah. He transferred to Utah State in the offseason and was probably hoping for a repeat experience. Instead, the only thing repeated is the familiarity of the dirt of being a pig farmer, as the USC defense picked up its first three sacks of the season. Now that Utah is no longer on the schedule, perhaps this will provide the team some measure of revenge (or if you want to approach in a healthier way: catharsis).
Good/Badisms
Good: Receivers blocking, tight ends blocking and….even the starting QB blocking. It helps spring bigger plays and shows the cohesiveness of the team culture
Good: Redshirt freshman tight end, Kade Eldridge, dragging a man across the first down line
Good: The defense holding Utah State to 101 yards in the first half and the subs holding them to even less in the second half (89 yards).
Good: In the waning moments of the second quarter, causing Utah State to burn 3 timeouts just to throw an interception
Bad: The heat, the lighting problems, and a sad reality that the torch was almost left unlit for the fourth quarter.
Good: Backup quarterback, Jayden Maiava, out there playing backyard football against the Aggies.
Bad: Injuries and poor OL depth, leading to playing a walk-on center
Good/Bad: Former QB Matt Barkley getting so hyped that he headbutted someone…that had a helmet on and started bleeding
Good: When the team is running so well, they put the third string running back in during the second quarter. At one point, both Quinten Joyner and Woody Marks averaged over 10 yards per carry.
Bad: Receivers dropping some easy passes that would have been touchdowns.
Bad: The fumble by Lake McRee…although it was a very good punch by the defender
Good: The USC defense only allowed 2 out of 11 third down conversions and 0 out of 2 fourth down conversions
Good/“Bad”: USC’s first and only punt wasn’t until the 4th quarter—which ruined Czaplicki’s average punt yardage since it was a short field. His previous 55.3 ypp, would have been good for #2 in the nation. After it dropped to 50.25 ypp, he now sits at 5th.
Good: Seeing eight banners for the retired numbers of Heisman trophy winners.
CommBro Breaker
In case you’re wondering whether the blank subtitle was a mistake, it isn’t. The blank space exists as a way to sandwich the post in a meta reference to shutouts (and find another way to sneak in a sandwich reference as a call back to all such references I snuck into my grad school speeches).
Conspiracy Watch Stat #3: For the third game in a row, Miller Moss has completed passes to 10 different receivers. What is he trying to tell us? Is #10 Kyron Hudson his favorite receiver? Is he going to win Heismans #9 and #10 for USC? TELL ME
Ridiculous Stat of the Week #1: USC has only had to punt an average of two times per game, which is tied for #9 in the nation.
Ridiculous Stat of the Week #2: For the second week in a row, the old Pac-12 teams only had one loss (11-1 last week, 10-1 this week).
Interesting Stat of the Week: USC is #14 in the nation in opponent penalty yards per game (81.5)
City of Angles 
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