Southern Cal 2022 Season (1st Qtr-B)
WEEK 3, 2022
vs. Minnesota (0-1)
(USC -10) USC BCS RANK: #9
As always, the early BCS rankings jump all around. They're not worth paying attention to until about week 4 or 5.
We play the Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota this week. The Gophers run a Pro formation offense but have a below average quarterback at the helm - 5th year senior Vinny Murray.
They've got average to slightly above average runnings backs and receivers, so again, a straight up 3-4 defense with normal nickel, dime and goalline usage should do the trick. We're not going to double cover anyone -- there's not a big enough disparity in their receivers in my opinion to require that. We'll be sending WLB Matt Blackston practically the entire game - though last week he didn't have much to show for his efforts.
Code:
Southern California Roster, Injury Report
Player # Pos Elig Health Injury Full Strn.
Myers, Al 86 WR Sr Out Dislocated Elbow 13 Weeks
McIntyre, Shaun 77 DE Jr* Out Broken Fibula 15 Weeks
Our bench is a little banged up this week, but our starters are all healthy.
Spent the recruiting week making follow up phone calls and visits. Already have a kid visiting campus. If everything works out it should be another pretty solid recruiting year for us.
Gameday
1Q: We start off the game nicely, picking off Vinny Murray's first pass of the day and CB Brad Knight takes it to the house - 7-0 SC. They return a punt later on in the quarter for a score to tie the game. They're doing a very good job of containing our running game so far. And that's how the quarter ends, 7-7. We've done a great job stopping their offense so far, but we can't really get anything going yet either.
2Q: We get a good drive going and our running game cranked up to start the second quarter and push the ball in to take a 14-7 lead on a counterplay by WB Alf Snyder after a great block by freshman TE Randy Fix.
Safety Jared Esparza picks off another Murray pass and brings it back to the Gopher 8. A couple of penalties by us push us back to the 18 where TB Ike Daugherty takes it in from 18 yards out behind a Des Connell block. 21-7 USC.
ILB Walt Whalen picked off a Murray pass on the next drive and took it to the house to give us a 21 point lead, 28-7. Defensively we're just killing them.
They punt on their next drive and QB Kenny Finch gets injured but remains in the game, hitting WR Britt Wells with a 16 yard scoring strike. 35-7 Southern Cal. CB Chris Knight then proceeded to pick off a Murray bomb in our endzone for a touchback. As the half was winding down Finch hit Britt Wells again with a 56 yard bomb to set up a 3 yard scoring run by Ike Daugherty. 42-7 SC. Minnesota pulled Murray and that's how the half ended.
Halftime notes: We played absolutely dominating defense in the first half and the offense finally started to get in gear. Vinny Murray had no chance as he was pressurred all half and our secondary just outplayed his receivers.
I expect to see Offensive Coordinator Spencer Farley pull Finch soon.
3Q: Tony Felkey replaced Finch on the first drive of the second half. WB Alf Snyder appears to be seriously injured - not good. We score once and the quarter ends with us up 49-7.
4Q: We score some more and basically just run the clock out for a 59-7 win.
Our defense was overwhelming today, holding Minnesota to 80 yards total offense.
Offensively we controlled the ball for over 39 minutes and just ran them into the ground. TB Ike Daugherty had 106 yards and 2 touchdowns on 18 carries and our backups got plenty of work.
A very good win against a team clearly not in our class.
USC 59 -- Minnesota 7
PAC-10 (0-0) -- OVERALL (2-0)
* * *
WEEK 4
Open Date.
USC BCS RANK: #15
UCLA and Virginia are off to good starts, ranked #1 and #2 in the BCS at the moment. We have an open date this week, so most of our time will just be spent following up with recruits.
PAC-10 (0-0) -- OVERALL (2-0)
-20-