USC Trojans
Week 8, 2022
Recruiting: Fullback James Sawyer out of Starpoint High School in Lockport, NY has signed a letter of intent with Southern Cal this week. Starpoint has a very solid football program and our scouts rated sawyer at 88 - but when I saw him play he looked much better than that. Sawyer could find himself in the mix next season as we're currently a bit thin at the fullback spot and Spencer Washington will be graduating this year.
We didn't impress anyone with out struggle against Arizona last week, but we didn't lose any ground in the Coach's Poll either, still ranked 2nd behind Virginia. We've just got to keep our eyes on the prize and focus on getting through our PAC-10 schedule undefeated and getting back to the BCS title game to topple Virginia and bring that national championship trophy home to Southern Cal.
Hard enough to do at that - and then there's our annual game against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame in Week 13. Let's see if we're up to the job.
We'll be facing the Washington Huskies at the Rose Bowl this week. The Huskies come into the game at 3-3 (1-2 in the PAC-10) and are another team that we'll need to stuff the run against. Washington's passing game doesn't look too threatening so we'll be stacking against the running of (RB) Norman Barlow who has over 500 yards in 6 games and is averaging 5 yards per rush.
Our defensive line has been decimated by injuries - 3 of our 6 defensive ends are out for the game, one of our starters - Jeffers - and our first man off the bench - McIntyre - among them. We're so thin at end that walk-on Conrad Whiting may get some serious playing time today.
Code:
The College Years
Southern California Roster, Injury Report
Player # Pos Elig Health Injury Full Strn.
Wells, Britt 6 WR So Probable Turf Toe Unknown
Snyder, Alfred 25 RB Sr* Probable Stretched Knee Li 5 Weeks
Myers, Al 86 WR Sr Out Dislocated Elbow 9 Weeks
McWilliams, Mel 98 DT Sr Probable Bruised Shoulder 1 Week
Esparza, Jared 20 S Sr Probable Bruised Ribcage 1 Week
Jeffers, Floyd 72 DE Sr Out Broken Wrist 7 Weeks
McIntyre, Shaun 77 DE Jr* Out Broken Fibula 10 Weeks
Battle, Jamie 91 DE Fr Out Broken Ankle 8 Weeks
Horie, Tyrone 28 FB Sr* Out Arthroscopic Knee 6 Weeks
Gameday
vs. Washington (3-3) (1-2, PAC-10) *TV5*
(USC -16) USC Coaches Poll Rank: #2
Gametime: As noted we're going to stack the line and try and stuff Barlow. I figure if we can shut him down our normal pass defense should be able to keep unimpressive Huskie (QB) Greg Orlaskey in check. We will however double team their best wideout, Winfred Hitchcock, about 1.3 of the time. We'll be running our normal Triple Option Wishbone with one wideout, Britt Wells (20 receptions for 387 yards) and one Tight End, usually Randall Fix. Alfred Snyder will be back in the lineup at Wingback, opposite Tailback Ike Daugherty.
1st Qtr: An early defensive stop gave the Trojans a short field to work with and Kenny Finch made short work of the Washington defense hitting Alf Snyder on a 13 yard scoring strike giving USC an early 7-0 lead. Good way to set the tone for the day, here's hoping we keep up the pressure early.
2nd Qtr: Neither team managed anything remotely resembling offense for the rest of the first quarter and Southern Cal took a 7-0 lead into the second period from whence the Trojans began a 10:30 minute drive from their own 9 yard line before the drive stalled and we settled for a field goal, going up 10-0 with about 4:30 left in the half.
Washington came right back on the kickoff, returning the kick 106 yards for a touchdown and narrowing our lead to 10-7. We've completely shut down the Huskies offense but our offense hasn't taken advantage of our defensive efforts and now we're being outplayed on special teams. This game is far too close for comfort, the way we're playing defense we should be blowing Washington out.
Neither school was able to get anything going the rest of the quarter and Southern Cal went into the break with a 10-7 lead.
Halftime Notes: The Trojan defense has stymied Washington's offensive unit, holding the Huskies to 28 total yards - 3 on the ground - and 2 first downs in the first half. But the Southern Cal offense has been unable to take advantage of the Huskies futility and Tailback Ike Daugherty went down with an injury late in the second quarter - I don't know if he'll be back for the second half. If not it'll be up to Alfred Snyder to carry the load on the ground.
Bottom line is we've got to start making plays offensively. Despite playing lights out defense we've let Washington hang around and hang around, and bad things happen when you do that.
3rd Qtr: We continue to be outplayed on special teams, a dumb penalty on the opening kickoff backs us up to our own 4 yard line. But Kenny Finch and Ike Daugherty run the triple option to perfection on the first play from scrimmage in the second half and Ike scampers 96 yards for a touchdown. Big, big play.
Guess Ike was ok after all.
USC 17-7.
Our defense stones the Huskies on the next drive giving us a short field. Despite that, we get nothing going but decide to go for it on 4th and 13 fronm the washington 30. on a gutcheck play Kenny Finch hits Tailback Ike Daugherty on a 30 yard bomb to put the Trojans up 24-7.
Talk about a quick momentum shift.
Our defense continues to play flawlessly but bad news on the offensive front as (QB) Kenny Finch goes down with a serious injury and is replaced by Tony Felkey. Deja vu all over again it seems.
The Huskies managed to put together a solid drive before the end of the third and close the gap to 24-10 as we head into the final frame. The game seems well in hand at this point, but the loss of Finch looms.
4th Qtr: Felkey really has trouble getting anything started against the Huskies defense and Greg Orlaskey suddenly looks like Tom Brady and picks apart the Trojan D, closing the gap to 24-17.
The game that seemed well in hand a few minutes ago seems much less so now, especially when we fumble the kickoff return with a full 10 minutes left in the game. The defense will really need to step up now.
And it does, forcing a punt and Southern Cal takes over at our own 11, whereupon Tony Felkey hits speedster Britt Wells on an 89 yard scoring strike to move the Trojans out in front 31-17 and in the process giving us a little breathing room. Well done defense and Felkey and Wells!
The USC defense kept the pressure on with a sack and then a pick but the offense could manage nothing more than a trey, upping the lead to 34-17. Whilst the offense looked unimpressive that drive and didn't take advantage of the turnover, that should be good enough to seal the "W"with 5 minutes left in the game.
Got to give credit to Washington (QB) Greg Orlaskey. There's simply no "quit" in him, as he leads the Huskies down the field with his arm for a touchdown that closes the USC lead to 10, 34-24, with 2:30 left in the game. The Huskies tried an onside kick but we recovered. But damn for an unimpressive looking passer Orlaskey has done a mighty fine job keeping Washington in this game.
We tack on a field goal and a pick-six in the closing minutes to make the margin of victory deceptively large, 44-24.
Postgame Notes: Offensively Tailback Ike Daugherty had another outstanding game, carrying the ball 31 times for 183 yards (5.9 YPC) and 1 touchdown while making 4 catches for 64 yards and another score. Wideout Britt Wells had a big day as well making 6 receptions for 162 yards and 1 score. Big numbers - 499 total yards - but lots of trouble punching it into the end zone until late in the game.
Defensively we held Washington to 278 total yards and picked off two Orlaskey passes while holding Hitchcock to 2 catches and Barlow to 58 yards on 13 carries. (NT) Mel McWilliams also sacked Orlaskey twice.
Looming over all however was kenny Finch's torn wrist ligament. Finch will miss the rest of the regular season and likely any bowl game Southern Cal plays. Finch played only 5 games last season and it looks like he'll top out at 6 this year.
The rest of the season is in Tony Felkey's hands.
Or more likely on Ike Daugherty's legs.
USC 44 -- Washington 24
PAC-10 (4-0) -- Overall (6-0)