Utah enters the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the 13th time in program history on Saturday.
The Utes probably won’t be invited back very soon.
With USC headed to the Big Ten next year and Utah going to the Big 12, it may be the last clash in a while between these two opponents, and there have been some great ones in years past.
It would stand to reason that USC wants revenge for the two losses to Utah in 2022 — the latter, in the Pac-12 championship game, knocked the Trojans out of College Football Playoff contention.
But don’t expect star quarterback Caleb Williams to come out and say it.
“Another chance to go and get a win on Saturday in the Coliseum,” Williams said when asked what the Utah game means for him.
“We don’t measure wins. We don’t circle games. The only game that you can measure is the last one and we’re not there,” Williams said.
Williams may be the best player the Utes will face all season. Headlining the nation’s No. 2 scoring offense, which averages 47.3 points per game, the junior quarterback has thrown for 288 passing yards per contest.
The presumptive NFL draft No. 1 pick has plenty of receiver talent to throw to, with Tahj Washington and Brenden Rice both over 450 yards receiving on the season.
“He’s good last year. He’s good this year. He leads that offense ... he’s great at throwing the ball. He’s great at staying alive in the pocket. Very strong as a runner. So I mean, there’s a reason he was the Heisman Trophy winner last year and one of the favorites to win it this year,” Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley said.
Utah’s run defense is proven. The Utes have shut down the Pac-12’s best two rushing offenses, Cal and Oregon State, and are the No. 1 rushing defense in the entire country, allowing just 66.8 yards per game.
The Utes have been good at getting to the quarterback — averaging 3.7 sacks per game — but are less proven in coverage this season. Pro Football Focus, which grades every team in college football, has the Utes at No. 48 in coverage this season.
Utah has allowed an average of 211 passing yards, which ranks 44th in the country, without facing an elite quarterback yet.
Utah’s three conference games have come against two freshman quarterbacks (Cal, UCLA) and Oregon State’s DJ Uiagalelei. All three of those teams rank in the bottom half of the Pac-12 in terms of passing offense.
Ready or not, here come Williams and the USC passing attack.
“We’ll find out, right?” Scalley said. “There’s things each week that you’re trying to improve, technique you’re trying to improve, zone drops, and some of that too is bad coaching decisions on some of that stuff.
“But I love our mentality. Film tells us really everything we need to know, and right now we just need to make progress each and every week.”
In terms of pass efficiency defense — which takes in to account opponents’ pass completion percentage, number of interceptions, interception percentage, opponents’ total yards passing, opponents’ yards per pass attempt and opponents’ touchdown passing percentage — Utah ranks No. 15 in the country.
“Right now we’re leading the conference in pass efficiency defense, which is the No. 1 barometer that you look at for your pass defense. It’s not overall yards, it’s the efficiency,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.
Utah will quickly find out what kind of pass defense it has in the next four games, facing USC, Oregon and Washington.
“There’s some big challenges on the horizon and we’ll see how we hold up, but I think we’ve done some good things in the secondary,” Whittingham said.
“Zemaiah (Vaughn) and JT (Broughton) and Miles (Battle) holding down the fort at the corner spots, we’ve had Tao Johnson at the slot corner and then those safeties, so I really like our secondary and think we got some good players back there, but they will be tested no doubt coming up, so we’ll see.”
Utah will be without star safety Cole Bishop in the first half Saturday due to a targeting suspension, which will make facing Williams even harder, though Nate Ritchie did a good job last week filling in for Bishop after the targeting penalty.
Williams is coming off of the worst game of his career in a 48-20 loss at Notre Dame, where he threw three interceptions. If the Trojans want a shot at the College Football Playoff, they have to win every game from here on out, starting with Utah.
“Got a good team, same (defensive coordinator), same kind of defense, good players that are excited to play and get out there and we’re also excited to get out there,” Williams said of Utah.
“They got a lot ahead of them. They’re a good defense by a good coach, so we got a lot on our hands and we’re excited as well.”