Rutgers football game week opponent profile: USC
The Rutgers football team will travel to California for the third time in program history. The Scarlet Knights (4-3, 1-3) will face USC on Friday night at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Rutgers is coming off a 35-32 loss to UCLA, the team's third straight defeat after starting the season 4-0.
The Trojans (3-4, 1-4) started the season winning 3 of 4 of their first games, but the tides have changed since. USC is coming off a 29-28 loss to Maryland and comes into Friday's contest on a three-game losing streak, just like the Knights.
The Daily Targum sat down with Thomas Johnson, the football beat writer for the Daily Trojan, to preview this Friday's matchup.
Each of the Trojans' four losses on the season have been one-score games, meaning just a few plays could have changed the outcomes entirely.
"Just different ways of losing, that's been the story of the Trojan season," Johnson said. "I think it just comes down to consistency from the beginning of the game to the end of the game … (USC) need to play 100 percent from start to finish if they want to start winning."
On offense, the quarterback is undoubtedly the most important position. USC fans have been treated to a plethora of great quarterbacks over the years — Mark Sanchez, Carson Palmer and Caleb Williams, just to name a few. This season, Miller Moss has taken over as the signal-caller and has exceeded in the role. Moss has thrown for 1,954 yards and 14 touchdowns on the year, leaving fans satisfied after multiple seasons of high-level play from his predecessor, Williams.
"It's always tough to follow up a Heisman-winning quarterback like Moss had to do with Caleb Williams, but I think he's done a really good job," Johnson said.
At the receiver positions, the Trojans are a young group filled with talent, headlined by Ja'Kobi Lane. As just a sophomore, Lane has 303 receiving yards and five touchdown grabs through seven games. Another name to look out for is veteran receiver Kyron Hudson, who has impacted USC on the field with 26 receptions for 303 yards and off the field as a leader for the receiving corps.
"I think the wide receiver room, just in general, is a really young group. So, having a veteran like Kyron Hudson has been really, really helpful," Johnson said. "(Lane's) been really, really good. He could be more consistent, I'll say. Again, he's a sophomore. He's a really young guy. He has the potential to be a wide receiver one on a lot of power five teams."
Defensively, the Trojans have had an interesting season. They are seventh in turnovers per game in the Big Ten yet rank near the bottom of the conference in points per game allowed. The stats and rankings do not tell the whole story. This season, USC has faced off against some of the premier names in college football, battling it out with the likes of LSU, Penn State and Michigan so far.
Kamari Ramsey has been an impact player for the defensive unit, racking up two sacks and two forced fumbles with 37 tackles. Not all of Ramsey's impact is quantitative, as his presence and open-field tackling ability make offensive coordinators circle his name when facing the Trojans.
"The hits he (Ramsey) lays down on players is really momentum shifting for USC and he makes great open field tackles," Johnson said. "Definitely, Kamari Ramsey has been the most important defensive player."
After Rutgers, USC will finish Big Ten play against Washington, Nebraska and the Bruins (2-5, 1-4) before a meeting with Notre Dame to wrap up the season. With an up-and-down start to the season, fans do not know how to expect their team to finish off.
"It would not surprise me to see this team (USC) finish eight and four," Johnson said. "It would also not surprise me to see this team finish five and seven. I think that's what's so confusing about this team is obviously they've been in a position to win every single one of their games and they just haven't been able to finish."
As for Johnson's prediction for Friday night's matchup, "My official prediction is USC wins a one-score game."
Kickoff for Friday’s game is scheduled for 11 p.m. and will be broadcast on Fox Sports and 88.7 WRSU-FM.
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