USC Trojans open as favorites against Utah Utes
Despite USC suffering the worst loss of the Lincoln Riley era at Notre Dame this past Saturday, the No. 18 Trojans are still favored against No. 14 Utah. This is a series that has picked up in intensity in recent years and the two teams have a ton to play for this week.
USC opened as 4.5 point favorites against Utah according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The Trojans opened as 5.5 point favorites according to BetOnline. That spread quickly rose to 6.0 and now sits at -7.0. The over/under from FanDuel opened at 57.5 and pretty quickly dropped to 55.5.
The Trojans now sit at 6-1 this season and bring a significant number of questions into this matchup with the Utes (5-1, 2-1). USC needed to recover an onside kick to hang on to a win at Colorado. The Trojans then had to go to triple overtime to beat Arizona. And then they collapsed at South Bend in that lopsided loss to Notre Dame.
Utah is coming off a 34-14 win against Cal as the Utes scored their most points of the season. Utah is dealing without the presence of starting quarterback Cam Rising and has bounced between backup quarterbacks this year. But the defense has been consistent. The Utes haven’t given up more than 21 points in any game and have held five of six opponents to 14 points or fewer.
USC is coming off its worst offensive performance of the year against Notre Dame. Quarterback Caleb Williams threw three interceptions and the Trojans turned it over five times against the Irish.
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This USC – Utah rivalry heated up quickly last season. The teams met twice and both were ranked each time. Utah went 2-0 against the Trojans, posting a 43-42 win in Salt Lake City and a 47-24 win in the Pac-12 Championship Game in Las Vegas.
USC holds a 13-9 advantage all-time against Utah, but it hasn’t been great for the Trojans of late. The Utes are 6-4 against the Trojans over the past 10 games and have won the past three in a row. The biggest question facing Utah this week will be if Rising is finally able to play. He suffered a torn ACL in the Rose Bowl game and hasn’t been available for any game this year. All season, it seemed as though Rising could be just a week away from playing, but games continue to tick off the schedule. At this point, it would be fairly surprising to see Rising play against the Trojans in the Coliseum, but the possibility does exist.
A loss to Utah would make USC’s climb to the conference championship game extremely difficult and could force the Trojans to beat both Oregon and Washington. A loss for Utah would give the Utes their second conference loss and likely knock them out of the conference race. The Utes host Oregon and still have trips to both Washington and Arizona
