JEFF ALLEN GAME PREVIEW: USC at STANFORD
One of the hottest rivalries in the Pac12 renews on Saturday with USC traveling to Palo Alto to take on
Christian McCaffrey and the Stanford Cardinal. Stanford had won four straight in the series at the height
of the Harbaugh years before the Trojans were able to break through in 2013 and 2014. The teams met
twice last year with The Tree winning 41-31 (+9.5) in SoCal and again 41-22 (-4.5) in the Pac12
championship game. This is in essence a double revenge spot for the Trojans who bounced back from
their beat down by Alabama by rolling Utah State. Stanford had an off week after struggling past Kansas
State 26-13 in it’s opener.
The current Vegas line is Stanford -9 with the total getting flurries of over and then under money before
finally settling on 52. Weather in NoCal should be perfect with the temperature at kickoff expected to be
around 80 with no precipitation in the forecast. Note the time change to 8:00 PM EST and shown on ABC.
There were lots of questions surrounding USC at the start of the year with a controversial hire at head
coach and a new quarterback. Max Browne is a senior who was did a long apprenticeship under Cody
Kessler after being the most highly touted quarterback prospect coming out of high school in 2012. The
Trojan offense has sputtered through two games ranking 114th nationally in total offense. The OL has
taken hits at center and tackle. The defense was powerless to stop Bama and meet a physical Stanford
team with an elite back.
Stanford has a new quarterback in Sr. Ryan Burns who like Browne, watched four year starter Kevin
Hogan during his tenure in Palo Alto. With all-world Christian McCaffrey to hand off to and throw dump
offs out of the back field, you know that David Shaw will have him on a tight leash. McCaffrey had 166
total yards and two TDs vs. Kansas State including the backbreaker late to seal the deal. The Cardinal
defense is big and physical as always and held the Wildcats to just 272 yards of offense in the opener.
Jeff Allen Sports pegged USC as a .500 outfit at best in 2016 and in fact used Alabama as a Personal
Best play in Week One. Stanford worked the kinks out against a tough opponent in it’s opener, has had
extra time and figures to be better here. The Trojans have struggled on the road losing four straight.
They are also just 1-6 ATS L7 as a road dog and 8-18 ATS of its L26 straight up wins. This is the first
of three straight (at UCLA and at Washington) but after seeing the Trojans get pushed around by Alabama,
it would be Stanford or nothing for us.