USC’s place in the national picture hasn’t changed much in ESPN’s latest bowl projections, even after the Trojans nudged up in the AP Top 25. The No. 16 team in the country is still being left outside the College Football Playoff bracket, with Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach keeping USC on the outside looking in.
That leaves Lincoln Riley’s team staring at the same two familiar destinations. Last week, Schlabach had USC matched with Pittsburgh in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 28, while Bonagura slotted the Trojans against Oklahoma in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec.
- This week, the overall forecast is still intact, though Schlabach made one change: Wake Forest now replaces Pittsburgh as USC’s projected Holiday Bowl opponent.
That switch makes sense on paper. Pittsburgh has dropped back-to-back ACC games after opening 5-0, while Wake Forest sits at 6-1 with its only loss coming against No.
1 Miami. The Demon Deacons have also won three of their last four by blowout.
If that matchup comes to pass, it would be the first meeting ever between USC and Wake Forest.
For now, though, the bowl chatter is secondary to what’s ahead on the schedule. USC is 6-1 after a bye week that followed a seven-game stretch, and the Trojans still have five regular-season games left.
Three of those opponents are ranked in the top 10: No. 3 Ohio State, No.
6 Indiana, and No. 9 UCLA.
The next stop is Wisconsin in Madison before USC comes home on Halloween night to face Ohio State. That game has become even more intriguing because of the recent shoulder injury suffered by Buckeyes quarterback Julian Sayin.
Freshman Luke Fahey is expected to make his first career start against the Trojans, and the primetime matchup will be USC’s fourth game this season on NBC. The holiday setting could cut into the crowd a bit, but the expectation is still for a lively Coliseum.
After Ohio State, USC gets its second bye week before heading to Bloomington to meet Indiana, the defending champions. The Trojans finish with Maryland and then UCLA in a Crosstown Rivalry game that figures to carry far more than bragging rights, with CFP implications likely hanging over it.
If USC can get through that closing stretch with no more than one loss, the Trojans should remain firmly in the playoff discussion. Riley, meanwhile, is still chasing the program’s first playoff appearance and has five games left to make the case.
Before all of that, though, USC has to handle Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday night.
In Other News...
Wake Forest's 6-1 Start Is Proving Something Bigger About This Team
Wake Forest kept rolling with its fourth straight win against California, a result that pushed the Demon Deacons to 6-1 and into No. 17 in the AP Top 25. What stood out was not just the record, but the way this group handled the night without key pieces in Carlos Hernandez and Davaughn Patterson, a reminder that the early-season surge has been built on more than just a healthy roster.
The Deacons are showing a level of chemistry and focus that can carry through absences, and that has become one of the more important takeaways from this stretch. With a bye week ahead, Wake Forest now gets a chance to reset before the next wave of games, and the bigger question is how far this kind of connected play can keep taking them. [Read more 🡒]
Marcis Ponder Is Giving Florida State A Reason To Believe Inside
Several ACC programs have already gotten a first look at themselves in preseason exhibition games, and the early read has been mixed from one school to the next. Duke saw freshman Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje put up 19 points, UNC has some concern around Terrence Brown Jr.s scoring, Syracuse has been easing Kiyan Anthony in with limited minutes, and Florida State has at least one reason to feel better about its frontcourt depth after Marcis Ponder turned in a strong showing.
Wake Forest has its own reason for optimism, and it comes from a pair of freshman guards who have looked ready for the jump in their first run against college competition. The early exhibitions against Georgetown and South Carolina offered a promising glimpse of what the brothers can bring, and while it is still only October basketball, their performances are already nudging expectations upward around Winston-Salem. [Read more 🡒]