Stanford, USC: Which Pac-12 team will make the better adjustments?

Dominate the clock – Stanford will have to utilize their strengths of running the ball, and dominating the time of possession battle. Damn if the “Vow Boys” didn’t pull it off.

This was the 2009 visit to the Coliseum that truly marked Stanford’s arrival and, in many ways, set the table for the championship game that awaits us Saturday. “We have to limit those, and at the same time recognize they’re going to run the ball”. The coach was upset the margin wasn’t 2,000.

Stanford has an outside chance to make the College Football Playoff with a win, though the best USC can hope for is a trip to the Rose Bowl.

Along the way, an element of respect appears to have taken form. The Trojans have rekindled their running game under Clay Helton, who had the interim tag removed earlier this week… “They’ve got a couple of other backs that they roll in there too, but those two have had really good seasons”.

“I’m happy for him”, Shaw said of Helton.

This can go one of two ways for USC. Two days later, Helton got the job. I’m a lifer. I love when there is stability in the coaching profession. “I think we’ll match up exceptionally well”. Every program in the country knows of the talent, and it will be up to Head Coach David Shaw to diversify the offense to spread the wealth around in the title game Shaw will need to utilize a healthy balance of the pass and rush attack. “We have a football game to play and it’s up to us to play our best game and find a way to win it”.

Expect this one to be lower scoring than the September game.

2014: OR 51, Arizona 13 – Quarterback Marcus Mariota led the Ducks to the College Football Playoff and then headed to NY to pick up the Heisman Trophy.

Given that Smith-Schuster had a 153-yard day against a healthy Stanford secondary in September and the talented Darreus Rogers and Steven Mitchell, Jr. have also had successful seasons, the welcome injury news couldn’t have come soon enough, particularly with Stanford having allowed 100-yard receivers in each of its last two weeks. The trick for the Cardinal will be to hold the Trojans to field goals instead of touchdowns, as it did in wins over Notre Dame and Cal. The bigger question will be whether USC’s defense can slow Stanford’s offense, and that means keeping McCaffrey out of the end zone, matching up better with the Cardinal’s receivers and not letting Hogan scramble for big gains.

The 24th-ranked Trojans (8-4, No. 20 CFP) thought they would be in that conversation before the loss to Stanford started a stretch of three losses in four games that contributed to the firing of coach Steve Sarkisian.

When: Saturday, 4:45 p.m.

Five for Fighting will perform before the game, Brian McKnight will sing the national anthem and members of the Pac-12 Networks’ All-Century team will be saluted throughout the game.

“More than in the past, it will be an older-school USC-Stanford game”. If USC can just make a few plays on defense-whether a turnover, some third-down stops, sacks, etc.-they will win the game. Stanford leads the Pacific-12 Conference and is fifth in the nation with a 50.9 percent conversion rate. But while only Stanford and USC will compete for a Pac-12 crown in Santa Clara on Saturday, the game’s result will have just as much impact on WSU’s postseason destination as that of the participants. Barring injury, McCaffrey is likely to break Barry Sanders’ record of 3,250 single-season all-purpose yards.