2013 Pre-Season Preview: USC Trojans

2012 Record: 7-6 (5-4 in Pac-12)

Head Coach: Lane Kiffin (25-13 at USC, 17-10 in Pac-10/12)

Last Bowl Game: 2012 Sun Bowl lost to Georgia Tech 21-7)

Stadium: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, CA (capacity = 93,607)

Home Field Advantage: ranked 24th out of 69 BCS teams

Schedule Glimpse:

2013 Schedule Link

Out of Conference: 8/29 at Hawaii, 9/14 vs Boston College, 9/21 vs Utah State, 10/19 at Notre Dame

Toughest Home Games: 10/10 vs Arizona, 11/16 vs Stanford, 11/30 vs UCLA

Toughest Road Games: 9/28 at Arizona St, 11/1 at Oregon St

Statistical Snapshot:

2012 Statistics Link

Stats to Fear: turned the ball over 34 times in 2012 (last in Pac-12), scored on just 74.55% of red zone trips (11th in Pac-12)

Stats to Cheer: allowed just 17 sacks in 2012 (1st in Pac-12), caused 32 turnovers in 2012 (3rd in Pac-12)

Advanced Stats (Football Outsiders 2012 FEI Ranking): 30th out of 124 teams

Personnel:

Phil Steele's Returning Starters: Offense: 8, Defense: 7, Special Teams: 1

Key Defensive Returnees: LB Hayes Pullard (107 tackles), S Dion Bailey (80 tackles, 4 INT), DE/OLB Morgan Breslin (62 tackles, 13 sacks), DE Leonard Williams (64 tackles, 8 sacks), LB Lamar Dawson (77 tackles, 2 INT)

Key Offensive Returnees: WR Marquis Lee (118 rec, 14 TD), RB Silas Redd (905 yds rush, 5.42 ypc, 9 TD), TE Xavier Grimble (29 rec, 5 TD)

Top 2013 Recruits: S Su'a Cravens, DT Kenny Bigelow, QB Max Browne, S Leon McQuay III, CB Chris Hawkins

Verdict:

Last year at this time, the USC Trojans were a popular pick to contend for the National Championship. They were coming off of a 10-2 season, had their Heisman candidate QB returning, one of the best WR corps in the country and had just secured the transfer of Silas Redd from Penn State. Fast forward through the 2012 season and the Trojans finished a very disappointing 7-6 with a lackluster lost to Georgia Tech in the bowl game. Can Lane Kiffin put the pieces back together? Kiffin has brought in a slew of new coaches to help him try and turn this program back around after the disappointing 2012 season.

On offense, Kiffin has a big choice to make. Who will be his starting QB? Will it be junior Max Wittek, junior Cody Kessler or true freshman Max Browne? The money is on Wittek to start the season as he has the most experience but it could be Browne that is the QB of the future. The RB position will be a strength for the Trojans this year with Redd and DJ Morgan (201 yds rush in 2012). The WR corps loses Robert Woods, and that's a big loss, but they do return the magnificent Marqise Lee and the talented rising sophomore Nelson Algholor. The OL will be a strength with three players returning with over 20 starts each and five players returning with at least six starts under their belt.

USC will move this year to a 5-2 (think 3-4) defense and that should help out somewhat with some depth issues they have on the line. While they do have depth issues, they have some really good players in Leonard Williams, George Uko and DE/OLB Hybrid Morgan Breslin. The LB corps is stocked and they return just about everybody of note including leading tackler Hayes Pullard. The secondary is the biggest question-mark as they must replace three key contributors but it's not like they played lights out last season.

From a points perspective, USC wasn't that far away last year (seven point loss to Stanford, three point loss to Arizona, eleven point loss to Oregon, ten point loss to UCLA, nine point loss to Notre Dame). Will the staff changes that Kiffin has made paid immediate dividends this season? That and the QB situation are the biggest questions facing Kiffin and the Trojans heading into the 2013 season.

The schedule starts out nicely for the Trojans as they play two of the worst teams from 2012 in Hawaii and Washington State and then wash that down with a big gulp of Boston College. After that it's a tough trio of games against Utah State, Arizona State and Arizona. Those three games will tell us where USC is headed this season and then the Notre Dame game on Oct 19th with be the benchmark. The stretch run is not a killer but they do travel to Oregon State and host Stanford and UCLA in the last five games of the year. Vegas has the win total for USC listed at 10.5 (they do play a 13 game schedule). Sounds a bit rich in my book but they will be better this season.

Prediction: 9-4

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