Arizona Football: The USC Trojans at home are the team to beat

The USC Trojans head coach Clay Helton and his quarterback Sam Darnold and defensive lineman Cameron (Cam) Smith are symbiotic, and laser focused on a championship. An Arizona upset would be sweet!

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The USC Trojans are expected to win the PAC-12 Conference by eight top sports sites including Sporting News, ESPN, Phil Steele, and CBS Sports, and also expected to be in the final four by season’s end by the same eight outlets according to the Trojan Football guide handed out at Media Days.

Nine USC Football players are on award watch lists, and some players like Sam Darnold QB and Porter Gustin OLB are on three lists. Both Darnold and Smith have earned pre-season honors, and both cannot say enough about Ro Jo, or Ronald Jones II.

The program is taking it in stride, not bragging, not looking ahead. Even for Darnold, his coach wants him thinking only about the next thing in front of him, the next practice the next game, one by one, the NFL is a distraction. Helton wants Darnold to learn more so he can trust him on the field to make the right decisions.

At USC they are used to being in the limelight under the bright Hollywood lights. Their stadium holds 93,607 fans. And for USC Football, the stands are filled, so they are used to pressure. The Rose Bowl was no different, and the Trojans came from behind 27 points to win the game.

Helton has an open door policy, he coaches each player differently, as he believes each is player motivated differently. He hasn’t slacked over the summer either, “I have watched that Rosebowl about 100 times I think right now, just for learning experiences.” He wants Darnold to learn clock awareness because they coaches get caught up in Xs and Os.

Helton wears a rubber bracelet that states the number of Rosebowl she and championships in USC history around his wrist to remind him of the storied program he feels so fortunate to be leading to victory.

The team hangs out together but mostly on campus. Do they go out to Roscoe’s to get Chicken and Waffles? Nope, the Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles comes to them. Both Darnold and Smith are looking forward to the new University Village that’s under construction, now they do a lot of Barbecuing.

USC’s locker room is “We have a bunch of hilarious people, it will be 5:30 in the morning and everyone’s rolling in like half asleep its non-stop music,” said Cam, “It’s a bunch of personalities like all feeding off each other, some young guys like Keyshawn Young and Velas Jones and Steven Mitchell, they’re all just non-stop, they are dancing all the time — it’s a good time — people really enjoy it.”

NFL Teams, fans, scouts and agents will be watching Sam Darnold closely, and heaps of praise were laid at his feet today. I challenge our defense to watch this and get motivated to sack this dude!

Dark Side, that’s what their defensive line motto is (yikes emoji).

Coach Rich Rodriguez told us yesterday that he is almost numb when it comes to rejections from recruits, well that’s the opposite for Coach Helton. He has to figure out how to keep all of his hungry athletes starving to play, but he says it’s not hard, at USC, everyone just wants to win, be the best version of themselves.

This season, USC hosts Arizona on November 4th, and I will be there in the both squeezed between my favorite broadcasters Brian Jeffries and Lamont Lovett spotting tackles. Last time Arizona came to USC to play they were the underdogs, but they were in the game until the fourth quarter when the team turned the ball over a few too many times. Ju Ju Smith had his way with our defense.

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It would be so sweet to be able to topple the giant Trojan horse this season. Although I am not necessarily confident going in, if the Wildcats can get to the same place, and be all about winning, disciplined, and get that love for the game of football that Rodriguez would like to rub off on the team, who knows, but it would be so sweet to beat the Trojans this season.