NCAA GridIron Gab

It was not that long ago when the University of Southern California was on top of the food chain.  But a lackluster victory and an upset loss to Stanford rocked the Trojans’ world.  They hope to rebound from that setback when they host the Arizona Wildcats on Saturday.

USC (4-1, 2-1 Pac-10) was a 41-point favorite against Stanford last Saturday but allowed the Cardinal to score 17 points in the fourth-quarter en route to a 24-23 loss.  The Trojans defeated the Wildcats 20-3 last season; however, it is possible that the Trojans may start sophomore Mark Sanchez at quarterback if John David Booty cannot start.  Booty passed for 364 yards against Stanford, but also broke a bone in his middle finger of his throwing hand and threw 4 interceptions after that.  The Trojans hope to have starting running back Stafon Johnson (378 yards, 4 TD’s in 4 games) for this contest after missing the Stanford game.  USC is allowing a league-low 269 yards per game goping into this Saturday’s game.

Arizona (2-4, 1-2 Pac-10), in the meantime, struggled on the ground in their loss to Oregon State 31-16 last Saturday; they totalled 9 rushing yards of a total of 231 yards of total offense.  Wildcat QB Willie Tuitama leads the Pac-10 in 320 passing yards per game and 15 TD passes, but didn’t throw a TD against the Beavers.  He was sacked 8 times and threw 3 interceptions.  Against USC last year, Tuitama went 14-for-23 for 170 yards with an INT and was sacked 5 times.

Arizona head coach Mike Stoops obviously isn’t taking USC lightly, saying, “We look at USC as a hungry and mad team.  We will look to establish something quick and you have to be ready to play, something we didn’t do last week.  It will be a difficult task, going over there and playing a good football team.  They are still a great team.”  Gametime between the Wildcats and Trojans is Saturday at 3:30 PM (EST).