In 2012, the USC Trojans were named the preseason No. 1 team in all of college football. Unfortunately for them, they ultimately finish unranked after earning those honors. A six-loss season was beyond disappointing, and as a result, head coach Lane Kiffin has been looked at as potential hot seat candidate in 2013. <\/p>\n
2013 Preview: USC Trojans<\/a>\u00a0(Team Link)
\nCoach: Lane Kiffin
\n2012 Record: 7-6 (5-4)
\nUSC Gambling Odds from Bovada.lv: 50\/1<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nFollowing such a substandard year, you have to expect that it will only get better from here. In fact, ESPN\u2019s Phil Steele has called the Trojans one of his top 10 teams that might surprise you during the upcoming season.<\/p>\n
USC isn\u2019t a traditional sleeper, seeing as how they\u2019ve racked up championships and Heismans throughout the years. They\u2019ve always been good\u2014if not great\u2014but this year is when they can return to that state and prove that they\u2019re recovered after the sanctions that previously kept them out of the postseason.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s anything to note about the Trojans\u2019 offense, it\u2019s the obvious absence of Matt Barkley. The quarterback has taken his talents to the NFL, and now it\u2019s time to replace the four-year starter. Cody Kessler, Max Wittek and Max Browne will compete for the job, but following spring sessions, it appears as if Kessler might be in the lead.<\/p>\n
Check out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s College Picks in 2013!<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Luckily for whichever young QB earns the nod, the team\u2019s best player can be found at the wide receiver spot. Marquis Lee is going to be the team\u2019s No. 1 target all year, and while Silas Redd has a chance to impact the scoreboard at tailback, Lee is likely to be the team\u2019s most productive player.<\/p>\n
The offense has a new coordinator, as Clay Helton received a promotion, but don\u2019t expect that to change the fact that Lee is this team\u2019s best option to find points.The defense has also seen a new hire at the coordinator level. Clancy Pendergast, former head coach to the Arizona Cardinals, Kansas City Chiefs and University of California Golden Bears, has joined the crew and brought with him his 5-2 set. This set is going to allow a talented front seven to attack from numerous directions.<\/p>\n
One of the stars of the defense is going to be outside linebacker Morgan Breslin, who in his first year as a J.C. transfer recorded 62 tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss and 13 sacks\u2014the most in 10 years by a USC player. Also on defense will be standouts Leonard Williams and Hayes Pullard. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n
The problem, however, is that all of this talent is adjusting to a new way of thinking. The playbook gives the team potential to find greatness, but it also gives the team a learning curve it didn\u2019t have last year.<\/p>\n
The other concern defensively is that the secondary may not be what the team hopes for. There are still unanswered concerns regarding the starting corners, and their performance on the back half of the field will play into the team\u2019s overall success.<\/p>\n
Success for this team is going to start with winning the winnable games. USC is fortunate enough to avoid both Oregon and Washington in 2013, and their mark will be made when they take on Notre Dame half way through the year, and then Stanford and USC down the stretch.<\/p>\n
Kicking off the year doesn\u2019t get much better than a week in Hawaii followed by a matchup with the Warriors. This team shouldn\u2019t find much trouble until it reaches Arizona State, and even then, if the Trojans are hot, that role of \u201csleeper\u201d will look more realistic.<\/p>\n
This team has a lot of question marks surrounding it as we enter the fall, but it also has a lot of potential. Look for USC to surprise some people and compete for a Pac-12 title, but only if those questions are answered early and maintained late into the year.<\/p>\n
2013 USC Schedule<\/h3>\n
Thurs, Aug. 29 @ Hawaii
\nSat, Sept. 7 vs. Washington State
\nSat, Sept. 14 vs. Boston College
\nSat, Sept. 21 vs. Utah State
\nSat, Sept. 28 @ Arizona State
\nThurs, Oct. 10 vs. Arizona
\nSat, Oct. 19 @ Notre Dame
\nSat, Oct. 26 vs. Utah
\nFri, Nov. 1 @ Oregon State
\nSat, Nov. 9 @ California
\nSat, Nov. 16 vs. Stanford
\nSat, Nov. 23 @ Colorado
\nSat, Nov. 30 vs. UCLA<\/p>\nGRAB OUR BEST Expert CFB Picks for 2013 NCAA FOOTBALL Betting! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2013-14 Football Previews \u2013 (Pac 12) \u2013 Trojans In 2012, the USC Trojans were named the preseason No. 1 team in all of college football. Unfortunately for them, they ultimately finish unranked after earning those honors. A six-loss season was beyond disappointing, and as a result, head coach Lane Kiffin has been looked at as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":63750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[59304,59316,4331,49957,14304,50913,15436,22524,50914,50915,50916,1851],"class_list":["post-63622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-2013-bcs-lines","tag-2013-pac-12-football-previews","tag-bcs-picks","tag-bcs-sportsbook-odds","tag-football-season-preview","tag-trojans-bcs-futures","tag-trojans-predictions","tag-usc-football","tag-usc-football-predictions","tag-usc-gambling-odds","tag-usc-schedule","tag-usc-trojans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63751,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63622\/revisions\/63751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}