Penn State Gears Up for Cross Country Showdown with USC

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Mason Eddinger | October 10, 2024

Photo Credit to Paul Burdick’s Sports Images

The trip from the mountains of State College to the beaches of Los Angeles is quite the journey. The 2,571-mile trip from Penn State’s campus to USC’s totals over 37 hours of travel by automobile. Of course, Penn State staff and players will make the trip via airplane, reducing the travel to around 7 hours. With the geographical differences out of the way, let’s talk about the game that will be played at the Coliseum on Saturday Afternoon.

Penn State enters the game boasting the 6th-best defense in terms of PPG ( points per game) allowed. In their first two BIG 10 showdowns, they allowed 18 points across 120 minutes of play. The defense has been the strong suit of this Penn State team in 2024. Multiple future NFL draft picks scattered across the defense, including future first-round picks, make this defense a top-notch group, as expected. PSU’s offense has been good, but not great. Drew Allar has been one of the most efficient, careful QBs in all of College Football this year. Allar has 9TDs compared to just 1INT, similar to the excellent TD-INT mark he finished with last year. The strong suit of the offense is seen through the running game. Penn State has had multiple 250+ rushing performances through their first 5 games. Last week, however, was a different story. RB Nick Singleton missed the UCLA game, and the rushing attack plummeted. Their 85 rushing yards per game were by far the lowest mark of the season. Penn State is crossing their fingers that Singleton will be ready to go on Saturday.

The University of Southern California, one of the nation’s most prestigious universities. Neil Armstrong, George Lucas, and Will Ferrell amongst others call or have called USC home. Their history in football is pretty good as well. They hold claim to 11 National Championships, which is good for top-5 in the history of College Football. Whether it’s Reggie Bush or Marcus Allen, USC is football royalty. But ever since Reggie Busch and Matt Leinart won back-to-back for the Trojans in ’03 and ’04, USC has not found their expected success. It’s been up and down for USC since the mid-2000s. Signs of hope are usually eventually meant with the downfall. This same cycle showed face last week against Minnesota. USC, ranked 11th, lost on the road to an unranked Minnesota Golden Gophers team. QB Miller Moss struggled as he threw 1 TD and 2INTs. Head Coach Lincoln Riley has been deemed a College Football “QB whisperer” with his incredible track record of high-level QBs. Who can forget the electric Oklahoma offense led by Riley with the likes of Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray? After his move to USC, Riley got another QB to win a Heisman and get drafted #1 overall in Caleb Williams. This year, however, he has not found the greatest success in QB Miller Moss. In 2024, Moss has thrown for 9TDs with 4INTs, good numbers, but not what Lincoln Riley offenses are used to. RB Woody Marks is their bell-cow, as he has handled the rock 81 times for 468 yards this year. The USC defense is much improved after the disaster that was 2023. The Trojans rank 20th in defensive PPG. Overall, USC is a much more complete team than we saw last year.

In the game, I think Penn State needs to emphasize a fast start. In their contests with UCLA and Illinois, Penn State let inferior foes hang around for too long, that can’t happen against USC. This is also the Nittany Lions first road BIG 10 game. Although they have played solid teams, I believe this is Penn State’s first real test of 2024. With the innovation of Lincoln Riley’s offense, it will be the chess match of the day to watch the USC offense tackle the PSU defense. In the end, I think Penn State’s physicality is too much for the Trojans to handle.

PREDICTION

#4 PENN STATE 24 USC 20

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