USC +3.5, USC ML +155

Utah is top ten and has a dominate defense. USC coming off an OT loss on the road to BYU. Utah has not left the state of Utah this year and leave as a road fav after completely shutting down pay to play minnows NIU and Idaho State. I really like Slovis and he is back at home. The USC coach is most likely coaching for his job on Friday. The Utes will find the athletic and talented Trojans a bit different deal then Potato State and Northern something. Any team named Northern and not North is bad. I digress. Night time game in LA a team in Utah that is finally entering PAC12 play and they will do it in a wildly different level of talent and on the road for the first time. USC needs this game as they go to Seattle to play Udub in their next game where they should be a fair sized dog. I think Slovis has a magical night at home and Utah will find scoring difficult vs a stout USC D when they are at home. Big throws at big times and turning the Utes over will lead a talented USC team over a good but overrated Utah squad. It has been over 103 years since the Utes have beaten USC in LA make it 104 years. USC 31 Utah 17 before they are shutdown by Udub on the road. GL

From my notes:

Utah is more talented on offensive and defensive than last year, and look what happened to the Trojans. The Utah offensive line is awesome, having not allowed a sack this year. The Utes have had only a handful of plays that resulted in lost yardage this year. Utah also has a strong rushing game featuring Zach Moss who has dominated the Trojans the past 3 years. They have not stopped him yet, so what makes you think they will contain him Friday night? Not much has changed on the USC defense from a year ago. 

Defensively Utah is also stronger than USC, and USC is most certainly not going to be able to run on them to be able to control the clock.

Both teams have played BYU this year with UTAH beating BYU 30-12. BYU could not move the ball against the front line of defensive for the Utes, where as USC lost to UTAH last week in overtime 30-27 which shows also that BYU had not problem moving the ball on the Trojan defense. 

Now lets look at the mindset of USC after this overtime loss. They had to be devastated, emotionally and mentally drained, so where was there focus this past week in practice, a short week at that? 

Head Coach Helton --- People say they are going to come out strong to support Helton otherwise he is going to be fired. Did you ever think that the players might be happy to get a change??? 

Discipline - UTAH has always been a disciplined team, where as USC plays undisciplined with many costly penalties. 

Turnovers - USC has turned the ball over 11 times this year compared to only 2 for the Utes. 

QB Play - Tyler Huntley a senior and is a very efficient QB who makes very few mistakes/bad decisions, where as USC has a freshman who at one point was 4th string, inexperienced, and obviously it showed last week where he threw 3 interceptions, and it very well could have been a couple of more with his bad decision making, and now he faces the outstanding defensive line of the UTAH. 

Conclusion:

Play UTAH or do not play this game at all. 

Last year Utah outgained them 541 to 205 yards.

Yikes.

USC has been for years upon years now a sloppy, turnover prone, penalty prone underachieving team while Utah is just solid, good special teams and well coached.

Despite the big yardage last year Utah was only 5 for 14 on 3rd down, while SC had only 3 3rd down conversions all game. Utah got a lot of points from departed all american kicker matt gay and USC scored on defense.

Last year was 41-28, all USC games have gone over 52 points so far this year (though under actually cashed last game by a point). I think we get an Under in a hard fought game.

You should make a thread..lol. just kidding but yeah. Because team A beats team C and team B lost to C so A team will go on the road and clearly beats B that isn't how it ever works. You like the Utes on the road vs USC I already bet the game not going to change my mind good luck with your bets.

Sorry on UTAH

I can't think of any team USC has beaten that was in any way significant in the past 2 yrs. 

USC on talent alone should be in BCS Champ talk, but penalties, turnovers, bad coaching negates all the talent edge

Last relevant win was 3 yrs prior when Darnold masked their deficiencies 

Significant Games

- Notre Dame - loss

- Alabama - absolutely destroyed 

- UTAH loss

- BYU on road loss

- Texas - loss

May you live long and prosper.

Helton is gone. There are 6 recruits in the top 100 from California and he has none heading to USC. Guy can't recruit, gotta get a coach that can recruit the state of Cali.

You obviously do not know much about talent when it comes to football to say Tyler Huntly is "not good"

Exactly and your question is appropriate. 

Are you trying to reassure yourself about the money you placed on Utah? I don't understand the significance of being TOP TEN in the PAC TWELVE. I know this is a very American trait to be redundantly agurementive and pulling   a plethora of statistics and analysis from the practically bottomless cesspool of both to support whichever endeavor you are supporting. I am afraid this leads to your ego leading the way blindly. Do you understand the idea of this forum? It is to give people that wager a personal insight on why the author is betting his or her money on a side. It is not point, counter point because that game could and can be thousands of posts long filled with useless mumbo jumbo from both sides backed by useless stats. When it comes to gambling there is no stat. There was no stat that allowed for Tulune being down 21 points and coming back in a highly unreasonable way. FBS teams were 0 for 80 this year when down by 21 points are more. They are now 1 and 80. The statement about watching games and assessing teams denotes you believe yourself to be an expert and can pick points winner from watching previous football games which is highly unlikely. If you bet the Utes good luck with your bets it means nothing to my financial status what you do with your money. If you believe Utah will win start a thread and lay your case. But the silly yeah but over and over is like four talking heads on CNN yelling about why their side is right and in the end nobody listens and nobodies mind is changed it is a exercise in futility. This is one game in a big weekend slate. It won't make or break any bankrolls. Save energy and move to the next games once your money is now in the form of a ticket. GL

Can't argue there Frank good write obviously there are arguments for both sides.

I've already put in my Play already on Utah but I can see your argument for USC

BOL Frank may the best team prevail 

Ok, have a break from speaking a foreign language with a supplier. 

i'm also on usc ml tonight. gl us.

Well Frank I hope you're right about USC for your sake but I'll tell you something you are wrong about:

You replied to me saying I should make my own thread. Then you replied to someone else basically saying that the forum is just for the thread starter to state their opinion and that's it and that people shouldnt be countering your arguments.

then you got even more ridiculous and said that people were arguing with you because they're American.

Guess what fella? You don't make the rules and forums are for discussion not dictatorship. Dont make threads if you dont want to hear other opinions.

The word forum comes from the latin word for places outdoors in public where people would assemble to speak to each other and do business.

No one is trying to get you to change your bet or is reassuring themself of their bet it's just a statement of their own analysis of the game.

Hope USC doesnt give up 541 yards tonight like last time. Hope they connect for more than 6 passes all game and 3 3rd down conversions too. They may never have lost to Utah at home but when was Utah ever favored there, probably never. I'm still leaning to Under rather than play the game but USC didn't look to have any advantage last time they met.

You make no sense dude. You said stats don't matter in gambling and then pull out a stat of 0-80 to prove a point. Stats do matter bro. You said there was no stat that would allow for Tulane to come back down 21? Read my writeup on the game... stated that Houston was 130 out of 130 teams in yards allowed per play.

And in the 2nd half what happened? Their defense let Tulane do whatever it wanted and was so gassed they couldn't finish out the final 13 seconds.

Stats do matter dude. They matter a lot, though you always have to take into account strength of opponents which makes for a lot of variance, especially early in the year and especially in college football. But I dont care who they have played of a team is top 5  in any stat they are probably good in that area. If they are dead last at 130th they are probably bad in that area.

The stat that 0/80 when down by 21 didn't matter, I think you have yourself turned around, THAT stat didn't matter to Tulane. Anyway, wasting enough time going around in circles. The point being when USC wins you are not going to hand me money so if you sole purpose is to just point fingers and say I am right you are wrong it adds nothing to a forum. Anyone can easily open up every thread and be agurementive with the author of said thread. We are trying to predict the future for monetary gain, it is very difficult and extremely uncertain. Arguing about something that has not happened yet is mind numbing. Reading an author's take on future events is thought provoking. Good Luck Mac !  I read as much as I can all week from many sources but I don't feel the need to comment on every article or forum if I disagree. Because my purpose is to win money gambling on sporting events not wearing a toga in Athens having a philosophical debate on the meaning of road favorites. There simple is not enough time with so much information. GL