Virginia @ Southern California preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 30, 2008 ) Southern California 52, Virginia 7

The last Southern Cal defense Virginia faced easily ranked as among the very best in college football history, featuring eight players who were selected in the 2009 NFL Draft, including two first-rounders in stud linebackers Brian Cushing and Clay Matthews, Jr.

Three other key members of that stout unit, including consensus All-American free safety Taylor Mays, heard their names called a year later by the end of the third round of the 2010 draft. So given the Trojans’ abundance of superior defensive talent at the time, it was easy to see why they shellacked the Cavaliers, 52-7, back in Charlottesville in 2008.

Flash forward to 2010, and it’s a considerably different and much more suspect USC defense that will be awaiting Virginia this time around when it invades the Los Angeles Coliseum on Saturday night for the non-conference match-up.

USC made a winner out of new coach Lane Kiffin in last week’s season-opener at Hawaii, but was hardly that impressive in a 49-36 victory. The Warriors torched an inexperienced Trojans defense for 588 yards, 459 of which came through the air.

A lack of a consistent pass rush, an array of blown assignments and too many missed tackles, the result a training camp almost completely devoid of live tackling, were the main culprits for the most Southern Cal points allowed in an opener since 1976. Damaging NCAA sanctions that have depleted the roster are the main reasons why Kiffin opted to have just one practice with live tackling in his team’s fall camp.

It showed.

The Trojans had no such problems offensively as sophomore quarterback Matt Barkley was impressive in completing 18 of 23 passes for 275 yards and five touchdowns, tying a school record. Fourth-year junior tailback Marc Tyler rushed for 154 yards on 17 carries. Highly-touted freshman tailback Dillon Baxter will likely add to the offensive highlights after being suspended for undisclosed reasons for last week’s opener.

The Cavaliers, who improved to 1-0 following last week’s 34-13 win over Richmond, relied on the career-high 114 yards and four touchdowns from fifth-year tailback Keith Payne to break open a close game.

Erratic for most of his career, quarterback Marc Verica played turnover-free football against the Spiders, spreading out 23 of 34 passes to nine different receivers for a career-best 283 yards and a touchdown.

Virginia, however, lacks the bevy of small, quick receivers that Hawaii’s run-and-shoot offense so successfully employed against the Trojans. So it’s unlikely the Cavaliers will be able to find as many favorable match-ups in the secondary as the Warriors were able to exploit.

Virginia cornerback Ras-I Dowling missed last week’s game with Richmond with a hamstring injury and his availability remains a game-time decision. Dowling is projected a possible future NFL first-round draft pick.

The contest will be the ACC school’s first ever in California, 2,500 miles from Charlottesville. The Cavs have never beaten a Pac-10 opponent.