By Ian S Palmer
Stanford Cardinal will be taking on arch rivals the USC Trojans at this Saturday, September 19 in an important early-season Pac-12 showdown at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. Sixth-ranked USC won their second straight game last week with an impressive 59-9 win against the Idaho Vandals while Stanford won their first game of the campaign by taking down the UCF Knights 31-7 after losing their season opener to Northwestern.
College Football Betting – Stanford vs USC Saturday September 19th
Pinnacle Betting Line – USC laying 10 points at home
- Point Spread: USC -10 2.010, Stanford +10 1.877
- Money Line: USC 1.273, Stanford 4.100
- Over Under: Over 51.5 points 2.000, Under 51.5 1.892
Quarterback Kevin Hogan led the way for Stanford against the Knights with a career-best 341 yards, with three of his passes being over 40 yards. His 53-yard pass to Michael Rector was the team’s first touchdown of the young season. His shortest touchdown pass of the day was seven yards with 93 yards being his longest. The win made sure Stanford didn’t lose their first two games of the season for the first time since 2006. The Cardinal has a tough task in front of them this weekend as the Trojans have allowed just 7.5 points against on average per game so far this season, which ranks number six in the FBS.
Stanford will need freshman Bryce Love to continue his fine play following the 143 yards he gained last week. The defense will also have to do a good job, much like it did against the Knights when the starters allowed only two yards against per play. It’s not going to be easy though as the Trojans are fourth best in total offense in the FBS with 623 total yards per game on average. Stanford is 4-6 against the spread in their past 10 road trips and is 5-5 straight up.
The USC Trojans have been on fire in the early going by winning their first two contests by 49.5 points on average. There’s no doubt the offense is firing on all cylinders as it’s averaged 57 points a game so far, which ranks number six in the FBS. Quarterback Cody Kessler was good in the season opener against Arkansas State and was even better last week against Idaho. Kessler went 26 for 31 in passing with three touchdowns for a career-best 410 passing yards. JuJu Smith-Schuster caught 10 of those passes for a career high and scored two touchdowns to go with his 192 yards.
USC scored on half a dozen of their seven first-half drives with five of them being touchdowns. USC gained 737 yards against Idaho on 74 plays. Things should be a bit tighter this weekend though as Stanford’s defense has been pretty solid so far by allowing 11.5 points against on average per game, which ranks 18th-best in the FBS. The Trojans enter this game 6-4 against the spread in their past 10 home outings and are 8-2 straight up. They should do enough to improve to 3-0 on the season.
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