by Jerry Feitelberg

Stanford vs USC Preview

The Stanford Cardinal, coming off an impressive win against previously unbeaten Oregon last week, travel to Los Angeles to face the rejuvenated Trojans of the University of Southern California.

The Trojans had a turbulent start to the season going 3-2 under Lane Kiffin. The Trojans felt they

had enough of Kiffin and fired him in September. Firings usual come at the end of season and

SC must have had it up to their ears with Kiffin to make such a drastic move. This was not Kiffin’s first mid-season firing as the Oakland Raiders dismissed him a few years when the late Al Davis pulled the rug from under him as Raider head coach.

Stanford (8-1)will be looking to beat USC (7-3) for the fifth consecutive time Saturday night.

Stanford coach David Shaw said “ I think we are at that point in the season no where we cannot afford to go up and down. It’s November, and there’s only one way you can play in November and that’s all-out.”

The Trojans appointed Ed Orgeron as the interim head coach and the Trojans have won three in a row and four out of the five. USC creamed Cal last week 62-28 and have their rushing game going as they have 498 yards rushing in the last two games and 988 total yards in those two games.

Cody Kessler is the Trojan quarterback and he sparked the Trojans during the winning streak by completing 74.3 % of his passes for 9.24 yards per attempt with four touchdowns and one interception.

The running game is led by sophomore tailback Javorius “Buck” Allen who has gained 268 yard in 22 caries in the wins over Oregon State and Cal. Other players on the USC team to keep an eye on are

Nelson Aghlor who has returned two punts for touchdowns and Josh Shaw who blocked a punt and returned it 14 yards for the score.

The Cardinal defense stopped the Oregon running game cold last week and will have to do the same against the Trojans. Shayne Skov had eleven tackles for the Cardinal last week and did a tremendous job. Trent Murphy and A.J.Tarpley have been stellar for the Cardinal at linebacker and Henry Anderson’s return at defensive end has been a big boost for the Cardinal. Free safety Ed Reynolds has been named a semi-finalist for the 10th annual Lott IMPACT award for defensive players.

In the last three games the Stanford defense has shut down three very good quarterbacks. The stopped UCLA’s Brett Hundley, Oregon State’s Sean Mannion and Oregon’s Marcus Mariota.

The offense has done its job,too. The offense is led by quarterback Kevin Hogan who went 18 for 25 and 227 against UCLA but threw only 31 total passes in the games against Oregon State and Oregon.

The reason for that that was Tyler Gaffney’s impressive performance. Gaffney has rushed for 1043 yards so far and is third in the Pac-12. He averages 4.9 yards per carry and has 14 touchdowns to his credit. Gaffney has scored seven times in the past four games and set a team record 45 carries good for 157 yards in the win against Oregon.

There’s a lot at stake for the Cardinal. A win will keep them in contention for a BCS berth. USC wants

to snap the four game losing streak against the Cardinal and will be going all out to achieve that end.

Should be a great game. Don’t miss it.