Rice-Eccles Stadium – Salt Lake City, UT
Kickoff: Friday, 9:00 p.m. ET
Line: Utah -3, Total: 46.5

USC will be hoping to get back to .500 when the team faces #24 Utah in Salt Lake City Friday night.

USC and its fans shouldn’t anger themselves over being 1-2 (1-2 ATS). They just came off a loss to a playoff-caliber Stanford team, and they opened the season with Alabama, which is, well, Alabama. Rather, they should be upset about the ways in which they lost those games. The 52-6 score of the Alabama loss speaks for itself, and the Trojans were outgained 465 yards to 194. “Our consistency in execution needs to be much improved,” said Alabama head coach Nick Saban after the slaughter, telling you everything you need to know about how much he respects USC. The Stanford game was less ugly, but only slightly less demoralizing for a team that got to see exactly how far it is from competing with the class of the Pac-12. With USC and UCLA taking early out-of-conference losses, Utah (3-0, 1-2 ATS) is as good of a candidate as anyone for favorite in the conference’s South division. Behind the best defensive line West of the Mississippi River and an offense that’s done just enough to get the job done, the Utes have racked up wins against Southern Utah, BYU and San Jose State. Washington transfer Troy Williams (62.8 CMP%, 723 yards, 4 TDs, 4 INTs) won the starting QB job in camp, and has shown more positives than negatives early on. Over the past five seasons, home teams coming off of a non-conference game (Utah) are 58-25 ATS in conference games where the spread is +3 to -3. The same trend improves to 38-12 when you narrow it to teams coming off of two straight non-conference games. Kyle Whittingham is 17-9 ATS as head coach of Utah in games where the line is between +3 and -3.

On Monday, USC announced that redshirt freshman QB Sam Darnold (14-for-22, 136 yards, 2 TDs, INT) will replace junior Max Browne (63.2 CMP%, 474 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs) as the starter against Utah. As a former five-star recruit with two years of learning the offense as Cody Kessler’s backup under his belt, Browne carried high expectations heading into the year. He evidently failed to live up to Clay Helton’s, who has worked Darnold into all three games thus far this season. In the small sample size of his early play, he’s mirrored Browne’s completion percentage almost exactly while throwing for about half a yard more per passing attempt. Darnold has a big arm and can run, and USC seems to hope the latter attribute can diversify their offensive attack. Helton maintains that the team’s offensive woes are not Browne’s fault, but it’s unclear where else he would lay the blame. The offensive line returned 131 career starts, the second most in the country. (They embarrassed themselves against Stanford, however, committing five false start penalties.) WR JuJu Smith-Schuster (11 catches, 99 yards, 2 TDs) entered the season as one of the most hyped players in all of college football, but his numbers so far look like a single-game statline from his 2015 season. Senior WR Darreus Rogers (13 catches, 153 yards) leads the team in receiving. RBs Justin Davis (36 carries, 135 yards) and Ronald Jones III (23 carries, 117 yards, TD) have led the charge out of the backfield, but USC is 108th in the country with an average of 3.6 yards per carry. The defense is 65th nationally with 374 yards allowed per game, and has actually been excellent against the pass (176.3)—and quite bad against the run (197.7). Junior CB Adoree’ Jackson is the marquee name on the unit, and he picked off Stanford QB Ryan Burns last week. He had 27 catches (on 28 targets) last year, and many are clamoring for him to get touches on offense once again.

Utah knows that a down-on-its-luck USC team is still a dangerous one. The Utes were undefeated, No. 3 in the country and 6.5-point favorites when they visited the 3-3 Trojans last season. The result: a 42-24 USC victory. Utah was held under 100 yards rushing in only two games last season, and the USC loss was one of them. One suspects that Utah’s success on the ground will play a determinative role in Friday’s game, too. 1,200-yard rusher Devontae Booker is already a key contributor to the Denver Broncos, and the auditions for a full-time replacement remain ongoing. Troy McCormick (178 yards, 2 TDs), Zack Moss (153 yards, TD), Armand Shyne (111 yards TD) have all received between 20 and 30 carries—and Joe Williams had, too, before announcing his retirement after Week 2. Behind a more experienced offensive line, the team is averaging 169 rushing yards per game, down from 259 through the first three games of last season. We’ll find out this week whether head coach Kyle Whittingham and his staff believe having a true feature back is key to a strong offensive identity. If not, look for those three guys to continue splitting carries. Troy Williams has found a favorite target in WR Tim Patrick (14 catches, 285 yards, 4 TDs), who is the only Ute with a touchdown reception after missing all of last season. On defense, this team has far fewer questions. Both the defensive line and the secondary are star-studded: DT Lowell Lotulelei gives opponents fits up front, while S Marcus Williams is disruptive in the back. The unit did suffer a significant blow by way of injury when dominant DE Kylie Fitts injured his foot against BYU.