Jake Locker - USC's worst nightmare?

Ever since Vince Young ran all over the Trojan defense in the 2006 Rose Bowl, I have been terrified of running quarterbacks, especially ones with talent. Just last year, USC faced two in conference foes, Washington and Oregon, who featured dual threat QBs in Isaiah Stanback and Dennis Dixon. Stanback gave us fits in a game where we benefited from the clock changes, as the Huskies were marching down field as time expired in a 26-20 USC win. Dixon was able to lead the Ducks offense between the 20s, but Oregon's offense, like other spread sets, struggled to produce in the red zone as the Trojans romped Oregon, 35-10. This year, our first dual-threat QB will be Washington's redshirt freshman Jake Locker, who is touted as the West Coast Tim Tebow. Locker lacks the surrounding talent that Tebow has, but he still has the qualities that make him a great leader as just a freshman. Even though they lost their last two games, Locker was able to lead the Huskies to a halftime lead against Ohio State, and led 3 impressive drives in the fourth quarter against UCLA. Hopefully, Coach Pete Carroll has learned how to play against a running quarterback, with QB Mitch Mustain emulating Locker in practice this week. I like Carroll's move of LB Keith Rivers to the strong side to help stop Locker from running, as he has a very impressive 6.6 yards per carry. If the Huskies other offensive weapons can step up, the Trojans will have trouble stopping Washington. I think if Locker is forced to pass the ball, we're in pretty good shape since the Huskies do not have receivers that pose a threat to us.

Can't forget about when we have the ball. I really like how our passing game developed in the last game against Wazzu. QB John David Booty threw for 4 touchdowns, but he still needs to eliminate the interceptions and other mistakes he's making, like the tipped passes. OC Steve Sarksian called a really good game to help the passing game along, as he knew that if we could run the ball on Nebraska, running against Wazzu would be no problem, at it wasn't; we surprisingly ran for over 200 yards in the game. Washington had trouble stopping the run against UCLA in the fourth quarter, and they even knew that the Huskies were running because the Bruins had a walkon at QB who's job was the turn around and hand off to a running back. Now imagine our offense with Booty finally on track and our 5 headed moster of Chauncey Washington, Stafon Johnson, C.J. Gable, Joe McKnight, and Allen Bradford at running back and probably the best dual threat fullback in the nation with Stanley Havili. Our offensive line only gets stronger with the return of Matt Spanos, but Kris O'Dowd, Jeff Byers, and Sam Baker have been opening up some gaping holes for the backs to run through while keeping Booty off his booty (sorry, couldn't resist). As for the prediction, I'm fairly confident USC will win, and from the rundown I just gave, you would think that I expect USC to cover, but I think 21 points is a lot to give up to Washington in Seattle. But it seems that Carroll finally has the guys jacked up for every game of the season after last year's debacles against Wazzu, UW, ASU, Oregon State, and UCLA. If the Trojans come out focused like they were against the Cougars, then expect a rout. But if we come out sluggish like in our past Pac-10 road openers, the Huskies have a chance for the upset. My prediction, USC (-21) 42, Washington 17

Here are the rest of my picks for this week:

Friday, September 28th
#5 West Virginia (-7.5) 42, #18 South Florida 31

Saturday, September 29th
#1 Southern California (-21) 42, Washington 17
#2 Louisiana State (-41.5) 45, Tulane 0
#3 Oklahoma (-24) 56, Colorado 21
#4 Florida (-18) 35, Auburn 14
#11 Oregon (-6.5) 42, #6 California 35
#7 Texas (-15) 38, Kansas State 14
#8 Ohio State (-24) 38, Minnesota 7
#9 Wisconsin (-7.5) 21, Michigan State 17
#10 Rutgers (-18) 42, Maryland 10
#12 Boston College (OFF) 42, Massachusetts 3
#13 Clemson (-3) 34, Georgia Tech 24
#14 Kentucky (-24) 49, Florida Atlantic 31
#15 Georgia (-15) 31, Mississippi 10
#16 South Carolina (-17) 31, Mississippi State 17
#17 Virginia Tech (-17) 42, North Carolina 14
#19 Hawaii (-25) 66, Idaho 28
Illinois (+3.5) 28, #21 Penn State 24
#22 Alabama (+3) 24, Florida State 16
#23 Arizona State (-14.5) 42, Stanford 21
#24 Cincinnati (-15) 42, San Diego State 13
#25 Nebraska (-21) 49, Iowa State 35
Washington State (+3) 28, Arizona 17
UCLA (-2) 15, Oregon State 10