The No. 8 USC Trojans (11-2, 8-1) have played 12 FBS opponents this season, which is one more than Ohio State has played, and three more than Alabama has played.
Five of those opponents for USC were ranked at the time they played, and the Trojans finished with a 3-2 record in those five games.
Two of the wins came against Stanford, and the third was a 49-35 win over an Arizona team that is currently 7-5.
The losses, meanwhile, came against Notre Dame and Washington State. Neither the Irish or the Cougars were balanced in their wins, as the Irish rushed for 377 yards and passed for 120 yards, while the Cougars passed for 340 yards and rushed for 122 yards.
The fact that the Trojans do not require a balanced offense to give up yards could be very bad news for them, because their next opponent is the only team in the nation that has rushed for 3,000 yards and thrown for 3,000 this season.
Ohio State comes into this game No. 6 in total offense, averaging 523.6 yards per game, and No. 5 in scoring, at 42.5 points per game. The Buckeyes are 3-1 against ranked opponents, including two wins over Top 4 teams.
USC head coach Clay Helton knows that his Trojans face one heck of a test on Friday.
“I think they’re a complete football team,” he said. “You think about defensively only giving up 19 points a game, about 290 yards a game. Then you look offensively, basically scoring 42 points a game, have an unbelievable quarterback in J.T. [Barrett] that can both run athletically over 700 yards rushing, 35 touchdown passes, 3,000 yards passing. He’s got J.K. [Dobbins] behind him, Mike Weber behind him, about six wide-outs that are as good as anybody in the country.”
Where Washington State and Notre Dame were one dimensional, the Buckeyes are multi-dimensional. Offensively and defensively.
“This is a complete football team, in my opinion, that’s coached by a guy that’s a legend in our game, in Coach Meyer,” Helton said. “So this will be our biggest challenge of the year. It’s by far the best team that we have played and, when you watch them on tape, the most complete team. And we look forward to the challenge.”
Ohio State leads the Big Ten in rushing this season, averaging 249 yards on the ground per game. They rushed for at least 200 yards in all but three games this season, and two of those games were their losses to Oklahoma and Iowa.
If USC is going to walk away with a win, it will start by stopping the run, and the Trojans know it.
“I’d say it starts with the running game. That’s kind of our key every single time we walk out on the field,” said USC linebacker Cameron Smith. “We’ve got to limit that running game and make them one-dimensional. So that will be our goal. But they do that very well as well. So, you know, we put a game plan together, and we’re going to start there.”
All teams have set out to stop Ohio State’s running game, but nobody has really accomplished that feat this season. Even when Oklahoma and Iowa were holding OSU under 200 yards rushing, it was because the Buckeyes had to abandon the running game due to the score.
In other words, the USC offense could do a lot to help the USC defense.
If the Buckeyes are going to be allowed to run the ball all game long, the Trojans are going to have be up for the biggest challenge they have faced all season long.
“I think they work really well as a whole unit, watching their offensive line work,” Smith said. “And they’ve got some big names up there who have done a really good job and that have a lot of experience. So I think it starts there. And I think, as a unit, they work tremendously well together.
“I think they’re just overall very balanced as an offense. They run the crap out of the football, and that’s what they are going to start out with. And the way that they work off of that is just pretty impressive. So they’re a great bunch, and it’s going to be a challenge for us.”