The USC Trojans might have been bumped from the top spot in the AP Top 25 poll this week, but that does not take anything away from their dominating performance in defeating the Hawaii Warriors last weekend. The team is now busily preparing for the Syracuse Orange, who lost their season opener to the Northwestern Wildcats in a shootout, 42-41.
Just about every expert in the country is taking the Trojans to win big this weekend. Let's take a look at a few of the picks and what is being said about the matchup.
Ted Miller and Kevin Gemmell of ESPN's Pac-12 Blog:
Kevin: USC 45, Syracuse 17. No issues for the Trojans this week -- they'll cruise. Wouldn't be surprised to see a little more balance on offense this week, considering they are on the road again next week at Stanford and they'll probably want to test drive the run game.Ted: USC 48, Syracuse 20. It will be interesting to see how many of the three injured USC defensive starters return this week. I suspect things will look more polished on both sides of the ball. Ditto on what Kevin said about running the ball.
Of the seven CBS Sports college football experts and one computer simulation of the game, all eight picked the Trojans to win.
Also be sure to check out Dan Rubenstein of SB Nation Studios and his picks below:
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