1. UCLA at USC
LINE UCLA -3.5
ATS PICK UCLA
Not to bother the gods, but you should once again be in a safe space here.
After losing with the pick in the No. 1 slot for weeks on end in every way imaginable, the jinx finally took a break thanks to one long touchdown by Michigan’s Erick Ali against Penn State.
Like Florida and Tennessee, USC is in a rough spot.
You don’t go to USC to get fired up to possibly get a bowl bid.
An argument can still be made that it was the most talented team in the Pac-12 from top to bottom – even if Oregon has the best starting 22 – and you were hardly crazy to think before the season began that this might have been a sleeper College Football Playoff team.
2021 USC is the reason why you don’t fire your head coach two games in. This has been a lost little lamb of a program ever since.
It blew out Washington State the week after Clay Helton was sacked – teams this year seem to play great the week after the coach is fired – but that was it.
There was a win over Colorado, but whatever, and there was a victory over Arizona that was too much of a fight.
That’s it.
As a few of my Pac-12 friends have explained, it’s not like the team isn’t trying, but this season has been one big gut punch and it can’t get its wind back. The loss of star WR Drake London was just one more shot this team couldn’t take.
However, it’s USC vs UCLA, and bizarre things happen.
It’s not like this is a killer UCLA team, the Trojans have had two weeks off after Cal had to postpone the game, and this week could be the official signal that the Jaxson Dart era at quarterback is about to kick in for the Trojans. But …
It’s USC vs UCLA, and That Team Up North hasn’t won this in three years and lost five of the last six.
It’s playing well on the lines, it should be able to power away with the ground attack, and considering every Trojan loss this year has been by 14 or more, giving away three isn’t that bad.
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