By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Sept. 15, 2023
USC steamrolled Stanford, 56-10, on Saturday night at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in the first game of the final Pac-12 Conference football season.
Coach Lincoln Riley showed that the talent gap between his starters and Stanford’s was astronomical as the Trojans easily ran out to a 49-3 halftime lead. That was the most points ever surrendered by a Stanford defense in any first half in the 128 seasons that the school has played the sport. In the second half, Stanford struggled to put points on the board as Cardinal starters essentially played to a draw against USC second-stringers.
Never before had a Trojans team scored as many points against Stanford. The previous high mark was 54 points in a 54-7 beatdown of the Card in 1952. That 47-point decision was one of only two times when the Trojans exceeded Saturday’s margin of victory, the other being a 49-0 flattening in 1977. With the exception of 2020, the Pac-12’s only private schools had played every year since the World War II gap years of 1943–43.
But it’s not clear when the two teams will next meet. The Trojans and UCLA announced in the summer of 2022 that they would join the Big 10 in the summer of 2024, a move that ultimately led to the near-total dismantling of the once-proud Pac-12 Conference. As part of the fallout, the Cardinal joined the Atlantic Coast Conference along with Cal and Southern Methodist University on Sept. 1. The Trojans take a 65-34-3 record against Stanford into the brave new world of college sports realignment.
The best player on the field Saturday night was clearly Caleb Williams, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, who finished with 281 yards and three touchdowns on a spectacular 19-of-21 passing line.
Williams demonstrated his all-world potential to maximum effect mere moments after senior Joshua Karty booted a 38-yard field goal with 6:57 to play in the second quarter for what would be Stanford’s only points of the first half. Williams lined up in a shotgun formation and faked a handoff to former Stanford running back Austin Jones. The junior quarterback subsequently retreated five yards into his backfield. Then he stepped up and unleashed an absolutely perfect deep ball to a streaking Brendan Rice, who had easily raced past junior cornerback Jaden Slocum. The USC senior caught the ball in stride around the 17-yard line and continued into the end zone past the outstretched arms of a diving Slocum to boost the hosts’ lead to 42-3.
That was the crown jewel in an impressive array of outstanding plays. Three minutes into the game, which started with USC winning the coin toss, Williams faked a handoff to Jones, evaded a blitzing Cardinal defender, and zipped along the right sideline to take advantage of some blockers. He was met by a defender around the 3-yard line but drove through the white-uniformed visiting player to complete a 21-yard touchdown run for what would be his only carry of the night.
Sophomore quarterback Ashton Daniels threw an interception at the visitor 43-yard line that redshirt-senior Max Williams returned 39 yards. An unsporting-conduct penalty moved the ball back to the visitor 19-yard line. Three plays later, junior Marshawn Lloyd had a 5-yard touchdown run.
After a Stanford offense three-and-out, the Cardinal defense elicited a USC punt when Williams’s deep ball went awry on third and three. But Daniels’s attempt to find senior tight end Benjamin Yurosek on third and nine was broken up, and Stanford returned the ball.
This time, Williams orchestrated a 12-play, 93-yard drive lasting just shy of five minutes. After Williams started the series with his second and last incomplete pass attempt of the evening, Jones rushed for 17 yards and Williams connected with Tahj Washington for 11 and 28 yards on consecutive snaps. Williams also twice hit tight end Lake McRee for eight and 12 yards to help set up a one-yard Jones touchdown rush. That made the score 21-0 with seven seconds left in the first quarter.
To that point, USC had 26 plays to Stanford‘s 11 and 204 yards to the visitors’ 36. But matters would soon spin further out of control for Stanford head coach Troy Taylor’s club.
Two plays into the second quarter, Daniels (2 for 7, 19 yards, no scores and a pick) was sacked and injured. Sophomore Justin Lamson, the Syracuse transfer, entered the game and handed off to senior running back Casey Filkins, who gained three yards up the middle when the line to gain was 12 yards away. Junior Connor Weselman came on for his third punt, a 50-yarder.
The kick was fielded by Zachariah Branch at the home 25. The freshman wide receiver evaded some defenders, zoomed up the middle of the field and jetted the last 40 or so yards with ease for a 75-yard punt-return touchdown.
Three plays later, Stanford converted its first third down in four tries when Lamson hit senior wideout John Humphreys for a 31-yard gain, the quarterback’s first collegiate completion. But on the next snap, Lamson was sacked and fumbled. The ball was recovered by USC and returned two yards to the home 45.
The ensuing five-play drive went entirely through Williams. After an incomplete pass attempt was erased from the books by offsetting penalties (face mask on Stanford; offensive pass interference on USC), Williams threw to Washington for 19 and 15 yards and made a two-yard completion to Branch. On the next snap, Williams dropped back and did not immediately find an open target. He rolled right and made a fantastic throw on the run to Dorian Singer in the end zone. That gave USC a 35-0 advantage.
Taylor’s squad came out running on the next drive, as Lamson attempted three short passes — two to sophomore receiver Elic Ayomanor — and completed none. Senior runner E.J. Smith started the series with a 19-yard rush and later had a 29-yard carry, which the team supplemented with a three-yard Yurosek gain and two Lamson carries for 14 yards. When Lamson’s throw was off-target on third and 10 at the 15, Karty came out. Following a false start, the senior sent a 38-yarder through the uprights.
On the very next play from scrimmage, Rice broke free from Slocum and reeled in the superbly targeted Williams throw to make the score 42-3 with 6:46 remaining in the half.
Stanford punted on its next possession, and Williams quickly led his troupe of cardinal-and-gold-uniformed teammates to the visitor 1. From there, an easy option throw with McRee as the recipient gave the hosts a 49-3 advantage.
Williams finished the quarter with eight completions in eight tries for 167 yards and three touchdowns. After 30 minutes, Stanford as a team had 143 yards of total offense in 32 snaps, including 50 yards passing on three of 13 attempts with no scores and a pick.
The second half had less scoring but was nearly as dismal for Cardinal supporters. Filkins briefly electrifying the dwindling group of Stanford boosters with a 59-yard run. But a seven-yard Yurosek touchdown run was overturned when a review showed that he had stepped out at the 1, and Lamson’s throw to Yurosek on fourth and goal at the 4 was broken up.
In the fourth quarter, another foray into USC territory was negated when Lamson recovered his own fumble on a play that ultimately cost the Cardinal seven yards.
Lamson hit Yurosek for 23- and 19-yard gains to open the Cardinal’s final possession. Completions to Smith and Humphreys followed. A holding flag wiped out what would have been a one-yard Lamson touchdown carry. A few snaps later, Lamson plunged up the middle from the 1 for a score, which held up upon review.
USC answered with a seven-play, 75-yard drive capped by a 15-yard touchdown run from Miller Moss, who played the entire second half at quarterback as Williams watched on the sidelines.
With less than a minute left, Taylor sent freshman Sedrick Irvin out to run the ball three times. He gained 20 and five yards before losing 12 yards and coughing up a fumble that USC recovered on the final play. It seemed a fittingly dismal end to an utter thrashing.
The Cardinal will next attempt to get back on the winning side of things with a Saturday afternoon home opener against Sacramento State. Taylor took the Hornets to three Football Championship Subdivision playoff berths in three seasons in his only previous head-coaching tour.
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