USC Football: Inside the Trojans’ Statbook

Sep 22, 2012; Anaheim, CA, USA; General view of Southern California Trojans cornerback Nickell Robey (21) leading players onto the field before the game against the California Golden Bears at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

The Trojans have hit their bye week with a 3-1 record, just three wins from being bowl eligible for the first time since 2009. Since counting the wins to bowl eligibility isn’t the most dramatic statistic kept at USC, let’s take a look inside the stats for a different view at the young season.

Sack Specialists:

• The Trojans sacked Zach Maynard nine times on Saturday, after the tally was augmented by two on Sunday. USC now has 16 sacks on the season, tied for third in the nation with Texas A&M and Nebraska, sitting just one behind Tulsa and San Jose State for the lead with 17.
• Morgan Breslin had 3.5 sacks on Saturday and now has 5.5 for the season, tied with three players for 4th overall in the country, including Travis Long from Washington State.
• With the additional half sack awarded to Breslin on Sunday, he now leads the nation in tackles for loss, with 10. Five of those 10 came against Cal.
• After giving up nine sacks, Cal is now tied with Colorado for the most sacks allowed in FBS, as both schools have been sacked 18 times in four games.
• USC plays Utah and Washington in their next two games. Utah is ranked 107th in sacks allowed, while Washington is 83rd. After those two games, the Trojans get Colorado(124th) and Arizona(64th).

Imperfect Passing:

• Matt Barkley is tied for the national lead with 12 touchdown passes. That’s deceiving however, as he’s had just two in the last two  weeks(both against Cal), and he’s played one more game than West Virginia’s Geno Smith, who also has 12 touchdowns.
• Barkley has thrown five interceptions so far in four games. He had seven in all of 2011, and the earliest he had thrown his fifth interception in a season was back in 2009 as a freshman, when it came against Oregon State in game six. Geno Smith(West Virginia), David Ash(Texas) and A.J. McCarron(Alabama) have yet to be picked off.
• USC is 12th in the country in passing during first half, as Barkley has thrown for 701 yards and six touchdowns, despite being intercepted four times. In the second half of games, the Trojans are 88th in passing, with just 331 yards and not a single completion of more than 25 yards
• Barkley’s 192 yards against Cal put him over the 1,000-yard mark for the season, and the 10,000-yard mark in his career. He’s just the third quarterback to join the 10K Club at USC, along with Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart. His 92 career touchdowns is just seven away from tying Leinart’s Pac-12 record of 99.

Serra Record Setters

• Robert Woods is 26th in the nation with 25 catches this season. That gives him 201 catches in his USC career, tied with Johnnie Morton, three behind Kareem Kelly and six back of Keary Colbert, while being just 16 catches away from setting a school record and passing Dwayne Jarrett.
• Marqise Lee leads the nation in receptions with 40, touchdowns with six and is second in yards with 457. He’s on pace to shatter the records that Robert Woods set a year ago, as well obliterate USC career records early next season.
• If Lee continues to average 10 catches per game, he could finish with as many as 140 catches in 2012, which would give him 213 career catches in two just seasons. Assuming that Woods becomes the all-time pass catching leader later this season, only Woods and Jarrett would be ahead of Lee, and Jarrett’s record currently stands at 216, well within range for Lee in 2013.