SCliff Notes: Trojans’ Season on the Line vs. Utah and More USC Football News

Can’t get enough USC football? We’ve got your morning dose of all the best content from around the web concerning the men of Troy.

1st & 10:

Season on the line… With one conference loss already in the books, pretty much every game in the Pac-12 left on USC’s schedule is make or break. Having said that, this weekend’s contest with Utah is the Trojans’ come to Jesus moment.

The environment will not be friendly. Rice-Eccles Stadium is among the toughest venues in the conference. Most importantly, the Utes have proven themselves as a formidable foe. Suffering just one loss this year and pulling off the Rose Bowl upset of UCLA, Utah is the team that will expose USC’s true colors.

Beat Utah on the road and USC can legitimately call themselves king of the hill in the Pac-12 South. Lose and the season is all but over, consolation games versus rivals UCLA and Notre Dame would just be window dressing.

In Other News…

• USC announced that the shiny helmets are here to stay, at least for one more week. The Trojans will wear the metallic lids against Utah and we asked the fans if they want to make them permanent. Spoiler: the answer is mostly yes. (Reign Of Troy)
• Justin Davis is working to fix his fumbling problem, as Michael Lev reports. (OC Register)
• In award news, Cody Kessler was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week. (OC Register)
• Cory McCartney has Kessler as a rising name in the Heisman race. (Fox Sports)
• To relive Kessler’s record day, check out USC’s newest UNFILTERED video. (RipsIt Blog)
• On the defensive side of the ball Leonard Williams was named a quarterfinalist for the Lott IMPACT Trophy Award. (Conquest Chronicles)
• Kyle Kensing looked at how JuJu Smith is USC’s next star. (Bleacher Report)
• Kye Bonagura looked at the Pac-12 by the numbers, including USC and Utah’s three-and-out woes. (ESPN)
• Has the Big-12 overtaken the Pac-12 as the second-best conference in the nation? Brad Edwards and Adam Rittenberg discuss. (ESPN)
• Wondering how Trojans in the NFL are faring? Jordan Moore has a week 7 round up of #USCtoNFL. (RipsIt Blog)

Podcast:

In this week’s podcast, Michael Castillo, Alicia de Artola, Trenise Ferreira and Josh Webb discuss the win over Colorado, the implications of Kessler’s epic day and the 28-points given up by the defense.

Stat of the Day:

Utah leads the nation in sacks with 33. They average five per game. That’s twice as many as USC has given up or logged this season.

Tweets of the Day: