Three weeks left in the season and USC finds itself experiencing an eerie case of déjà vu. As we pointed out on Wednesday, this is the exact same situation USC stumbled into in 2007, having struggled despite high expectations and needing to beat ASU and UCLA to top the Pac-10. This time a trip to the Pac-12 title game is on the line as well as is the pride that has diminished week after week this season.

But before we get there, let’s revisit that 2007 game to gain some perspective of how USC can once again convince the nation that they are still a top team.

Having lost to Stanford shockingly, and then falling again to Oregon weeks later, the 2007 Trojans had some serious convincing to do if they were to be the Pac-10 Champions at the end of the season. There are still no words to describe the loss to Stanford, so one can imagine just how important it was five years ago for the Trojans to finish the season with a statement about who they were.

That statement came at the expense of the ASU Sun Devils. Going into the game, the Trojans were an unlikely candidate to reach the sacred ground of the Rose Bowl. At the end of it, USC left no doubt.

QB John David Booty threw for 375 yards against the seemingly-defenseless Sun Devils, tying a career-high record of four touchdown passes on the way. Being that he missed three games with a broken finger and had been inconsistent all season, this was an incredible performance from him. He put on his field general pants and commanded his troops, methodically dropping bombs when and where he pleased. ASU had no solution to the onslaught from Troy, and USC did indeed look like a top dog once again.

USC opened with a 51-yard touchdown drive after seven plays. The score came on a 4-yard pass from Booty to Vidal Hazleton. On his first drive, Booty went 6-for-6 for 45 yards.

The rout was on.

To their credit, ASU hung in there in the first quarter of the game. After the Trojans scored, Rudy Burgess took the kick return 98 yards to the endzone to tie it 7-all, becoming the first Sun Devil to return a kick for a touchdown at home in 21 years. The came back from being down 17-7 in the first quarter to tie it up until the final five minutes of the first half, before USC ultimately went up 27-17 when the clock ran out.

Then the Trojans really blew a hole in this thing when they scored 17 more unanswered points in the third quarter. The dagger came near the end of the third, when on fourth-and-two Booty hit Fred Davis who took it to the house for a 34-yard score.

On the other side of the ball, the Trojan defense absolutely overwhelmed and suffocated Sun Devils QB Rudy Carpenter, sacking him six times and even forcing him to sit out a few plays wit a cut lip. DE Lawrence Jackson made Carpenter taste the turf four of those six times, the most in a single performance out of USC since 1989. After shutting out ASU entirely in the third quarter, the Sun Devils would not score again until the scrub defense came in, but by then, the damage was done.

USC easily won 44-24 and silenced all questions about their prowess that year.

Fast forward to 2012, the Trojans need to have a similar showing against ASU. The Sun Devils have lost their last three games and are looking like their typical selves, starting strong only to go 6-6 on the year. If USC wins big, they will carry that momentum into Pasadena the following week against UCLA and keep the Bruins quiet in LA for one more year.

Just like they did in 2007.

The USC Trojans take on the Colorado Buffaloes on Saturday, and it is likely that this game will get really ugly, really fast. The Buffs have been the whipping boy of the Pac-12 since their inaugural season in 2011, looking more like an FCS school than a member of an automatic-qualifying contest. Sure, the Buffs had their glory days back in the early 2000s but those are a thing of the past and even then, the Trojans made a point to remind the Buffs who the boss really was. For this Throwback Thursday we travel back to 2002 and revisit a match-up that pitted the No. 17 team in the country against the No. 18 team, a game where one squad made a loud and clear statement about who they were, and that they planned to do this season.

When No. 17 USC and No. 18 Colorado met at Folsom Field ten years ago, it seemed at the outset to be a very good matchup between very two very good squads. USC had started the season strong with a season-opening victory against Auburn two weeks before, and Colorado, a tough 19-14 loss to No. 19 Colorado State and a rebound 34-14 win over San Diego State. This game was supposed to be physical, a struggle to the end between teams sitting next to each other in rankings. When Colorado’s live bison mascot, Ralphie and his crew stormed the field, the Buffs home crowd came alive and the atmosphere was electric.

Two minutes later they were dead silent, shocked, and already down 7-0 to USC.

Trojan QB Carson Palmer took the field and quickly completed five of five passes, ending USC’s very first possession of the game with a 32-yard touchdown to Malaefou Mackenzie on fourth and six. There was still 10 minutes left in the first quarter, and the rout was on.

Later in the quarter, Palmer continued to pass with fluid accuracy, completing four of five more passes and leading USC 80 yards down the field that ended with another Mackenzie score, this time a 14-yard run into the endzone. Running back Justin Vargas got the Trojan ground game rolling on that drive, in what was his first carry of the 2002 season.

USC took a 14-0 lead into the second quarter and for a moment, it seemed like the Buffs would have a chance to get back into it. Freshman safety J.J. Billingsley picked off Palmer and returned it to the Colorado 47 and at the end of the play, USC got flagged for a late hit. The joy lasted shorter than a winter in Antarctica, as the refs also dinged Colorado for a late hit on the previous play, giving the ball back to the Trojans. Three plays later, McCollough broke off his huge run, coming of the left tackle and blowing past Buffs defensive backs Phil Jackson and Donald Strickland to put the Trojans up 20-0.

The Buffs did manage to get on the board in the third quarter, scoring a 42-yard field goal. The Trojan defense smothered them all night, giving up only 61 yards and four first downs.

Let that sink in: in four quarters, the No. 18 team could only muster less than 100 total yards and only four first downs against the No. 17 team. Who saw that one coming?

Carson Palmer and the aerial assault got the game going, but it was the running game that was the star of the show. USC had averaged 87.7 yards on the ground in 2001, and ran for 84 yards against Auburn. But against Colorado, the Trojans exploded for nearly 200-yards rushing of 425 total yards. Running back Sultan McCollough showed what he could do with his incredible speed, further stunning the Buffs with his 62-yard run to the house, and ending his night with 115 yards from 15 carries. This was the 10th time in his carrier that he rushed for 100 yards or more. Mackenzie had 35 yards on 10 carries as well as his two touchdowns, and freshman Herschel Dennis tacked on an average of 6.5 yards from five carries.

To the LATimes after the game, McCollough said, “The offensive line did a great job opening up holes for all of us, I just did my part.”

When McCollough was taking a break from doing his part, Palmer and the passing game did all kinds of work as well. They accounted for USC’s other 200-plus yards of offense and were relentless in their approach. Freshman wide receiver Mike Williams caught a game-high seven passes for 90 yards, junior Keary Colbert and senior Kareem Kelly each grabbed four balls out of the air, and tight end Gregg Guenther added three more. In front of 22 NFL scouts, QB Palmer put on a spectacular show, heaving balls to a variety of targets, and completing 22 of 30 passes for 244 yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions. He had previously had a great game against the Buffs, completing 25 of 30 passes for 275 yards two years prior.

Palmer also lauded his O-line and praised the running game to the Times, saying, “The job our linemen and running backs did opened up the passing game. That balance is hard to beat.”

When the fourth quarter ticked off and just before Colorado could holler mercy, the scoreboard read 40-3 in USC’s favor. The Trojans really showed who they were and what they would go on to be that season, putting on an incredibly impressive display, on the road, against a team that was so closely ranked to them.

This year, USC is likely to rout the Buffs again as they are currently 41-point favorites to win the game. But unlike in 2002, Colorado stands no chance to knock off the Trojans. This is first of four games that ‘SC will play in the Coliseum after playing four of their first six on the road, and trust that Coach Kiffin is looking to use his running game much like Coach Pete Carroll did in 2002, to wear Colorado down and compliment the passing game. USC will use this game to show what it can do when both factions of its offense are fully functional, and it will likely set the tone for how the squad finishes the season.

Count of Coach Kiffin to channel some of that 2002 mojo, to guide the Trojans to a commanding win that will possibly gain SC some brownie points with bowl season waiting just around the corner.

USC and Washington have shared some exciting moments over the years, but none more so than when they met in 1995 in Seattle. Both teams were vying for a Rose Bowl bid, and a loss for either team would vault the other into position to make that postseason appearance. Washington came out hot, quickly going up 21-0 on USC and remaining that way going into the fourth quarter. The Trojans had to decide right then if they were going to put up or shut up, and their decision led to one of the greatest comebacks of all time in USC school history.

USC had gotten crushed by Notre Dame 38-10 in the week leading up to this matchup with the Huskies, so playing on the road against another hot team with its riled up fan base was the exact opposite of what the doctor ordered. By halftime the Huskies had gone up 13-0, and the Trojans were playing just God-awful football. USC had run just 17 plays for 66 yards, and 53 of those were on four receptions by Keyshawn Johnson, and rushed for a whopping 10 whole yards. Washington on the other than hand had run 44 plays for 288 yards.

Things did not look good at all for USC.

Then-head coach John Robinson was not happy with his squad’s performance, and in the locker room, he let them have all of it. The 60-year old coach unleashed a tirade the likes of which we have not seen from a USC head coach in a long time, lightning a fire under his team’s butt so hot they had no choice but go out there and make something happen.

To the LATimes after the game, senior center Jeremy Hogue said, “Coach was mad, he was yelling at us. He said a lot of stuff about our character. He said he was tired of watching us stand around, watching things happen instead of fighting back and making things happen.

“That was as angry as I’ve ever seen him.”

To say it worked is an understatement: the Trojans scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, tying the game and keeping the Trojans one leg ahead of the other teams in the race to Pasadena.

What, besides the invigorating halftime tantrum, turned this team around? A play called “Chicago”.

Robinson and his offensive coordinator, Mike Riley, had been operating under a two-quarterback system for the previous eight games, having Brad Otton play the first and third quarters while Kyle Wachholtz played the second and fourth. This time, they elected to keep Otton in for the fourth quarter after having established a rhythm in the third, driving down the field 57 yards in nine plays. A one-yard score by Rodney Sermons on the first play of the fourth quarter culminated the drive, getting the Trojans on the board for the first time, 21-7. Otton threw an interception on the next Trojan possession and things looked bad again, but he turned it around and made it 21-14 with a 16-yard touchdown pass to fullback Terry Barnum, capping a 10-play drive.

The Trojan defense was fired up too, surrendering only 10 yards to Washington on their following drive. With 2:18 left, Otton found himself in a Go-Hard-Or-Go-Home state.

And hard is exactly how he went.

Otton led his troops on a 13 play, 79-yard game-tying drive. For the first time all night, the home Husky crowd was shocked into dead silence. With 33 seconds to go, the Trojans ran “Chicago” and it worked exactly as it’s intended. As Fullback Barnum said, “We run Chicago when we think the other team will bring everyone at the quarterback, and they did.”

When Otton handed off the ball the defense blew right past him, so he took the ball from the Husky 30 to the five-yard line. Three plays later, Otton found tight end Johnny McWilliams from three yards out for the touchdown, bringing the game to 21-20. The Trojans could go for the win or the tie, but it was a no-brainer to just kick the extra point for the draw.

Back then, a points formula determined which Pac-10 team would represent in the Rose Bowl: four points for conference victories, three points for nonconference victories and two points for Pac-10 ties. A loss was worthless.

USC was 4-0-1 in the Pac-10, 6-1-1 overall, while The Huskies were 4-0-1 and 5-2-1 overall.

Instead of chancing it, walk-on freshman kicker Adam Rendon took the field for the game-tying extra-point, and he nailed it.

USC had just pulled off one of their greatest comebacks ever, in front of 74,421 people, the then-largest home crowd in Husky history. The deafening roar that gave the Trojans much difficulty in the early stages of the game was absolutely dead at the end of the fourth quarter. This win kept USC in the Rose Bowl race, where they would eventually play and win 41-32 against No. 3 Northwestern.

The best thing about the victory though comes from the recap of this game by Earl Gutsky in the LATimes, where he noted something very interesting:

:It wasn’t a victory, but to everyone in a joyous Trojan locker room afterward, the 21-21 tie with Washington might just as well have been a 50-0 victory.”

A 50-0 victory. Huh. Lane Kiffin and his boys would know all about that feeling, then.

Speaking of Kiffin, his team is likely to face a just as hostile environment this time around, complete with miserable weather and a loud home crowd at CenturyLink field. If they find themselves in a bind, channeling the energy of the ’95 squad and getting it done should be just what they need to silence the Husky crowd once again.