USC vs. Washington State: Do Trojans really have a bad midweek history?

Clay Helton’s USC football team has a tough task this week, on the road against Washington State. But does the Friday night game bring additional bad juju?

If you ask a USC football fan about weeknight games, prepare for a litany of negative feedback. You’ll hear everything from a disdain for the lack of tailgating, to horrendous traffic patterns around the Coliseum and even the idea that the Trojans are cursed.

Heck, there’s even a podcast named after such notion, called Traveler Hates Thursdays. (Subscribe to them, they’re great.)

Sure, the 2008 USC football team lost a national title on a Thursday night in Corvallis. But are weeknight games really the bane of the Trojans’ existence?

Not exactly. It just feels that way.

Since Oregon State slayed the beast that was the 2008 Trojan defense, USC is 10-2 on weeknight games, including a 7-1 mark on Thursday nights and a 3-1 record on Fridays.

If you cherry pick any sort of 12-game split for the Trojans over the last decade, you’d be hard pressed to find a better record.

Nor is it rare in college football for a top team to have their share of weeknight horrors.

In the last decade, Oregon has lost three times on a Thursday night while ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll. Florida State lost to unranked NC State in 2010, Stanford has its 2012 season derailed at Washington, and Louisville’s only loss in 2013 came on a Friday night to UCF.

All things considered, the Trojans’ record on weeknights is both normal and pretty good.

Friday Night Games since 2010 (3-1):

2011 at Colorado: USC wins 42-17
2013 at Oregon State: USC wins 31-14
2015 at Colorado: USC wins 27-24
2016 at No. 24 Utah: Utah wins 31-28

Thursday Night Games since 2010 (7-1):

2010 at Hawaii: USC wins 49-36
2011 at Cal: USC wins 30-9
2012 at Utah: USC wins 38-28
2013 at Hawaii: USC wins 30-13
2013 vs. Arizona: USC wins 38-31
2014 vs. Cal: USC wins 38-30
2015 vs. Washington: UW wins 17-12
2016 vs. Cal: USC wins 45-24

But it’s the two losses — an embarrassing 17-12 loss to Washington in 2015 and a last-second heartbreaker to 24th-ranked Utah in 2016 — that cement the narrative: USC is bad on weeknights.

Both losses couldn’t be further apart.

One came against a ranked team, while being doused in the Body Blow Theory on a short week after Stanford, in the first career start for freshman quarterback Sam Darnold, and at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the most hostile road environment in the Pac-12 South.

The other was Steve Sarkisian’s final straw during an off-field tailspin which ultimately cost him his job.

Nonetheless, USC has played on weeknights exactly how you should expect teams to play on weeknights: sloppy at times but consistently victorious against teams they should beat, and occasionally falling prey to an upset.

Take in any midweek game around the country and the same trends play out. But Friday night’s road game against the No. 16 Washington State Cougars will test the variables.

More from Reign of Troy

They’re the toughest team USC has played on a weeknight since the 2007 Thanksgiving game at 7th-ranked Arizona State. But Carroll’s Trojans had a dozen days to prepare for their shellacking of Rudy Carpenter and the Devils, while this year’s squad faces the same Friday night predicament they did last year.

USC is banged up at the skill positions and coming off three-straight physical games with Stanford, Texas and a better-than-anticipated Cal team. Add in the short week and the Cougars could ultimately be the toughest test the Trojans face all year.

But if they do falter, unable to extend their current 13-game overall winning streak, it won’t automatically be because the game was played on a Friday night.

Good teams lose conference road games, particularly at night, and particularly against ranked teams like undefeated WSU. Besides, if anyone has a weeknight hex placed on them by the football gods, it’s the Cougars and not USC.

Washington State is an abysmal 1-7 during the week under Mike Leach. That includes a 1-4 record on short rest, with the lone win coming five years ago in the Apple Cup over Washington.

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