USC Football Roundup: Pondering the Trojans trap game and more (5/24)

What is the Trojans trap game? Is Las Vegas the perfect venue for the Pac-12?Here’s the USC football roundup for May 24th.

On Thursday, Sporting News looked at potential trap games for all of college football’s playoff contenders in 2018.

First things first, yes, USC got the “playoff contender” tag, which is only fair as the Trojans will be expected to compete for the Pac-12 title. Any Power 5 team in contention for their conference title has at least the chance of making the playoff.

So what is USC’s potential trap game? Sporting News lists the road trip to Arizona on September 29 as the date to look out for.

More from Reign of Troy

• Markese Stepp enters transfer portal intending to leave USC football
• USC football’s Alijah Vera-Tucker declares for NFL Draft
• USC football adds Xavion Alford as transfer from Texas
• USC Podcast: RoT Radio Ep. 396 on the Football Season’s Fallout
• Talanoa Hufanga named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, USC football with five first-teamers

That makes sense as the game comes on the back of a difficult stretch, including away games against Stanford and Texas and a Friday night revenge tilt with Washington State.

However, giving it the trap game status feels like a little bit of a stretch. Sure, the Wildcats went 7-6 last year, losing four of their last five. But new head coach Kevin Sumlin has had proven success with an elite playmaker at his disposal and quarterback Khalil Tate definitely fits that description.

Moreover, the game figures to be pivotal in the Pac-12 South race. If the Trojans are caught unprepared by Arizona, that’s a major failure of the coaching staff and the players.

Washington State could just as easily receive the trap game tag, but how about this one: ASU.

USC manhandled the Sun Devils in Tempe last year and there is a whole lot of skepticism over the appointment of Herm Edwards, so there’s reason for the Trojans to overlook Arizona State. The game comes after a tough road trip to Utah as well, with the body-blow theory perhaps in play.

ASU returns their starting quarterback in Manny Wilkins and a potentially dangerous receiving corps led by N’Keal Harry, while the defense returns top pass rusher Koron Crump.

While Arizona doesn’t quite fit the trap game billing because it’s tough to see how USC could underestimate them, ASU fits it to a tee precisely because of how easy it will be to expect little from them.

Viva Las Vegas

Jon Wilner of the Mercury News put on his “czar of Pac-12 football” hat on Thursday and laid out what sounds like a pretty good plan for the conference embracing Las Vegas as a venue.

Wilner proposes making Vegas the Pac-12’s home-away-from-home now that Sin City is building an NFL football stadium.

Las Vegas is a true neutral site, just close enough to all 12 programs in the conference. It’s a destination which would entice fans to travel for a weekend.

It’s a no-brainer of a plan, one too obvious to go over Larry Scott’s head. You’d think.

CHECK OUT: Five dream home-and-home opponents for USC

Wilner offers other interesting ideas, including a Pac-12-centric version of the Advocare Classic, in which USC will play Alabama in 2020. Could a “mini-Rose Bowl” featuring Pac-12 and Big Ten powers in Las Vegas work? It’s certainly a thought.

Notre Dame favored, barely

Last year, Notre Dame blasted USC by 35 points, but oddsmakers don’t expect a similar gap between the two teams when the series returns to Los Angeles.

Gustin will be a star

Chase Goodbread of NFL.com projected 18 defensive prospects from 2018 who will be defensive stars and USC’s Porter Gustin made the list at No. 18.

Gustin will face questions over his health, having missed most of the 2017 season with injury, but a healthy 2018 campaign figures to launch him back into serious NFL discussions.

USC’s breakout star?

Pacific Takes guessed each Pac-12 schools’ breakout star for the coming year, landing on Stephen Carr for USC.

That sounds about right for the Trojans, who will have to lean on Carr in the absence of Ronald Jones II. He sure looked like a start in the early goings of the 2017 season before an injury got in the way.

SEE ALSO: Five Trojans who need to become stars in 2018

Who else could have a breakout year? Things will have gone very well for USC if any of the Trojan quarterbacks, Matt Fink, Jack Sears or JT Daniels, earn that description. More likely options include Tyler Vaughns, Michael Pittman, Marlon Tuipulotu, Kanai Mauga or Bubba Bolden.

Trojan Trivia

Thursday marks 100 days until USC kicks off the 2018 season with UNLV at the Coliseum. So here’s some 100-themed trivia:

Running back Charles White owns USC’s record for most 100-yard rushing games with 31.

Receiver Keyshawn Johnson has the record for 100-yard receiving games with 17 (12 of those coming consecutively).

There have only been five 100-yard kickoff return touchdowns in USC history. That record is shared by Anthony Davis, Marqise Lee and Adoree’ Jackson. Davis and Jackson both did it twice.