USC Football Roundup: Florida State exploring schedule option (6/28)

Florida State has identified the Trojans as a possible home-and-home opponent, while more Pac-12 previews are in. Here’s the USC football roundup for June 28.

If there are any USC football fans out there dying to see the Trojans face off with Florida State, you might be in luck.

Seminole Director of Athletics Stan Wilcox told the Tallahassee Democrat that he’s looking at scheduling a home-and-home on the west coast, and USC is one of the potential opponents.

“I want to say that we even started looking, we did look at some of the West Coast teams if we were to do a home-and-home series with them, when that could be,” Wilcox said.

USC, UCLA and Stanford are on the mind as destinations for Florida State.

Could it happen?

USC has a longstanding policy of taking on all comers, so it’s certainly a possibility if schedules were to line up.

When could it happen?

The Trojans and Seminoles both have an open date in 2021, but the likelihood of that being the year is slim to none. The Trojans already have a “marquee” matchup with BYU on the cards while FSU will play Notre Dame that year.

The BYU issue comes into play again in 2023, when Florida State does have a clean slate to work with beyond their rivalry tilt with Florida. A return leg in 2024 would be complicated by the Seminoles’ trip to Notre Dame that year.

That leaves 2025 as a logical starting point for both teams, but a 2026 matchup with Notre Dame again muddies the water.

Unless the two programs decide to play the two games across three years, the series could end up with a start date as far out as 2027.

Either way, it’s fun to think about.

CFN Pac-12 Preview

College Football News’ Pac-12 preview is chock full of love for Trojans.

It starts with Cameron Smith anointed the preseason Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year.

It continues with Toa Lobendahn, Christian Rector, Porter Gustin, Iman Marshall and Smith making the preseason All-Pac-12 first team.

It finishes up with Smith, Gustin, Marshall, Marvell Tell and Rector featuring in their ranking of the Top 30 players in the conference.

That’s a lot of Trojans to account for, but are there any snubs? Chuma Edoga certainly isn’t getting the preseason love afforded to Lobendahn, but he could be USC’s best lineman going into 2018.

Perhaps not a snub given the other more established wide outs in the conference, but Tyler Vaughns could find himself on these teams and rankings by season’s end. So could Stephen Carr.

Top tight ends

Tyler Petite made it onto Athlon’s list of the Top 15 tight ends in the country going into the 2018 season.

MORE: All-purpose back Giles Jackson lists USC in Top 4

Dubbed a valuable safety net, Petite is undoubtedly the safer pick of USC’s tight ends. But a healthy Daniel Imatorbhebhe could possibly take offense to being left out.

Today’s Trojan Trivia

USC and Florida State have played just twice in history. The Seminoles came out on top in both legs of a home-and-home series spanning 1997 and 1998.

FSU is one of just eight FBS teams to enjoy a winning record over the Trojans.