USC football and ASU must contend with weather concerns at Coliseum

The forecast shows USC football’s Air Raid will have to make it through the rain during Saturday’s season-opening battle with ASU.

USC football hasn’t played a game of football in over 10 months. The first one back will be a rain game.

The Trojans are slated to take on ASU at the Coliseum on Saturday morning with the forecast calling for a 75 percent chance of rain at kickoff, according to Weather.com.

The rain shouldn’t let up either. With a high of 58 degrees during the expected game time, it should stay wet throughout.

USC football doesn’t have to worry about rain games often

USC’s last rain game was in the rivalry game against Notre Dame in 2016. That contest turned out alright for the Trojans despite the conditions. They beat the Irish 45-27 thanks to an outstanding performance from Adoree’ Jackson.

As far as records show, USC and ASU have never played a rain game in their history stretching back to 1916.

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It’s not often the Trojans need to prep for rainy conditions with a home game on the horizon, but head coach Clay Helton said the team intended to do just that at the tail end of the practice week. Hopefully, handling some football’s dunked in water will prepare quarterback Kedon Slovis enough to guide USC’s offense without too many mistakes.

Since it’s a season opener after a nearly-year-long offseason, there was already bound to be some sloppiness. Rain will only raise the risk.

Fortunately, USC has the running backs to ride if they feel the need to keep the ball on the ground more often than they otherwise would have. Vavae Malepeai and Markese Stepp have been cleared from injury while Stephen Carr and Kenan Christon have received rave reviews from training camp.

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ASU quarterback Jayden Daniels and the Sun Devils will also have to face the unusual weather with a new offensive coordinator and a bunch of offensive playmakers to replace.