USC Football: Weather report at Utah

USC Football takes on Utah for their Week 7 contest, and their first ranked showdown of the season. The Trojans are ranked as the No. 7 team in the country, and the Utes are ranked as the No. 20 team in the country. While SC has been much better up to this point, and unbeaten, they are not favored for this game. A large part of that is the location of the game.

The contest will be played in Salt Lake City, at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Utah is a different beast at home. They are currently riding an 11-game winning streak in Salt Lake City. The last team to beat Utah in Rice-Eccles Stadium was indeed the Trojans, but it's worth remembering that there were few (if any) fans in the stands that year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

While there are no excuses in college football, it is simply notable that the one time SC has beat Utah on the road after 2012 was in the contest where fans weren't much of a factor. The same can be said about SC's home loss that year to Oregon: SC didn't have as true a home field advantage as they would have had due to the coronavirus pandemic. Another factor, however, that makes it tough to play in Rice-Eccles is oftentimes the weather.

That was certainly something SC did have to deal with, and something they handled very well in their most recent showdown with the Utes in Salt Lake City. They'll need more of the same this weekend. It's going to be brisk this weekend in Salt Lake. With the game starting at 5 p.m., the sun will have set by the time halftime is over (all weather information in article is according to The Weather Channel).

That's when the USC Football game is going to start getting a little cold.

After the sun sets, the night temperatures in Salt Lake City are expected to dip all the way down to 45 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a sharp change from where the weather will be when the game starts, as the high will be 76 degrees Fahrenheit during the day.

The clouds are expected to clear up during the afternoon, too, so SC will likely be playing in one of the warmer parts of the day when the game starts. Now, there will be no snow during the game, so it won't be awful. There's a zero percent chance of precipitation on Saturday in Salt Lake. That being said, it will simply be a little cooler than SC is used to, and something for the players to prepare for.

Again, though, SC came to Rice-Eccles over a month later than they will this year in 2020 and handled the weather just fine. It's simply not likely to be an issue for the Trojans. It is, however, something to just keep in mind for the team as it will be different from what they're used to in sunny Los Angeles.