USC vs. Illinois picked by College GameDay podcast

Champaign, Illinois, will be the site of one of four ranked matchups we’ll see in a loaded schedule for Week 5. That’s with No. 21 USC coming cross country to play No. 23 Illinois for a conference game in the Big Ten.

On the ‘College GameDay Podcast’ this week, ESPN’s Rece Davis, Pete Thamel, and Ryan McGee made their picks for this one between the Trojans and the Fighting Illini. That came after Davis set the game up, with Southern Cal dealing with an early kick in their case but while Illinois deals with what happened to them last week in their own conference opener in Bloomington.

“USC and Illinois,” Davis said. “That’s the old body clock game for the Trojans – it’ll be 9 a.m. local time. And it’s a gut-check game for Illinois after the game that we just finished discussing (against Indiana). USC and Illinois? Very disappointing performance for the Illini. Their secondary was decimated by injury and a targeting call. The Trojans have been kind of sort, of quietly off to a solid start. Jayden Maiava has been terrific for them.”

However, the trio didn’t differ much, with all three deciding to go with USC. Thamel and McGee began, each citing some concerns they did have with the Trojans, but neither being able to get past what they saw in the last game from the Illini.

“Boy, strange credulity to watch what happened to Illinois, especially with the injuries they’ve had in the secondary and think like, oh, they’ll just turn it around next week,” Thamel said. “Now, I think this is a much more fascinating test for USC because, like, their Big Ten mettle? They failed last year. They failed against Minnesota. They failed against Maryland.

“USC did not show they could compete in the trenches in the Big Ten, and this is their first real test of that. Now, that said, I just have a hard time seeing what these eyes saw against Indiana, and then being like, oh, they’ll turn it around and push USC around and win the game. I think there’s enough flaws in that Illinois secondary…where I think USC goes in and finds a way to have breakfast in Champaign.”

We’re going to get a lot of answers in Week 5. There’ll certainly be ones out of Champaign tomorrow afternoon, like whether USC is real in its biggest game of the season so far or if Illinois can bounce back in a big way at home.