O/NSO: Washington State edition ­

The Obvious: What a difference a week can make, and nothing will illustrate that more than when the USC Trojans (1-1, 0-1 Pac-12 South) depart sunny Los Angeles with an interim head football coach and arrive in the rainy Great Northwest to do battle with the Washington State Cougars (1-1, 0-0 Pac-12 North) for a Saturday matinee in tiny Martin Stadium (12:30 p.m. PDT).   

The Not So Obvious: For USC interim head coach Donte Williams, defensive backfield coach and recruiter extraordinaire, timing is everything in replacing departed former Trojans head coach Clay Helton. For Williams, this is a dream come true, and you can bet he will use his remaining 10 games as the cardinal and gold pigskin leader as his own personal audition. For Williams and “his” Trojans, leaving the bright lights and intense media glare of Los Angeles of the past week for the remote hamlet of Pullman, Washington, couldn’t have come at a better time although the forecast is for rain. Call it a refreshing umbrella respite in the middle of nowhere.

The Obvious: The Trojans opened a 8 ½ -point favorite to defeat WSU.

The Not So Obvious: When the Trojans are only 8 1/2-point favorites to defeat Washington State before and after the Helton firing, hold on to your whatever. Obviously, the professionals that set the odds have taken into account the timing and the Donte Williams effect with its potential ramifications on the USC players.  

The Trojans are visiting the Palouse Country for the first time since 2017.

WSU has only beaten the Trojans 10 times in 74 overall meetings, and its past three wins came on late field goals. The Trojans have lost just four times in Pullman and leads its series with Washington State, which dates back to 1921, 60-10-4 (not including one win vacated due to NCAA penalty; original record: 61-10-4). The Trojans have won 37 of the last 43 meetings (and 43 of the past 50).

The Obvious: Saturday’s game from Martin Stadium will be televised on FOX (12:30 p.m. PDT/ 3:30 p.m. EDT).

The Not So Obvious: The FOX broadcasters will be Joe Davis (play-by-play) and Brock Huard (analyst).

The Obvious: Saturday’s radio game broadcast of the Trojans and the Cougars will air live on KABC 790AM (12:30 p.m. PDT) with Pete Arbogast (play by play), Shaun Cody (analyst), and Jordan Moore (sidelines).

The Not So Obvious: The Trojans’ overall KABC 790AM broadcast window will begin with a four-hour pregame show beginning at 8:30 a.m. (PDT). The pregame broadcast crew includes Pete Arbogast, Shaun Cody, Jordan Moore, John Jackson, Jason Schwartz, Max Browne, and Su’a Cravens.

(Home games only): The pregame “Trojans Tailgate Show” portion of AM 790 KABC Radio’s broadcast (starting two hours prior to kickoff until 30 minutes prior) will also be live streamed on USC Athletics’ Facebook, Twitter and YouTube platforms.

Saturday’s game also can be heard on the Trojan Radio Network–KSHP 1400AM in Las Vegas, KSZL 1230AM in Barstow, KXPS 1010AM in Palm Springs and KGU 95.1FM and 760AM in Honolulu–as well as on USCTrojans.com and KABC.com and on SiriusXM satellite radio (channel 80).

The Obvious: Those traveling to Pullman, Washington, will have to listen to the Washington State broadcast of the game if they want specific info.

The Not So Obvious: The Washington State broadcast (12:30 p.m. PDT) can be heard on flagships stations KHTR 104.3 FM (Pullman) or KXLY 920 AM (Spokane) with Matt Chazanow (play-by- play), Alex Brink (analyst), and Jessamyn McIntyre (sidelines). Another option is ESPN Radio with Jorge Sedano (play-by-play) and Tom Ramsey (analyst).

The Obvious: Saturday’s Pullman weather forecast calls for rain with a high of 59 and a low of 46 degrees, 71% humidity, and 71% precipitation. Temperature for the 12:30 p.m. (PDT) kickoff is expected to be rainy and 56 degrees.

The Not So Obvious: The real weather report is whether the Trojans can regain focus after not only last weekend’s devastating loss to Stanford but the change in the USC head coaching hierarchy. Although there were no public signs that Clay Helton’s players had abandoned him mentally or emotionally, who knows what this team was saying inside the locker room and behind closed doors. Here’s what we do know: The players love Donte Williams, trust Donte Williams, and will probably play their hearts out for their interim head coach.

Another potential key factor in the game is whether the actual weather plays into it. It’s forecasted that there will be showers in the pregame, rain at kickoff, and then showers in the fourth quarter. We’ll see whether this weather adds to the Trojans’ challenges throughout the game.

Offensively, we’ll see whether the Trojans make any Donte Williams adjustments to how the offense is run. It’s too late for any immediate radical changes, but Williams might in time want to incorporate some additional alterations to the offense in terms of screens, draws, misdirection, snaps under center, and the general Air Raid characteristics. Naturally, we’ll see whether Trojans offensive coordinator Graham Harrell will accept any direction from an interim head coach from the defensive side of the ball. It’s conceivable that Williams will leave the offense to Graham, and the OC will be under no restrictions to call whatever he wants.

We’ll see whether the Trojans’ Air Raid attack will be defended better by WSU this season than last season in the Coliseum when Cougars decided to play the elite USC receivers man-to-man, which was not a Phi Beta Kappa move. Offensively, the Men of Troy will feature two-year starting QB Kedon Slovis, who ranks in the Trojans all-time Top 10 in passing and total offense while hitting nearly 70% of his career passes for almost 6,000 yards and exactly 50 TDs. Slovis’s heralded USC receivers could again do damage to the WSU secondary, thanks to WR Drake London, who is Troy’s leading pass catcher this season along with Tahj Washington and Gary Bryant Jr.

The Trojans run game – compared to the past – saw a noticeable improvement, thanks to TBs Vavae Malepeai and Keaontay Ingram, both of whom are both 1,000-yard career runners. We’ll see if the Cougars’ defense can limit the damage. The Cougars are paced on defense by LB Jahad Woods, the Pac-12’s active leading tackler, along with LB Justus Rogers (11 tac., 1.5 for loss, 1 int, 1 FF) and sophomore DB Tanner Moku (8 tac. in 2021).

Defensively, what we have now is interim head coach Donte Williams – in theory – being the chain of command superior to defensive coordinator Todd Orlando. We’ll see whether Williams leaves the defense entirely in Orlando’s hands or makes an effort to mold the defense into a Donte Williams mentality. Conventional wisdom says that Williams will leave Orlando to do his own thing. One would think initially that Williams won’t do anything different since he still is in charge of his corners and now has to keep a watchful eye on the offense. Call it double duty and a major challenge.

The Cougars use the Run-and-Shoot offense, and we’ll find out whether USC defenders like DT Tuli Tuipulotu and S Calen Bullock, S Chase Williams and N Greg Johnson can be counted upon to do their job. The Wassu offense features QB Jayden de Laura controlling the offense, which also features senior standout RB Max Borghi (24 tcb, 145 yds, 6.0 avg, 2 TD in 2021, plus 3 rec, 51 yds, 17.0 avg) and senior WRs Travell Harris, who has 109 career catches and also is a dangerous returner, and Calvin Johnson (10 rec, 168 yds, 16.8 avg, 1 TD). The offensive line is led by senior OT Abraham Lucas.

On special teams, it would appear that the kicker to open the Washington State game will be junior Alex Stadthaus, who replaced sophomore Parker Lewis when Parker was tossed from the contest for a targeting call on the first play of the game. Against Stanford, Stadthaus was perfect on his field goal attempts (2-of-2) and was clean on his two PAT bids. Trojans’ junior punter Ben Griffiths is averaging 46.9 yards per boot. WSU goes with a freshman punter, Nick Haberer, who averages 44.3 yards per punt, and sophomore placekicker Dean Janikowski is having a fine season thus far (4-of-5 field goals/ 7-of-8 PATs).

The Obvious: The Trojans are averaging 29.0 points per game, while the Cougars are allowing 25.0 points per game.

The Not So Obvious: The WSU offense is averaging 33.50 points per game while the Trojans’ defense is allowing 24.5 points per contest.

The Obvious: Donte Williams was named the interim head coach of the Trojans on Monday after the firing of Clay Helton earlier that morning.

The Not So Obvious: Regarding WSU, Williams said, “On film, they come out here and throw the ball around, but everybody sees them spread out; yet they’re running the ball as much as they’re passing. Their quarterback (Jayden de Laura) is a gunslinger. To me, he’s an awesome quarterback in this conference. They have a couple of guys as receivers that can run around. They have a great tailback, and the O-line is athletic and they block well.

“On defense, they have a couple guys that are playmakers. They have a four-year or five-year starter at middle linebacker. As a whole, they have great leadership. We’re going up there to their house where the weather is not the best. Different things like that are stacked against us. We going to prevail and show that we’re USC.”

The Obvious: Washington State is coached by Nick Rolovich, who is in his second season with the Cougars.

The Not So Obvious: Regarding the Trojans players and the USC coaching change, Rolovich said, “It’s hard on the coaches. It’s hard on their families. But it’s hard on these kids going through a coaching change, whether it’s right or wrong, or how everybody feels – it’s not easy for these guys … to go through that. A lot of question marks go through your brain: ‘What’s the future look like?’ All that stuff. So, that definitely throws a little wrinkle in (the game), but this should not change our approach to the football game we have this weekend.”

 The Obvious: This will be the Trojans first road trip of the season.  

The Not So Obvious: In road openers, the Trojans are 83-31-8 (.713).

The Obvious: The WSU quarterback is sophomore Jayden de Laura (6-0, 190) from Hawaii.

The Not So Obvious: For the season, de Laura (33-of-51, 64.7%, 458 yds, 4 TD, 1 int in 2021, plus 14 tcb, 65 yds, 4.6 avg, 1 TD) is solid consistently.   

The Obvious: Last week, the Trojans dropped their Pac-12 opener to Stanford in the Coliseum. 

The Not So Obvious: In the past 20 years, Troy has lost its Pac- 12 opener eight times prior to this season. The Trojans rebounded by averaging more than nine wins in those seasons and played in seven bowl games, including three Rose Bowls (all victories) with a national championship (2003).

The Obvious: In its last three victories over the Trojans, Washington State’s winning margin was provided via late field goals.  

The Not So Obvious: Washington State’s last three victories over the Men of Troy have come on late field goals: PK Drew Dunning’s 35-yarder in the first overtime in 2002 for a 30-27 win (he also hit another 35-yarder with 1:50 to play to get the game into overtime), PK Andrew Furney’s 41-yarder with 3:03 to play in 2013 for a 10-7 win and PK Erik Powell’s 32-yarder with 1:40 to play in 2017 for a 30-27 win.

The Obvious: USC has two players from Washington (OL Caadyn Stephen of Camas HS and ILB Julien Simon of Tacoma’s Lincoln HS).

The Not So Obvious: Washington State has 42 Californians on its roster.

The Obvious: The Trojans’ third-year offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach is Graham Harrell.

The Not So Obvious: Harrell was an offensive analyst (2014) and outside receivers coach (2015) at Washington State.

The Obvious: The Trojans’ first-year offensive line coach is Clay McGuire.

The Not So Obvious: McGuire held the same job at Washington State for six years (2012-17).  

The Obvious: This is Week 3 of the 2021 Pac-12 schedule.

The Not So Obvious: Below are the games, locations, kickoff times, TV stations.  

Saturday – Sept. 18

MINNESOTA AT COLORADO (10 am PDT/ PAC-12 Networks)
USC AT WASHINGTON STATE (12:30 PDT/ FOX)
IDAHO AT OREGON STATE (12:30 p.m. PDT/PAC-12 Oregon)
CSUS AT CAL (1:00 p.m. PDT/FOX)
ARKANSAS STATE AT WASHINGTON (1:15 p.m. PDT/ABC)
UTAH AT SAN DIEGO STATE (4 p.m. PDT/CBS Sports Network)
STONEY BROOK AT OREGON (4:30 p.m. PDT/Pac-12 Networks)
STANFORD AT VANDERBILT (5:00 p.m. PDT/ESPNU)
NAU AT ARIZONA (7 p.m. PDT/Pac-12 Arizona)
ASU AT BYU (7:15 p.m./ESPN)
FRESNO STATE AT UCLA (7:45 P.M./Pac-12 Networks)

Note: All times above are Pacific Standard Time.

The Obvious: Inside the Trojans’ Huddle is a new WeAreSC video/podcast panel show that airs on Tuesdays.   

The Not So Obvious: This Tuesday, WeAreSC columnists review the Washington State game and Donte Williams‘ debut, ranking the USC head coaching candidates, changing uniform colors, what football changes can Donte Williams make, an Oregon State preview, and Pac-12 Conference games predictions.

The Obvious: And finally, WeAreSC has launched a new iteration of WeAreSC podcasts on Spotify and iTunes.

The Not So Obvious: Anybody who listens to podcasts, please go ahead and subscribe. It would help us out to begin building an audience there. We’ll be uploading our “5 Things” postgame reviews, our “Inside the Trojans Huddle shows,” and WeAreSC will be putting together a recurring recruiting podcast with Scott Schrader. The most recent episode of Inside the Trojans Huddle is there now. For those of you that would like a sample of the WeAreSC podcasts, enjoy the following show links below.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5rdWNc1lVLw26sZSb5UgmP?si=Tb9JrfwzSpujglr845o0Tw&dl_branch=1

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-we-are-sc-show/id1585829218