Or maybe it was the fact that he was playing against the team he rooted for as a kid, a team that included many of his close friends.
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POLYNESIAN PRIDE: OR defensive lineman DeForest Buckner as well as USC linebacker Su’a Cravens and Smith-Schuster were all announced as finalists for the Polynesian Hall of Fame’s College Player of the Year Award.
Adams threw for 407 yards and six touchdowns in the win, the most ever thrown against USC by an opposing quarterback.
The last time the teams met in 2012, the Ducks won 62-51, and several of USC’s young playmakers were still recruits who watched from the Coliseum stands. “I was like, ‘Yes sir.’ After every series he was right there and we were talking about what was going on”. USC has also been scoring defensively, as the Trojans have racked up four defensive touchdowns this season.
The win over the then-No.
“In the last game, even though they only had 49 plays I think there was 22 or 23 different formations”, said Southern California defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox, referencing the Ducks’ 38-36 win at Stanford.
“I’m jealous of our freshmen”, Trojans quarterback Carson Palmer said after the game. When it cut to Mariota standing on the sideline, the crowd unleashed a deafening roar.
Watching Adams on tape can be maddening for a coach scheming against him. “He’s the greatest of all time to come here”. The Ducks have given up the second most touchdown passes in the country with 31.
“We are where we are”, receiver Bralon Addison said. “He had a few big-time explosion passes just keeping the ball alive and finding men downfield.”. He does a good job of reading guys and seeing the tempo they’re running. For the post-season lineup, there’s all sorts of room for drama, unfairness, passing out of unjust rewards, snubbing, hypocrisy – pretty much everything that we’re supposed to like about college football, whether we actually like it or not.
Nelson, who plays on both sides of the ball, caught a 26-yard touchdown from Adams in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.
In the five games since he’s been back, Adams has thrown for 300 or more yards and four or more quarterbacks in three games.
Stanford is 12-1 following a loss under coach David Shaw. “We definitely wish he had another year, but we’re trying to make the best of it”.
“I’m happy with what I’ve done so far, and what my teams have done, at Eastern and here, and so I’m happy, I’m blessed”, Adams said. But the Ducks adjusted in kind, and played with the discipline that eluded them earlier this season. If they were performing at this level all season, their losses on the year very well may have never happened and they could be in the College Football Playoff picture.
Adams, for his part, is always positive in his postgame interviews. Helton got a free pass for the Notre Dame defeat “cause in that was the week he took over a Jerry Springer episode after Steve Sarkisian’s four-alarm firing.It was understood from in that time, to those in that disability these guesses, in that his exclusively path to everlasting USC citizenship was profitable the remaining of his games”.
“I didn”t really know the playbook until I really got into camp,” he said.
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QB Vernon Adams Jr. will continue to helm a powerful Ducks offense against a USC team that ranks at No. 40 in points scored against. Both Cody Kessler and JuJu Smith should have a field day against a porous OR secondary.
