When looking at how bad opening night was for the USC Trojans, it can be admittedly hard to realize it could’ve been worse.
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That Crimson Tide defense, down four players taken in the first two rounds of the National Football League draft last spring, is still physical and dominating, too.
Davis and Jones are two good running backs to use to work to that end and break in a first-year starter at quarterback in Max Browne, a redshirt junior who takes over for Cody Kessler.
After a shaky first quarter, including dual-threat true freshman Jalen Hurts fumbling on his first play, things worked out for the Crimson Tide in a 52-6 victory over No. 20 Southern Cal.
After entering the game on the third offensive series, Hurts got Alabama’s offense on track. Even before Kiffin, Saban has brought on seemingly radioactive coaches. Blake looked nervous and stiff in his first two possessions while the USC defense seemed to be locked in defensively to what Alabama was trying to do on offense. Head coach Nick Saban, now in his 10th season at Bama, is drawing comparisons to famous head coach Bear Bryant. “But there were also some very encouraging things that these guys did”.
USC fired Sarkisian after five games last October following a string of alcohol-related incidents and other behavior. Cooper finally got to get some time at quarterback late in the fourth quarter.
“I could definitely sense that when you get three-and-out after three-and-out that teams just start to kind of give up”, Alabama cornerback Marlon Humphrey told reporters.
Alabama has found its quarterback of the future. “Or is that one of those hypothetical questions that ya’ll like to ask?”, Saban said.
OR overcame a rocky start to beat University of California Davis 53-28, as Dakota Prukop threw for 271 yards and three touchdowns in his Ducks debut.
It all fell apart after USC was gifted a golden opportunity to seize the early part of the game. They hooked up on a 71-yard touchdown right after halftime for a 24-3 lead, and Hurts later had TD runs of 7 and 6 yards. He came flying out of the end zone, hit the sideline and hurdled a teammate to score what went into the books as a 100-yard return, making it 26-17 with 8:28 left in the third.
“Sloppy game”, said Alabama assistant head coach Mario Cristobal while making his way off the field.
WKU finished last season with a 12-2 record, winning the Conference USA title before beating South Florida in the Miami Beach Bowl. (Eastern time) Saturday date with Alabama (TV: ESPN2), and as of right now they’re doing so as a four-touchdown underdog. “We scored a lot of points, made a lot of big plays, but still our consistency in execution needs to be much improved”.
USC: The Trojans will nearly certainly be unranked before playing their next game.
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USC focused alot of attention on stopping Calvin Ridley and they did a very good job limiting the star sophomore receiver.
