Louisiana Football at USC: Preview, Keys to the Game, and Prediction
The 1-0 Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns are making a big trip to the West Coast this weekend to face the 14th nationally-ranked and 2-0 USC Trojans in Los Angeles. The game is set for an 8pm kickoff (10pm Louisiana time) at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Louisiana comes into this game fresh off a convincing 38-7 win over Lamar. The Cajuns looked great defensively, forcing three interceptions and a fumble, while using a strong ground attack to score five touchdowns against the Cardinals. Needless to say, that performance came against an FCS opponent, albeit a good one who entered that game ranked 14th in the FCS rankings. Now, Louisiana turns its attention to a really talented USC program that has its sights set on a national championship run.
USC has also had its fair share of success to start the year, defeating San Jose State 42-26 before shutting out Fresno State 39-0 last week. The biggest story for the Trojans so far has been quarterback Jayden Maiava, who through two games leads all FBS quarterbacks with 635 passing yards. He has thrown five touchdowns without an interception and has completed 89% of his passes, going 48-of-54 up to this point.
This will no doubt be a tough test for the Cajuns. Playing a top-15 team that has been on fire offensively is not an easy task, especially for a UL team that will come into this game somewhat shorthanded.
Top Receivers Out with Injuries
Louisiana will be without starting wide receiver Shelton Sampson Jr., who rolled up his ankle in last week’s season opener. Starting slot receiver Trenton Chaney, a redshirt freshman out of Lutcher High School, has also been ruled out against USC with a rolled-up ankle. Starting tight end Caden Jensen, who was Louisiana’s leading receiver last week, will also be out and is expected to miss at least a couple of weeks. Brock Chappell, a talented tight end who missed last week’s game, will return and step in for Jensen on Saturday night.
Replacing Sampson Jr. at the X position will be Kristion Brooks, a true freshman out of Zachary. Redshirt freshman Russell Babineaux out of Lafayette will start at the slot position, with KeDarius Wade at the Z position. All three players saw reps last week, with Wade hauling in three catches for 64 yards. Nonetheless, this is still a very young receiving corps. It’s good that they were able to get a game under their belts last week and get some of those game-day jitters out of the way, but having USC as the next matchup certainly doesn’t make things any easier.
UL’s success through the air against Lamar primarily came with the help of its tight ends, along with utilizing the short screen passing game. It’s hard to imagine we see much more than that against USC with such a young receiving corps. USC’s defense had a great outing last week against Fresno State, limiting the Bulldogs to just 77 yards through the air and 39 yards on the ground.
Can UL Capitalize on the Ground?
One of the big highlights that came out of last week's win by UL was a strong performance in the running game. All five touchdowns came on the ground via four different players as the Cajuns rushed for 243 yards. What appears to be a really good running back room with Darrell Smith, Anthony Reagan Jr., JJ Garner and Steven Blanco will likely have to be the workhorse for this Cajuns offense in the meantime until the passing game can get settled.
It will be a challenge, however, as USC has limited its opponents to just 70 rushing yards per game so far this season. The Trojans’ defensive linemen aren’t necessarily any bigger than Louisiana’s, but they play physical and fast. They also have a strong linebacker corps led by Deven Bryant, who leads the team in tackles, along with Jadyn Walker and Desman Stephens II. It will be a tall task running against this Trojans defense, but with the options UL has at running back, they won't be shorthanded, that's for sure.
Keys to the Game
Be perfect. There’s really no other way to put it.
Coach Michael Desormeaux has emphasized this in his press conferences over the last few days. If the Cajuns want to have a shot at making this a competitive game, or even creating what would be the biggest upset victory in UL history, they have to be perfect in all phases. That means another great performance in the running game similar to last week, along with seeing a decent amount of improvement through the air.
As I said earlier, if last week was any indication, UL has the running back room to create some havoc. Darrell Smith was nicked up a bit earlier this week following the Lamar game, but he’s all set to go Saturday night. He, Reagan Jr. and the other backs in the room should be capable of putting together another good performance as long as the offensive line allows for it. It will be a tall task against a good USC defense, but this group knows they’re capable. A good rotation throughout the game should keep them healthy and the USC defense on their heels a little bit.
Passing game-wise, Louisiana needs to be to create some vertical threats. We didn’t really see much of that last week, and if anything, some of the biggest plays downfield came from the tight ends. With Brock Chappell stepping in for Caden Jensen, UL can still rely on its tight ends while also utilizing the short, quick passing game with its speedy receivers on the perimeter, which is what appears to be the focus for this passing game early on this season.
San Jose State quarterback Luke Weaver threw for over 230 yards against USC in week “zero,” with the Spartans using the short passing game to put up 26 points. So there should be opportunities for Louisiana to move the football through the air if they can execute correctly and effectively.
Defensively, it’ll require a lot of discipline, perfect assignments and consistency if the Cajuns want to slow down Maiava. He has yet to really be slowed down this season. If Louisiana can generate some pressure, make him uncomfortable and force a turnover or two, that could go a long way toward keeping this game within reach.
Like I said earlier, though, just about everything needs to go right for UL to have a legitimate chance at biting into this game. When it comes to size, USC doesn't have monsters compared to the Cajuns. They win games through their speed and physicality, and the winner of this game will be determined based on whose players does it better.
Final Prediction: USC 38, Louisiana 13
This will be a tall task for the Cajuns. They’re making a long trip to the West Coast and playing late at night against a top-15 team with a high-powered offense that has looked almost unstoppable so far, along with a defense that has done a good job of keeping opponents at bay.
It’s hard to imagine UL can be “perfect,” as Coach Des has emphasized, when you’re down multiple starting receivers and still haven’t proven you can consistently move the ball through the air, even against an FCS opponent. The ground game proved to be Louisiana’s biggest strength last week, but now they’re facing one of the best run defenses in college football through the first two weeks of the season.
The good news is that Louisiana’s offensive line is fully healthy, and so is the entire defense. Both groups had good outings last week, especially the defense as they didn't allow a single point to be scored. With that said, I think UL can get into the red zone a couple of times and come away with a rushing touchdown or two. Defensively, I also think the Cajuns can create enough resistance to keep USC from scoring more than 40 points and letting it get out of hand really quickly.
At the end of the day, UL running backs coach Marquase Lovings said it best: both teams consist of humans who are going to put on pads and play a football game, so anything can happen. This is why we play the game on the field and not on paper. However, these are two programs playing at two different levels of talent with two completely different end goals for this season. It will quite literally take a near-perfect game for the Cajuns to have a shot at pulling this one off, and Cajuns fans know that.
In the end, we all hope this so-called “money game” for Louisiana ends with very minimal injuries and that everyone comes back healthy and ready to go for next week’s home matchup against UAB. It sure would be sweet if the Cajuns could come home with a victory as well, but keeping injuries at bay would go a long way this season.
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