Arizona football hits the road this week to square off against the USC Trojans after going 4-2 in the first half of the season. The Wildcats are coming off their first home loss this past weekend against the Washington Huskies after an abysmal second half performance.
The Trojans are currently 3-3 on the season with two of their three losses coming off nail-biter games. So far, USC has dropped games to BYU (27-30 in OT), Washington (14-28) and Notre Dame (27-30). Interestingly enough, all three of USC’s losses this year have been on the road. Better yet, all three of the team’s wins have been at home at the Coliseum.
This week, Arizona will be doing something that hasn’t fared well for them all year: playing on the road. So far, the Wildcats have played two games on the road, coming out with one win and one loss. Arizona will be tested again this week, but this time with a more challenging opponent than their last road win, Colorado.
When these two teams met in 2017 in Los Angeles, Calif., the Wildcats lost by a final score of 35-49. That night, then-sophomore quarterback Khalil Tate had a solid performance, throwing for a 146 yards and rushing for a net gain of 161 yards.
If now-senior Tate can show his younger self up, the Wildcats will be able to stay in contention against the Trojans on Saturday night. After last week’s game at home, Head Coach Kevin Sumlin said that he wasn’t sure if Tate was healthy and, given the team’s history, it will most likely be a game-time decision to play him.
“He didn’t play very well [last] week. It’s concerning about a lot of things. It was obvious and he doesn’t feel good about it at all,” said Sumlin on Tate’s performance.
USC true freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis was named a starter after J.T. Daniels suffered a knee injury in the season opener. On Sept. 20, Slovis dealt with a concussion that forced him into an early exit of the Utah game and miss the following week’s game against the Washington Huskies. This season, the freshman has thrown for a total of 987 yards and 7 touchdowns.
Arizona football takes on the USC Trojans this Saturday, Oct. 19 at 6:30 p.m. for USC’s Homecoming Game in Los Angeles, Calif. The game will be broadcasted on Pac-12 Networks.
Follow Amit Syal on Twitter.
