The USC Trojans have had an up and down season in 2013 after coming in with high expectations and under a new head coach the school comes into the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl ranked in the top 25 and they will take on the Fresno State Bulldogs live on ABC at 3:30 pm and streaming online from Sam Boyd Stadium.
The matchup puts together two very talented teams and while the Trojans went just 9-4 this season, they won six games in the Pac-12 conference and had a nice stretch of five wins in a row after dealing with the changeover from Lane Kiffin. The team comes into the bowl game ranked 77th in the nation in passing yards per game and they are 58th in rushing yards per game and the defense has been doing very solid work, ranking 21st in the nation in points against and the Trojans come into the bowl game after losing the rivalry game against the UCLA Bruins and now the Trojans play their bowl game on ABC. The team missed out last season and now they have a new heads coach heading into next year and expectations will continue to be high for the team. The Trojans had a great stretch with wins against Oregon State, Stanford, Colorado and Utah and the team had last lost to Notre Dame before losing to UCLA.
Check here for the Trojans and Bulldogs live stream.
The Bulldogs come in as the best passing team in the nation with Derek Carr and he had nearly 5,000 yards passing this season and the team lost just one game against San Jose State in a shootout and that was their only loss. The team took the Mountain West with a win against Utah State and now they play against the Trojans in Las Vegas and the team comes in with one of the best offensive units in the nation, scoring over 45 points per game to rank fifth overall in the country. The team won its first 10 games of the season before falling to David Fales and the Spartans and now they have the chance to end the season on a positive note against USC.
The Trojans will be with Clay Helton as the coach for the bowl game and the third different one for the season after Ed Orgeron took over and now Steve Sarkisian will lead the team next season and the team won six of seven games under Orgeron. Cody Kessler will be under center for the Trojans and they go up against a team that averaged over 400 passing yards per game and nearly 600 total yards and they also are ranked in the top three in total offense this season and they won the MWC title game over Utah State. Carr has been one of the best offensive players in the nation and he now has been over 400 yards in over half of his games this season and he likely will do it again, as the Trojans have been playing better on defense but the secondary has given up too many yards to the opposition. The Trojans will be playing for some pride and they hope to cap off a tumultuous season with a win in Las Vegas against the Fresno State Bulldogs in a game that will be airing on ABC at 3:30 pm.
