USC Football Schedule 2012: Trojans on Track to Compete for BCS Championship

The planets (and the schedule) are aligned for the USC Trojans to make a serious run at the 2013 BCS National Championship. Matt Barkley will be back, along with 18 other returning starters from a squad that went 10-2 and likely would've won the Pac-12 title if not for an NCAA-imposed postseason ban.

The out-of-conference schedule should be a cake walk for Lane Kiffin's club. The Trojans will kick off the 2012 college football season opposite a familiar face when they welcome Norm Chow's Hawaii Warriors to the L.A. Coliseum. Chow spent four seasons as the offensive coordinator at USC under Pete Carroll, grooming Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.

This will mark Chow's first-ever game as a head coach, replacing Greg McMackin after a disappointing 6-7 season by the Warriors.

In other words, expect the Trojans to be 1-0 when they head east to take on a mediocre Syracuse squad at MetLife Stadium. Rumor has it, Mark Sanchez is already planning to attend so he can see what a good 'SC quarterback looks like first-hand.

The Trojans saved their toughest non-conference clash for last—a visit from Notre Dame in late November—though they figure to be favored rather heavily when that annual rivalry game rolls around.

Just as they'll have the upper hand in every one of their Pac-12 tilts in 2012, North division contenders Stanford and Oregon will be busy replacing stars who've since departed for the 2012 NFL Draft—Andrew Luck for the Cardinal, LaMichael James and Darron Thomas for the Ducks.

Cal has a tremendous recruiting class coming in but isn't likely to be significantly better than last year's team, which lost to 'SC in San Francisco, 30-9.

Meanwhile, Arizona, Arizona State and UCLA will be in full-fledged rebuilding mode thanks to new coaching hires.

And Colorado is, well, terrible.

The Trojans' biggest challenges figure to come on back-to-back weekends in early October. The first will be a visit to Rice-Eccles Stadium, where they'll find a scrappy Utah team that gave the Trojans all they could handle in L.A., coming within a game-ending field goal of sending the game into overtime. The following weekend, 'SC will meet Steve Sarkisian's much-improved Washington Huskies at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, also known as Pete Carroll's current stomping grounds.

Still, the Trojans will be expected to win those games, cold weather and all, before playing in/hosting the Pac-12 Championship Game and (potentially) moving on to Miami to play for the BCS title.

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