USC Football Traps: Thursdays, Bye Weeks, Shutouts and Night Games

Thursday Games:

Thursday games leave a bad taste in the mouth of many Trojan fans. The memory of Oregon State in 2008 is still fresh in their minds.  It was a September Thursday when the Trojans made the trip to Corvallis and came away stunned, losing to the Beavers 27-21.  

Coincidentally, Utah’s last Thursday night loss was also at Oregon State, in 2007, where the Beavers topped the Utes 24-7.  

That said, in the all-time USC vs. Utah series, USC leads 7-3 with the last trip to Salt Lake City 95 years ago in 1917 where the Trojans emerged victorious by a score of 51-0.  Utah last beat USC in the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl on Christmas Day during former coach Pete Carroll’s first season—a game, I happened to attend.

USC has an all-time record of 22-10-3 in games played on Thursdays, with the Trojans coming up with the win the last time that they played on Thursday in 2011, defeating California  (and RUINING the traditional Weekender. Thanks a lot Larry Scott!) 30-9.

Bye Weeks:

Both USC and Utah are coming off bye weeks, only fair as to have one team play the previous Saturday and then again on Thursday puts them at a disadvantage since they would have such a short time off between games.

USC’s last game was a blowout win versus Cal at home (27-9).  Utah’s last game was a blowout loss at Arizona State (37-7).

USC is 13-5 after a bye week.  .

Shut Outs:

USC has gone 185 straight games without being shutout. This is just one short of the school record of 186 straight games.

Night Games:

ESPN’s Pedro Moura reported today that Lane Kiffin’s least favorite kickoff time is one that happens at night, especially on the road.  Perhaps that is due to the Trojans record in night games—in the Kiffin era, USC teams are 12-7 in games with a kickoff time of 5 p.m. or later and 9-1 in games that kickoff before 5 p.m.