USC Football: Will Trojans Finally Stop Nemesis Brett Hundley?

Perhaps no other player is as synonymous with No. 9-ranked UCLA’s rise than quarterback Brett Hundley, which No. 19 USC is quite familiar with.

Hundley has started every game of head coach Jim Mora’s three-season tenure, leading the Bruins to a 27-10 record in that time.

“He’s won a lot of football games for us here,” UCLA offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone said.

Two of those wins came at USC’s expense and produced signature moments from Hundley.

In 2012, he completed 22 of 30 pass attempts with a touchdown and rushed for another two scores. Last season, Hundley tacked on two more rushing touchdowns against the Trojans.

Unless the Trojans can find a way to contain the dual-threat playmaker Saturday in the Rose Bowl, Hundley will add a third victory over the Bruins’ rival to his impressive resume.

USC linebacker Scott Felix doesn’t need a reminder.

“We always keep UCLA in our mind, and I’m sure they do the same thing with us,” he said. “[UCLA and USC] don’t like each other.”

Obviously, motivation is of no concern, but such is the case for both teams. Execution of strategy will determine Saturday’s winner, and USC may have no strategy more important than its plan to limit Hundley.

Pick Your Poison

This season’s matchup with UCLA is USC’s first with head coach Steve Sarkisian on the sideline. Though Sarkisian was not involved in those losses, he’s all too familiar with the damage Hundley can do either as a passer or ball-carrier.

“Brett presents some interesting problems for a defense,” Sarkisian said. “One: He can make every throw. It’s not like you’re going to take something away in hopes he can’t do something else.”

Hundley’s ability to move the ball around the field is reflected both in his completion percentage, which leads the nation at 72.1, and the numbers UCLA wide receivers are putting up.

Six Bruins have at least 21 catches on the year, and the same number of players have caught multiple touchdown passes.

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The return of previously suspended cornerback Josh Shaw gives a thin USC secondary much-needed support at an opportune time.

But where USC struggled with containing Hundley in the past was via the second of his skills Sarkisian spotlighted.

“The athleticism kicks in, especially on third down,” Sarkisian said. “You look at their conversion rate on third down (42 percent), you look at how efficient they are in the red zone (97.4 percent, No. 1 in the nation).

“Those are really all a byproduct of his athleticism, his ability when things aren’t there to pull the ball down and run and convert third downs and get touchdowns in the red zone,” Sarkisian added.

Bad news for the Trojans is that Hundley is running with the most confidence he’s exhibited this season during the Bruins’ ongoing four-game win streak.

He has games of 94, 110 and 131 rushing yards over UCLA’s last four and has scored four of his seven rushing touchdowns in that same stretch.

Protecting Hundley

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Opponents had a clear-cut strategy for containing Hundley in each of the Bruins’ two losses this season, and it’s a blueprint Felix said the Trojans plan to follow.

"We're going to be trying to get Hundley as much as we can," he said.

On Oct. 4, Utah brought Hundley down for 10 sacks. Oregon got to him just twice, but one resulted in a fumble that set up the Ducks in the red zone.

USC has not been a blitzing team this season—prior to facing Cal last week, USCFootball.com's Ryan Abraham examined how the Trojans blitzed the least of any team in the power-five conferences—but defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox cranked up the heat on Golden Bears quarterback Jared Goff.

The result: four sacks and seven tackles for loss.

Continuing to apply pressure would seemingly be a recipe for USC’s success, but UCLA has made considerable strides in the back half of the campaign.

Since a rocky start in which defenses racked up 23 sacks against the Bruins, they've allowed just six through the last four games.

“If you take a snapshot of where we are right now, where you really see it pay dividends is how much better our pass protection is,” Mazzone said.

He credited the Bruins’ corps of running backs for stepping up in that regard, but also praised Hundley for exhibiting better awareness while under pressure.

“That’s another thing Brett’s gotten better at, too,” Mazzone said.

X-Factors

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Countering athleticism with athleticism may prove vital to USC’s defensive strategy. It’s fortunate for the Trojans, then, that they have two of the Pac-12’s most athletic playmakers on that side of the ball.

One is sophomore Su’a Cravens, the hybrid safety-linebacker who has done a little bit for everything for USC this season.

Cravens is as effective when dropping back into pass coverage as he is when blitzing, but his primary role on Saturday could well be as an additional run-stopper against Hundley on zone-read plays.

The other athletic X-factor for USC is defensive tackle Leonard Williams, whom Mazzone called, “one of the best [defensive] linemen in this conference.”

When Boston College quarterback Tyler Murphy gashed USC for 181 yards on the ground, the Eagles left Williams unblocked. Murphy dictated his reads based on Williams’ location.

Since that game, however, Williams put together one of his best individual performances of the year in the Trojans’ win at Arizona. He helped negate Wildcats quarterback Anu Solomon’s ability to make plays on the ground with eight tackles and two sacks.

Of course, Williams and Cravens are as much constants of the USC defense as Hundley is in the UCLA offense.

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Where Saturday’s outcome could be decided is the from contribution of role players—role players like sophomore linebacker Quinton Powell, a revelation for the Trojans’ pass rush in recent weeks.

Powell recorded his first sack of the season against Cal and made his first tackle for loss the previous game at Washington State.

“We’ve adjusted his role some,” Sarkisian explained. “We put him back into a role of what he’s comfortable doing and what he did in high school. That’s rushing the passer. In some of the obvious passing situations, we’re able to get him on the field and he’s been effective.”

Powell and Felix both stepped up with starter J.R. Tavai injured, but Jordan Moore of USCTrojans.com reports Tavai is set to return to give Wilcox more blitzing options.

And, certainly, the more options USC has on defense, the better. Stopping Hundley is going to require an all-hands-on-deck effort.

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise cited. Statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com.