USC vs. Utah Football: Trojans Brace for Norm Chow and Utah's Spread Offense

Last week, the USC playbook read like A Tale of Two Halves.

The first half had it all: crisp sets, plays called in early, sharp routes, good hands, few penalties, snap passes, decent pass protection.

There was more good news: above-average special teams play with two partially blocked kicks, long and short TD tosses, roll-outs, play fakes, shotgun sets and three touchdowns in four drives.

The second half? Not so much.

There was far more conservative play-calling, although coach Lane Kiffin personally called every offensive play of the game. It didn't help that the Minnesota secondary stepped up and played with more tenacity against the pass-happy Trojans.

USC suffered more mental lapses. No roll-outs. No play fakes. No shotgun sets. More penalties. Plays trickling in late for delay of game flags. 

There was more bad news. Defensive sloppiness. The USC secondary absent time and again late in plays over the middle of the field. The USC defense allowed long third-down conversions. Dropped balls. Zero points in five drives.

At one point in the fourth quarter, Minnesota had out-gained USC offensively, 82 yards to USC's three.

That anemic performance led coach Lane Kiffin to announce, "Well, we've got two good players on offense. We've got to figure out the rest."

This week's game pits a mostly veteran Utah Ute offensive line against USC's somewhat improved defense. Against Montana State last week, the Ute O-line average five yards per carry of run blocking, compared to USC's 2.4-yard average. And of the 16 Utah first downs in that game, 13 were via the pass.

So expect Norm Chow and his version of the spread offense to combat USC with a pass-intensive game sprinkled with positive-gain running plays. The history Coaches Kiffin and Chow share dating back 10 years will add another interesting element to the game, as Kiffin the pupil will now try to become the teacher to his former mentor.

Judging by last week's sputtering performance, the outcome for USC is uncertain.