Despite Sanctions, USC Continues to Improve as Undefeated Stanford Comes to Town

In a weekend that saw undefeated Wisconsin and Oklahoma lose, the team that caught my eye was the USC Trojans, who went into South Bend and dominated Notre Dame, 31-17.

Junior Quarterback Matt Barkley threw for 224 yards and 3 touchdowns, with star Sophomore WR Robert Woods catching 12 balls for 118 yards and two scores.  RB Curtis McNeal chipped in for 119 yards on the ground, as the much faster and more athletic Trojans racked up 443 yards in total offense.

USC improved to 6-1, with their only loss coming in Week Four at Arizona State, 43-22, when the Trojans had four turnovers and squandered momentum and a 22-21 lead late in the 3rd quarter.

For the season, Barkley has completed 68% of his passes for 2,006 yards, 19 scores and has only four interceptions.  Woods, who has become CFB's most dominant receiver, has caught 72 passes for 902 yards and eight scores.

More impressively, the SC offense that features several future NFL first round picks -- Barkley, Woods and LT Matt Kalil, etc. -- continues to improve each week as their interior offensive line grows and as young weapons such as WR Marquise Lee, TE Xavier Grimble and McNeal continue to gain confidence and game experience.

Throw in the veteran toughness of RB Marc Tyler and Five-Star freshman phenom George Farmer, and USC has as many or more future NFL offensive weapons as any team in CFB.  In fact, the recent decision to burn Farmer's redshirt has given SC another dynamic weapon with Olympic speed who can be used at RB, in the slot, at WR or in motion out of the backfield.

While the SC Defense does lack depth, they still start three future NFL defensive linemen and have a solid corp of young LB's and CB's, along with one of the top safeties in CFB in T.J. McDonald.

That said, it's the SC offense that will keep them in every game this season, and will make this week's home game vs Stanford one of the top offensive matchups of the 2011 season.

Stanford is of course led by the likely first pick of the 2012 NFL Draft, QB Andrew Luck, who has completed 72% of his passes for 1,888 yards and 20 scores.  Moreover, Luck carries the highest NFL grade of any college QB since John Elway came out of Stanford in 1983 -- higher than Troy Aikman in 1989 out of UCLA and Peyton Manning in 1998 out of Tennessee.

Stanford is averaging nearly 49 points a game, as Luck benefits from an outstanding running game, three future NFL tight ends, a solid offensive line and a standout WR in Chris Owusu.

While Stanford's defense is physical and can be opportunistic, Saturday's showdown in the Coliseum will be a classic matchup between two pro-style offenses that will feature more future NFL offensive draft choices than any other game this fall.