Latest odds and a prediction for Friday night

The USC football team returns to action tonight for a rare Friday contest. What’s more, tonight’s game will be the program’s first-ever meeting with Rutgers.

Of course, with the World Series also taking place in L.A. on Friday night between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees, a new wrinkle has been thrown into the mix for Southern California sports fans. USC head coach Lincoln Riley addressed that in his weekly zoom call with the media this week.

“The Friday kicks here aren’t ideal in LA,” he said. “I know there’s a lot of other great sporting events that’s going on on Friday, but those obviously provide some challenges in LA that are unique to our place. So those are the ones I’m really not a fan of, but we’re not going to have too many of those. That’s probably going to be a once every two, three years type of thing.”

However, it will likely be Rutgers that has to overcome the greater challenge with the scheduling of this game. The team from New Jersey has had to not only fly across the entire country but it will also have to play a game that will kick off at 11 p.m. Eastern time. Thus, the body clocks of the Rutgers players will be tested in an extreme manner.

Rutgers did come to L.A. a day early to try to limit the impact of the travel but one has to wonder just how much that will help them tonight.

“We generally never go out a day early,” Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said earlier this week. “Just, we stay on Rutgers time. But when you have an 8 o’clock start Pacific, I don’t think it’s prudent to stay on Rutgers time.”

USC fans have little sympathy for the Scarlet Knights though. Long road trips east to Michigan, Minnesota, and Maryland have already taken their toll on the Trojans this season and now they look to benefit from hosting an east-coast team.

Of course, when Penn State came to Los Angeles earlier this year, they were able to escape with a 33-30 overtime win despite the cross-country trip. However, that game kicked off at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time on a Saturday afternoon not at 11 p.m. Eastern on a Friday night. What’s more, Penn State is a much better team than Rutgers.

So let’s get ready for this unusual contest by first looking at what the oddsmakers say. Then, we’ll have our prediciton for tonight’s contest.

All odds courtesy of FanDuel.com.

A month ago, this game looked like it might be an important one in the overall scope of the Big Ten race. Now, though, with both teams coming off of three-game losing streaks, it is now only important to the two teams involved.

Still, USC desperately needs to take advantage of this opportunity. The schedule makers of the Big Ten did Rutgers absolutely no favors by making them travel across the country on a short week and play a game that kicks off at nearly midnight Eastern time. That should be a huge edge for the Trojans.

If Rutgers has any hope of winning, it will be their running game. Star running back Kyle Monangai is one of the best RBs in the nation.

Already with 845 yards and 10 TDs this season, he’s going to be who the Scarlet Knights lean on to try to dictate the style of play in tis game. Can he exploit a USC defense that has struggled at times against the run?

The problem for Rutgers, though, is that injuries have decimated their receiving corps. Thus, they may be just a one-dimensional offense tonight, which would make life much easier on USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.

On the other side of the ball, Rutgers doesn’t have a great defense. They give up 385.5 yards per game, good for only 91st in the NCAA. What’s more, they are 98th nationally against the run by giving up 170.3 yards per game on the ground.

If there was ever a night for Lincoln Riley to feature the ground game, this would be it. He needs to lean on Woody Marks and Quentin Joyner to establish dominance on the ground early and then use the passing game to open things up.

Miller Moss has just a 2: 1 TD: INT ratio in Big 12 play but at home this year he’s been better throwing six TDs and only two picks. Can he get back on track tonight against a suspect defense? USC fans certainly hope so.

In the end, playing at home in a late kickoff will be what puts USC over the top against Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights have lost nine of their last eleven road games and that doesn’t bode well for the visitors from the east coast.