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University of Minnesota Athletics
Camp Blog: Preseason Primer - USC
8/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
GopherSports.com will provide a daily blog from the beginning of preseason training camp until the week of the season-opener at Middle Tennessee State, set for Sept. 2. Check back here often for updates from throughout preseason camp. Associate Athletic Communications Director Andy Seeley and other staff members will be covering camp. If you would like to ask a question about preseason camp, have a request for something you'd like to see in the blog or just a comment on the blog, feel free to send an e-mail to aseeley@umn.edu.
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Camp Blog: Preseason Primer - University of Southern California
GopherSports.com will provide Minnesota Football fans with a primer on the Gophers' four non-conference opponents as we roll through the preseason camp blog. Up next is the third regular season game of the season Sept. 18 vs. the USC Trojans.
Three Is A Magic Number:
| The USC File | |
| Head Coach | Lane Kiffin |
| Coach's Record at USC | 0-0, 1st Season |
| 2009 Record | 9-4 |
| Home/Away/Neutral | 4-2/4-2/1-0 |
| Starters Returning/Lost | 12/13 |
| Letterwinners Ret./Lost | 50/21 |
Minnesota carries a precedence of success in games that are played in this slot of the season schedule. The Gophers are 7-3 in the third game of the season and 6-4 in the second home game of the season over the last 10 years.
Series History: 
This will be the seventh meeting between the Gophers and Trojans on the football field. USC leads the all time 4-1-1, with each team hosting three times. The two squads first matched up Sept. 26, 1953, but have not played since Sept. 27, 1980.
About Southern California: 
The University of Southern California was founded in 1880. The school boasts 33,408 students. The football program began in 1888. USC plays in the Pacific-10 conference. The Trojans have played in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum since it first opened in 1923. The stadium has a maximum capacity of 93,607 for football games.
Southern California Overview: 
| 2009 USC Statistics/Rankings | |||
| | Stat | NCAA | P10 |
| Scor. Off. | 26.5 | 64 | 6 |
| Tot. Off | 389.1 | 55 | 5 |
| Rush Off. | 166.8 | 44 | 4 |
| Pass Off. | 222.3 | 54 | 6 |
| Scor. Def. | 19.8 | 22 | 1 |
| Tot. Def. | 340.5 | 40 | 5 |
| Rush Def. | 128.2 | 39 | 5 |
| Pass Def. | 212.3 | 48 | 1 |
USC has had an interesting off-season. The Trojans first found out that nine-year head coach Pete Carroll, who led them to a pair of national championships, would be moving on to coach the Seattle Seahawks in January 2010. USC moved quickly to lure Lane Kiffin, a one-time assistant coach under Carroll, away from Tennessee and inserted him as its new head coach. The tumultuous off-season continued for the Trojans in June when the NCAA handed out sanctions, centered around former former Trojan Reggie Bush, that bans USC from being bowl-eligible during the 2010 season as well as forfeits the program of 30 scholarships over the next three season.
The Trojans went 9-4 overall and 5-4 in the Pac-10 conference in 2009, finishing in fifth place. The Trojans finished the season with a 24-13 win over Boston College in the Emerald Bowl.
However, USC remains a team with a large tradition of winning. Before the 2009 season, the Trojans had won seven consecutive Pac-10 titles, which included national championships in 2003 and 2004. The 2010 preseason poll is the first time that USC is not in top 25 since the 2001 season.
Southern California will be bringing back a veteran-laden squad in 2010 including returning five starters on offense and six on defense as well as senior punter Jacob Harfman. The Trojans will be returning a total of 50 letterwinners from last season and were picked to finish second in the Pac-10 in the preseason media poll. It is the first time since 2002 that they were not picked to finish first.
The 35-year-old Kiffin enters his first season at USC with only one season of college coaching experience at Tennessee and one-plus season as head coach of the Oakland Raiders. Despite the young head coach, the Trojans coaching staff as a whole boasts 185 years of coaching experience, including a combined 71 college bowls/playoffs and eight national championships.
There has been little precedence recently of USC traveling to Big Ten schools during the regular season. Over the last 20 seasons the Trojans have only traveled into Big Ten territory twice. They won at Illinois 55-3 on Sept. 7, 1996, and beat Ohio State 18-15 on Sept. 12, 2009.
Southern California Offensive Player to Watch: Quarterback Matt Barkley
Sophomore Matt Barkley comes into 2010 with a year of experience as the Trojans starting quarterback after winning the job in 2009. Barkley had a successful first-year freshman campaign as he completed 59.9% of his passes, throwing for 2,735 yards and 15 touchdowns while being picked off 14 times. Barkley was the only freshman to be a semifinalist for the 2009 Davey O'Brien Award and was an honorable mention on the CollegeFootballNews.com freshman all-American team.
Southern California Defensive Player to Watch: Linebacker Chris Galippo
Junior Chris Galippo took over the middle linebacker spot for the Trojans and started all 13 games at that position. While anchoring the USC defense, Galippo compiled a total of 70 tackles, including eight for loss and 1.5 sacks. He caused four turnovers with two interceptions and two forced fumbles. The season-long effort by Galippo earned him several post-season awards including being a semifinalist for the 2009 Butkus Award, named to the CollegeFootballNews.com Sophomore All-American first team and All-Pac-10 honorable mention.
Southern California Offense At A Glance:
The Trojans averaged 26.5 points and nearly 390 yards of total offense per game in 2009. They run a split offense, and the Trojans will look to improve on their 2009 numbers in which both passing offense (222.3) and rushing offense (166.8) were the lowest averages since 2001.
USC will look to Berkley and a receiving corps led by senior Ronald Johnson, who had 34 receptions for 378 yards and three touchdowns last season to lead the passing attack. The Trojans will also look to senior running back Allen Bradford, who rushed for 668 yards and eight touchdowns last season to spearhead the running attack.
Southern California Defense At A Glance:
The USC defense is returning six starters from a 2009 team that gave up an average of 19.8 points per game, which was 22nd nationally. The Trojans gave up an average of 212.3 yards per game through the air and 128.2 yards per game on the ground last season.
The Trojans lost only one player on their defensive line and are returning starting tackles Jurrell Casey and Chrisitan Tupou. The pair combined for 85 tackles, 13 for a loss and six sacks last season. USC is also returning all three starters in its linebacking corps from 2009, but is replacing its entire defensive secondary with all four starters now departed.
Game Implications: 
If there is a non-conference game in which the Gophers have an opportunity to make a statement on the national scene, this is it. The Minnesota football program has been campaigning to bring in bigger named programs for its non-conference schedule, and that effort will finally come to light when the Trojans take the field at TCF Bank Stadium. With it being a nationally broadcast game, it will give the Gophers an opportunity to step up and make a statement.
-Keith Beise, Athletic Communications Assistant
