Streaks aren’t solid. They are individual results stacks on top of each other.
But that doesn’t change the perception of them.
The ASU football team is all too familiar with Southern California’s decade long stranglehold over the Sun Devils (2-1, 0-0 Pac-12).
ASU hasn’t defeated USC since 1999, but none of the previous losses will matter Saturday when the Sun Devils host the No. 23 Trojans (3-0, 1-0 Pac-12).
That’s not to say though the current ASU squad wouldn’t love to be the ones remembered for breaking the 12-year drought.
53 current Sun Devil football players hail from California, the majority of which from the southern portion of the state.
And for them, playing USC is a little more personal than the other games.
“For a lot of guys this is the game their family comes into town for,” said ASU junior quarterback Brock Osweiler. “They know a ton of the kids on the USC team. So for the majority of the team this is a very meaningful game. Really, any time USC comes up on your schedule, you get excited for it.”
The Trojans are one of the most storied programs in college football, but haven’t lived up to expectations the past two years. Because of NCAA violations, USC is ineligible for the postseason in 2011, but that doesn’t mean its players are any less talented and motivated.
The school has already won its first Pac-12 South game against Utah, 23-14.
“Obviously, their quarterback, (junior Matt) Barkley, is a great player,” coach Dennis Erickson said. “They’ve got more running backs than we have on campus. (Sophomore wide receiver) Robert Woods might be the best receiver in our league. Defensively they've got a lot of guys returning from a year ago. They have all kinds of talent everywhere.”
The Sun Devils will be without another defensive starter Saturday in sophomore defensive end Junior Onyeali. He had surgery Thursday for a torn meniscus in his knee.
Although ASU fared well defensively without Onyeali against Illinois, USC will give the Sun Devil defense everything it can handle.
Woods leads the nation in receptions with 33, while Matt Barkley is No. 15 in the country in passing yards per game with 297.33.
Despite the fact that last week’s loss to the Illini hurt ASU in the national polls, it didn’t change much, if any, of the team’s long-term aspirations. The Sun Devils can still win the Pac-12 south and compete for a chance to go to the Rose Bowl.
“The loss (to Illinois) means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of our team goals,” Osweiler said. “And that’s winning the Pac-12 championship.”
A win Saturday against the Trojans would go a long way in helping propel ASU to where it wants go.
“The bottom line now for all of us in this league is the league itself,” Erickson said. “Like I told our players on Sunday, we got beat, but in saying that we have nine games left. To us that's what it's all about. Now it starts against USC. They’re really a good football team and they have a chip on their shoulder.”
Reach the reporter at tyler.emerick@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
