USC Football News: CFB Expert Believes Utah Matchup is Most Significant Conference Game in 2023
Every season when a schedule comes out, no matter the sport, some games just mean more. They get circled on the calendar by teams, and players just have excitement about them. In college football, it’s normally a big rivalry between schools, but sometimes it can be based off performance against someone. For USC, their recent non-natural rival has been the Utah Utes.
Utah has beaten the Trojans three straight games, including two times last season that ultimately ended any sort of bid the team had for the College Football Playoff. USC was dominant last year under first-year head coach Lincoln Riley, but the team just couldn’t move past the Utes.
The two teams met again this season at the Coliseum in October. Jesse Simonton of on3.com listed each Pac-12 school's biggest conference game for the upcoming season, and Utah was listed for USC.
"The Trojans are the prohibitive preseason Pac-12 frontrunner, but in order to make that prediction come to fruition, they’ll need to get past a recent foe. USC lost twice to Utah in 2022, including the Pac-12 Championship."
For USC to reach their goals, they will have to take down Utah. The Trojans know that winning the Pac-12 is the first step towards a potential College Football Playoff berth, and defeating the Utes is their path towards that.
USC comes in loaded and ready to go with another season of reigning Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, and he will be looking for revenge against Utah. Williams was special in both games against the Utes last season, but now they have to come to Southern California for the game.
This is purely the definition of a revenge game and surely one that the Trojans have been looking ahead to since they were defeated in last year's Pac-12 title game.
These two teams have become rivals, and there should be fireworks out in Los Angeles when they step out onto the field together in the fall.
