With USC on the horizon, CougCenter’s Craig Powers put together his weekly preview yesterday.
With his usual look at the offense and defense, he added the Trojans’ special teams to the mix, mostly due to their standout return game through the first three games.
Washington State’s improved special teams coverage will be severely tested this Saturday. Ronald Johnson is averaging 19.17 yards per punt return and has a touchdown. Robert Woods is averaging 25.3 yards per kick return and also has a touchdown. These guys can make game-changing plays (as Woods did against Minnesota). If WSU wants to hang around, they will absolutely need to shut the return game down.
As he does every week, Craig also looked at what events could spell trouble for USC.
The Trojans are in trouble if…The defense gives up lots of yards and points in the passing game. Hawai’i put a scare into them at the start of the season and gave every other team on their schedule a blueprint for success.
Craig wasn’t done, however. With his pet-project, the Reid Forrest Heisman campaign, in full swing, he took the opportunity to examine Reid’s chances this week.
I’ll ignore the fact that there is no way Reid Forrest is anything less than the best punter in the country, regardless of class and continue on to his omission from the “Big Board” altogether. As we’ve clearly established on this website, Reid Forrest is a once-in-a-lifetime talent. He is the best running back in the country, AND THAT’S NOT EVEN HIS PRIMARY POSITION. He has freaking national monuments and parks named for him. How did you miss that, Mel? Is there an Andrew Luck National Park? No, and there never will be.
Get on the bandwagon or be left behind, people.