You could feel it happening again. The familiar sighs of 62,000 faithful fans echoed off the new Scholarship tower in the Coliseum as Stanford established an early presence in the contest. After a good opening drive stalled out for a Trojan field goal, the Cardinal rattled off two touchdowns and a field goal on their next three possessions and very quickly USC found itself deep in a hole.
Looking up at the video boards, my thoughts immediately began to fear the reality of the evening and road ahead. The feeling of a first conference game with a ranked rival in the north coming to town and here we are punched in the mouth, trailing 17-3.
With over thirteen minutes left to play in the second quarter, USC responded. True freshman Kedon Slovis and every player on the roster responded in a big way. Two minutes after feeling down and out, Slovis connected with Amon-Ra St. brown on a 39-yard touchdown pass sending a palpable wave of energy into the stands. What followed on the ensuing drives was a beautiful display of ability, potential, and tradition. Fans maintained an electric energy throughout the night and willed the team onward as Slovis and company looked more and more confident with each possession. When all was said and done, the USC offense would go on to score five unanswered touchdowns. Slovis would complete 28 of 33 for 377 yards and 0 interceptions. He would connect with eight different targets and command the offense with no notion of inexperience. The running game held steady going for 115 total yards as both Carr and Malepeai got loose to find the end zone.
The defense played lights out and lock down football. They recorded ten tackles for loss, had an interception, and Olaijah Griffin starred with four pass deflections. They held the Cardinal scoreless from the eight-minute mark of the second quarter all the way through to the final whistle. The whole team played with a renewed speed, energy, and confidence that was great to see from our athletes.
While the sample size is small, hopes grew enormously for USC fans. Our problems surely aren’t solved by one great performance, as evidenced by the resignation of Athletic Director Lynn Swann. For the first time in a long time though, our fans have something tangible to grab onto, to cheer for, and to talk to their peers with pride about. Our fans can talk about how on a Saturday night in September, with a true freshman at the helm, this team played its best football. This team played Trojan football.
FIGHT ON
Sources: USC Athletics, Espn.com
The Late Game 
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