Buck Allen (Kevin Tsukii/Neon Tommy)

Another week, another win for USC as the Trojans (9-3) comfortably upend Colorado 47-29 to roll into their showdown with UCLA playing for a double-digit season and quite possibly Ed Orgeron’s promotion to permanent head coach.

The Trojans never trailed on Saturday and only conceded their first defensive points in the fourth quarter courtesy of a Nelson Spruce 38-yard touchdown catch from freshman Sefo Liufau. That’s not to say they started off in vintage form; they didn’t, particularly in the running game where the malaise from Stanford bled over into just 46 yards on 16 first-half carries from Buck Allen and Ty Isaac.

But they had no trouble establishing an early advantage over an overmatched CU team thanks to a first-quarter 12-yard touchdown run from Allen in which he pinballed off of several would-be tacklers. Four minutes later, Soma Vainuku blocked a punt out of the end zone for a safety, his third block of the season.

Two more second-quarter touchdowns – a one-yarder from Allen, and an impeccably placed deep ball from Kessler to Nelson Agholor – pushed the halftime lead to 23-0, and only a late surge of points by Colorado against the Trojans’ second string brought the deficit as close as the 11 points it became late in the fourth quarter, when a Paul Richardson touchdown and DD Goodson two-point conversion made it 40-29 with 3:19 remaining. Leon McQuay recovered a subsequent onside kick and two plays later Vainuku rumbled for a 52-yard touchdown to put the win on ice.

“The game could have been different if we were looking ahead,” Orgeron told the Pac-12 Network’s Drea Avent. “I'm proud of our team.”

Now, USC looks ahead to UCLA, who head into next Saturday coming off a deflating 38-33 loss to Arizona State that sealed the Trojans’ and Bruins’ shared fate as bridesmaids in the Pac-12 South. Unthinkable as it would have been even a month ago, it will be USC, not UCLA who rolls into the crosstown battle with momentum on its side. Kessler, who scuffed in September and eased into October, has enjoyed a November to remember, completing 72.8% for 889 yards, along with a 6:1 TD:INT ratio and 162.6 passer rating. After being used sparingly under former coach Lane Kiffin, Allen has 439 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns in his last four games alone. A defense that was gutted by the same ASU team who downed UCLA has clammed up, conceding 22 points per game over their last four contests, with many of those points coming in garbage time against the backup unit.

The Bruins, meanwhile, encountered all kinds of struggles Saturday, particularly with a young offensive line that allowed quarterback Brett Hundley to be sacked nine times. The dangerous Myles Jack has followed Tre Madden’s lead by making a switch from linebacker to running back, albeit on a very part-time basis, while leading receiver Shaq Evans will likely be pitted against Josh Shaw, who enjoyed his best game of the season at cornerback by holding Richardson without a catch in the first half of Saturday’s win.

Then there’s Orgeron, now 6-1 as USC’s interim head coach. The cries for him to earn the permanent post have amplified in volume with each passing week, and a win over UCLA figures to make them deafening. The amiable 52-year-old has thus far deflected talk of his chances at the full-time gig but his players have not, with several stumping for Orgeron to have his interim tag removed.

Regardless, with Boulder now in USC’s rearview, the bigger picture looms on the forefront. Irrespective of context or job prospects, Oregon knows that UCLA carries an orbit unto itself.

“It's our rivalry game,” he said to Avent. “We will be ready.”

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