With Josh Shaw still occupying the national spotlight, a few people are forgetting that USC's first game is this Saturday. After beating Fresno State 45-20 in last year's Vegas Bowl, USC will look to win their second consecutive game against their Mountain West foe. Fresno State looks a lot different than last year's team, as two of their biggest stars, Derek Carr and Davante Adams, are now both in the NFL. Fresno State beat reporter Robert Kuwada from The Fresno Bee is here to help preview the Bulldogs to give Trojan fans a better grasp of what to expect this weekend. 

1. Fresno State's quarterback competition seems to be the biggest story heading into the game. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the quarterbacks in the competition?

Brian Burrell came out of the spring as the leader of a very ordinary position group and at that point, by no means did he inspire much confidence. Fresno State added Brandon Connette over the summer, a graduate transfer from Duke, and the increased competition spurred significant improvement in Burrell. In the spring, Fresno State had only three scholarship quarterbacks in that competition and one was a redshirt freshman (Zack Greenlee) in his first spring and the other is now playing as an inside receiver (Myles Carr). Not a lot there. 

Burrell’s strengths are his knowledge of the Fresno State offense and its tempos. He still tends to lose a lot of passes and accuracy is an issue, but he has been surprisingly good in the zone read game. He is very good with the ball and though he will look a little awkward running with it, he does have some quickness. Connette has better arm strength and spins the ball with more velocity and accuracy. He obviously is adept at the run game – he set the Duke record for rushing touchdowns. But he has been trying to catch up within the offense, and if there is an area he is behind that is it. Fresno State will not have another Derek Carr out there, but it just needs its quarterback to avoid catastrophic operator error to be in any of its first three games – at USC, at Utah and against Nebraska. Get the offense lined up, identify the one-on-one and go from there. No turnovers. Don’t take sacks. Move the chains.

2. USC's switch to a high-tempo offense has been well-documented. Has Fresno State been preparing a lot differently for this USC team compared to last season for their Vegas Bowl matchup?

No, Fresno State hasn’t needed to change anything in its preparation. It has run a no-huddle spread for the past two years, so the defense is used to practicing against tempo. The defense saw it quite a bit in the spring and in fall camp, especially with the offense pushing tempo to test its two inexperienced quarterbacks. It won’t have a problem with the speed at which USC runs its offense. It will have more of a problem with the speed of some of the players in that offense.

3. Fresno State had three 1,000-yard wide receivers last season, and two of them are now in the NFL. Which receivers are expected to replace the production of Davante Adams and Isaiah Burse? 

Fresno State doesn’t have a lot of experience in its group of outside receivers behind its one senior receiver – Josh Harper. The guys USC will have to defend on Saturday are Aaron Peck, a junior with 15 career receptions, and Da’Mari Scott, a sophomore with two career catches. For the inside guys, there is some experience there in senior Greg Watson and LeKendrick Williams, a graduate transfer from Texas A&M. Watson has made some big plays for them, but still has only 30 career receptions. Williams played sparingly at A&M, but has more of a chance to impact games in the Mountain West.

4. USC's offensive line is one of the biggest questions heading into this season. Is Fresno State's defensive line the most important position group for them this game?

Fresno State is not really loaded with experience in its defensive line, but does have a Pac-12 level player in Tyeler Davison, who will play both nose guard and defensive end in their 3-4. If Davison starts at nose, the ends are Todd Hunt and Nate Madsen. Hunt is a junior and has never started a game and Madsen is a redshirt freshman. If Davison starts at end, they will go with Hunt and junior Maurice Poyadue at nose guard. Poyadue has never started a game. 

It is a big matchup for Fresno State though. Fresno State has won 20 games the past two years and had a lot of success defensively, but it hasn’t made much of a dent in teams that are bigger and more physical. The majority of their losses are to teams that were more established and stronger with bigger bodies up front. USC obviously is in that group, handling them fairly easily in the Las Vegas Bowl. It looks like USC will be starting two true freshmen up front, so they might be a little closer this year than they were a year ago.

5. Derron Smith is one of the best safeties in college football. What makes him so unique from other safeties, and would you say that the secondary is considered the strength of this defense?

Derron Smith is fast and can close ground. A quarterback might think he has an open window to a receiver, but Smith has the speed to close it in a hurry and the ball skills to break up a pass play or come away with an interception. Those are his strengths. Tackling, not a strength. The safeties are a strength of the defense, with Smith and Charles Washington at strong safety. The secondary as a whole is not a strength. Fresno State has had a lot of trouble with its cornerback position, which goes back three years. When Coach Tim DeRuyter was hired, there were only three scholarship cornerbacks in the program. They’ve been trying to build that up ever since. Last season, Fresno State allowed 59 pass plays of 20 yards or more and 34 pass plays of 30 yards or more. There was only one bowl subdivision team that allowed more in each of the categories. 

They come into this game unsettled as well. The position group is up to seven scholarship corners, but four missed some time during fall camp due to injury, which slowed their evaluation process. They are expected to rotate four corners at USC. Washington, who moved to corner from strong safety due to injury and ineffective play last season before the Mountain West championship game and stayed there for the Las Vegas Bowl, is back in the mix. He is actually listed as a starter at strong safety and corner on their depth chart.

6. What is your prediction for the game?

I don’t have a score. I expect USC to win the game, only because for me Fresno State hasn’t proven it can win when playing up in competition. But I do think Fresno State will stay within the 21.5-point spread. USC has the athletes to do a lot of damage, but as young as they are at a lot of spots, they will make some mistakes that can keep the score closer than three touchdowns.

 

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