This Saturday is gonna be a tough night.

First, Biggie should sit for a game because he is such a liability. I don't think a coach. a REAL coach, would tolerate the dumb penalties. Second, Toa has taken the offense out of sync with his horrible snaps. 50% are too low and Daniels has to scramble to receive the ball. This makes the timing of a normal play a fraction of a second off. Gotta move Toa.

This team, entirely, has no killer instinct.

I have noticed a big difference in the coverage this year. Appreciate you two working so hard. I will say to Ryan you had better take care of Mrs Maya at Christmas this year!

Thank you again

As he does each Sunday, Tajwar breaks it down from his perspective on the sideline, dissecting his 10 most important takeaways from USC's win over Colorado.

https://usc.rivals.com/news/first-and-10-the-trojans-leave-plenty-to-dissect-in-latest-win

USC's defense was as good versus Colorado as it’s ever been under Clay Helton. That must continue if the Trojans are going to win the Pac-12.

USC-Colorado postgame analysis

Went in-depth on the impressive first start from freshman linebacker Palaie Gaoteote, known to his teammates and coaches as "EA."

Those teammates and his head coach didn't seem the least bit surprised by Gaoteote's performance, but Saturday night was his arrival for all to see.

https://usc.rivals.com/news/freshman-palaie-gaoteote-shows-usc-the-future-is-bright-at-mlb

Let’s switch things over here and keep the conversation going.

Down 42-7 at halftime to Utah State, damn we are bad

UCLA seems to be beating the good-coachingness out of Justin Wilcox!

listening to the ESPN guys it's a forgone conclusion they are in playoff if undefeated. Not one of the ESPN guys brought up the following, 1.) they don't play a conference championship 2.) 8 home games with only 2 true road tests--- sc and va tech. They may not play a team by year end with less than 3 or 4 losses. Their " quality" wins ---- overrated Stanford at home, Michigan at home with new qb playing his first game and missing star DL to injury, va tech?, FSU? And then of course us. So net net , end of season they will have beaten one , maybe 2 top 25 teams. They also have a bunch of complete patsies on the schedule--- butler? Vandy--- play a real sec team please, navy, wake, Pitt, cuse, northwestern--- not exactly murders row. I admit their offense looks a lot better with Book, ( although I'm skeptical about his long ball throwing ability). Their D isn't bad but announcers make them sound like Desert Storm. Definitely not a dominating D, better yes, but doesn't remind me of what I see watching some SEC teams. No other conference team has the luxury of creating their own schedule and then not having to play a top rated team for a conference championship and potential elimination from a playoff birth. Sadly, these gutless announcers give ND a pass Btw, is it time for Lee Corso to retire? He's actually worse than Lou was at the end of his nonsense-- if that's possible. Any thoughts?

Plenty more coming for the night owls. Or, yeah, you can just read it all in the morning. Get some rest and wake up to a full site of content recapping and dissecting this win.

https://usc.rivals.com/news/usc-runs-away-from-colorado-behind-dominant-defensive-effort

Here's what we have on the three big ones ...

Linebacker Palaie Gaoteote

Gaoteote, or "EA" as he's known, was pulled from the game early in the third quarter for concussion-like symptoms after taking the brunt of Colorado WR Laviska Shenault's helmet to the side of his own on a crushing tackle.

He spoke to us after the game, said he was fine and genuinely seemed fine, but USC will obviously take every precaution until he's fully cleared of any concussion symptoms.

"I'm well. Just got a little dizzy there, but after getting up, talking to my trainers I feel really good and ready to go for next week," he said.

I asked him how scary the moment was as he went straight to the ground and was slow to start moving.

"It wasn't scary at all. I know it's football and things happen like that," he said. "Just being able to get up and walk was significant and knew that I was OK."

Asked again about his expectation to play next week at Utah, he said, "Yeah, for sure."

Linebacker Cameron Smith

The man Gaoteote was replacing, Smith had played more snaps than anyone on the defense this season before sitting out Saturday night to rest a strained hamstring that popped up during the week.

"Cam, we'll see where he's at. It was just too close to call, and it was one of those that if it got even worse he could miss even more games," coach Clay Helton said. "We'll see where he's at come Tuesday."

Tajwar Khandaker caught up with Smith afterward, and he too is confident he'll be ready to play next week at Utah.

"I didn't feel like I was ready to go for this game and sitting out a week would have been beneficial for me, and I wanted to be ready to go for this upcoming game," he said. "I've 100 percent thought that I'm going into play so I'll be ready to go."

Outside linebacker Porter Gustin

Gustin spent the last two weeks trying to heal from an ankle impingement that knocked him out of the Arizona game. And he was playing great Saturday night with 6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks before he injured his ankle again with 2:35 left in the game.

Gustin hobbled off the field and was later delivered to the locker room on a cart. When he got off the cart, he hopped on one leg while putting on weight on his right ankle at all. He was not made available for interviews afterward and Helton didn't elaborate on his injury.

Other injuries ...

Nose tackle Brandon Pili (shoulder), backup nickel Jonathan Lockett (hip) and backup cornerback Olaijah Griffin (shoulder) were also forced out of the game.

First off, I’m not hating on him. I’m shocked first and foremost, that he hasn’t been tearing up the stat lines. Was thinking he was going to have Rasheem Greene type numbers this year. Any ideas why he hasn’t produced as much as the hype expected him to?

Again I’m all SC. Was thinking he would bolt for the NFL after an All PAC 12 selection. Maybe SC gets another year out of him. FO!

Tee hee hee hee hee! They are three and three and stormed the field after beating West Virginia. They are putting players on their shoulders and taking memorabilia shots.

We talked to most of the defense after this one. JT Daniels was not made available, nor was Porter Gustin.

https://usc.rivals.com/news/video-interviews-after-usc-s-win-over-no-19-colorado

Saw some assistants take his pads to the locker room and didn’t play in the game at all

Let's get it going!

Team just arrived at the Coliseum about 10 minutes ago. Here's video:

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Will head down to the field soon and shoot move video during warmups, checking in on the injured players.

19-0. Fight on. And goodnight!

I see our game vs. Utah is on the pac12net channel. What channel is that? I get pac 12 on dish, but saw that they are broadcasting other games that day. Anyway to rectify this problem?? On dish, it is channel 409 and dish offers only 1 pac12 broadcast. Disgraceful if we here, in SoCal cannot see our local team play.

I was really hoping to see him blow up this year and become a real star. I’d love to see what would happen if he got 20+ carries in a game and could get into a rythym. He seems to have the moves and the burst no one else on the team has. I wonder why he doesn’t get more carries.

It’s time for someone to win this. Si se puede!

And a great game plan..... No it didn't come from one of our guys it came from an Oregon tailback who just beat Washington in overtime.

Beat Colorado!

Fight On!

Note: I'll be away from the internet for the next couple weeks so if someone else wants to take over the Wake Up posts feel free.