With Dodgers having the weekend off, college football takes center stage in Los Angeles

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Yes, there will be a lot of hope and anxiety in Los Angeles when the Dodgers begin the Major League Baseball playoffs. Months after Vin Scully’s death, and immediately following the attainment of 111 wins, a regular-season franchise record, the expectations for the Dodgers will be appropriately high. Los Angeles will be consumed by the Dodgers’ pursuit of a non-pandemic World Series championship. The 2020 title certainly counts, but everyone wants to celebrate a World Series title in Dodger Stadium, or at least in a full-length season. 2020 didn’t give anyone that opportunity. The Dodgers will soon take the stage in Los Angeles sports …

but not just yet, and not this weekend for sure.

The new MLB playoff format means the Dodgers will sit back and relax until they begin the NLDS on Tuesday, Oct. 11. In the meantime, college football is the big ticket in town. Let’s look at the weekend’s two big games, USC-Washington State and UCLA-Utah:

USC AND UCLA ARE BOTH 5-0

And John Robinson and Terry Donahue are not coaching the Trojans and Briuns.

TROJANS AND BRUINS CAN SET UP NOVEMBER 19 SHOWDOWN

Imagine USC-UCLA, on Nov. 19, being so big that the winner makes the Pac-12 Championship Game and the loser is out. That could happen if the two teams win this weekend.

CHIP KELLY'S LAST CHANCE

If Chip Kelly is going to max out at UCLA, this is the year, with Dorian Thompson-Robinson giving the Bruins and Chip one more season at quarterback. The continuity Kelly and DTR have is rare, because it’s rare to see a QB stick around this long in college.

BIG TEN FUTURE

This might be the last time USC and UCLA are both Pac-12 title contenders, if only because of the impending move to the Big Ten. That raises the stakes for this weekend.

WASHINGTON STATE

The Cougars would be 5-0 if they hadn’t blown a 34-22 lead to Oregon with four minutes left.

UTAH

The Utes would be unbeaten if quarterback Cam Rising had thrown a touchdown pass instead of an interception at the goal line in the final minute of the Week 1 loss to Florida.

PAC-12 CHAMPIONS

Utah plays UCLA this week and USC next week as the reigning Pac-12 champion. That’s the first time this has ever happened.

ONE USC BENEFIT

USC, by playing second in Los Angeles on Saturday, will know the Utah-UCLA result when it takes the field against Wazzu. That could help the Trojans lock in and focus on the Cougars, which they need to do.

PRIME TV SLOTS

None of this late-night nonsense in Week 6. The Bruins play at 12:30, the Trojans at 4:40. This is how Los Angeles college football fans want it. If they’re not going to attend big games this weekend, when will they attend a Trojan or Bruin game?

USC-WAZZU IS HUGE

It’s the second-biggest home game on the 2022 USC schedule, behind only Notre Dame. UCLA is a Bruin home game. Cal and Colorado are the other USC home games left on this year’s slate. This is a really big game. No Dodger playoff game. If you’re not buying a ticket now, when will you buy one?

HEISMAN SCENE-SETTER

From Jon Wilner:

The Pac-12 hasn’t produced a Heisman Trophy finalist since Stanford tailback Bryce Love in 2017. The next few weeks will frame the campaigns for the season’s final month.

The conference has four players in various states of contention. All four are quarterbacks, which tracks with the Heisman electorate’s preferences: 18 of the last 21 winners have been QBs.

CALEB WILLIAMS

From Jon Wilner:

USC’s Caleb Williams entered the season as a frontrunner and has held his ground with 12 touchdowns, one interception and zero losses, but his most difficult games are ahead.

The Trojans face one of the top defenses in the conference Saturday when they host Washington State, followed by the showdown at Utah.

Both duels are on the Fox broadcast network, with the date in Salt Lake City next weekend slotted for primetime on the East Coast.

If Williams plays well and emerges with two victories — it’s difficult to envision the Trojans surviving if he doesn’t look sharp — then his status as a likely finalist will gain traction.

DTR

From Wilner:

UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson gained Heisman support last week with his sterling showing against Washington.

The run-heavy offense limits Thompson-Robinson’s ability to generate gaudy statistics — he has thrown 50 fewer passes than Penix, for example — but if the undefeated Bruins keep winning, the spotlight will follow.

UCLA faces 11th-ranked Utah this weekend in what is arguably the biggest game of Thompson-Robinson’s career (and coach Chip Kelly’s tenure). After a bye week, the Bruins head to Eugene for a showdown with the No. 12 Ducks.

Win both, and Thompson-Robinson could emerge as Williams’ crosstown foil in the Heisman race, just as UCLA’s Troy Aikman was to USC’s Rodney Peete in 1988.

CAM RISING

From Wilner:

Meanwhile, Utah quarterback Cam Rising is a dark-horse contender whose prospects hit an early pothole with the last-minute interception at Florida in the season opener.

Rising has a major opportunity to change the narrative and enter the race with back-to-back Saturday showdowns against the Los Angeles schools.

Both games are on Fox, both against quarterbacks who also have Heisman aspirations.

If Rising outplays Thompson-Robinson this week and Williams next week — and if the Utes win both — then he will have palpable momentum for the stretch run.

FOX BOX

From Wilner:

The Pac-12 will occupy seven consecutive hours of airtime on the Fox broadcast network Saturday, with back-to-back games at 12:30 (Utah-UCLA) and 4:30 (Washington State-USC).

It’s the first time consecutive conference games have been shown on Fox since 2019, when Utah-Washington and Oregon-USC were aired at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively.

The greatest amount of Pac-12 single-day airtime on Fox in recent memory took place on Sept. 11, 2021, with three games.

The day began with Oregon-Ohio State (9 a.m.), which was in Columbus and therefore part of the Big Ten’s broadcast inventory. Then came Texas A&M-Colorado (12:30 p.m.) and Stanford-USC under the Coliseum lights.

SOMETHING IS BRUIN

From Wilner:

— UCLA has won eight consecutive games, tied for the second-longest streak in the nation behind Clemson (11).

JON WILNER ON USC

Quoting Wilner in a separate article (different from the links above):

Survive WSU and escape Salt Lake City next weekend, and the Trojans become a frontrunner for the playoff. They can afford one loss down the stretch, as long as it’s not in the conference championship.

JON WILNER ON UCLA

More from Wilner:

If Dorian Thompson-Robinson follows his sterling performance against Washington with a first-rate showing this week (on broadcast television, no less), Los Angeles will have its second Heisman Trophy contender. And we could be looking at 1988 all over again.

Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire