Huskies

While USC was making quick work of Washington State yesterday, it sounds as if the Trojans already had one eye on the other team in the state.
Lane Kiffin was quoted in this story in the LA Times saying that the Trojans have already begun to think about the Huskies.
Specifically, he was quoted saying that “there was a lot of focus to Game 5” in the off-season — UW is the fifth game of USC’s season. “We’ll see if it pays off,” he said, “because we’ve spent a ton of time on these guys.”
The reasons are obvious — UW helped send USC on its slide last season with an upset win in week three, and Husky coach Steve Sarkisian and defensive coordinator Nick Holt (as well as a few other staffers) worked at USC before coming to Seattle.
The Times’ story notes that the Trojans did a few new things — such as opening in a no-huddle offense — and that it may have been for a purpose: “Agitate Washington Coach Steve Sarkisian by giving him even more to think about.”
The Orange County Register story had a similar theme, that USC feels it’s now past the soft part of its schedule and is eager to get some revenge on the Huskies.
“I just want to get back at them so bad,” defensive end Wes Horton told the Register. “It was an embarrassing loss last year. We have a lot of fuel. We have a lot of fire built up. We’re really going to let it loose on them next week.”
The LA Daily News story, meanwhile, notes how unimpressed the Trojans were with WSU.
“We could have had 70 points, I think, if those turnovers had gone the other way,” said QB Matt Barkley — USC never punted but lost three turnovers.
And said RB Marc Tyler: “They weren’t that good. You (apparently the reporter asking the question) could have gone out there and run.”
Here are a lot of notes and quotes on the game from the WSU side from Vince Grippi, as well as a lot of Pac-10 links at the bottom.
IN OTHER NEWS. …
— The Pac-10 office announced today that the UW-USC game will now be on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. There had been a chance it would be the main ABC game at 5 p.m., but that spot will now go to the Oregon-Stanford game. Jon Wilner has all the details. The UW-USC game will also be available on ESPN3.com.
— Also, I’m sure UW fans were keenly interested in seeing that Nebraska had to struggle to hold off lower-division South Dakota State 17-3 — the visitors had a few legit chances to close the gap late before the Cornhuskers held on. Nebraska had just 345 total yards after getting 543 against UW the week before. Here’s a game story noting coach Bo Pelini thought his team had a good week of practice, and here’s a take from columnist Tom Shatel.
— The LA Daily News has a USC injury report, the most notable being that Horton was kicked in the back and will be tested later.
All for now.