Good Luck Ducks, Week 13: The Trojan Revealed

The Quack Attack hosts a familiar foe from southern California.

The penultimate game on Oregon's schedule has the Ducks facing off against a former Pac-12 opponent. It's, um, not my favorite opponent. I've had this whole thing against LA-based sports teams my entire life (thanks, parents, I guess?!) and that's not likely to ever change. USC, by all accounts, are having a pretty good season, but they haven't been truly relevant -- or at least worthy of national media attention -- since Reggie Bush and the Trojans lost to Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns in the title game 20 years ago.

The Ducks faced little resistance from Minnesota, resulting in a nice break from the intensity of their recent schedule before they face their west coast rivals in the final two weeks. Oregon's playoff prospects seemingly hang in the balance today against another formidable opponent, but it surely won't be super comfortable to end the regular season up in Seattle against the dreaded Huskies. The run game seems to be in full force no matter who they throw out there, and despite the extremely depleted receiver group, Dante Moore has been able to find a lot of success when he is in position to throw the ball. If the Ducks can stick to their game and control things on both sides of the ball, this should work out well.

The Trojans are led by QB Jayden Maiava, a junior who played his first full season for UNLV before transferring as is the norm these days. As a fellow Hawaiian, it's tempting for this Ducks fan to compare him to Marcus Mariota, but Maiava appears to be much more of a traditional pro style pocket passing dude than Mariota was in college, and he already seems to have garnered some NFL draft interest should he decide to go into it early. Oregon's pass defense has been stellar this season, which is not something I'm always accustomed to. It will be interesting to see how they can stand up to the challenge today.

Notes and miscellany:

• The Ducks are wearing black again today, which is all well and good, but it'll never be as fun as it was under the lights against the Trojans on Fight Night in 2009, when... *record scratch*... wait a second! They didn't even wear black that night?! Oh, how the memory fails you.
• Opponent fun fact: Well, here's a good reminder that the "Trojan", despite evoking ideas of being a malevolent nuisance/computer virus type of thing, is actually kind of a loser -- historically speaking, at least.
• Opponent history: USC leads the series 38-23-2, but Oregon has won three straight and seven of the last nine meetings.
• Game time is 12:30 PM PST on CBS in Eugene. Go Ducks!