Game Preview: USC Football’s Offensive Line to be Tested Against Washington State

By: Keely Eure, Director of Creative Content and Team Reporter

Football | October 07, 2022

Who: USC vs Washington State

Where: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

When: Saturday, Oct. 8 at 4:30 p.m. PT on FOX

All-time series: USC leads, 62-10-4

Last meeting: USC won in Corvallis, 45-14 in 2021

 

Washington State Player Spotlight:

 

Quarterback Cameron Ward:

• Sophomore, 6’2, 220

• Second-consecutive mobile pass thrower that USC will face this month

• Transferred from Incarnate Word in 2021, where he set the program’s record for career passing touchdowns (71) and passing yards (6,908)

• So far in 2022 at Washington State:

  
  
  

• Ranks third in Pac-12 for passing yardage and tied for third in passing touchdowns

• Has been sacked 12 times this season

  
  
  

 

Linebacker Daiyan Henley:

Preview Podcast with former USC Quarterback Cody Kessler:

 

Keys to the Game:

1. Protect Caleb Williams

   
   

   • The calling card for Washington State’s defense is bringing pressure. The Cougars rank 3rd nationally in tackles for loss and are tied for seventh nationally in sacks. It will be critical for USC’s offensive line to communicate and correctly identify Wazzu’s pressures to buy quarterback Caleb Williams time.  can’t let the Cougars speed up his “internal clock” or the rate in which he makes his progressions.

   • “That’s one thing that you don’t want to do as a quarterback, you don’t want to feel rushed,” Williams said Wednesday. “So you go through your progressions, if you feel something, you get up in the pocket, you get out. You get up and you deliver.”

   • The Trojans’ offensive line health will be something to keep an eye on as well. Tackle