College Football

No. 4 USC can carry Pac-12 banner into CFP, but Utah eager to play spoiler

Updated Nov. 30, 2022 6:26 p.m. ET

Kyle Whittingham understands the position Lincoln Riley is in. He's been there before.

Back in 2019, the Utah head coach traveled to the Pac-12 Championship Game in Las Vegas facing a simple proposition: win and in. The league was already two seasons into an ignominious College Football Playoff drought, and the Utes were primed to end a few narratives about West Coast football if they were able to make it into the field at 12-1.

As has been the case recently when a Pac-12 member has found itself knocking on the door of a playoff bid, Whittingham's team fell flat just shy of the summit. Oregon won in a rout, moving on to capture a Rose Bowl victory that served as the highlight of the Mario Cristobal era in Eugene. Ducks QB Justin Herbert rocketed up draft boards and eventually landed across town with the Los Angeles Chargers.

Meanwhile, Utah slid down the rankings from No. 5 to No. 11 — exchanging a potential semifinal berth for a trip to the Alamo Bowl. And the Utes' fall opened the door for Riley's Oklahoma side to land a third straight CFP bid, where the Sooners faced subsequent national champion LSU.

What's old is new again this Friday (8 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app), only Whittingham's Utes are on the other side this time as underdogs hoping for a second consecutive trip to Pasadena as they defend their conference crown. Riley and No. 4 USC make the trip up to Sin City facing that same, simple predicament: win and in.

A nice byproduct, even if the Trojans won't admit it, is they can also extract a measure of vengeance for their only blemish of 2022 — an emotional 43-42 loss in mid-October thanks to Utah's go-ahead two-point conversion with 48 seconds left.

"It's great that it's worked out that way," Riley said on Tuesday. "This is not a revenge game. That's not what this is. We played a really good football game, as did Utah up in Salt Lake. It was an elite college football game that came down to one play here or there.

"This is a new game, a new challenge, a new setting. The teams have evolved and changed — this is about that."

For Riley's side, the biggest driver of that growth in the seven weeks since has undoubtedly been star quarterback Caleb Williams. The sophomore is on the verge of not only winning his first ring in college but enters the game as the prohibitive favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. Friday will be his third straight weekend playing prime-time football for a national audience, and his 44 total touchdowns are already a school record at a place that boasts a few other bronze stiff arms in the lobby of Heritage Hall.

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There's a health factor at play, too. Tailback Travis Dye (76 yards, one touchdown in the first meeting) remains out for the season after a leg injury against Colorado, but backup Austin Jones has not skipped a beat. The Stanford transfer provides a slightly different style out of the backfield and has accounted for at least 170 all-purpose yards in each of the past two games.

Then there's reigning Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison, who was looking borderline unstoppable against Utah until he injured his ankle early in the second half of the first meeting. He was brought back slowly to ensure he was 100% for big moments like Vegas and notched 178 yards and a touchdown in the conference finale against UCLA.

Toss in a defense that, while criticized for bending in terms of yardage, enters championship weekend +22 in turnover margin (eight better than anybody else in FBS) and the Trojans are certainly peaking at the right time as they look to knock off a third straight top-15 opponent.

"Pretty much everyone has got them winning and going to the playoffs, and Caleb winning the Heisman," Whittingham said a bit facetiously on Monday. "We love that role. We love the chip on our shoulder, the nobody giving us the chance. We seem to thrive in that capacity and in that world."

The third-longest tenured head coach in the country does have a point, given the program's history of showing up against plenty of blue bloods and often getting a result despite being on the other side of the line set by those just up the Strip.

Whittingham will need to rely on every bit of that magic, too, given how his own roster has changed since getting caught in the middle of a field storming at Rice Eccles Stadium during the first meeting against USC.

Junior quarterback Cam Rising injured his leg at the end of that contest and missed the Utes' subsequent game against Washington State. The Southern California native — who originally committed to Riley at Oklahoma — has played up and down through the month of November, looking ineffective in a loss to Oregon (170 yards passing, three interceptions) or middling in wins over Arizona and Stanford.

Utah fans rush field after defeating USC

The Utes beat the Trojans on a two-point conversion with 48 seconds left when they met in October.

Utah still ranks eighth in the country in third-down conversions and sports a top-10 scoring offense but will be sans leading rusher Tavion Thomas, who injured his toe against the Ducks two weeks ago and recently declared for the draft. Tight end and leading receiver Dalton Kincaid may also be limited, though he is at least expected to play after limping off in last week's blowout of Colorado.

That's notable in itself given the Mackey Award semifinalist who hails from Las Vegas already terrorized USC's defense to the tune of 16 catches for 234 yards plus a touchdown. The status of Thorpe Award finalist and national co-leader in interceptions, Clark Phillips III, is a bit more up in the air. He would be a huge loss if he can't go given the wealth of attacking options in the passing game somebody like Williams has at his disposal.

Still, the Utes are a veteran-laden team that often plays better than the sum of its parts. Eleven upperclassmen are listed on the two-deep as starters for the title game and all but three were a part of the team that emerged victorious in last year's edition.

"To be able to be in that game now for four years (in the last five) is a real testament to our football team, the talent level of players that we have in the program, just how dedicated they are to what they do and how bought in they are," Whittingham added. "Experience in that regard is a good thing. I think that that will play in our favor."

Meanwhile, the rest of the Pac-12 finds itself between a rock and a hard place when it comes to what should be the best conference title game matchup in several seasons in front of a sold-out Allegiant Stadium. For those fans without a rooting interest, conflicting emotions may end up swinging by the play.

On one hand, the league has a rare bona fide Playoff contender with an offense capable of striking fear into either No. 1 Georgia or No. 2 Michigan. The mere fact that Riley's side could be announced in the field on Selection Sunday would help put to bed stereotypes about the state of affairs for the sport out West.

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Things are not so simple, however. Neutrals may have pulled for Utah to make it to the promised land back in 2019 for no reason other than having a standard-bearer in the sport's most prestigious postseason invitational. Back then, the Pac-12 could have been seen in a positive light by those along the opposite coast and into the Midwest — in lieu of every talking point instead being about an ignominious streak.

Alas, this time around it's USC that is in the same position with the same talking points. Only the Trojans are not a newcomer atop the standings but rather a lame duck member of the league, bound for the Big Ten in a few short years and a large reason why the past four months have berthed an existential conference realignment crisis that has impacted every other member of the Pac-12. A cardinal and gold departure has literally taken some green and gold out of the coffers.

Is that enough to lead some to pull for the Utes, who have a chance to make it back-to-back Power 5 conference crowns as they sit on their 11th campaign of at least nine wins in the past 18 years? For some, it sure will be.

Others? They may well prefer that the conference be viewed more through the lens of having half the league ranked in the Selection Committee's top 20 and a CFP bid as the rightful reward for one of the best seasons in recent memory on the left coast. The additional payday that comes with it being shared among all 12 schools certainly is a nice side benefit.

Either way, it won't be an easy task no matter where rooting interests lie. Whittingham can attest. Riley is soon to find out.

"Most of the time, in games like this, I don't think either side is going to go completely change what they've done, right? I mean to get to this game, you've had some success," the first-year USC coach said. "You've got to get ready to go play again. I think that maybe the way the first one played out is not necessarily the way the second one plays out."

Can the Pac-12 stay out of its own way and see Troy return to national prominence? Or will Utah reprise the role of the underdog once again and confirm the road to the Rose Bowl still runs through Salt Lake?

We'll find out Friday night when one of the weekend's few conference championships with real stakes kicks off.

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Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.