ASU Football: Q&A with Conquest Chronicles

To a better our knowledge of the USC Trojans, we reached out to Conquest Chronicles and staff writer Matthew Lowry to answer a few of our questions.

Brady Vernon: What has the QB carousel been like this season and what do you think it means for next season?

MW: The quarterback carousel has been a pretty interesting one to say the least. We know JT Daniels was going to be the guy unless he got hurt, then next thing you know he got hurt. We’ve heard about Kedon Slovis, but questioned what he could do until he got onto the field. Believe it or not he is indeed the best guy for the job and that could be the case next year depending on the status of Daniels. I think there will be a battle for the starting job. A LEGIT one at that. Slovis has the edge right now given he played a full season.

BV: Do you think Clay Helton is the USC head coach next season and why?

MW: No he won’t and after last week, there’s no way he can keep it. The team haven’t shown any type of improvement from last year despite making some changes on the coaching staff. With a new athletic director coming in and the direction of the program under him, it’s best for both him and USC to move on. I wrote about this earlier in the week and believe that the sooner they do it the better it will be.

BV: Based on talent alone, do you think ASU and USC matchup closer than people think?

MW: If we’re going off of talent alone, USC is a far better team. However, when you throw other factors in there such as coaching and how the way the season has played out, It’s a much closer match up. Edwards has this Sun Devils team playing good and competitive football. I think ASU have some great talent out on the field, but when you compare it to USC then the Trojans are the better team. ASU plays very tough and creates a tough game for its opponent.

BV: What aspect of the Sun Devils scares you the most heading into Saturday?

MW: Outside of playing at Sun Devil Stadium (If it’s still called that), Arizona State’s running game is what scares me. Eno Benjamin had a field day against USC last year and was tough to stop. That could be the same case this Saturday. However if you look at last week’s game, USC did a decent job against the run. They’re also getting defensive ends Drake Jackson and Christian Rector back which should aid the run defense a bit. The Jayden Daniels factor will also be a thing too. I’ve followed Daniels since he was at Cajon High School (Southern California) and his scrambling ability is what scares me the most. USC has had problems against running quarterbacks all season. Well all but one (Arizona), but it’s a problem that has yet to be solved.

BV: Score prediction?

MW: Believe it or not this will be a pretty close one and to me a coin flip. Arizona State is coming off a bye week where they had a chance to fix their issues while USC is coming off a blow out loss to Oregon. The thing that’s different about this USC team is that they’re resilient and can bounce back from losses. However that will be the biggest test going on the road, where they struggle, and facing a team who plays very tough. I’m going with USC to win this weekend. I think there’s too many questions about ASU’s offense and USC is getting their key players back on the defensive side of the ball. Going with a 34-24 Trojans win.