Houston Cougars' senior punter, Australian ice-cream salesman turned superboot, Dane Roy, dives into the matches to keep an eye on.

#17 University of Washington vs #21 University of Southern California

Week Five of the College Football season is here and the PAC-12 is loaded with big games this week. In the first big match-up we see the #21 ranked USC Trojans head up coast to the University of Washington to take on the #17 Huskies. Both teams are 3 and 1 for the season but USC are coming into this game as the underdogs.

The Trojans have used 3 QBs already this season and are likely to start 3^rd string Junior QB Matt Fink this week, as their starting QB from last week, Slovis, isn’t likely to play this week as he picked up an injury last game. The QB situation hasn’t affected how the Trojan wide receivers have played, with senior Michael Pittman and junior Tyler Vaughns both putting up impressive numbers so far, 437 yards at 14.1 per reception with 3 TDs and 370 yards at 13.7 per reception with 2 TDs respectively.

On the other side of the field the Huskies have a solid QB in Jason Eason. The junior has thrown for over 1000 yards this season at a 73% completion rate, while averaging 9 yards per pass with 10 total TDs. When the Huskies aren’t throwing it, they have no problem gaining yards through their running back core, which consists of 3 main guys, juniors Salvon Ahmed (2TD) and Sean McGrew (1TD), and freshman Richard Newton (5TD). These three have accounted for 76% of rushing attempts for the Huskies with all averaging over 5 yards per carry.

Look out for: 

Aussie punters facing off in the PAC-12 again! USC punter and former Richmond footballer, Ben Griffiths, is slowly finding his feet in his rookie season for the Trojans. Griffiths is averaging 40 yards per punt this season and is coming off his best game last week. Washington punter and Neerim South legend, Joel Whitford, is averaging 45 yards, but has only punted 7 times this season as the Huskies offense has been pretty good to say the least.

Verdict: 

The USC QB situation might be too much for the Trojans to find a groove and the Huskies should take advantage of that while also playing at home. 

#19 University of Utah vs Washington State University

The second PAC-12 match-up of the week is the Washington State Cougars at the #19 Utah Utes. Both teams are coming off a loss. If the Cougars didn’t blow a 32-point second-half lead last week to UCLA, they would have been ranked in the top 15 this week, but here we are.

Washington State leads the nation in passing offense at nearly 500 yards per game and QB Anthony Gordon is the reason. The senior is having a pretty impressive year so far, on top of throwing for nearly 2000 yards already in only 4 games, Gordon has thrown 21 TDs. With all that offense, you're bound to throw some picks and get sacked a few times, and he has done just that, being sacked 5 times and averaging 1 interception a game. One teammate who is loving the air-raid style offense is WR Easop Winston Jr, who has scored 8 TDs so far and is averaging 13 yards per catch with 348 total yards.

While the Cougar offense relies heavily on passing and rarely run it, the Utah offense can do both. Senior RB Zack Moss has clocked up nearly 400 rushing yards in his first few games while adding 4 TDs to that list too, but he is under an injury cloud coming into this game. Another injury cloud hangs over Senior QB, Tyler Huntly, who has rushed for 159 yards with a TD, but when he throws the ball, he’s no slouch either. Huntly has over 800 passing yards and 5 TDs to his name as well. If they can both play this week, then it makes it a lot harder for the Cougars.

Look out for: 

Aussie punter for Utah, and former Richmond footballer, Ben Lennon, as he continues to be a defensive weapon for Utah. Lennon has pinned 9 of his 11 punts inside the 20 for the Utes this season, while averaging 39 yards per punt.

Verdict: 

Expect Washington State to bounce back and get on the board early, but this Utah defense won’t give up too many after that. If Utah are a playoff team, they need to show it here as the loss last week to USC didn’t help them. Utah should do enough to hold off the Cougars.

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