They say styles make fights. A lot of times they make football games, too.
Saturday night when the USC Trojans travel to the Midwest (again) to face fellow blue-blood Nebraska, the contest will be a Big Ten conference game between two programs who donât play Big Ten style footballâ¦and who have had trouble beating their conference brethren who do.
Both will be looking to exercise some demons, too.
For USC, much has been made about the Trojans struggles when theyâve had to travel east for any significant distance. Since joining the Big Ten, theyâve lost games at Minnesota, at Illinois, at Michigan and at Marylandâ¦and of course the non-conference rivalry game at Notre Dame.
They did win at struggling Purdue. Thatâs 1-5. Not great.
The cold weather hasnât been kind to Lincoln Rileyâs team, either.
But the game at Nebraska â where the temps are supposed to be in the 40âs â isnât really about travel or temperature. Itâs about playing real, actual, Big Ten-style football. Style-wise, neither team does.
Nebraska isnât the Nebraska of old
Old-school Nebraska played a physical brand of football, led by a dominant offensive line and powerful ground game. Those days are long gone.
Back in 2011 when the Cornhuskers joined the conference, they were coached by former Ohio State defensive back Bo Pelini. Peliniâs teams tried to keep up a physical style on defense, but opted to go to a âspreadâ offense, with so-so results. Nebraska played in one Big 10 championship game, in 2012 when they were obliterated by old-school Wisconsin. And itâs been downhill from there.
Peliniâs replacement, Mike Riley, came from Pac 12 roots and his teams played an even more finesse styleâ¦with poor results. Then came prodigal son Scott Frost, an option quarterback at NU but a coaching product of the Chip Kelly tree at Oregon. He famously quipped that he believed his team wasnât going to have to adapt to the Big Ten, but that âthey are going to have to modify for us.â
Wrong.
The west-coast/spread offense hasnât proven it can work consistently in Big Ten Country for any team. The Big Ten remains about hard-nosed, smash-mouth football.
Since joining the Big Ten, Nebraska has had a major problem against the mid-level old-school Big Ten programs like Minnesota (5-9), Iowa (4-10) and Wisconsin (2-11) and struggled with Northwestern (8-6), Illinois (7-5 ), Purdue (6-6) and Michigan State (5-4). Theyâre also a combined 7-15 against the big boys, Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State.
Matt Rhule is slowly trying to build Nebraska back into a physical, Big Ten style team. But his squad’s not there just yet, as witnessed by the thumping they took three weeks ago against a mid-level Minnesota. They also struggled to win their last game against a so-so Northwestern squad.
Game at Nebraska is a matchup of similar styles
Like USC, Nebraska doesnât play uber-physical Big Ten football just yet, which is a bigger deal in this match up than how far USC has to travel. At the moment, these two programs, who are are a combined 11-4, are a better match up for each other than they are for old-school Big Ten opposition.
Coming in, the Trojans have a prolific offense, leading the nation at 530 yards per game, including 326 through the air. On the flip side, Nebraska is among the national leaders in pass defense, yielding just 128 per game through the air.
Ironically, USC could opt to lean on itâs ground game, Big Ten style, to move the ball against a so-so Nebraska run defense.
The Cornhuskers have their own demons to chase away. Nebraska hasnât beaten a ranked team in almost a decade. USC comes in ranked #23, giving the home team yet another chance to break that string.
Who will conquer their demons on a chilly Saturday night in the heartland?
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