USC football is going to win against Stanford in Week 2.
USC football vs. Stanford Best Bets for Week 2 (reignoftroy.com)
While Stanford has tended to upset the Trojans in the most inopportune times these last 15 years, the Trojans are still upset the Trojans in the most inopportune times these last 15 years, the Trojans are still the favorites, and for the right reasons. SC is ranked in the top 10 of the AP Top 25 Poll this week, while Stanford isn't even close to being in the ranking.
The Trojans are coming off of a 66-14 victory against Rice in Week 1. While Stanford is coming off of a blowout Week 1 win themselves against Colgate (41-10), they also didn't win by 52 points and score 66. Not even close on either departments. SC looked too dominant all around last week to be the underdogs coming into this one.
The offense put up 45 points, and the defense added THREE pick-6's to go along with that--making it 66 points. Caleb Williams was as great as advertised--averaging both 11.3 yards per pass attempt on 22 passes and 11.3 yards per rush attempt on six carries. Jordan Addison was as great as advertised, too; grabbing a pair of touchdowns while leading the team with five catches.
As a result of how strong SC stacks up against the lowly Stanford Cardinal (who went an abysmal 3-9 last season), there are some safe bets to get in on this weekend. Three in particular stand out from the WynnBET sportsbook.
Best USC Football Bets Week 2
The first best bet to take a look at for USC football is one of the most basic: The spread. While basic, it's one SC fans can count on when betting this weekend. Take USC -8.
Why? Again, this is a Stanford team that was so bad that they had a worse record than USC did last season, despite beating them and getting SC's coach fired Week 2 of last year. SC's going to win, and it's safe to say that it's also likely by a full score or more. As for the next best bet, it's a little bit more of a close one.
And that's the under (-110) on the Over/Under, which is set at 68. My prediction for this game just prior to the start of this season was a 38-28 USC win. And that prediction is still just as valid. SC will put up a lot of points, and Stanford will take advantage of controlling the clock, and wearing down a front seven that comes into the Pac-12 slate as suspect against the run.
That being said, neither will likely light up the scoreboard like each team did in Week 1. Cardinal Head Coach David Shaw always knows how to gameplan against USC to where they can at least compete in the trenches. That could go a long way, and prevent the Trojans from completely breaking the game open.
And as for Stanford, they'll take advantage of USC trying to transition to a new defense and work out those kinks, but they don't have enough talent to run up the scoreboard.
Check out the last six recruiting class rankings for USC (in order from most recent to least recent): 6th, 7th, 63rd, 20th, 4th, 4th. Now, the last six recruiting class rankings in the same order for Stanford: 19th, 43rd, 21st, 19th, 40th, 14th. (All recruiting ratings and rankings in article are as of 247Sports.)
Those rankings prove Stanford's at too big of a talent disadvantage to put up a wild scoring night against USC, even if they're still adjusting to a new defensive coordinator. And that goes into the third and final best bet for this game: Also smash the under on Stanford's total points in the contest (28.5). It's -120 to do so. While they'll come close to the over, they won't get there.
They don't have enough skill position talent to support Tanner McKee on offense. Even in their 2022 recruiting class, which was a good class, they still didn't sign a four or five star receiver, and signed just one four star running back (Arlen Harris Jr.).
They haven't been recruiting those two spots well enough to trust them to put up over 28 points, and they lost one of their top weapons on offense last year to these Trojans in RB Austin Jones. They lost him via the transfer portal, which is something they didn't use much to their own benefit. They didn't pick up a single offensive transfer this offseason (only one total as well).
45-28 USC