The Kenny Dillingham Era at Arizona State is off to a 1-2 start with the lone win coming against an FCS opponent and the Sun Devils coming off a humbling 29-0 loss to Fresno State last weekend amidst injuries at quarterback.
Needless to say, it's probably not an ideal time for the Sun Devils to host the likes of No. 5-ranked USC and one of college football's most prolific offenses.
That's why the Trojans are 34.5-point favorites (per BetMGM.com).
The two quarterbacks who have started games for Arizona State this season -- freshman Jaden Rashada and veteran Trenton Bourguet -- are out with injury this week as Notre Dame transfer Drew Pyne will make his first start for the program.
Pyne was just 5-of-13 passing for 52 yards and 2 interceptions off the bench last week against Fresno State, but he did play one of the best games of his career against the Trojans last year while with the Fighting Irish. Pyne was 23-of-26 passing for 318 yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT in that game, but he comes into this matchup with a much different supporting cast.
Most notably, the Sun Devils offensive line is giving up an average of 3 sacks per game -- tied for 115th nationally.
But for a much closer look at this Arizona State team and its strengths and weaknesses entering this matchup, we turn to Devils Digest publisher Hod Rabino for his insights and perspective.
What is Arizona State's QB situation at this point and what does that mean for the offense's potential Saturday?
Rabino: "Drew Pyne, the Notre Dame transfer who is obviously very familiar to USC fans from last year, will get the start simply because he's the best healthy quarterback available right now on the roster. There's no sugarcoating the horrible game that he had against Fresno State last weekend, but that was the first time he played this year after suffering a hamstring tear in mid-August. So maybe this week he has less rust to knock off and he already got that really bad game out of his system en route to better performances. And the fact that one of his best games last year for the Irish did come against the Trojans maybe does give him an extra boost of confidence for Saturday night.
"Jacob Conover, a transfer from BYU is the backup. He has honestly had a very quiet fall camp and came into the season as the fourth-string quarterback. Much like any other signal-caller who played last Saturday he had a below average game. On the other hand, he did look better in practice this week -- something that Dillingham did point out. Having said all that, if he's playing extensive snaps on Saturday night that probably means that the scoreboard isn't exactly delivering good news for the home team. Even though this is stating the obvious, a lot of the offensive success is going to depend on the ability of the front five. And the only reason I'm saying this is because even though this is still a very young season this group has been through hell and back when it comes to injuries and it's anybody's guess what the level of cohesiveness can be when you have quite the turnstile style effect taking place. If this unit can turn in a better than expected performance then we should see this offense play much better than it has the last few weeks."
