USC will now play Oregon instead of Washington in Pac-12 championship game

It only seems fitting that this most unusual and unpredictable Pac-12 football season would involve yet more uncertainty and obstacles leading into the conference championship game.

USC (5-0), the only unbeaten team in either division, was tentatively scheduled to host Washington (3-1) on Friday in the Coliseum in the title game, but the Trojans will now play Oregon (3-2) instead.

The Huskies had to cancel their game last weekend with Oregon due to their own COVID-19 issues and the decision was made Monday morning that they would not be ready to play this Friday either.

The conference made the switch official, inserting the Ducks into the championship game.

Per the official announcement: "This decision was made under the Pac-12’s football game cancellation policy and Football Championship Game policy due to Washington neither having the minimum 53 scholarship student-athletes available for the game nor the minimum number of scholarship student-athletes at a position group, in each case as a result of a number of positive football student-athlete COVID-19 cases and resulting isolation of additional football student-athletes under contact tracing protocols."

MORE: Clay Helton reacts to the Pac-12 switching USC's championship game opponent on Monday

Washington coach Jimmy Lake provided more clarity in noting that the Huskies have no available offensive linemen at this point and couldn't even begin to start practicing.

"That whole unit is currently, we have positive cases and through contact tracing we have zero offensive linemen available to play," he said. "I know it was devastating news to our team, our fans and everybody that supports Husky football who was looking forward to us trying to bring home that Pac-12 trophy this Friday. ...

"We're in no position currently to even start resuming practice, so you have to be able to practice to play a football game. In reality, when you look across the country, the teams that have been shut down by the virus, they've been two games consecutively in a row before they've been able to fully get everybody back into the building, back healthy again."

Which raises the question of what was the Pac-12 thinking in the first place in announcing the USC-Washington matchup?

The Trojans have now wasted a day preparing for the wrong opponent.

"Not to go give strategic information away, but we really spent yesterday working on Washington specifically and focusing on Washington and spent the day and night as well as some of our walkthroughs yesterday afternoon with the team, just Washington," USC coach Clay Helton said.

The news of the opponent switch came just a few hours after Helton talked to reporters about the matchup against Washington, highlighting individual personnel, etc., while acknowledging, "You're really trying to prepare for two teams so we'll work Washington early this week and do a little Oregon prep at night from a staff standpoint. ... But we will be ready for both teams -- both Washington and Oregon, practice mostly Washington early in the week with some Oregon prep later in the week."

Finding out Monday is better than the alternative of dragging it out later into the week, but it remains unclear what the Pac-12 thought was possible for the Huskies when Lake paints a pretty clear picture that it wasn't going to be viable for his team.

For his part, Helton wasn't looking to make any excuses.

"Sometimes it falls your way and sometimes it doesn't," he said. "I remember, shoot, the last time we were [in the Pac-12 title game], if you remember, we played Stanford, right, and I think we were coming off a bye week when Stanford had a short week. Sometimes you get a little bit of an advantage and sometimes you don't. It is what it is, it's ball. That's what happens with scheduling, and especially this year. And so you roll with the punches. I mean, again, we're just happy to be in this opportunity. And we're going to make the most of it. We'll go out there and have a great plan and be able to do what we do and execute that plan effectively because we're going to do the things that we do well."

As for the opponent, Oregon opened the season with three straight wins over Stanford (35-14), Washington State (43-29) and UCLA (38-35) before a stunning 41-38 loss to Oregon State and a 21-17 loss to Cal.

The Ducks, of course, had to replace an NFL QB in Justin Herbert as well as several high-profile players who opted out of the season, including star left tackle Penei Sewell. Overall, Oregon introduced an entirely new offensive line this fall.

The Ducks have remained productive offensively, averaging 34.2 points per game (down just a tick from their 35.4 last season), as QB Tyler Shough has passed for 1,389 yards, 11 TDs and 4 INTs and rushed for 256 yards and 2 TDs. Travis Dye (336 rushing yards, 1 TD, 7.5 yards per carry) and CJ Verdell (285-3-4.4) have led the backfield.

But the drop-off on defense has been significant as Oregon is giving up 28 PPG (up from 16.5 last season) and 419.8 yards per game (up from 329.1 last year).

The Ducks lost their top four tacklers from last season in linebacker Troy Dye, safety Jevon Holland, cornerback Thomas Graham and safety Brady Breeze.

Holland (66 tackles, 4 INTs, 4 TFLs), Graham (64 tackles, 2 INTs, 10 PBUs and 5 TFLs) and Breeze (62 tackles, 2 INTs) were set to form the core of a strong secondary before each deciding to opt out. Cornerback Deommodore Lenoir also initially opted out before choosing to return and play.

Meanwhile, linebacker Isaac Slade-Matautia leads the way with 33 tackles in five games, while linebacker Noah Sewell and star defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux have combined for 10.5 tackles for loss and 4 sacks. The Ducks have only 2 interceptions, though, after ranking second nationally last year with 20 in 14 games (with USC CBs coach Donte Williams leading the unit at the time).

"Usually, when you're playing teams, they're usually similar to another team that you played earlier and some of the thoughts that have come, maybe certain schemes, certain personnel groupings, certain defensive fronts, maybe certain coverages that you've seen. Like we've done all year, I don't think we're gonna trick anybody. We're gonna just do what we do," Helton said. "We came into this year saying, hey, let's be an execution-based offense, defense and special teams. Let's not try to make the kids overthink things. Let's be good at what we do and play fast and aggressive."

It was already going to be a short week for the Trojans playing on a Friday afternoon and it just got shorter, while Oregon had last weekend off to conceivably start looking ahead to this potential scenario. But Helton didn't want to make anything of that.

"Obviously, 2020 has been a different year. We've taken the approach that any time, any place, anywhere, anyone. You roll with it because you don't know," he said. "We've seen other games in league and across the nation that have been changed, so it's been part of it. Like I told the team, nobody's going to feel sorry for us. We've got to prepare and do our job, and that's the approach that we've taken. ...

"You roll with the punches, and like our kids have always said, just put the ball down, coach -- it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it's 9 a.m., it doesn't matter if it's Friday, Sunday, it doesn't matter who it's against. We just want the next opportunity, and this next opportunity just happens to be a championship game and we're proud to be here."