With no time to lick their wounds, the Trojans begin preparations for the undefeated Ducks.
- USC is not entirely over the loss at Arizona, but the Oregon challenge has shaken the Trojans from their doldrums. "We all know we screwed up last week," said Lane Kiffin. "We're moving forward. It's good to have a game like this."
Lane Kiffin called Oregon "maybe the best team in the country," and said this is the best Oregon team of the Chip Kelly era.- Offensively, freshman QB Marcus Mariota has taken the option to a new level with his game-breaking speed. "I think the quarterback's the difference," Kiffin said. "The quarterback's speed is faster than the other guys that have been there. When he gets in the open field, he just runs away from you."
- Defensively, the Ducks play a true 3-4, which gave USC fits against Stanford and even Cal at times. "They have some long guys on the outside," said Silas Redd. "We're really going to have to attack and hem those guys up."
- Barkley does not expect to struggle with the 3-4 concept "because we've seen it so much" this year, but he called it a "really physical defense." He singled out the defensive ends as the unit to watch.
- Oregon aside, the Trojans are concentrating on not beating themselves. "I really think that both games we lost, we've killed ourselves," said Barkley. "We can't play a game like that this week. Oregon is too good."
- The running backs heard about ball security all weekend from coach Kennedy Polamalu. "To say the least," said Redd when asked if Polamalu dug into the unit. "You be a man about it. You know what you did wrong." In the case of his fumble, Redd was carrying the ball too low.
- RB Curtis McNeal was forced to watch the game from home as he did not make the trip due to a health issue. "It was very frustrating," said McNeal. "We've got a big challenge this weekend, so last weekend is gone."
- McNeal admires the Oregon offense and his backfield counterpart DeAnthony Thomas. "They are very explosive. For DeAnthony to be a very small guy, he breaks a lot of tackles. Our defense has just got to wrap up and make sure they're on the ground."
- The pundits have cast the Trojans as heavy underdogs this week, but McNeal insists that the team is not lacking in self-belief. "We always have confidence because we are USC Trojans. We could be 0-10 and we're always going to have confidence going into the next game. We're not worried about them being undefeated. We're not worried about our two losses. We're just going to execute our game plan and play Trojan football."
- Here is Coach Kiffin's post-game press conference...
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