NCAA Football: USC vs Colorado Week 5 CFB Preview

Colorado football has its hands full once again in Week 5. The Buffaloes return home after their embarrassing loss to the Oregon Ducks only to face reigning Heisman winner Caleb Williams and the #8 USC Trojans in another Pac-12 showdown. The kick-off is scheduled for 12 PM ET at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado. Deion Sanders’ group finally got a wake-up call in Eugene but will be motivated to bounce back here. USC meanwhile remains perfect, beating Arizona State 42-28 on Saturday. We’ll preview the game below, dive into the odds, and highlight the head-to-head history between these two programs.

USC dominant vs Colorado

As we all know, the Buffaloes were nothing before Sanders arrived. That’s why it’s unsurprising to see USC winning 16 meetings in a row with Colorado, including a dominant 55-17 victory in 2022 at the iconic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Trojans also won convincingly on their last visit to Boulder. 

Trojans are rolling

USC is a legitimate title contender in 2023 with arguably the best quarterback in the nation and the potential first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Caleb Williams is a superstar and could very well win the Heisman again. The Washington, DC native has already thrown for 1,200 yards and 15 touchdowns in four games, completing 74.3% of his passes in the process. Williams hasn’t thrown a single interception, either. 

Lincoln Riley’s team is third in the nation in total yards (591), fourth in passing yards, (395.7), and first in the country in points with 59.3. They’ve trashed San Jose State, Nevada, Stanford, and most recently, Arizona State. This was honestly the Trojans’ closest game yet, much in part to their 10 penalties. That helped the Sun Devils stay in it.

Williams still managed to carry the load through the air though, completing 20 of 31 passes for 322 yards and three touchdowns. Running back MarShawn Lloyd also went nuclear, rushing for 11 yards per carry. This offense is going to give Colorado an absolute fit on Saturday, which is exactly why they’re a 23-point favorite at Bodog.

Tall task for Colorado

The talk of the college football world has been Colorado. I mean, Deion Sanders literally took them from a 1-12 season a year ago to a top-25 ranked program that sat at 3-0 before Week 4, beating TCU, Nebraska, and Colorado State. But, the Buffaloes finally met their maker in Eugene, with Bo Nix and Oregon running them out of Autzen Stadium.

Colorado ended up falling 42-6 and was completely overmatched in more ways than one. They had a mere 40 rushing yards, 13 first downs, and just 199 total yards compared to 522 for the Ducks. This was the Buffaloes’ first serious test and it did prove that Sanders’ group isn’t quite at the stage of a contender. There is work to do.

Primetime discussed after the game that he expects his boys to respond but to be brutally honest, Week 5 is another very difficult contest that will likely end up in a loss. Williams is a killer with both his arm and his legs and with two-way star Travis Hunter still injured, the QB is going to have his way downfield. But despite being a heavy underdog at the majority of football betting sites, Colorado will leave it all out on the field and should feed off the home energy in Boulder.