It’s official: USC vs Utah in 2022 Pac-12 Championship Game
There are three College Wire sites representing Pac-12 schools: Trojans Wire, Ducks Wire, and Colorado Buffaloes Wire. One of the three schools had a bad year in football. Another will be in the Pac-12 Championship Game.
The third school should have been in the Pac-12 title game, but it coughed up a 31-10 lead with four minutes left in the third quarter.
Oregon’s remarkable implosion opened the door for the Utah Utes — losers to Oregon just one week ago — to find a way to Las Vegas for the 2022 Pac-12 Championship Game.
It’s a remarkable turn of events — not that Oregon State won, but HOW the Beavers won. It opened the door for Utah to face USC in a rematch of an epic 43-42 game from Oct. 15 in Salt Lake City.
Much more on this matchup during the coming week, but let’s start with a few initial notes about Trojans-Utes, Part II:
CAM RISING INJURY
Cam Rising did not play against Washington State on Oct. 27 in Utah’s first game after its win over USC on Oct. 15. Rising has not been 100-percent healthy since then. He did not look like himself in the loss to Oregon one week ago.
VAN FILLINGER INJURY
Utah’s star pass rusher is out for the season with an injury.
UTAH SPEED RUSHER JONAH ELLISS
Utah’s speed edge rusher Jonah Elliss has not been fully healthy. It will be worth noting how active and healthy he is when this game starts.
TAVION THOMAS WON'T PLAY
The Utah running back terminated his college career this past week. He will begin preparing for the NFL scouting combine and the draft.
CAM RISING AWAY FROM HOME IN 2022
Rising has thrown key interceptions in Utah’s big road games this season: at Florida, at UCLA, and at Oregon. In a neutral-site game, one wonders if he can recapture his Rice Eccles Stadium magic. It’s not Salt Lake City, but it’s also not a true road game.
PAC-12 TITLE GAME FAN NOTES
When the Pac-12 title game was held in Santa Clara, Calif., at Levi’s Stadium, fans of Pac-12 North teams were able to travel to the game a lot more easily. Last year, the move to Vegas meant that the Pac-12 South team in the championship game had more fans. Utah partisans greatly outnumbered Oregon fans last year
DIVISION CHANGE
With the Pac-12 ditching the two-division setup and having its top two teams meet in the championship game, it’s notable that two teams formerly from the same division, the Pac-12 South, are in the title game. Had the two-division setup remained intact this year, it would be Oregon-USC, not Utah-USC.
VEGAS ATMOSPHERE
More Utah fans or more USC fans in Allegiant Stadium?
ERIC GENTRY
Gentry got hurt late in the loss to Utah. He played a meaningful amount of snaps against Notre Dame and contributed a few key tackles. He should be ready to play against Utah.
RALEN GOFORTH
Goforth got injured against Notre Dame. We’ll find out more about his status for the Utah game during the week.
ANDREW VORHEES
The USC offensive lineman left the Notre Dame game with an apparent injury, but we’ll have to get more information on him as the week progresses.
MARIO WILLIAMS
Though he didn’t make huge plays, Williams looked healthier and stronger versus Notre Dame. USC would love to get him close to full strength against Utah. He made some significant plays in the first game against the Utes on Oct. 15.
UTAH CONSISTENCY
This will be Utah’s fourth Pac-12 Championship Game in the past five years, and the one year it didn’t make it was the truncated pandemic season of 2020.
PANDEMIC NOTE
If you throw away the shortened 2020 pandemic season — given that it had no more than six games in the Pac-12 — USC hasn’t been to the Pac-12 title game since 2017. This is USC’s first trip in five years. (Again, if one doesn’t count the 2020 season.)
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF
USC will be in the College Football Playoff with a win. Next question.
PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME INFORMATION
Friday, December 2
5:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time
Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas
Fox Sports has the telecast
5 OF 6
Lincoln Riley has reached his team’s conference championship game in five of the last six seasons, the exception being 2021 at Oklahoma.
LINCOLN RILEY STREAK
As a college head coach, Riley has never lost more than two games in any regular season.
HOW UTAH GOT INTO THIS GAME, BEYOND BEATING COLORADO IN WEEK 13
Utah needed UCLA to beat Cal on Friday. The Bruins rallied from a first-half deficit to win.
OREGON BLEW A 31-10 LEAD
Oregon State, down 31-10 to Oregon late in the third quarter, climbed all the way back exclusively with running plays and zero passes.
WASHINGTON WINS APPLE CUP
Washington had to beat Washington State late Saturday night for any of this to matter. The Huskies did the job.
