Are the USC Trojans playing today?

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Are the USC Trojans playing college football today? No they are not. The Trojans get the weekend off in the Big Ten. Frankly, they need the rest. USC had played seven consecutive weekends going back to August 29 against San Jose State. The Trojans played every weekend in September and then the first two weekends of October. They are nursing several key injuries and need to get healthy. Mark Bowman, Elijah Paige, and Jide Abasiri are just some of the banged-up Trojans who need to get back to 100 percent.

USC's next game will be at Wisconsin on Saturday, October 24. The Trojans will visit the Badgers in prime time and need to avoid looking ahead to the bigger games on their Big Ten schedule. USC hosts Ohio State on Halloween and then plays Indiana in November before closing its season schedule with Maryland and Bob Chesney's UCLA.

USC has to handle the Wisconsin road trip and then at least split the Ohio State-Indiana pair of games. If the Trojans can do that, they will enter the Maryland game, a layup, with only two losses. This would set them up to be 9-2 going into the Battle Of Los Angeles against the Bruins, in a game which could decide a College Football Playoff berth.

While USC has the weekend off, two Big Ten football games will involve future Trojan opponents. The big one is Ohio State at Indiana at noon Eastern time on Fox. The other game is Wisconsin at UCLA at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on NBC. Stay with us at Trojans Wire for coverage of those games on the weekend before we swing into Wisconsin preview coverage next week. Also remember that USC basketball is just around the corner. Our women's and men's hoops coverage will kick into high gear in the final week of October before the season begins on Monday, November 2.

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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Are the USC Trojans playing today?

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