Trojans picked to win Pac-12 Championship

Can’t touch this · JuJu Smith-Schuster becomes the number one target at wide receiver following the departure of All-American Nelson Agholor, who was drafted by the Eagles with the 20th overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft. – Mariya Dondonyan | Daily Trojan

The Trojans head into the 2015 season with high expectations and a huge target on their back after the team was picked to win the Pac-12 Conference championship in the preseason media poll.

In the poll, USC was predicted to win the Pac-12 South and then go on to defeat the Pac-12 North champion, Oregon, in the conference’s championship game, which is set to take place on Dec. 5 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

The team was also ranked No. 10 in the preseason coaches poll, sitting behind the Ducks, who are slotted at No. 5.

USC is coming off a 2014 season in which they won their second consecutive bowl game — a thrilling 45-42 victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the National University Holiday Bowl last December.

Second-year head coach Steve Sarksian and the Trojans will look to build off last year’s 9-4 campaign, which marked the most victories by a first-year head coach since 1976.

With one of the nation’s most accomplished quarterbacks in redshirt senior Cody Kessler back under center, and 16 starters returning in 2015, the Trojans are back on the national radar and are looking to prove that they are worthy of the hype.

“We realize what people’s expectations are for the program and we’re not going to shy away from them, we’re going to embrace them,” Sarkisian said. “[The media] voted us to be the conference champions, but the reality is we need to go out and prove it.”

Not only is this year’s team more experienced on both sides of the ball, but Sarkisian says that it possesses a greater familiarity with the new system he implemented just a year ago.

“Now I just feel like there is a much better comfort level to where guys can relax and play free and be confident and play with belief at those critical moments,” Sarkisian said.

A key issue  for the team in 2014 was the inability to finish out games, a problem that ultimately cost the team a couple of important victories against Pac-12 South opponents Arizona State and Utah.

This trouble was commonly attributed to the team’s lack of depth, which got a tremendous boost when Sarkisian and his staff assembled one of the nation’s best recruiting classes last February, which featured five-star recruits Iman Marshall and Rasheem Green.

“We have signed tremendous recruiting classes here that have added depth to our roster,” Sarkisian said. “We expect to be a better team in the fourth quarter this year and finish games stronger.”

The Trojans’ success on offense will heavily weigh on  the right arm of gunslinger and captain Kessler, who enters his third season as the team’s starter on the watch list for just about every accolade given to the nation’s best quarterbacks.

The 6-foot-1, 215-pound Kessler, who has been tabbed as an early Heisman Trophy candidate had a remarkable 2014 season, completing a USC-record 69.7 percent of his passes for 3,826 yards with 39 touchdowns to just five interceptions.

As a team leader, Kessler believes that the Trojans have worked hard to get to this point and thinks that they are in just the right spot going into the season.

“I feel like we’re in the position to have this year be what we want it to be,” Kessler said.  “These guys have done absolutely everything they can to be where they need to be.”

Kessler lost one of his favorite targets from last season in wide receiver Nelson Agholor, but he still has plenty of weapons on the outside to work with including standout sophomore JuJu Smith-Schuster.

Despite losing their heart and soul from last year in defensive end Leonard Williams, the USC defense will continue to make strides.

Opposing offenses will have their hands full with junior linebacker Su’a Cravens, who is considered to be one of the best defensive players in the country  due to his extreme versatility and athleticism in the secondary.

“I fear no one on the offensive side of the ball,” Cravens said.

The secondary also features      three-way sophomore player and cornerback Adoree’ Jackson, who will be all over the field for the Trojans in 2015.

Nonetheless, USC is heading into 2015 receiving a lot of praise from the rest of the country, but Sarkisian echoed the importance of taking the season game by game, especially while playing in one of the country’s toughest conferences in which half of its teams are ranked in the top 25 of the preseason coaches poll.

“This is a very complete conference, in my opinion, better than it’s ever been,” Sarkisian said. “It’s forced everybody to every time you take the field to put your best foot forward every Saturday because if you don’t you can get beat.”

USC gets its first chance to showcase its prowess on both sides of the ball in its opener at home against Arkansas State on Sept. 5, the first of a three-game home stand to kick of the season.