After last season, the Utah Utes are as close to being one of USC’s rivals as a team could possibly be.

The No. 14 Utes (5-1, 2-1 Pac-12) spoiled No. 18 USC’s (6-1, 4-0) season twice last year. The Trojans lost in Salt Lake City for their first loss of the season and then lost in the Pac-12 Championship game to Utah to squash any College Football Playoff dreams.

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“This is an opponent we’ve been wanting to face for a while,” junior safety Jaylin Smith said after practice Tuesday. “Plenty of our guys had circled this game on the schedule, so we’re super excited to get out there and play and compete.”

But both of these teams are very different now than they were at any point last season. The Trojans are coming off a 28-point loss to Notre Dame (6-2), only the fifth time USC has given up 45 or more points to the Fighting Irish across 94 games.

The Utes are coming into Saturday’s game still without any word about whether their star quarterback, senior Cameron Rising, will play, as he is still recovering from an injury he suffered in January.

This game might be the most important one left on USC’s schedule, as the result could define the rest of the season.

“I don’t think anyone is quiet or nervous,” senior inside linebacker Mason Cobb said. “Everyone is starting to speak up because they know what our potential is. I think everyone is fired up for this week.”

If the Trojans are to live up to that potential, they must solve some of their problems quickly. This past weekend, USC scored only 20 points, the second-lowest point total under Head Coach Lincoln Riley. The Fighting Irish got home to sack the quarterback six times, smashing their previous average of 1.57 sacks per game.

On the other hand, the Utah defense comes into this game averaging 3.67 sacks per game, and its 22 sacks on the year are tied for fifth-best in the FBS.

“[The Utes] are extremely aggressive — you gotta give them credit, they do it, it works well for them,” Riley said Tuesday. “It’s a fun group to match up with. I have a lot of respect for them. I enjoy playing against really good defenses.”

Now, the task on the USC offensive line is to prevent another blowup in protection for junior quarterback Caleb Williams. If the Trojans can protect their signal caller, it would help prevent another three-interception performance from Williams, who was under constant pressure against Notre Dame.

“We didn’t execute, we did not carry our weight,” said redshirt junior offensive lineman Jonah Monheim after practice Wednesday. “Defense played a good game for the most part; we made some plays on special teams, but we didn’t live up to it on offense … We’ve just gotta start doing it better.”

Williams and the rest of the offense will have to go up against a defensive unit that only allows, on average, 12.17 points per game, which is good for fifth in the FBS. With the offense having slow starts in the last two games — scoring a combined three points between the first quarters of each game — the Trojans will have to regain their early season success on offense.

If the Trojans can replicate their defensive performance from last week — only letting the Fighting Irish gain 251 yards on offense — and pair it with the USC offense that averaged 51.8 points per game through the first six games of the season, this team will be tough to beat down the line.

This is especially true since the Utah offense, without Rising, has only eclipsed 25 points in two games this season, both against teams with a combined record of 6-8.

Despite last weekend’s result, the offense is still the strength of this Trojan team, as USC still ranks second in the FBS in points per game. As such, it is strength against strength and weakness against weakness between the Utes and the Trojans. The No. 2 scoring offense in the FBS will face off against the No. 5 scoring defense, while the 96th scoring defense of USC will face off against the 109th scoring offense.

With a second loss, USC would almost certainly be eliminated from the CFP, and with the Trojans reeling, the Utes have the opportunity to crush USC fans’ already-dwindling hopes two years in a row. If the Trojans play the same way they played in South Bend this past weekend, that will likely be the case.

Kickoff between the Utes and the Trojans is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Saturday.