One week after climbing back from a 22-point deficit only to fall short in the final minutes against Northwestern, Syracuse faces what could be its toughest challenge of the season when it takes on No. 2 Southern California at MetLife Stadium on Saturday, as part of New York’s College Classic.

Last season, the Orange traveled out to California and lost to the Trojans 38-17, but this year, USC is far better and one of the favorites to win the national championship. The Daily Orange caught up with USC beat writer Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times to discuss some of the main storylines heading into the weekend and examine what to expect from either side.

The D.O.: Doug Marrone has said that his team needs a perfect game to really keep up with Southern California this weekend. How has Lane Kiffin been billing this weekend’s game?

Gary Klein: He has been building Syracuse up as a team that has obviously the leading passing offense in the nation after the first week, and I think, more than anything, he’s trying to guard against USC looking past Syracuse based on what happened last season having played them, and the fact that USC has been such a hyped team through the preseason. … I think he’s taking every chance to get his message out that Syracuse can be a formidable opponent and the Trojans better not look past them.

The D.O.: If Syracuse does decide to sling the ball around like it did last week against Northwestern, how does that match up against the back seven of the USC defense? Is that a strength of the Trojans’ defense so far this season?

GK: USC’s back seven was regarded as a strength going into the season, but after one game, it’s hard to tell just how good they are. They faced a quarterback from Hawaii, Sean Schroeder, who had never thrown a pass in a college game, and they intercepted two passes. The big question for USC had been their defensive line and just how well it was going to play because there are so many new players, and one of their starters was out. They were able to get pressure, cause some turnovers and create some havoc, so they were encouraged by that.

The D.O.: One of the ways Syracuse was tested last week was on special teams. The Orange’s punt coverage was not very good on multiple occasions, and USC has some of the most talented returners there are in college football. Is that an area where USC feels it has a distinct advantage?

GK: I’m not sure that they necessarily feel they have an advantage, although it would certainly appear that way. Since Lane Kiffin has arrived, with John Baxter as his special teams coach, they spend as much time, it seems, working on special teams as they do working on offense and defense. Whereas before, special teams during the Pete Carroll era were more of an afterthought, if you will. This is something that is very, very important to them, and they work on it extremely hard. … They’ve obviously seen the film of what happened to Syracuse, and Syracuse is going to take pains to fix those mistakes, but I’m sure USC is looking forward to going up against those units and seeing if they can have some success.

The D.O.: It wasn’t difficult for Doug Marrone to pick out players on USC that his team needs to focus on because they are the players that everyone has been talking about. But did Lane Kiffin identify any particular players he wanted his team to focus on?

GK: Most of the talk at this point has been about Nassib, the quarterback, since he had such a big day. I know Syracuse has a receiver (Alec Lemon) that did not play in the last game who is a big part of his attack. They are thinking that he is probably going to come back or counting on the fact that they have to play against him. Those are the headline guys at this point.

Published on September 6, 2012 at 3:04 am

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13