Rising, Utah Beat USC For First Victory In L.A. Memorial Coliseum

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Cam Rising and the Utah Utes went on the road and came away with a big win over the USC Trojans for their first victory in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The Trojans hosted the Utes on Saturday, October 9.

Utah won 42-26. It was the Utes’ first win over USC in Los Angeles since 1916. The L.A. Memorial Coliseum broke ground in 1921.

Rising finished the game 22/28 passing for 306 yards and three touchdowns. He added six carries for 27 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

✌️ out, #bLvd. It’s been fun. #GoUtes pic.twitter.com/gP3HiqF2Xy

— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) October 10, 2021

USC started the game with the ball and was able to get down the field fairly easy. But the Utes made a key stop on third down just outside of field goal range and the Trojans had to punt. When Utah got the ball, they were very vanilla in their play calls and went three-and-out on their first drive.

Later in the first quarter, the Trojans scored the first points of the game when Parker Lewis hit a 28-yard field goal to give USC a 3-0 lead with 3:48 to play in the opening period. Utah answered with a strong drive that ended in a Brant Kuithe jet sweep for an 11-yard TD to put the Utes up 7-3 with 17 seconds left in the first. That was the first rushing touchdown and the second total TD for Kuithe.

Midway through the second quarter, USC kept feeding the hot hand Drake London as Kedon Slovis found his star wideout for a 20-yard TD to put USC ahead 10-7. London had 11 catches for 108 yards and one TD in just the first half.

The Utes responded with a nice out route by Money Parks in the end zone for his first career catch as a Ute and they got the lead back, 14-10 with under four minutes remaining until halftime. Late in the second quarter, Utah got a key stop that started with Mika Tafua’s second sack of the half, forcing USC to punt.

Rising found Theo Howard for a big gain to put Utah near the red zone. Andy Ludwig dialed up a flea flicker that saw Rising connect with Devaughn Vele for a touchdown with just 10 seconds left in the first half.

Utes Get In End Zone Frequently In Second Half

That late first half TD turned out to be huge for the Utes as they got the ball back to start the second half. Tavion Thomas got the bulk of the carries and finished the drive with a 43-yard touchdown to give the Utes a 28-10 lead with just over two minutes coming off the clock in the third.

USC was approaching the red zone on the ensuing drive when Vonte Davis picked off Kedon Slovis and took the ball to the 50-yard line and was hit late out of bounds, which added a 15-yard penalty to the end of the run.

The route began when Cam Rising ran in a 17-yard touchdown, while breaking multiple tackles on his way into the end zone. Utah’s lead was up to 35-10 with 9:13 left in the third.

With 10 minutes remaining in the game, USC found the end zone for the first time in the second half when Vavae Malepeai ran in a two-yard touchdown and the Trojans also got the two-point conversion to make it 35-18 Utah.

The Utes put the nail in the coffin when Rising found Dalton Kincaid for a touchdown to give them a 42-18 lead. A late touchdown by the Trojans made it 42-26.

First W in the Coli feels pretty good pic.twitter.com/4QVNO4L3h6

— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) October 10, 2021

Utah improved their record to 3-2 overall and 2-0 in Pac-12 play. They will return to Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday, October 16 to face Arizona State at 8 p.m. MT on ESPN.

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for KSLSports.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.