Cal vs USC Picks and Predictions | Pac-12 Football

Cal vs USC Betting Preview

WagerTalk college football handicapper Tony Finn offers his Cal vs USC Pac-12 football betting preview fo Saturday, December 4. At the time of posting, the Golden Bears are holding steady as a 4.5-point home favorite over their in-state rivals from Los Angeles, with the total sitting at 57.5 points.

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Cal vs USC Predictions

• Cal Golden Bears -4.5 vs USC Trojans
• Total: 57.5 Points
• The Golden Bears have only beaten Trojans once outright (2018) since their epic triple-OT win in 2003.
• USC has also won eight-straight meetings in this series, covering the spread in each of the last seven.
• USC has failed to cover the spread in each of their last five games.

The USC Trojans (4-7, 3-5 in Pac 12 – South) and California Golden Bears (4-7, 3-5 in Pac 12 – North) canceled their originally scheduled Saturday regular-season event COVID-19 issues. The Trojans were slated to meet the California Golden Bears Saturday, November 13, in Berkley, California. However, after more Cal football players tested positive for COVID-19, the athletic departments of both programs decided to postpone the contest.

Cal’s December 4 home game against USC looks like it will be the final FBS game before the bowl season begins. The USC-Cal match, which was postponed from November 13 because of COVID issues in the Cal program, will be played the day after the Pac-12 championship game, on Friday, December 3, in Las Vegas.

USC Trojans

USC’s reward for its disappointing season is a new coach, with ex-Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley coming on board immediately after this game. Interim coach Donte Williams, who replaced Clay Helton two games into the season, will wear a headset on the sidelines on Saturday.

Quarterback Kedon Slovis has thrown for 2,153 yards, 11 touchdowns, and eight interceptions. QB Jaxson Dart’s got 1,162 yards, eight touchdowns, and five interceptions on the season in which he completed 61 percent of his pass attempts.

Running back, Keaontay Ingram has a team-high 911 rushing yards with 5 TDs, while Vavae Malepeai has 395 rushing yards with six scores.

Wide receiver Drake London leads the Trojans’ receivers with 88 catches for 1,044 yards and seven touchdowns.

WR Gary Bryant Jr. and Tahj Washington each have 500+ receiving yards on the season.

LB Kana’I Mauga owns a team-high 88 total tackles.

DL Drake Jackson has a team-high five sacks.

DL Tuli Tuipulotu has 4.5 sacks this season.

California Golden Bears

Valentino Daltoso, Cal’s senior correct tackle, is ready to close out a career where he played at least ten games except center at every offensive line position. Cal believes he may be the only player in the country with that distinction.

“It’s always easy to say if we had this or did this better in this one certain spot during that 1-5 start . . . we’re talking about plays that could have changed outcomes of games and probably how we’re feeling about the early part of the season and probably the season as a whole,” Daltoso said. “But we can’t change that kind of stuff.”

QB Chase Garbers has thrown for 2,354 yards, 16 touchdowns, and eight picks.

RB Christopher Brooks and Damien Moore each have 500+ rushing yards.

WR Trevon Clark has a team-high 604 receiving yards with 4 TDs.

WR Kekoa Crawford has 491 receiving yards.

WR Jeremiah Hunter’s got 388 receiving yards.

On defense, LB Daniel Scott leads Cal with 72 total tackles.

DL Cameron Goode has a team-high six sacks this season.

The USC Trojans last saw action against the BYU Cougars this past weekend. The Trojans battled to the bitter end, eventually losing 35-31. The Cal Bears are off a 42-14 loss to UCLA in their last regularly scheduled game. However, the Bears have been the better team across the previous four weeks of the regular season.

While USC is easily the more talent-rich roster filled with 4-star recruits, the Bears played more disciplined and cohesive football to close the season. While laying points in a game that is nothing more than window dressing raises the hairs on the back of one’s neck, the most reasonable assessment in this final non-bowl game of the 2021 campaign is supporting the Bears minus the points.

🏈 With Covid restrictions last year and stadium renovations this year, San Diego State hasn’t had a true home game in 2+ seasons. Can the Aztec faithful propel SDSU to a Mountain West Championship this afternoon? @FinnatWagerTalk weighs in.https://t.co/Ly0xAgZ0Sq

— WagerTalk (@WagerTalk) December 4, 2021

Cal vs USC Analysis from The GoldSheet

Cal has lost 15 out of the last 16 meetings with USC, but that single win came in recent memory, a 15-14 grinder in 2018 at the Coliseum despite being outgained 277-207. The Bears fought hard at the Rose Bowl last week, but eventually lost their uphill battle to gain bowl eligibility this season in a 42-14 defeat as the Bruins scored the last 32 points of the game. Now the Bears return home to Memorial Stadium with a senior-laden lineup (17 in the 2-deep), most playing their last game for the alma mater. Bear QB Chase Garbers has been fairly productive this season, completing 63% of his passes for 2354 YP, 16 TDs with 8 ints., and RB Chris Brooks has gained 5.5 ypc (558 YR) and caught 17 passes, scoring 5 TDs from scrimmage.

Depressed USC has collapsed to lose 5 of its last 6, and last week’s game might’ve taken something extra out of the Trojans. The team at least now knows Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley will be the coach next season and the brief run of interim HC Donte Williams ends here (though Williams could still land on Riley’s new staff). The Trojans rallied for a decent effort last week for Williams, coming from 15 points behind in the 2nd half vs. BYU, only to let the game melt away into another disappointing result for the Trojan faithful.

Not sure how enthusiastic the players will be to take a trip up north to face the Bears in a rescheduled contest between two non-bowl qualifiers, with a new man in charge. Bears figure to be the more motivated of the two. Play California and the Over.

College Football Daily

Join Joe Raineri, Dave Cokin, Adam Trigger and Rob Veno for College Football Daily as we preview this weekend’s college football games, including this Cal vs USC game; Alabama vs Georgia in the SEC Championship Game; San Diego State vs Utah State in the Mountain West Championship Game; and an early preview for next week’s Army vs Nay game.

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WagerTalk’s live odds screen features up-to-the-minute lines from a variety of offshore and domestic sports books. Track the moneylines, point spreads, first half lines, betting percentages and so much more for all of this weekend’s college football games, including this Cal vs USC showdown, from your desktop or phone.

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