Can Barkley Take Away the Heisman Trophy and Oregon's Dreams?

In last year's match, Oregon burst ahead of USC in the 4th to win it 53-32.

 

The entire U.S. will witness  Matt Barkley and the Trojans battle against the noise at the infamously loud Autzen Stadium and its intimidating 60,000 fans. Here, Barkley has the same opportunity as Carson Palmer did in 2002 and it will be his throwing arm that decides whether he has what it takes in the battle for the Heisman Trophy. "Before that, Palmer had been in the Heisman mix. Sort of. After that, he was the man to beat." With so much in common, it's not hard to believe how easily Barkley could gloriously repeat history to jump Andrew Luck in the run for the Heisman.

But then again, who really has the edge here? "Oregon proved last week that it's the best team in the Pac-12 North by beating Stanford." But since USC suffered a tragic loss to ASU, they have won 5 of their 6 games and their one loss was in triple overtime to the almighty Stanford.  Does USC have what it takes to spur an upset?

There are several things to take notice before they flip the coin before the kick-off. First, "Weather.com projects a 50 percent chance of rain on Saturday and a high of 45 degrees." Then there is Robert Wood, USC's number one receiver, who may or may not be as healthy as he should be. Lastly, there are just too many implications to ignore here: although Oregon is the expected victor, they have everything to lose in this greatly anticipated match.