Two of the nation’s hottest teams will meet up in the Granddaddy of all Bowl Games as the USC Trojans essentially host the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Rose Bowl. This will be a rematch of the game between these two teams following the 2008 season. This will be both teams’ first time back in the Rose Bowl since that game.
Don't miss the Rose Bowl from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California at 5 p.m. ET on Monday, January 2, 2017. Catch every moment of the game live on ESPN.
Rose Bowl Odds at BookMaker.eu
Penn State +6.5
USC -6.5
Over/Under 62
Odds Analysis
The spread has held firm since opening while the total has bumped up by a couple points.
Both of these two teams enter the action having strung together a nice finish to the season. For Southern California, they won their last eight games in a row, going 7-1 ATS in those games and covering their last six games.
In similar fashion, Penn State rebounded from a rocky start to the year to win nine in a row and cover the spread in their final eight games. With both of these teams red hot one of them will have to give with the Nittany Lions entering as the higher ranked team, but the Trojans getting to play right near home.
Bowl Game History
The Trojans played in the Rose Bowl in four straight years, winning three in a row ending with a 38-24 with over Penn State on New Year’s Day in 2009. That was the last time the Trojans played in the Rose Bowl with Wisconsin, Oregon and Sanford seeing much more play in this legendary game over the past few years.
The last two Rose Bowls were blowouts with Oregon topping Florida State two years ago by 39-points and Stanford topping No. 5 Iowa by 29 last year.
With such big wins, both Stanford and Oregon easily covered the spread as favorites much in line with USC’s 6.5-point advantage. Prior to that, however, the underdog covered the spread in three of the bowl’s previous four years. Over the last 13 years, the favorite has covered the spread nine times.
Team and Coaching Bowl Game History
Penn State has a rather impressive .644 winning percentage in their 45 bowl games. Of course, most of that happened in the Joe Paterno era.
Since Paterno left and the Nittany Lions became bowl eligible again following their bowl suspension in the wake of the notorious scandal, Penn State has played in just two bowl games, splitting them by beating Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl two years ago and falling to Georgia in the Gator Bowl last year. The Rose Bowl, of course, is a much bigger deal as this Nittany Lions team came out of nowhere in the season’s fourth week to go on a surprising run, looking more like the team of old. They’ll hope that continues and they’ll aim to leverage their past successes in their quest for an upset victory.
Obviously, that’s a tall order for a team that’s the underdog by nearly a touchdown. The Trojans have been playing great football, too, and have a record 34 Rose Bowl appearances and 24 Rose Bowl victories.
The Trojans had their bowl victories in the 2004 and 2005 seasons vacated despite winning those games. If you count those wins, USC has gone 10-2 in their last 12 bowl games. Under Clay Helton, the Trojans fell to Wisconsin in the Holiday Bowl in 2015, but beat Fresno State in the 2013 Las Vegas Bowl.
Recent Games of Note
It’s been a while since these two teams last squared off and we lack any common opponent to allow for a direct comparison, but we should have a couple fired up offenses looking to run over the opposition.
For the Trojans, Ronald Jones II has put up some big numbers in USC’s last five games, rushing for 7.8 yards per carry. He ended the year with 1,027 rushing yards and 11 scores on the ground, but 742 of those yards and nine of those touchdowns came in the last five games.
While Penn State has a pretty good defense, they did allow 241 rushing yards to Wisconsin in the conference title game and gave up three touchdowns on the ground with Corey Clement rushing for 164 yards. That was the most yards Clement gained all year.
On the other side, the showdown between the USC run defense and Saquon Barkley will be intriguing, too. While Trace McSorley set the PSU single season record with 3,360 yards and 25 touchdowns in the air thanks to a huge Big Ten title game, it was Barkley that was the conference player of the year.
He has scored in six straight games and has 19 combined touchdowns. He’s also got two 200 yards games to his name.
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