No. 23 Stanford won its first game of the season last week, pushing past Northwestern 17-7. However, it came with a price. Quarterback K.J. Costello has been ruled out of Saturday night’s game against USC after an injury suffered against the Wildcats.
The senior Costello was on the receiving end of a hit to the head just before halftime against the Wildcats. He was about to go into a slide when he took a forearm to the head. The play did not draw a penalty for targeting; however, Costello still exited the game and would not return to action.
Costello was solid in his limited action last week. He completed 16-of-20 passes, throwing for 152 yards and a touchdown. Last year, Costello threw for 3,540 yards, with 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. His play helped lead Stanford to wins over No. 17 USC and No. 20 Oregon, the latter being an overtime win on the road. His season-long stats were good enough to earn him a selection on the All-Pac-12 second-team.
Next Man Up
In the meantime, while Costello recovers, Stanford will turn the offense over to redshirt sophomore Davis Mills. Mills was ranked as the No. 2 pocket passer in the Class of 2017 according to ESPN. During his time on the field last week after Costello left the game, Mills went 7-for-14 for 81 yards. This will be his first career start.
Mills will have to beat USC without protection from his team’s star left tackle. Stanford coach David Shaw announced earlier in the week that Walker Little will be out until at least midseason due to suffering a lower-body injury last week against Northwestern. Little, a former five-star recruit, earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors last year and could be a first-round selection in next year’s NFL draft.
Last year, Costello and Stanford took care of business against USC, cruising to a 17-3 victory at home. This year, they travel to the Coliseum as underdogs. Currently, the Cardinal are a three-point underdog against the Trojans, who escaped week one with a 31-23 win at home against Fresno State. A large part of that, of course, has to do with the absence of Costello.
Other Injury
However, USC will also be without its starting QB, and for a much longer duration. True freshman Kedon Slovis will get the nod under center after JT Daniels suffered a torn ACL and meniscus against the Bulldogs. Daniels has been ruled out for the rest of the season. So it will be two backup quarterbacks battling in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
Since the start of 2012, Stanford is 14-4 against the spread, including 9-9 straight up. With two inexperienced QBs leading the offenses, the point total is currently at 43. While circumstances have obviously been different in the past, the over has hit in Stanford’s last seven games as the betting underdog.
The Pac-12 rivals will kick off Saturday night at 10:30 p.m. ET. USC leads the all-time series 61-33-3, but each team has four wins in their last eight meetings.
