Holiday Bowl: Can Nebraska beat USC without Bo Pelini?

National University Holiday Bowl

Nebraska (9-3) vs. USC (8-4)

San Diego

Dec. 27, 2014

Nebraska and USC enter Saturday night’s Holiday Bowl under very different circumstances.

Cornhuskers athletic director Shawn Eichorst made the decision to fire head coach Bo Pelini after a 9-3 season, much to the chagrin of many players. Pelini was fired on Nov. 30, two days after the Huskers overcame a big deficit to beat Iowa 37-34 in overtime.

Eichorst hired Mike Riley away from Oregon State, but Riley won’t coach in the bowl game. Barney Cotton, Pelini’s offensive line and associate head coach, will lead the team against the Trojans in an interim role. Following the game, Cotton will head to UNLV, where he has accepted the offensive coordinator job.

It’s hard to predict how the Huskers will play with all that’s happened in the last month, but their high-powered rushing attack should pose a challenge for a USC defense that had one of its best efforts of the season in a 49-14 win over Notre Dame in the regular season finale.

Though he was banged up down the stretch, Ameer Abdullah led the team with 1,523 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns on the season. Dual-threat quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr. added 664 yards and five scores on the ground in addition to his 2,314 yards, 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions through the air.

Nebraska struggled mightily on the defensive side of the ball down the stretch, giving up 59, 28, and 34 points to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, respectively. USC and its 29th-ranked offense should have plenty of chances to exploit Nebraska’s weaknesses.

The Trojans, in their first year under Steve Sarkisian, won three of their final four games to finish 8-4. The win over Notre Dame was most impressive. Junior quarterback Cody Kessler threw for 372 yards and six touchdowns to cap off a season in which he totaled 3,505 yards, 36 touchdowns and just four interceptions while completing 70.7 percent of his passes.

Kessler looked to fellow junior Nelson Agholor early and often. The speedy Agholor caught 97 passes for 1,223 yards and 11 touchdowns on the season to lead the Trojans while tailback Javorius Allen, another junior, led the team with 1,337 yards and nine touchdowns while also catching 40 passes for 442 yards out of the backfield.

Both teams won their bowl games last year. Nebraska beat Georgia in the Gator Bowl and USC beat Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl. The efforts of the defenses will likely decide which team wins a second straight bowl.

ODDS

USC (-7)

FUN FACT

In four matchups, Nebraska has never beaten the Trojans. The Trojans beat the Huskers 31-21 in 1969, 28-10 in 2006 and 49-31 in 2007. In 1970, the teams played to a 21-21 tie.

PREDICTIONS

Graham: USC is the better team here, but Nebraska's emotion might be tough to ignore. Will this Huskers team win one final game in coach Bo's honor? I'm not buying it. USC wins and quarterback Cody Kessler puts up a lot of points. USC 35, Nebraska 17.

Nick: This would be a really cool buddy cop movie idea if Bo Pelini and Ed Orgeron showed up, did a little surfing, had some fun and then parachuted into the game. Please tell me that's going to happen, right? USC 33, Nebraska 24.

Sam: It’s tough to say if Nebraska will bounce back from losing Bo Pelini, but I expect Ameer Abdullah to put up some big numbers in his final game. Ultimately, USC – led by an underrated Cody Kessler – is just a better overall team and will come out on top. USC 37, Nebraska 27.

For more USC news, visit TrojanSports.com.

For more Nebraska news, visit HuskerOnline.com.

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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

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