Stanford football 2015: Gameday Q and A with Conquest Chronicles

In the words of UFC announcer Bruce Buffer: Its Time!

The Cardinal are making their way to the Coliseum in Los Angeles to face off against the Trojans of USC in which is sure to be a battle for the ages on Saturday night.

We were able to catch up with Julian Lopez, who is the lead writer for the Conquest Chronicles to learn some insight about the Trojans prior to the match up on Saturday.

Here are the questions and answers:

The Men of Troy are coming off another blow out win, however every team has areas that need improvement. What are the areas that need the most attention coming into the battle with the Cardinal?

After week one, the offensive line needed improvement as Arkansas State sacked Cody Kessler five times. Sarkisian and the coaching staff were shifting around the offensive line and as we saw against Idaho last Saturday, there was a drastic improvement as Kessler had all the time in the world to make plays. I think the biggest area of improvement right now is coming out in the second half strong. Both Arkansas State and Idaho scored on their first possession in the third quarter against the Trojans.

Which athlete on the Trojans has been the biggest surprise so far to start off the season?

True freshman running back Ronald Jones II has looked like an absolute beast so far this season, albeit against weak opponents but still, Jones II is turning heads. In two games, he is averaging 12.1 yards per carry and has two touchdowns. The Trojans are deep with their tailback group and Jones II has been a big reason why. His elusiveness is incredible and I could see him taking a 40+ yarder to the house against Stanford.

In your opinion, will the Trojans look to air the ball out in the passing game more this week or look to the ground game to control the clock?

As I mentioned before, USC's running back group is deep and the Trojans have had almost 500 rushing yards in two games. However, Cody Kessler has looked like the Cody Kessler of last year except better and I expect 35 to 40 attempts from him on Saturday. I think we could expect a balanced attack from the Trojans on Saturday.

The Trojans have played two teams that are less than household names to start this 2015 campaign, will this hurt or help the program going into the rugged PAC 12 season?

Help. The Trojans have been able to play a lot of freshmen and work out the kinks with both their offense and defense. The Trojans will be ready on Saturday and I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but the CFB committee can look back at the Arkansas State game in December and it might help the Trojans because the Red Wolves are favorites to win the Sun Belt.

USC and Stanford have had some tremendous battles over the years, which is your most memorable game and do you feel that this year's matchup has a chance to meet those prior year's quality?

My most memorable USC/Stanford game is probably the meeting in 2011 when Stanford won in triple overtime. It was a great back and forth battle especially after Stanford responded to score with under a minute left after Andrew Luck threw a pick-six with 3:08 left. This year's matchup is interesting because for the first time in a couple of years, the Trojans will be favorites and everyone expects them to win... One person who is thrilled that everyone is picking USC is Cardinal Head Coach David Shaw. He loves being the underdog. It's going to be a physical game.