College football on Friday night will see the USC Trojans travel to play the Colorado Buffaloes. The game is scheduled for an 9:00 kickoff and will be televised nationally on ESPN. Southern California is favored to win by 21 points with the total set at 57. USC is still own bowl probation for violations under Pete Carroll, but the Trojans are having a successful season anyway. They have jumped out to a 6-2 record overall and 3-2 in the PAC 12. Last week they were defeated in triple overtime by Andrew Luck and Stanford, 56-48. The Trojans will be looking to rebound tonight against a much lesser opponent in Colorado, who is just 1-8 on the season and 0-5 in conference action. The Buffs' only win of the season came against Colorado State 28-14 way back in September.

Free Analysis: Colorado has one of the worst defenses in all of college football. The Buffs have been outscored by an average of three touchdowns this season and have given up 48 or more points in each of their last four games, albeit to Stanford, Washington, Oregon and Arizona State. Offensively Colorado has struggled a lot this year as well, scoring only 18 points per game, which is good for 110th nationally. They don't run the football well either. That amount of pressure on a QB like Tyler Hansen isn't helping. A lot of people expecting big things from this Colorado team in 2011 but they have proven a lot of people wrong by being as terrible as they are. Some factors will obviously play into the outcome of this game and could favor Colorado, slightly. It's going to be a night game in November, where it's projected to snow. Not the usual type of atmosphere for a USC game. Also, USC as a program hasn't played on a Friday night in over 10 years. That won't have the same impact on the players, however. Also, USC will be without a couple of starters tonight. Tailback Curtis McNeal is going to get the nod over Marc Tyler in this contest, even though Tyler is traveling with the team. USC, led by Matt Barkley, is going to be able to score points if they aren't distracted tonight. They run it well, they throw it well and USC can play defense. It was proven last week against Stanford that this Trojan team is still going to be talented and tough to beat no matter who they play. This is only Lane Kiffin's fourth road game as coach of the Trojans but they are 2-1 this season with wins over Cal and Notre Dame. USC is averaging just under 40 points per game in their last four, which should bode well for them tonight against a very bad Colorado defense.

Free Pick: Well, 21 points on the road is a whole bunch in any conference. We've seen a lot of these weekday type of games be close, even when a team is clearly outmatched on paper. However, I expect USC to easily cover this number tonight, IF they aren't distracted. Two weeks ago Kiffin took his team to South Bend and beat up on the Irish. They should have the same type of mindset here tonight, even though they are playing a far inferior opponent. USC can't play in a bowl game, but they can continue to beat up on teams and have a successful season. Colorado has averaged 22.5 points per game at home this season but they have surrendered 31.5 in those contests. USC is arguably better than each one (other than Oregon) of the teams that has already won in Boulder. I think they can cover easily tonight. USC 45, Colorado 10

Free Picks: USC at Colorado Betting

Motivation issues with USC and Effect of Altitude On USC Fatigue plus other factors college football bettors need to know about USC at Colorado (Friday, November 4, 2011) from Pregame.com - Including predictions from Marco D'Angelo and analysis from host RJ Bell.