USC ready to take its cuts against California

After utilizing an open date to heal injuries and attempt to correct defensive problems, USC plays a California team that lost consecutive Pacific 12 Conference games at Washington and Oregon. Staff writer Gary Klein examines the game’s issues and matchups:

Play ball

The Trojans hope to hit a home run at AT&T Park for the second time in less than two years.

In December 2009, quarterback Matt Barkley completed his first season by leading the Trojans to a rain-soaked Emerald Bowl victory over Boston College.

“I just remember it being a classic, old-school, nitty-gritty football game with the mud and everything was sloppy,” Barkley said. “But we were just making plays and it was a fun game for us to finish up with a win.”

USC Coach Lane Kiffin was not on the Trojans’ staff at the time, but he also has experience in baseball stadiums.

“I did that for a year and three games with the [Oakland] Raiders,” he said, “and it didn’t go very well.”

Trigger men

Barkley passed for four touchdowns and ran for another on Oct. 1 against Arizona, setting school records with 468 passing yards and 470 yards of total offense.

The junior has passed for 14 touchdowns, with four interceptions.

Cal quarterback Zach Maynard is a North Carolina native who transferred to Cal from Buffalo, where he started every game in 2009. The junior left-hander has passed for 11 touchdowns, with three interceptions. He also has run for 109 yards.

In the running

A Cal running back has rushed for more than 1,000 yards in eight of the last nine seasons.

Isi Sofele is on pace to follow Joe Igber, Adimchinobe Echemandu, J.J. Arrington, Marshawn Lynch, Justin Forsett, Jahvid Best and Shane Vereen in the 1,000-yard club. The 5-foot-8 junior has averaged nearly 100 yards a game, which ranks fourth in the Pac-12 and 28th nationally.

USC’s Marc Tyler has averaged 84.5 yards a game, but the Trojans are searching for a breakaway back.

Freshman George Farmer, who ran the 100 meters in 10.4 seconds in high school, could play for the first time against Cal. The 6-1, 205-pound Farmer said he was patterning himself after Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings.

Up front

Other than glowing about left tackle Matt Kalil and center Khaled Holmes, Kiffin has mostly withheld praise for an offensive line that has given up only four sacks.

“I hope we’re not as bad as we played [against] Arizona State,” Kiffin said. “And we’re probably not as good as we played against Arizona.”

The unit will be challenged by a defensive front that shifts from a 3-4 to a 4-3 scheme, with other variations as well. Linebackers Mychal Kendricks and D.J. Holt and end Ernest Owusu lead the Golden Bears.

“We’ve done a great job in the past of protecting what they’ve brought,” Barkley said. “It will be the same this year. Whether we get the protections down; that will kind of be the deciding factor in the game.”

USC’s defensive linemen have only 41/2 sacks. They will face an offensive line that has given up eight. Senior tackle Mitchell Schwartz, who has started 43 games, anchors an experienced unit for the Golden Bears.

Asked to assess USC’s defensive line, Kiffin said, “It has been up and down. We thought this would be the strength of our team.”

Quick hits

USC is 2-1 in games played in San Francisco. The Trojans lost to Stanford at Kezar Stadium in 1942, defeated the University of San Francisco in 1943 and beat Boston College in the 2009 Emerald Bowl. … The Trojans are 21-10-3 in games played on Thursday.

gary.klein@latimes.com