USC to Play Purdue in Pigskin Classic

New USC Coach Paul Hackett will get a national stage on which to make his debut. The Trojans have added a 12th game at the top of their 1998 football schedule by agreeing to take part in the ninth annual Pigskin Classic. USC will host the event, facing Purdue on Sunday, Aug. 30, at the Coliseum. The game will be shown by ABC.

USC had been scheduled to open its season Sept. 12 at the Coliseum against San Diego State.

The Trojans will now have seven home games, including five of their first six, their only road game before Oct. 17 being a Sept. 26 trip to Tallahassee, Fla., to play Florida State.

This is USC’s second appearance in the Pigskin Classic. The Trojans began the second John Robinson era by losing to North Carolina, 31-9, in the 1993 game at Anaheim Stadium.

This will also be only the third time in Trojan history that the football team has played on a Sunday. USC is still looking for its first Sunday victory, the other two games being the 1993 Pigskin loss to North Carolina and the 1996 Kickoff Classic in which the Trojans were defeated, 24-7, by Penn State at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

The Trojans are coming off a disappointing 6-5 season that resulted in the dismissal of Robinson, while Purdue is coming off its best season in nearly two decades, having finished 9-3 and 15th in both polls.