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"We're anxious to hit somebody we don't know," said Spartan head coach Dick Tomey, who refuses to be intimidated.
They had Nebraska on the ropes last year, so there will be no speech about facing USC.
"No, this is not going to be as close to as an intimidating an environment as Nebraska," he said.
The Spartans front seven on defense are all seniors, and they want USC's freshman quarterback Matt Barkley to feel the pain.
"People been working their butts off trying to just make sure this is going to be a game to remember," said defensive tackle Kalvin Cressel .
"The fact that we have a new starter for the first time at quarterback, that's a concern always," said USC head coach Pete Carroll.
Coach Tomey will not name his starting quarterback as Kyle Reed and Jordan Lasecla will both play.
"It's very difficult to be consistent on the ground against them," said Tomey. "You need to make some chunks against them, like you do against any great defense. It's hard to nickel and dime them, so we're not going to try to do that."
USC is a 35-point favorite with Ohio State on deck next week. The Trojans better not be looking past the Spartans.
"We're just going to go at this first game, this first opener with great excitement about it, great enthusiasm to get the season kicked off and hopefully we can perform well enough to get ourselves a good win," said Carroll.
"To them it's just another game, but for us it's like our lives, it's like our Super Bowl," said Cressel.
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