March 15, 2010

Vote Kiffin Now!

domer.mq

Too Awesome.

Follow that link above, vote for Lane Kiffin for Esquire’s sexiest woman alive. She’s already beating 1-seed golfer Natalie Gulbis by a wide margin.

Doitdoitdoitdoitdoit!

Gotta wonder, is the creator of this poll a ND, UCLA, or Tennessee alum? We’re thinking they’re a Vol.



Seantrel Henderson To End It All

domer.mq

The top prospect in the 2010 college recruiting class, Seantrel Henderson, is expected to sign with SoCal this week. Ostensibly, Seantrel, who I believe was at one time committed to ND, or was it Florida, or Occidental? Eh, whatever, man. That’s soooo 2009/2010. It’s all about the new hotness in the 2011 signing class now, baby! Anyway, yeah, ostensibly, Seantrel was waiting for SouthernCal to meet its fate in its NCAA investigation before making any rash decisions that would affect the entirety of his remaining time here on earth, but, yeah, sore thumbs and all that…

But on Monday morning in a text-message to news media outlets, his father, Sean, said that his son’s ACT scores, which he received last Friday, made him academically eligible. With that news, he said, his son would sign with U.S.C. on Thursday.

Here endeth the drama. Unless, you know, he doesn’t actually sign. Again.



February 22, 2010

NCAA Wraps Up Southern Cal Hearings, Nothing Happens. Yet.

domer.mq

The NCAA just wrapped up their hearings regarding Southern Cal infractions this weekend. Some highlights of what happened outside of the closed-door sessions provided by the NYT:

The hearings were secret, and participants were required not to reveal anything to the news media. A decision will be made only after hours of conference calls between the members of the committee on infractions.

But there were signs from the hearings that make it highly improbable U.S.C. football will leave this multimillion-dollar, four-year investigation with a wrist slap. The first and most glaring hint came from a hotel bellhop, who practically grunted while pushing an industrial luggage cart full of documents out of the meeting room. There were seven boxes on the cart, including a six-inch-thick binder labeled U.S.C. Response Volume 1.

Tom Yeager, a former chairman of the infractions committee, noted in a telephone interview last week that the inside joke among committee members was whether or not a case was a “one-box” case or a “two-box” case.

When that joke was relayed to David Price, the N.C.A.A.’s vice president for enforcement services, he said that U.S.C.’s case in front of the N.C.A.A. was the longest in his 11 years with the committee.

Yes, yes, go on…

Price also said that most times the committee met, it heard cases from several universities, and this one was dedicated to U.S.C. In contrast, Alabama’s case before the N.C.A.A. in 2002, which resulted in five years of probation, a two-year postseason ban and crippling scholarship reductions, took two days.

Fascinating! Only two days, you say?



January 12, 2010

The Southern Cal Situation Just Went To 11

domer.mq

11 on the “Oh, C’mon!” Scale.

Chow is returning to Southern Cal. We’ll wait to see if Reggie Bush is returning too.



July 30, 2009

Pete Carroll:NCAA Rules::Salvador Dali:Reality

domer.mq

Or maybe I should say Pete’s more of a Bob Ross. He sees happy little trees everywhere, and, more importantly, he sees “happy little mistakes.”

USC football Coach Pete Carroll employed a former NFL tactician last season to help with the team’s punting and kicking game, an arrangement that may have violated NCAA rules that prohibit consultants from coaching, The Times has learned.

Carroll’s action could widen a continuing investigation by the NCAA, the governing body of major college sports, which has been looking at USC football for more than three years and the school’s basketball program for the last year. The probe has been examining specific allegations of improper payments to two players as well as the broader question of whether USC has lost “institutional control” of its athletics department.

Note that it seems to be the consensus of “experts” that such an infraction would fall into the “major” bucket rather than the “minor” bucket. But also note that this infraction is just loop-holey enough that the NCAA can go on ignoring it like it ignores anything else that SoCal might do.

The bylaws say teams may retain temporary consultants “to provide in-service training for the coaching staff, but no interaction with student-athletes is permitted.”

So I’m pretty sure all of this will result in little more than blogger fodder. So is Bruins Nation, who can’t even muster up much righteous incredulity for the news, so common-place these ignored infractions by SoCal have become.

Well we are not sure what else the NCAA is looking at this point. Apparently they have been “looking” for years and to date we have heard nothing. And no one here is going to be holding their breath. Pom Pom and his renegades will continue to operate whatever way they want because clearly NCAA rules don’t apply to them.

Right now the way these stories keep unfolding from the “most scandalous athletic program of this era” the term lack of institutional control applies more appropriately to a hapless, pathetic, impotent NCAA than the rogue program run by Mike Garrett and Chetey Petey.

But again, do understand that this is a serious accusation and would be a serious infraction. Notre Dame fans have spent many a conversation trying to figure out how ND head coaches, past and present, can “carry dead weight” in the form of coaches who offer less contribution than their counterparts. If this accusation is true, Pete decided nobody on his official, legal staff had the proper acumen to coach up his special teams and decided to bring on an illegal, hired-gun to do the work. It’s a very real competitive advantage.

UPDATE: Conquest Chronicles shares their thoughts. Overall it’s a fair-ish piece from the resident SC blogger, but he gets one piece wrong while trying to rationalize.

But what was Rodriguez compensated? Rodriguez states in the piece that his time consulting with Carroll was minimal. Didn’t Charlie Weis have Bill Belechick (sic) consult with him on some ND football issues?

What he CC failed to note is that Weis consulted Belichick during the off-season, and it never involved Belichick monitoring practices or games during the season.



June 9, 2009

Time May Be Running Out For ND To Beat Pete Carroll

domer.mq

Tim Floyd is now the former head coach of the Southern Cal Men’s Basketball.

Embroiled in controversy, Southern California coach Tim Floyd resigned on Tuesday.

The Clarion Ledger of Jackson, Miss., first reported the resignation. The newspaper obtained the letter that the coach submitted to USC athletic director Mike Garrett. It read:

“As of 1 p.m. today, I am resigning as head basketball coach at the University of Southern California. I deeply appreciate the opportunity afforded me by the university, as well as the chance to know and work with some of the finest young men in college athletics. Unfortunately, I no longer feel I can offer the level of enthusiasm to my duties that is deserved by the university, my coaching staff, my players, their families, and the supporters of Southern Cal. I always promised my self and my family that if I ever felt I could no longer give my full enthusiasm to a job, that I should leave it to others who could. I intend to contact my coaching staff and my players in coming days and weeks to tell them how much each of them means to me. I wish the best to USC and to my successor.”

And while we’re using our Jump To Conclusions Mat here, we seem to be unable to land on any spot other than, “He’s resigning because he’s being sacrificed to the NCAA gods in hopes of a reprieve over the investigation into a possible lack of ‘institutional control’ at Southern Cal.” Granted, with that long a description, that conclusion takes up a lot of real estate on the mat, but there it is. And the notion of a “lack of institutional control” is a very serious one when it comes to the NCAA. It’s the same term that was used by the NCAA when SMU was given the death penalty in the ’80s, not that we think the NCAA would ever hit a football program with that penalty in this day and age.

And that’s what leads us to our next bit of complete speculation: Pete Carroll may jump ship in the next year as well. Yes, it would depend on at least several ‘ifs.’ For example, Carroll may well stick around if the NCAA decides only to levy penalties against the SoCal basketball team. He may stick around if any penalties doled out in his direction amount to a slap on the wrist. And he may stick around if he doesn’t have better options for his career. But we can’t help but wonder (and worry) if ND faces the possibility of only beating Carroll once during his tenure at Southern Cal.



May 14, 2009

Ti-i-e-ime, Is On Our Side…

domer.mq

Matt Hinton at Dr. Saturday makes a big fuss today over the fact that it’s now been 2000 days since Michigan (sucks!) has beaten Ohio State in a game of contact football. That’s nothing. No doubt that length of time is causing those petulant little namby-pamby troglodytes a great deal of suffering, much like 2 minutes without The Ring made Gollum go bonkers, but Notre Dame has had it far worse recently in the greatest rivalry in college football. It’s been 7 years, 6 months, 25 days since the Irish beat Southern Cal in football. To spell that out for the Michigan (sucks!) fans who are reading this, getting angry as every difficult-to-read-word is scanned by their rodent-like eyes: That’s 2764 Days.

Should the Irish lose to SoCal this season, that’ll mark 2920 days, or just days away from being 8 years. 8 years is a long freaking time. So long, in fact, that much of the rosters of the Irish and the Trojans will likely not be able to recall the last time the Irish defeated SoCal. So might the Trojans take the Irish for granted this season, and manage to experience their annual “WTF loss” against the Irish, even if the Irish aren’t a good team in 2009? As Matt also pointed out this week, that’s not really likely.

Whether Notre Dame is very good, mediocre or lousy could impact the Pac-10 race and bowl picture given that the Irish play 40% of the teams (Washington, Washington State, Stanford and, of course, USC).

The Trojans need the Irish to be a quality team this year, and they need to beat the Irish in order to make a run at the BCS championship. Whether the kids on the teams remember much history or not, it looks like the Trojans will be pretty well focused on ND in October.

Of course, if these kids do know their rivalry history, they might also remember that there was a time when the Trojans couldn’t beat the Irish, even when the Irish were coached by Faust: October 22, 1983 to November 30, 1996. For you Michigan (sucks!) fans who make it to this point in the post, that’s 13 years, 1 month, and 9 days or 4789 days. There was a time in this rivalry where one side would find it absolutely shocking to lose to the other. That time is not now.



April 26, 2009

Notre Dame had 8 Defensive Players Drafted…

domer.mq

…in the last 5 drafts.

  • 2009: David Bruton
  • 2008: Trevor Laws, Tom Zbikowski
  • 2007: Victor Abiamiri, Derek Landri, Mike Richardson, Chinedum Ndukwe
  • 2006: Nobody, nada, zilch, zero
  • 2005: Justin Tuck

Southern Cal? Well, they had 8 defensive players drafted this past weekend.

  • Brian Cushing
  • Clay Matthews
  • Rey Maualuga
  • Fili Moala
  • Kaluka Maiava
  • Kyle Moore
  • Cary Harris
  • Kevin Ellison

Naturally, the internet is aflame with talk about how ND did disservice to the young men of Notre Dame who would have been eligible for the draft this year and were not “developed” enough to be picked among the 256. You know, all 8 of them or so (I’m not looking this up. I’ve looked at it too much, and sometimes it’s best to stop looking).

When talk comes up about how ND needed to upgrade its talent to compete with the “big boys” in college football and regain its elite status, keep 2 things in mind: 1) It’s the football equivalent of climbing Everest. 2) ND has made a great deal of progress. They now get to celebrate reaching basecamp. There is a ton of young talent at ND.


everestroute

The bright side: That’s 8 NFL caliber players ND doesn’t have to face versus SoCal in 2009. Yay! Also, up this high, we don’t have to worry about coming across the Chinese army while they shoot up Buddhists.



April 3, 2009

Update: Cushing’s Moobs Are All Natural

domer.mq

Turns out the feature from our Friday Roundup was completely fabricated. I blame the internets.

Cushing’s Moobs, along with his stunning acne and attitude problems are all his own and have nothing to do with illegal substances.

Also, the Trojan’s official website is borderline NSFW.

(HT: FOFM)



August 14, 2008

Southern Cal, India Have Odd Notions About STDs…

domer.mq

I remember a few years ago I saw a really depressing documentary about rampaging STDs in India because the citizens of India had very strange notions about how STDs worked. For example, it was common “knowledge” in India’s trucking and shipping industry that you could protect yourself from most any STD so long as you washed your hands after employing a member of the oldest profession.

Sounds like Southern Cal might have weird notions as well

Each day, it seems, another player shows up at USC football practice with a pained expression and an uncomfortable gait, feet spread wide, stepping gingerly across the turf.

They are victims of an ailment that has swept through the team during training camp, something that coaches refer to as “a skin irritation.”

The players call it “jock itch.”

While dislocated kneecaps and high ankle sprains draw more attention, Coach Pete Carroll said he has never seen anything like the minor outbreak that caused key players to miss practice Wednesday.

As much as 25% of the team has been affected by the apparent run of tinea cruris, kicker David Buehler estimated. The condition seems to have spread by way of new compression shorts, or tights, worn under their football pants.

Tailback Joe McKnight and receiver Travon Patterson were sufficiently afflicted to spend Wednesday’s practice on the sideline.

“It burns,” Patterson said.

In recent years, the team has battled more serious incidents of staph infection, employing measures such as washing uniforms in hotter water.

Also in the non-traditional injury category, defensive end Wes Horton said he and teammate Christian Tupou got food poisoning last weekend from salmon they ate on campus.

The illness passed quickly and the Trojans are hoping for similar luck with what Carroll delicately referred to as chafing.

“We’ve had to adjust to some new equipment that we’re wearing that didn’t work out right,” he said. “It’s funny how that happened.”

Maybe not so funny to the players.

“Sometimes they can’t walk,” said tailback Stafon Johnson, who could giggle because he has remained itch-free. “I don’t know what it is, but I’m staying away from it.”

First of all, those compression shorts? They rule. And they actually help reduce skin irritations born of athletic endeavors. But if you don’t wear them, you wont be protected. Second, “it burns?” Third, 2 of the players felt terrible after eating something fishy? At least Stafon Johnson knows that the best protection is to stay away from it all.



Under Armour: Can only protect against so much.



June 26, 2008

Pete Carroll Hits Cop

domer.mq

You’ve already read this on every other sports website in the world. I just wanted to use the headline even though it’s completely inaccurate. Apparently the cop hit Pete. And not with an asp. Asps, by the way, have to be the greatest personal security device ever invented. The fact that Ben, from Lost, uses an Asp to beat the crap out of his enemies gives him a +10 in the cool column.

USC coach Pete Carroll said he was involved an auto accident Tuesday night when a Los Angeles County sheriff’s car swerved in front of him and collided with his car in Malibu.

“I was in the fast lane and the cop came from the slow lane and pulled right in front of me to make a U-turn,” Carroll said. “(My car) got hammered.”

I’m disappointed in myself. I had made a promise to myself that I’d only use that headline after Pete’s charged with actually hitting a cop after being pulled over on suspicion of DUI the night following a 38-0 Notre Dame victory over SC. But it seems so likely that Pete will leave for the NFL within the year that I feel the chances of that are about 50-50.

Plus I have a feeling Pete doesn’t drink. He’s probably “too Zen” to drink.



May 12, 2008

The Chewbacca Defense of Southern Cal

domer.mq

I was going to ignore the entire “OJ Mayo Took Money From Agents In High School and College” thing. For one, OJ Mayo didn’t play football at Southern Cal. He played basketball, and we’re a college football blog. Second, I didn’t really think it would get much attention outside of enraged UCLA and Notre Dame fans because the entire scenario seemed like a giant “Duh Moment.” Honestly, who among us is actually surprised by this? It was practically assumed that OJ Mayo was receiving payouts from someone or, at the very least, getting courted by agents since his umbilical cord dried up and fell off. But the story has gotten a lot of traction nationally, it does speak to a lack of institutional control at Southern Cal, our one and only rival, and just because it was obvious doesn’t make it right.

And that seems to be the first defense of Southern Cal: They can’t be held responsible when it was so obvious that OJ would do what he did. It’s an argument that’s nearly as stupid as the “everybody does it, so who cares” defense. In fact, both defenses are so stupid that I refuse to waste many keystrokes on them. If you truly believe one and/or the other, I invite you to direct your web browser elsewhere. You’re too stupid to read this site, and literacy coupled with intellects such as yours tend to lead to very sad movies on HBO about “death marches” in various geographies.

The other defense that I keep encountering on the internet, on the radio waves, and at the lunch counter goes something like this: The world has signaled that graduating players and keeping their noses clean comes a distant second to winning, and so Southern Cal and Tim Floydd should not be held accountable. It’s too hard to monitor these players and build a winning team at the same time.

And while the argument nearly follows some semblance of logic, it shares a common trait with the previous 2 defenses in that it’s patently false. It may be very, very hard as administrators and coaches to do everything by the letter of the NCAA law (and the local, state, and federal laws), ensure that the players keep their noses clean, and win, but, frankly, what the hell else are we paying these people for?

These coaches and administrators are paid a ton of money to do all of the things I just mentioned, not most of them. It’s why we positively freaked out at Kevin White when he uttered the famous “Sunday to Friday” comment. We don’t pay coaches millions of dollars to “do all the right things” OR win. We pay them to do it all! And we pay them well! And besides, how much are we really needing to pay them to motivate them to go about trying to win? Aren’t they coaches? Isn’t it inherent within their chosen profession to want to win anyway? Isn’t the compensation entirely designed to entice the coaches to win (something they want to do) while navigating the waters of legal and NCAA codes?

Is the argument by those who would defend Southern Cal that the coaches and administrators aren’t paid enough to keep tabs on their players and make sure the players are on the up-and-up? How about Southern Cal’s NCAA Compliance Officer? Why does that person even bother having a job at all if not to be a thorn in the side of Southern Cal student athletes? Does Southern Cal even have a Compliance Officer? I’m just assuming they do, but considering this and the Reggie Bush thing, maybe they don’t.

All this ranting aside, I want to be clear that I don’t like the idea of giving Southern Cal the “death penalty” at this point. Both the OJ Mayo and Reggie Bush issues seem only to involve agents who want to represent the athletes once they turn pro rather than boosters looking to entice talent to their schools. And Southern Cal, as far as I’m aware, isn’t on probation for committing any similar NCAA violations. But I do support a real, live, actual NCAA investigation with some teeth, and some form of punishment that wont leave Southern Cal bloggers breathing a collective sigh of relief. Forfeiture of TV revenues might be a good start. A few lost scholarships could be a good step.





April 23, 2008

Dumbest Writer In The History of Communication Found

domer.mq

Holy Flaming Batsuits, Robin, I’ve found the dumbest writer in the history of communication. Illiterates probably berate this woman. Her ancestors, thousands of years ago, probably drew cave paintings of buffalo with which everyone else on the planet confused toucans. Her name is “Lisa H,” and she “writes” a blog on FoxSports.com’s community blogs. You know how they say a million monkeys with a million keyboards, given enough time, could write the works of Shakespeare? Well it would take one monkey to write the equivalent of Lisa H. in an afternoon. And I’m not talking one of those fancy zoo monkeys that knows how to signal for food. I’m talking the monkey still in the forest that eats rotten bananas, can’t figure out that whole “use stick to fish ants out of hole” thing, and even Jane Goodall wouldn’t want to save. (Yeah. I know. Moneky /= Gorilla. I don’t care.)

In “Lisa H’s” “20 burning questions going into football season,” Lisa writes:

14- Will Weis finally get Notre Dame on track?

No. The problem with Notre Dame is not the players. It’s their coach. How desperate is Charlie Weis? He turned over the offense to his OC. Considering that Weis is known as an offensive genius, this is concerning. There is nothing good to come out of this- if the offensive output gets better-and when you are ranked dead last in offense, is there anywhere else but to go up?- then it makes him look overrated as an offensive guru. If the offense still remains the same, then Weis made a poor coaching decision.

Either way, Weis is in a giant hole. Their sked is difficult, and there are only two guaranteed wins, with a third possible one against Pitt. Couple that all in with mumblings about some discontent in South Bend during Spring practice, and you can count on Weis updating his resume. Unless he beats USC, of course.

It’s like she takes courses at the Dan Rather School of Journalism and Making Shit Up. The only mumbling that occurred this spring were in her head while she tried to sound out the Dollar Menu at Wendy’s.

And did she actually use “sked” in place of “schedule?” I think I just heard the sound of a 1000 English teachers blow their brains out.

Way to go, Lisa. You just set the world of the written word so far back that they’re considering works by Pat Forde from his probable 3 years in the 5th grade for a Pulitzer. You have to be less intelligent than the beer I just drank. If you’d lived in the 17th century, villagers would have burned you as a witch, knowing full well you weren’t actually a witch, but unable to help themselves since they just couldn’t take all that stupid any longer. If you don’t eventually die by accidentally suffocating yourself with a plastic shopping bag from the grocery store, millions of dollars will be lost in Vegas.

I’m big on the internet, but I have to admit, the internet, and the enabling of people like terrorists, religious zealots, white supremacists, and Lisa H to share their so-called thoughts make me wonder if we should just unplug the entire damn thing. Giving Brian Cook a voice is bad enough, but this? I need another drink.



April 16, 2008

Sanchez Picked To Get Dirty This Fall

domer.mq

Mark Sanchez was picked over Mitch “I’m Tellin’ Momma!” Mustain and Aaron “My Name Sounds Like a Big, Multinational Umbrella Company” Corp to start at QB for Southern Cal

Under coach Pete Carroll, USC Trojans has never entered the summer without appointing the next starting quarterback.

This year is no different, and there was not much of an element of surprise to it. Mark Sanchez, who started three games for the Trojans last season, was the front-runner going into spring workouts, and on Tuesday, it was made official — he would be the successor to John David Booty.

“The advantage that Mark has had by being around … just gives him a decisive advantage and he was able to come out here and battle and throw the ball well and play with confidence and give himself the spot,” Carroll said in the Los Angeles Times.

Here’s to Sanchez getting a lot of dirt on his jersey.



April 12, 2008

Keep Your Friends Close…

domer.mq

And your rivals closer.

This week Sunday Morning QB published his Absurdly Premature Assessment of: Southern Cal. And his work in both blogging and mainstream media terms is exhaustive. It always is with SMQ. This guy can’t possibly be married.




Hey, why not?

Anyway, it’s an excellent read, and you should read up on it in between shots of Tiger at Augusta. No way some guy named “Snedeker” wins the Masters anyway. Despite Southern Cal being Notre Dame’s only true rival, I don’t spend nearly as much attention to them as I should. I’m going to try and change that starting today, and SMQ’s work proves an excellent primer. Here are a few chunks of his work that really caught my eye…

Five-Year Recruiting Rankings*
2004-08: 1 • 1 • 1 • 2 • 8

That’s right, the 5th years, seniors, and Juniors of Southern Cal are all part of #1 ranked recruiting classes this season. Not sure, of course, that it’s all that different from the last, oh, 5 years at Southern Cal, but still, that’s a senior core of talent that would make Bobby Bowden cry. For some perspective, here’s the Five-Year Recruiting Rankings of Notre Dame:

2004-2008: 32 • 40 • 8 • 8 • 2

So, um, yeah. While the senior classes (5th, Sr., Jr.), the usual “leaders” (who, it’s worth nothing, have been hitting the weight room of a D1 NCAA program for at least 3 years) of Southern Cal average a #1 recruiting class, Notre Dame’s already fairly depleted senior classes average 27. So thank God for that #8, I guess. Hey, remember when we were all giggling when we saw Southern Cal has a “bad” year of recruiting this winter, coming it as number eight? Yeah.

Anyway, more from SMQ…

The rotation last year wound up an inconsistent mix of Washington, Johnson and McKnight, and though Washington led the team in carries and yards for the second straight season, his first team status always seemed somewhat de facto. In two years, he only broke 100 yards four times and was held to a pedestrian four yards per carry or less about half the time. The younger guys have been more exciting – Moody averaged a full yard more every time he touched the ball in 2006, a margin nearly matched last year by McKnight, and Johnson finished almost two yards better than Washington’s `07 average – but not nearly as consistent. Washington had more carries than the top three youngsters combined.

With the Old Man in Dreds now out of the mix, the best guess based on the way last year played out is Johnson as pacesetter and McKnight and Gable, presumably healthy now, as versatile, situational daggers, the Reggie Bushes to Johnson’s LenDale White, even if it’s Bradford (6-0, 230) who best fits the punishing White role physically. To be clear, though, that’s not a fair comparison. No single player in this galaxy of would-be stars has shined brightly enough to deserve that kind of expectation, much less two of them.

It is remarkable, really, to look at this edition of Southern Cal and realize that you’re starting to sort of have to take a double-take at the depth chart before you recognize the names. (And even then, as far as RB is concerned, you recognize them from recruiting.) There really isn’t a Reggie Bush stepping up right after Reggie Bush. That’s not to say they don’t have a lot of talent. They surely do, but even in a 38-0 romp over ND last year, the best rushing day was had by Joe McKnight with 68 yards rushing, and that was after a 51 yard rumble in garbage-time after much of the ND defense had grown exhausted and, frankly, probably really sick of heading out onto the field after an offensive gaffe of epic proportions. Again. Oh sure, Southern Cal still had 4 players average more than 5 yards per carry against ND in 2007, but the running-back rotation seems, at best, indecisive thus far and, at worst, just out of whack. It all makes one wonder how much longer Southern Cal can recruit the “next Reggie Bush” if it looks more and more likely that they’ll end up being “the next Staffon Johnson.” In other words, why wouldn’t such a talent rather head to Cal, UCLA, or even Oklahoma, play a lot more, become a huge star by their junior season, and then get to weigh their pro options over a junior/senior collegiate season?

More from SMQ (I bolded the really “holy crap” part)…

Not to overstate the point, but USC has played 30 games against ranked teams since 2002 and it’s record (26-4) is not the most impressive point of the portfolio. That would be the average margin of victory in those games, which is just shy of 19 points. Six straight BCS bowls is one thing; five blowouts is something else. The Trojans will be the unanimous Pac Ten favorite, again, and on paper only face one serious challenge, from Ohio State on Sept. 13. That’s a home game SC will probably be favored to win, and the line may not creep below double digits again the rest of the year. This is easily one of the handful of elite mythical championship contenders.

Holy Crap.

On paper, this is one awesome team. But as SMQ points out in his “worst case” briefing, this awesome team has had a few stumbles against non-ranked and/or overwhelming underdogs (Stanford, UCLA, for example). I suppose it all comes down to the QB position and the performance of their re-built offensive line (see SMQ’s post for more info). I, for one, thought Mark Sanchez looked really nice embarrassing Zibby and Company on a few clever pass plays. And by “few clever pass plays,” I mean he went 21 of 38 for 235 yards (meh) and 4 touchdowns (oh yeah, I forgot that part after drinking so much that evening that I ran out of beer and had to resort to Kids Triaminic to try and take away the pain).

This could be a very interesting year for the Notre Dame/Southern Cal rivalry. If Weis really has figured things out, I believe Notre Dame really will be “on the upswing.” That’s a big if. But, if that happens, Notre Dame may be catching an “unstoppable force” while it’s still busy trying to translate all that stuff on paper to something tangible on the field. You can’t help but feel that between the new o-line, the rotation at running back, and the so-called “QB race,” Southern Cal is a team that is, for this spring, anyway, still quite busy trying to figure itself out.

Blog Widget by LinkWithin

« Previous Entries Next Page »

Close
E-mail It