USC Looking good this year

[Eaglesfan27]

USC up 10-0 over a good Auburn team in the early part of the 2nd quarter. Mike Williams already has a touchdown catch. Matt Leinart looks very poised for a new starter. USC's defense looks dominating. I think this could be the year for the return to a national championship! :D

[Philliesfan980]

I have to agree with you. USC has really turned their program around over the past few years.

[MrBug708]

Eaglesfan, I know you are a Trojan alum and USC has a good D no doubt, but Auburn has sucked this first half. I mean, do they have an Oline?

[Blade6119]

Mizzou does :)

[Eaglesfan27]

Well considering Auburn was ranked #6 in the preseason polls, and many considered them to be a contender for the conference championship. Cadillac Williams has been considered one of the elite running backs, and Auburn's O-line was generally believed to be of good quality. I know preseason impressions can be off base, but I believe Auburn will show against other opponents that they are a quality team. If that happens, this will show in retrospect that USC played a really good defensive game today (or at least a good first half, hopefully they can finish what they started.) Auburn's defense is generally considered very good, and they are doing a nice job of limiting the USC offense. But if USC can continue to control this game, then I really believe this could be the start of a great national championship caliber season. I think Auburn probably have a better Offensive line then they are displaying today. I think that is in part to the fact that USC's D-Line is really good, as is the rest of their defense. Also the defensive coordinator for USC has been making some great calls, nice mixture of zone blitzes and man to man blitzes. Of course, the superior quality of athletes on USC's defense allows those calls to work.

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

USC up 23-0 after 3 quarters. The defense looks like it is starting to fatigue some in the heat, but still pitching the shutout. USC's trio of young RB's are going to be very interesting to see who turns out to be the biggest stud of the group. I haven't been this truly excited about a USC team in a lot of years (I didn't really believe Palmer would pull it together at the beginning of last year.) Darnell Bing is looking like a potential superstar at DB (I think Mike Garrett letting him wear #20 was a good call.) I think this is going to be a team that can actually tame the pass happy teams in the PAC-10. As long as Matt can continue to be proficient without making a lot of mistakes at QB, this team can continue to dominate.

[GrantDawg]

Auburn's offensive line is a veteran one that was ranked as one of the best in the nation. USC is a very good team. I think Auburn's coaching staff can be blamed for some of what happened in this game, but much of this was just the fact that USC is that good.

[rexallllsc]

Is there any doubt that the Pac-10 is a solid football conference?

[Chief Rum]

I think dominant wins by Washington State, Oregon, Cal and Arizona--and over an okay group of programs in Idaho, Mississippi State, Southern Miss, and UTEP--on top of USC's game shows the Pac-10 is, as always underrated (every publication I saw has them as supremely down from past years, and I only partially agree with that). We didn't fare so well with Washington against Ohio State, but then I am in the camp that there is going to be a lengthy (maybe even season-long) adjustment period for the Huskies following the Slick Rick fiasco (and besides, it's Ohio State and on the road).

Next week should be interesting. There are a lot of key matchups. Check these out:

UCLA at Colorado
Washington State at Notre Dame
Colorado State at Cal
Oregon State at Fresno State
BYU at USC
LSU at Arizona

The Pac-10 continues to be a leader in playing tough schedules, as you can see. But as usual, we will beat each other up in conference and fail to produce a title contender. And, yes, IMO, that still includes USC as unlikely to be a part of the title picture (although I was very impressed witht heir defense today).

CR

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by Chief Rum
I think dominant wins by Washington State, Oregon, Cal and Arizona--and over an okay group of programs in Idaho, Mississippi State, Southern Miss, and UTEP--

CR

I think ok may be a bit of an overstatement, but next weeks games will be better.

Two games for USC: Washington State and ND. If they win both (which I think they might), they are playing in the title game. If they lose either, then they lose another and might not even win the Pac-10.

[Chief Rum]

Well, ok is meant to be all around average which is about 60. Southern Miss is well-regarded, and Mississippi State is a BCS team that is just short of average. UTEP is bad, but so is Arizona supposedly, so the blowout is encouraging for them. Idaho looks to be much worse off than usual this year, but they are a team that often ends up better than expected. Considering that all four of these teams fell inb lowouts to pac-10 opponents, I think that's a good sign that the Pac-10 teams are all far beyond them, which puts them well into the top half of Division I-A, and those four teams are considered by most to be the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th placed teams in the conference. For the backend of the conference to be dominating in these wins is a nice sign.

I think you vastly overrate Washington State. They lost some very key players. They will be a solid, middle-of-the-road conference team, but I don't see them as being too key to USC's title efforts, either nationally or in the Pac-10. I highly recommend you cast any eye toward Oregon State and UCLA as USC's likely key games, with Washington in there as well if they can overcome the Neuheisel thing. The catch the Huskies on the road, and, get this--they finish off the season with UCLA and OSU. I'm catching shades of a great season gone bad down the stretch right now a la Oklahmoa and nebraska in recent years, or my own Bruins in 1998 with the Miami game.

Agreed on Notre Dame. That will be a key one there for any national title hopes. If anyone notices I don't mention ASU, that's because I'm not convinced they are legit.

CR

[GrantDawg]

I say Washington State is the key not because that is the most talented team or second most talented team. I say it because that is the type team that will bring the upset. They'll have a couple of losses by then, and are talented enough to be a spoiler. Look past them and Whamo! In big trouble. I don't think they'll let Oregon State or UCLA sneak up on them. Washington, maybe, but I don't know if that program will recover that quickly (which is to say this year).

[GrantDawg]

Oh, MSU is just a bad team. Not average at all. And the worst team in the Pac-10 (which I'm not saying Arizona is) should blow out UTEP. Of that list, I would only give Southern Miss an ok rating.

[Chief Rum]

Yeah, as a sleeper, I see what you mean. It would have been tougher, though, if they were playing them in Pullman. Since they have them at the Coliseum, I don't see it.

If it's sleeper losses for the Trojans you are looking for, I would look at the visit to Cal at the end of the month. I suppose anyone who thinks ASU is legit would call them a likely tough game as well, and getting those two road games in a row like that won't be so easy for the Trojans.

Other than that, though, they get the tough conference games at home, assuming UDub doesn't pull out of a coaching change malaise so quick (and I think you and I both agree they won't).

I know I am biased, but the more I look at the schedule, the more I think that, now that Auburn is done and defeated, UCLA and Notre Dame are the only games the Trojans might get fidgety about, and since they are the school's top two football rivals, they won't let down for them.

Not to change the subject, but I am really looking forward to Colorado-UCLA next week. Colorado handed it to us hard last year, and they are coming off of a nice win over Colorado State. Their new QB also did very well. But UCLA is looking for some retribution for last year, and having followed the team's spring and summer practices, and believing QB Matt Moore could be on the verge of a breakout year, I really think this Bruins team is going to really surprise some people.

It will have to start in Colorado, though. I'm not even going to talk about the game in Norman in two weeks.

CR

[Chief Rum]

I would say that the last place team in the SEC is still skirting the edge of the second and third thirds of D1 football, and Mississippi State isn't even that team (Vandy is a bit worse). I'm not saying they are world beaters, but I could see them as the 70th-75th best team in D1 football, and that isn't far off from the midpoint (59).

As for Arizona, you must not be aware of the problems they had last year. The players practically had a revolt, demanding Mackovic's firing. Despite that, he didn't resign, and, for Lord knows what reason, Zona's admin didn't can him either. Most pubs I saw had Arizona being as bad as the 95-100 range, which is only a little bit better than UTEP (Generally a low 100 team). Despite talent issues and the relationship between the players and the head coach, this team blew out a team that had at least a chance to stay with them. So I would think that is an encouraging reference for the potential quality of that team (using the term "quality" relative to their supposed preseason value, of course).

CR

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by Chief Rum
I would say that the last place team in the SEC is still skirting the edge of the second and third thirds of D1 football, and Mississippi State isn't even that team (Vandy is a bit worse). I'm not saying they are world beaters, but I could see them as the 70th-75th best team in D1 football, and that isn't far off from the midpoint (59).

CR

Did you see how Vandy played against Ole Miss? Vandy is a better team this year than MSU. Jackie is in his last year there.

[Chief Rum]

I need to see more of Vandy before I can give them any credit. They have been awful a long time.

CR

[Darkiller]

can't wait for the BYU/USC game next week ! this will be a real test for the Cougars...

[ice4277]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
Did you see how Vandy played against Ole Miss? Vandy is a better team this year than MSU. Jackie is in his last year there.

Or perhaps Ole Miss just isn't very good. What do they have besides a talented QB?

[Easy Mac]

I dunno, USC only beat Lafayette 14-7 last night. I mean, I don't think Pinkins is the answ... wait, are we talking about the real USC, or the little bitch out west?

[Fritz]

USC alomst looks like a college team.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
I think ok may be a bit of an overstatement, but next weeks games will be better.

Two games for USC: Washington State and ND. If they win both (which I think they might), they are playing in the title game. If they lose either, then they lose another and might not even win the Pac-10.

I agree with you and also Chief Rum to a point. The games where I think USC might fall victim to a "sleeper" is Washington State and California. California seems to have given USC a lot of problems in recent years. Notre Dame presents an interesting challenge too, but I think USC should be fired up for that game and overcome it ok. I definitely like USC's chances for a national championship this year. (And I mean the REAL USC - Southern California, not that rip off on the east coast ;) )

[MrBug708]

Chief, why don't you think ASU is legit? I think they will be a better team then OSU in the PAC-10. They did lose Suggs, but the team is an offensive driven team, moreso then their D. Think UCLA in 1998. Andrew Walter is a great QB. He lost Shaun McDonald, but he still had like 5 games of 400 yards last year and one game of throwing over 500. That was only starting in like 8 games to begin with. McDonald doesn't account for all of that yardage.

Don't underestimate Kotter

[MrBug708]

Dola

Originally posted by Easy Mac
I dunno, USC only beat Lafayette 14-7 last night. I mean, I don't think Pinkins is the answ... wait, are we talking about the real USC, or the little bitch out west?


The one that is actually a football school, not the Cocks

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by Easy Mac
I dunno, USC only beat Lafayette 14-7 last night. I mean, I don't think Pinkins is the answ... wait, are we talking about the real USC, or the little bitch out west?

We are talking about the school that has been to more than two bowls in its history. :)

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by ice4277
Or perhaps Ole Miss just isn't very good. What do they have besides a talented QB?

I'm not going to argue that Ole Miss is a great team. They are about average in overall college talent. But considering most people put Vandy on the bottom echelon (deservedly most years), they are better than that this year.