2006 UCLA Upsets USC Edition - 12/3/06
The final week of the season is behind us, and there is a lot to cover .... Here goes:
- There really is a lot that can be said about UCLA's stunning defeat of my beloved Trojans yesterday, but I want to start off by simply saying Congratulations to the Bruins. They played a great game, and pulled off a tremendous upset. They deserve to enjoy this moment. The defense was stellar, and the offense was just good enough. They won the game every bit as much as USC lost it, so they deserve that respect.
- I spoke to approximately 50 Bruins before the game as I tailgated and made my way around the Rose Bowl. Over 40 of them said (in response to a direct question), "I would rather knock USC out of the national championship run than be playing to go to the Rose Bowl ourselves". There were 8 or 9 that said differently. Fascinating.
- Of course, I am heartbroken about the game, as I would be any year that UCLA beats us. Losing to a 6-5 team is tough; losing to your cross-town rival is tough; watching their fans behave the way they do is unbearable; BUT, I am just sickened that a Pac-10 championship and an appearance in the greatest bowl game in all of college football (the grand-daddy of them all) has to be referred to now as a "consolation prize". More on the BCS and this whole system later ...
- Obviously, the folks who have desired to see USC throw the ball on every single down this year have now learned the hard way what happens when a team is unable to run the football. The greatest passing teams in the world get shut down when the QB is on his back, and when the running game is non-existent. Yesterday was a painful demonstration of this point. Coach Carroll has been talking all season (and I have been writing all season), about the need for balance in the offense. I think the pass-happy newbies to college football learned first hand yesterday that an inability to run the football will mean a loss. Yesterday's inept running game was all about the line of scrimmage - a place that USC has just dominated opponents offensively and defensively for five years. Our offensive line got punched in the mouth yesterday, and the result was a total lack of offensive production. I am far too mature to say 'I told you so' to those who want to see the ball aired out on every play (as if were it ever that easy), but Lendale and Reggie and the THREE USC offensive linemen from last year now playing in the NFL must all be thinking what I am thinking right now ....
- I wonder if Reggie Bush woke up as pissed as I did today .... Four touchdowns today alone?? Wow.
- Because my 24 hours of mourning are now complete, and I am exclusively focused on a Trojan victory in the Rose Bowl, I do want to say with 100% sincerity that the notions that a 10-2 season, a Pac-10 championship, and an appearance in the ROSE BOWL are all to be considered a FAILURE of a season are simply ridiculous notions. There is not one single team in the history of college football that could have lost the quantity and quality of players we did, brought in a brand new starting QB, had every single fullback on the team go out to season-ending injury, lose their very, very BEST defensive player for the season the first game of the year, consistently play 15 true freshmen, and over 20 freshmen/sophomores, and still go 10-2 (losing two games by a combined score of 6 points). If someone told me on September 1 that USC would beat Cal, beat Notre Dame, lose two games, win the conference, and play in the Rose Bowl, I would have WANTED to believe them. It is a testimony to the quality and state of this program (and to our coaching staff) that I get to hear a bunch of idiots today refer to this as a "disappointing season". Yesterday's loss was devastating, but we were NEVER considered a likely #2 team in the nation. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. Since we are losing 3 starting seniors between offense and defense, and will likely lose 2 (or less) players to the NFL, and continue to recruit better than anyone in the nation, most people would expect NEXT year to be even better than this. Exciting times indeed ...
- I really hope that some of the professing Trojan fans I saw and heard yesterday (and read online today) mean some of what they say. As the stock market crash of the early 2000's rid our industry of many amateurs, and as the mortgage industry is experiencing now, there is nothing like a USC loss to our cross-town rivals when our offense was inept to "thin the herd" (so to speak). These people never were Trojans, and don't deserve the compliment of that title now. I can forgive complete and total football idiocy like, "Sanchez would have won that game for us" (sort of), but the general negativity from a very small people wearing our colors ought to force them back into a place they are more fit for. I am fortunate to have been around quite a while now, and gone to every single game in incredible seasons, and awful seasons. I have been blessed with a circle of lifetime Trojans that have become some of my best friends. They have the understanding of football to not think they know more than Pete Carroll, and the love of Troy to not profane the cardinal and gold when times are tough. Trojan fans are envied by other schools and other school coaches everywhere (ask Terry Donahue some time what he thinks about USC fans vs. Bruin fans, or at least the Bruin fans that come to the non-USC games). I really hope that those who just bought their season tickets in 2004 or later will cancel them next year if they are the posers I see. We don't need your support, and we don't want it.
- The Rose Bowl will be one of the most difficult challenges we will face as a football program. I simply can not imagine that the team is not beyond devastated by what happened. There are two responses here: the USC one of 1995 that responded to a devastating loss to UCLA in the Coliseum by smacking Northwestern in the Rose Bowl, or the UCLA response of 1998 that lost to Miami, and came back a month later (with 19 fans) to lose to Wisconsin. I believe Michigan is the second best team in the country, so we most certainly have a major challenge ahead of us. I respect Pete Carroll as much as anyone could respect a head coach, but the task he has ahead of him seems insurmountable. I believe we can do it.
- Speaking of Michigan, I am not going to jump on any wagon saying they are getting screwed, but I will say that this is all just a lovely implication of what is such a self-evidently disastrous system. EVEN if USC had won yesterday, the outcome would have been unfair to SOMEONE. ONLY a playoff allows an objective means of determining the champion, and ONLY a playoff allows the right mechanism to sort it out (mechanism meaning, winning the games on the field). I am willing to send my proposed playoff/bowl system to any who request it. =) In the meantime, my guess is that Ohio State beats Florida (and beats them good), and everyone feels like justice is served. Most people I see hacked off about the BCS got there because at some point a team they love was "victimized" by it (or at least they perceive it that way). My hatred of the BCS stems from nothing other than the fact that it is an asinine way to determine a champion, and I can not stand grown adults act in an asinine manner. But take me up on my offer to send my proposed system - I really want feedback.
- A few comments about football outside of Los Angeles, CA: Notre Dame belongs in a BCS game about as much as my wife and son do. What a travesty.
- Kudos to Arkansas for a fantastic season. Those Gators are pretty good, but you could have done it. We feel your pain today.
- Florida State may or may not benefit hugely from yesterday's UCLA win. UCLA's confidence may be quite high, or they may be very content to have already won their "bowl game". The 115 people who will be watching the Emerald Bowl should really kick out of it (and I do wish those 115 people coming from Tallahassee safe travels). I know who I am rooting for, but I will keep it a secret.
- Cal beat Stanford. And this morning, the sun came up.
- While I agree with most commentators that USC's team ought to be a lot better next year, keep in mind that we do play a vastly improved Nebraska team ON THE ROAD, as well as ROAD games with Notre Dame, Oregon, and Cal. I sure would love to play those games as the defending Rose Bowl champion.
- Finally, a few parting Trojan comments ... I am enforcing my own 24-hour rule about this loss, but I truly can not say how hard it is to see what I saw yesterday. It was almost as bad as the way I felt walking out on January 4 after the Texas thriller (another 3-point loss). But I sincerely believe that no one deserves to enjoy the thrill of victory if they have not tasted the agony of defeat. At the risk of sounding more cliché than I already do, we can not appreciate the peaks in life if we have not gotten to them out of the depths of certain valleys. Those of us who lived through the 1996-2000 seasons have enjoyed this five-year (and growing) dynasty much more than others. I am more proud to be a Trojan today than I was yesterday, and more proud yesterday than I was the day before. If one takes the time to evaluate what USC is doing academically and athletically around the country, and if they actually look into the progress we have made as an institution, it would energize them with love for the university. From the recent dominance of the Marshall Business School over other west coast competitors, to the SAT scores of incoming freshmen (four years and counting), to the number of undergraduate programs now ranked top 10 around the country, to the building of the Galen Center, to the status and contribution to the Southern California community, etc., USC has firmly planted itself as an institution of excellence - indeed, THE premier institution of excellence on the west coast. The mantras and slogans and pomp that flows out of us during football season (things about "fighting on", and things about being skillful, scholarly, courageous, ambitious, and faithful), these are things that have become the core of who I strive to be. As I endure various challenges in my life - things that are vastly more important than a football game - I borrow from the spirit of Troy on a consistent basis. I know most of what I am referring to is simply impossible to pen. But I mean it from the bottom of my heart, and I know there are countless other Trojans who know what I mean. I enjoy being a Trojan, not just because I am so proud of what Dr. Sample has done the last 16 years, and not just because of what Pete Carroll has done the last 5. I love being a Trojan, because it encompasses what I believe it means to compete and excel. It provides an attitude that can be taken into any category of life. And as the facetiously, self-proclaimed "biggest college football lover of all time", these things mean far more to me than any football game, even as the events on the football field serve to (sort of) mimic life. Yes, yesterday's loss mimics some of life's personal disappointments. But, part of getting knocked down is getting up.
And I love that in life just as much as I love it on the football field.
FIGHT ON, and beat the Wolverines!!!!
THIS EDITION OF "WEEKLY MUSINGS" IS DEDICATED TO MY DEAR FRIEND, DON CLAUSEN, WHO ENCOMPASSES EVERYTHING IT MEANS TO BE A TROJAN, AND WHO HAS TAUGHT ME HOW TO SURVIVE, IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE.