2007 ESPN Zone Edition - 9/16/07
Greetings from the Big Apple, the greatest city in the world. I am here a week on business, absorbing my time at ESPN Zone yesterday, loving the place I most love to travel to on business ...
Warning in advance - this is a long one. There was a lot of action yesterday, and I watched it ALL. =)
Non-USC stuff first:
- The New York Times editorial I read yesterday [rightly] criticized Notre Dame's firing of Willingham several years ago, but wrongly suggested the remedy is a "mandatory four years" for any college coach. I assure you the author of this article never saw Paul Hackett coach, and I assure you that the reciprocal is not part of the proposal (i.e. any coach doing well has to stay a minimum of four years as well).
- In my opinion it was a mixed day for the Big-10. Though Ohio State got their win in Washington, and Michigan whooped the worst team in Notre Dame history, they still featured their best conference team (Penn State) in a tie with Buffalo LATE in the first half, a Minnesota loss to Sheboygan Junior College, a major struggle for Wisconsin to beat Citadel, Iowa State beating Iowa, and Duke beating lowly Northwestern. While conference superiority conversations bore me, this may be one of the worst years for the Big-10 in recent memory.
- So are Auburn and Tennessee that BAD, or is this SEC conference just a two-team pony?? LSU and Florida look phenomenal, but they look head and shoulders above anyone else in their conference. I am regretting my week 1 admission that I hate conference talk, and that generally speaking (in aggregate), the SEC is better than the Pac-10. This year, that is highly doubtful.
- Erik Ainge (QB, Tennessee), is really, really overrated. But not as overrated as the pitiful Ben Olson.
- Florida is very fast. Very. That Percy Harvin is so darn athletic, I actually think he could play at USC. =)
- Poor Jimmy Clausen. He could be a 5th string QB at USC right now learning offense in the most accomplished program in college football. Instead, he is getting PUMMELED as a 14-year old starter at Notre Dame. This should be used by head coaches and recruiters to re-define "promises of playing time". The center at Notre Dame can not put the ball in Clausen's hands, and he can not throw 10 yards to a receiver. He has his helmet knocked off and ends up on the greass nearly every play. Well, at least Coach Weis kept his promise!
- Overheard by a serious Iowa fan at ESPN Zone after Iowa State's last second field goal to defeat Iowa by a score of 15 to 13: "this is the biggest upset of all time". I love the midwest.
- Willingham and Washington are almost there, but they need to learn to finish. That is the thing that sticks out most in my mind when USC began its return to dominance early in the Carroll era. We played well enough to hang in there in the first half, and then came out in the second half and played ten times better. UofW played impressively for two halves against Ohio State, but just didn't get it going in the second half.
- I am done ripping Charlie Weis and Notre Dame. It is not fun any more. This offensive juggernaut, who might have eaten his Super Bowl rings, has NO offensive touchdowns in three games. They are so bad, it is unbelievable. I would never, ever rip a team for having a rebuilding year, or struggling through tough losses. This is only newsworthy to the biggest college football lover because of the way in which Weis manipulated a $30 million contract for himself when he had done nothing - nothing!
- When I say Texas tied with Central Florida, 10-10, near the end of the first half, and I saw Central Florida come within a hair of beating Texas (losing 35-32), I couldn't help but think of Notre Dame, who was down 38-0 to a terrible Michigan team. Why? Central Florida - coached by George O'Leary, fired for a 30-year old mistake on a resume by the morally superior Irish. "Coulda been".
- Texas will not survive the mediocre Big-12 playing first halves the way they have been.
- Did you think I would let UCLA off the hook? My real question is simply where Pat Cowan is? I assume he is injured. What a ridiculous notion that Coach Dorrell needs to stick with Ben Olson, when Cowan led UCLA to their only meaningful win in eight years last year (against USC). If Cowan is coming back this year, I predict he will be starting by year end.
- That Alabama win over Arkansas was a thriller, though Arkansas's 28 unanswered points to come back from Alabama's 21-point lead reminded me all too much of my days under Paul Hackett, where NO LEAD WAS EVER SAFE. Kudos to the Rolling Tide for hanging in there.
- Is it weird to anyone else to say that UCLA has a pretty good defense, but no offense? After 27 years of it being the exact opposite, this is a weird era for Bruin football.
- If anyone else watched the Texas-Central Florida come, and they can explain why Mack Brown went for two after they took an 11-point lead with 3 minutes left, I would appreciate you emailing me. That decision was a failed onside kick away from costing him the game.
- Coming into today, Utah had scored 19 points all season, and was 0-2.
- As for Louisville's Prevent defense against Kentucky in the final minutes, it once again proved the adage: the only thing a Prevent defense does, is prevent the team playing it from winning. I don't know which school Rick Pitino coaches for these days, but I am sure he was either very happy, or very sad.
- Okay - now for my beloved Trojans. Wow. What an unbelievable performance to beat Nebraska 49-10(+22) in the cornfields of Lincoln. Yes, the +22, because they were entirely scored in fourth quarter garbage time. This was an emphatic blowout by USC over a ranked team on the road. With that said, it remains the only negative thing I could say about the last six years with Coach Carroll - the play of his Q4 garbage time teams is unbearable to watch. Other than that irrelevant issue, he walks on water and turns water into wine.
- 60-6 in his last 66 games. 6-6 in his first 12. Unbelievable. Really unbelievable.
- Since 2002, his ONLY loss to a non-Pac 10 team was that Texas heartbreaker. Time after time he has brought the Trojans on the road into perversely hostile circumstances, and carved up the cream of the crop in every conference in this country. Inspiring.
- I wrote down on my note pad after the first quarter, "CJ Gable should be our 'almost every down' back". I have to re-think that dramatically. Stefan Johnson was running through the mile-wide holes the o-line opened for him with ease and intelligence. We have six or seven back that would start at basically every team in the country. I truly wonder if COach will keep a 3 or 4 man rotation, or if it will evolve into a Gable/Johnson one-two punch. They both look very impressive to me.
- What the hell was that Q1 goal line off-sides call on Rey for "yelling stuff"??????
- I do not believe Patrick Turner is ready for the prime time. He is a good, but not great, receiver.
- Frankly, saying USC is "above and beyond" LSU, Florida, and Oklahoma right now is not true. We are right there with them, but all four teams look to be the super elite in college football. My concern for my Trojans is whether or not certain teams will force us to spread the field, and if our offense will be ready to do so. It appears to me that the coaches philosophy is that as long as Booty does not do anything to hurt us, the defense, and the running game, will be enough to win. They are probably right, but I fear we will need to grow offensively to be the "cream of the crop".
- There was a very discouraging stretch in the late Q1/early Q2 that worried me about the defense. As always, we corrected it and dominated them. But, are our corners (without Pinkard), and linebackers (without Cushing), ready to do the same when facing Cal and Oregon?
- Do you think the rest of the country even knows that arguably our best player (Brian Cushing) did not even suit up last night? The depth of Carroll's teams blow me away. The injuries are far and wide, but we re-load, and find a way to smack the other team in the mouth.
That's it for now. Back to the Coliseum next Saturday, where the best football is played. It is a great time of year, indeed.