2007 UCLA Edition- 12/4/07
I have said it before, but never realized how much I meant it: There is no worse pain than losing to UCLA, but there is no greater joy than beating Notre Dame. As I walked out of the Coliseum this week, and made the parade through the Rose Garden and onto campus with my thousands of Trojan friends, I could not believe the complete and total lack of arrogance, taunting, or smugness in the Trojan demeanor. I say none of this with a tone or attitude of cockiness, but as we passed Bruins, not a peep was uttered. We simply expect to beat the Bruins, and to do so this week left no special occasion for poor behavior. We won. If we had not, I would have cried. But having won, the matter to celebrate is not a win over a simply horrible football team and pitiful football program; the item to celebrate is that for the sixth year in a row - a historical feat that has never been accomplished, and never will be again - USC is the Pac-10 conference champion, and USC is going to a BCS bowl. In fact, USC is going to the grand-daddy of them all: THE ROSE BOWL.
This walk to my car after the win was in sharp contrast to the walk back to my car last year. Not only was I personally devastated after UCLA's now ancient history win by a score of 13-9, but I had bottles thrown at or near me, observed hundreds of Bruin fans accost USC fans (including senior citizens), and also broke up several fights. Not a Trojan could move without a plethora of Bruins screaming in their faces about the win, and there was no selectivity to who got screamed at (and in some cases, violently attacked), from age 15-75, those wearing cardinal and gold were not safe. Fast forward to this year, and the scene was different in a profound sense. Of course, the Bruins were silent. One would expect that. But the Trojans, ecstatic to be the Pac-10 champions, were systemically silent as it pertained to interaction with the Bruin community. It was a powerful experience for me to witness, and to contrast to last year, and it made me even more proud to be a Trojan than I was for what happened on the football field: We didn't just outplay them for the 8th time in 9 years; we out-classed them - period. I hope one day it will be reciprocated, and I hope one day their football program will be a priority at the school, because I desire a respectful rivalry, or else no rivalry at all. In the meantime, it is what it is, and I couldn't be more happy to be a member of the greatest university family on God's green earth - the University of Southern California.
- With the termination of Karl Dorrell today, I suppose UCLA may very well have taken its first step towards a return to football respectability. I do not expect that there is a coach on the horizon who will bring them to a place of dominance, but they have never been there at all. I am simply referring to being a perennial top 25 team, a feat that ought to be practically automatic in the basin of Southern California. Coach Dorrell seems to me to be a very nice man, but like I said in musings almost since his arrival, he was simply not equipped to be a head coach. He managed to do something I never thought possible at UCLA - not only refuse to stop the other team defensively (almost every UCLA coach in my lifetime has excelled in creating impotent defenses), but he actually produced his very own impotent offense at UCLA. Say what you will about Toledo and Borges, they never had a problem moving the football down the field. This football program is in need of a shake-up, and I stand by my 10-year old prediction that the beacon of ethics and good judgment, Rick Neuheisel, will be the man to do so. Close sources of mine say there are two other major names being pursued, but I can not believe that they would go for Mariucci or this guy from Texas Tech over Ricky. Time will tell. In the meantime, another big hit to the taxpayers of California in the form of a severance package that never should have happened (why in the world did they TWICE extend his contract????), and almost certainly Coach Dorrell will find a job in the NFL as a position coach. Bruin fans may loathe him, but USC fans will be eternally grateful for much of his contribution. In all seriousness, I wish him and his family well.
- The game was very, very misleading in a lot of ways, and I will try to make this simple. With UCLA essentially combining the worst of all elements offensively (they could not move the ball, at all, and they also turned the ball over four times), one can only assume that USC's offense must have truly struggled to only win 24-7. However, unlike many USC performances over the last two seasons where the defense really excelled, but the offense sputtered behind questionable play-calling or unspectacular quarterback play, I actually believe this was a very good offensive effort as well. Booty was not perfect, but he was very good. More importantly, the running game was spectacular, with three running backs almost going for 100 yards apiece (I believe each averaged about 80 years, combining for roughly 250 yards on the ground alone). The O-line was pretty good (not incredible), and the play-calling was good (with a few exceptions). HOWEVER, the score here was 24-7, and not 49-7, because there was just a remarkable amount of dropped balls by the USC receivers (again). And I am not, this time, picking on JUST Ausberry and Turner. Even future NFL-millionaire, Fred Davis, dropped two sure-thing passes. Vidal Hazelton dropped a wide open pass that was likely to be a touchdown. The plethora of dropped balls kept the came far closer than it ought to have been, and my euphoria in the state of our running game is somewhat offset by the continued concern and frustration I have with our receiving corps.
- I do not mean to pick on the man, especially on the day he was fired, but Dorrell's decision to give USC another chance to score a touchdown by accepting that holding penalty is as close to a deal-closer in terminating him as I have ever seen. No one around me believed me that he was actually accepting the penalty. Everyone in the stadium understood why he did it once we scored a touchdown on the free 3rd down he gave us. For future reference, a field goal when we are on the 12-yard line is just as easy as one when we are on the 2-yard line. Don't let one of the best football teams in the country have a free shot at the end zone.
- I could not be more proud of Terrell Thomas. He has had a spectacular year, and joins Sed Ellis and LoJack and Keith Rivers as the only seniors on the best defense in the nation (hands down). I will entertain notions that we may not be the best team in the nation, but I will not do so when looking at our defense alone. And the vast majority of the playmakers are coming back. Oh boy.
- Coach Carroll's track record indicates to me that it may be a very, very tough New Years Day for the Fighting Illini. I feel compelled to respect the opponent, and believe they will come in and play us tough, but this is not a fair match-up, and if somehow, Ohio State beats LSU (a doubtful notion), and if indeed, USC does smoke Illinois off the field (by no means a guarantee), many will have to question what would have happened had USC played Ohio State in a final (remember, Ohio State lost to Illinois on their home field just two weeks ago).
- Notre Dame has a longer winning streak than both of the teams playing in the national title. Too funny.
- I can't bring myself to rail against the BCS excessively in these musings, because at this point, it has to be like preaching to the choir. I don't want any readers who do not already see the system as the fraud that it is. Missouri, who defeated Illinois and Kansas, likely agrees as well. I do not share the same sympathy for ASU's fate that some of my Trojan colleagues do, as I believe they essentially played two good teams all year, and lost to them both. But the Missouri issue is a travesty, as is the fact that a three-loss team from the worst of the major conferences is coming to The Rose Bowl. I sure hope no one makes me eat my words .... I have a great deal of faith in this coaching staff to have this team prepared (though it will be a challenge).
- LSU's coach is a jackass, and LSU's team is a fraud. They deserve to be in the title game to the extent that pigs fly. However, I think they are better than Ohio State, and I suspect they will now win the title. A healthy Oklahoma team and a healthy USC team would be the country's best match-up right now, and Georgia deserves consideration as well.
- It is despicable to me to continue to hear how good the BCS is, as it creates "interest" and "discussion" and "passion". What it does, is defraud young people of fair and reasonable opportunities. There has still never been a good argument for the BCS that does not essentially argue for getting rid of the Super Bowl, World Series, and NBA playoffs as well. The idea that, "in a BCS system, every game is a playoff game", is, of course, ridiculous on its face. When LSU lost to Kentucky and Arkansas, it didn’t seem to eliminate them from this elaborate form of a playoff. When Ohio State scheduled tow 1-AA teams, and beat Akron and other powerhouses like such before entering conference play in the worst conference in the system, it didn't seem to hold a "playoff intensity". The only way to determine a champion with objectivity is to do so the way every other sport, at every other level, on the planet does so: and that is with a playoff system. As I believe in maintaining the integrity of the conferences, and the bowl games, and as I pragmatically recognize that even if I didn't, for no other reason that the ungodly amounts of money they generate, the bowl games are not going anywhere, I long ago created a playoff scenario that was a hybrid with the bowl games. The following can be modified in a handful of ways, but allow me to carry it all the way through:
Rose Bowl - Pac 10 champ vs. Big 10 champ
Fiesta Bowl - Big 12 champ vs. AT-LARGE #1
Sugar Bowl - SEC champ vs. AT-LARGE #2
Orange Bowl - ACC champ vs. Big East champ
The winner of the Rose and Fiesta Bowl play each other the second weekend of January, as do the winners of the Sugar and Orange Bowl. The winners of those two semi-final games play each other one week later at a neutral site selected years in advance (like the Super Bowl is). This system calls for the elimination of one non-conference game, and the uniformity of conference systems (eliminate conference title games, and have all teams play each other). It advances the season ONE GAME LONGER than it currently is, for only two teams. It is a breakeven for the losing teams in the semi-finals. It is one game less for the losing teams in the bowl games (quarterfinals). So, the Presidents can finally sleep that their top priority of academics and classroom time are not being messed with, and the NFL can rest assured that their conference title games and Super Bowl hype are not being competed with. The sponsor money and corporate deals and bowl game hype are all there. The conferences get to remain numero uno, and yet an objective system determines a champion. Yes, there exists the possibility of controversy as opposed to who the two at-large teams ought to be, but in back-testing the theory, you will see that it is not too hard to do this (this year, I would be picking Georgia and Missouri, but Hawaii could make an argument). Nearly every objective and concern people have is met, and we get an acceptable champion every year.
I have elaborated upon this system extensively, and am happy to do so in response to your questions and comments. The NCAA has received my written proposal twice now, and I am still awaiting a reply. =)
- I can not complete my musings without commenting on the simply incredible performance of my beloved Trojans to finish this season as they have. USC is in the midst of a dynasty right now that has never been seen before. As USC suffered its worst loss in recent memory earlier in the year at the hands of the lowly Cardinal of Stanford, and one week later sat three points behind Arizona into the 4th quarter, ample opportunity existed to throw in the towel on the season. One can easily see many, many other teams that did exactly that this year after a painful loss. When seven of your fourteen offensive linemen are completely unable to play (including four of five starters), and your starting QB is out, and you have lost three All-American defensive players to injury, and you have suffered the worst upset of your career, and certainly seen your national title hopes slip away, you are not supposed to be able to win your conference, and go to The Rose Bowl (the greatest event in all of sports). But, that is what USC did. And they did it behind the leadership and direction of the greatest coach in all of college football - Pete Carroll. I have heard Trojans say he should be fired for the Stanford loss, and others still question his ongoing commitment to excellence. They are entitled to their opinions, and I am not going to expend energy rebutting such foolishness. All I will say is this: We still have another domino to knock over this year, and that is securing our third Rose Bowl championship in the Pete Carroll era (to go with his two Orange Bowl championships). BUT, as for the state of this program, and what they have (yet again) done late in the season to create a successful, championship season, I can only reiterate that being a Trojan means so much more than a love of winning, and a fondness for elite performance. It means, more than anything else, the determined persistence in the face of adversity that life often requires of people who are destined to be winners. It is a special character trait that does what this team and coaching staff did this year, and that accomplishment is enhanced by how they came back from that devastating and inexcusable Stanford loss.
But life is filled with errors and mistakes and letdowns that we can not do. What life is not filled with enough, though, is stories of reversal and redemption and victory over adversity. When we see it in college football, we have seen art mimicking life. And it is that reason that I remain,
The Biggest College Football Lover of All Time
With one more musings edition to go, and sincere wishes for a Very Merry Christmas, and a Truly Happy New Year!
David L. Bahnsen (DLB4USC)