Weekly Musings - Cal Edition 2010

I want to apologize for not completing my Musings by the normal self-appointed deadline of Sunday evening.  On one hand I would like to blame it on business commitments and on the other hand I would like to blame it on the family.  But the truth is, I just could not gather all my thoughts to properly "muse" after this weekend's college action.  I have done so, and it is time to let loose.  So here goes.I am very excited for my pending article, Why USC is Hated.  I have been working on it since the sanctions were announced, but in a more general sense I have been working on it for fifteen years.  I believe it is one of the better things I have written and I happen to know of a few pretty heavy traffic sites that will be carrying it.  I would love readers of the Weekly Musings from the Biggest College Football Lover of All Time to tell me what they think.  I expect to have it published by the end of the month.It has become impossible to keep my mouth shut about some of the irrational USC hatred that exists out there.  I pretty much do keep my mouth shut on the benign half of it (like the stuff from the eternally jealous folks across town).  But when ESPN runs a piece Saturday morning saying, "Fight on, or Flame out?", halfway through a season that features two losses with exactly one second left in the game and by a combined total of three points, both of which whom feature future first round draft pick NFL quarterbacks, I have to wonder if the whole world has gone mad.  Do the USC haters really, seriously want to bet that we are gone for good?  Hope is not a strategy.  I am afraid that the vast conspiracy to put USC down has only succeeded in one thing: emboldening USC and making its base even stronger (which I would not have thought possible previously).  Regardless of when it happens, I can only promise the haters and the doubters and the damn fools out there: You barked up the wrong tree.  We are, S-C.Speaking of which, we are not C-A-L, and I can not tell you what it is like to witness my Trojans finally play a flawless half of football again.  42-0 at halftime, huh?  I have a lot to say about this game, and a lot to say about the action around the country.   I hope this week's issue has something for everyone.- Robert Woods does not have the "potential" to be the best true freshman receiver we have ever had; he IS the best true freshman receiver we have ever had.  Mike Williams and Dwayne Jarrett were out of this world but what Woody is doing is unthinkable, and I believe he will leave USC as the greatest receiver ever to play at our university.- There is nothing hyperbolic about Kiffin's comment yesterday regarding Matt Barkley and the Heisman.  As a true sophomore, with the most TD passes in the country, and a 20-4 TD-to-INT ratio, and a sudden hot streak going that looks virtually perfect to me, he absolutely would be among the Heisman frontrunners if it were not for two losses that with time expiring by a grand total of three points.  He did miss a couple passes in the Washington game, but his lowest points this season have been NOWHERE NEAR the lowest points of the other premier quarterbacks in the country.  The country and the media may very well hate USC, but no one will be able to deny Matt his due next year if he stays on this trajectory.- By the way, where all the Barkley haters now?  I don't hear anything from them any more.  My Inbox misses y'all.  Clowns.- I mean no disrespect to Cal, but actually am discussing this issue from a very objective standpoint.  I said even last year after USC man-handled Cal up in Berkeley that I thought Tedford was on the hot seat, or at least should be.  I was having a hard time understanding how Cal fans would tolerate what seems to me such perpetual mediocrity and under-achievement.  And I do understand that the financial realities within the UC Regents are probably a factor (which is why Rick Neuheisel will not be fired even next year when he has his fourth consecutive losing season).  But the real reason someone can be 1-8 against USC and actually have a losing record since 2007, yet still keep their job as head coach at Cal: A 7-1 record against Stanford.  You can not beat your rivals 7 out of 8 times and lose your job in college football.  The inverse of this truism is that you can lose to your rivals by 31 points three years in a row and keep your job (right, Ty Willingham?).  Cal was as unprepared to play that game as I have ever seen them, but Tedford would have to lose this year and next year to Stanford before the progressives of NorCal decide to cut ties with him.- I thought Lane Kiffin's play-calling was impeccable, and I believe my prediction of him turning into one of the premier play callers in the land was only wrong in the timing.  He will be there earlier than I thought, and the doubters and haters will once again eat their words.- Monte Kiffin came and spoke to us at MMQB today, and his energy and charisma and excitement for defense makes me wonder how these kids have waited so long to start playing for him.  He is a gem - a legend - and as he said, "we are going to get this going again, and USC is going to win a lot of games, for a long, long time".  He is right.  I can not wait.  He took about ten minutes to go through one play today, prompting Lane to grab the microphone and say, "I hope none of you had dinner reservations"- Joe Houston was named Pac-10 Special Teams Player of the Week.  Two made field goals, some big time kickoffs, and a perfectly placed pooch kit.  Every detail matters.  Good job, Joe.- I teared up when CJ Gable was taken off the field.  I absolutely love this kid, and think he is one of the grittiest and most solid Trojans I have ever met.  The word that the X-Rays are negative, and he might even be ready to play again in two weeks, brought tears to my eyes again.- Not sure what to say about Allen Bradford and the fumbles.  He just can not put that ball on the rug and still be considered a premier starting tailback.  Marc or CJ or Dillon deserve the nod if Marc is fumbling.  Period.- Ten receivers catching a pass in this game is rather remarkable, but I would like to point out how impressive some of the catches were.  David Ausberry had his very best game as a Trojan.  Carswell and Ayles and Butler had some incredible grabs.  And RoJo and Woody are as lethal of a two-receiver combo since DJ and Stevie.- This offensive line is killing guys.  Can they do the same against Oregon's defensive line?  We shall see.- I like Gallippo and Shane Horton and Nick Perry on the field at the same time.  And Jurrell Casey is playing like a first-team All-American.  I wonder if those who have pointed out the massive deficiencies of the defense prior to this week understand that we are starting two sophomores and a freshman in the secondary, and that we have had a flood of injuries (some season ending) on the front line?  Wes Horton should be back soon.  But I sure hope (and believe) that this defense has bounced off its bottom, and is ready to knock some heads off.- I can't contain my excitement for the possibility of derailing the #1 team in the country in the Coliseum at our next game.  I just wonder if the offense and defense has the confidence and preparedness it needs to be up for this challenge now?  A week ago I would have bet Oregon would hang 60 points on us.  Can we hang in there with them long enough to pull ahead in the fourth quarter?  I salivate thinking about what a win here could mean for this program.  No program has been more mistreated in the history of college athletics.  This would be the sweetest kind of vindication.- I know it is easy for Trojans to laugh at Cal's 35-7 win over UCLA after what we did to Cal on Saturday, but it just doesn't work that way, unless you think UCLA could go into Nebraska and whoop them.  Any given week, folks.  You just don't know.  That's why they play the game.- My prediction now: If Alabama wins out they will be back in the BCS Fictitious Championship Game.  I am not saying they will win out, but I know the BCS is so anxious to screw over Boise State and TCU, it is not even funny.  LSU is a fraud.  And Ohio State clearly laid an egg Saturday.  Oklahoma could go the distance, but then again, so could Auburn (assuming they can actually beat Bama, which I doubt).  Auburn scored over 60 on Saturday, but to give up over 40 to Arkansas tells me that teams can score on them.  I am still a skeptic.  But good and decent people only want one thing to happen: For every major conference team to have at least one loss, and for Boise and TCU to remain undefeated.  They do not wish this because good and decent people want to see them in the championship game, for that will absolutely not happen.  They want this so they can watch the BCS screw one or both of these teams over, and be exposed to the national outrage that this event would take place.  If that were to happen, I would consider it the BCS's version of a $800 billion stimulus bill, and the college football world's response to be the equivalent of a tea party movement.  It is shocking the things we will put up with until we are motivated to not put up with it any more.  The BCS has GOT TO GO.- Spurrier apparently read what I said about him last week and wasn't interested in my kind words staying on record.  It is not just him losing to Kentucky for the first time in his career, and it is not just that he lost after having a big lead.  It is that after going down three points, he got his team into EASY field goal range, and with no timeouts threw the ball at the goal line with just ten seconds to go.  This, of course, resulted in the thing that is the reason you never ever ever do that: an Interception.  I am speechless, and saddened for my USC-east friends.- The state of Nebraska should be in a state of mourning all week.  And I am sure they are.- Mike Riley should also take some heat for his red zone decision-making last week.  I liked his decision to go for two after the second overtime TD, especially after seeing the two passes Locker had thrown for Washington to get their two TD's in Overtime.  But to then go empty backfield with that Jacquiz Rogers on your team and throw the ball is positively bizarre.  Rogers has been walking into the end zone all night from within the 5-yard line.  Good decision to go; bad play call to go with it.- So Hawaii beating Nevada and Washington beating Oregon State must really be helping USC with Strength of Schedule points for the BCS ...  =)  The system is  a moral atrocity even when we are on sanctions.I need to leave it there for now.  I am truly as proud as ever to be a Trojan, and I do love beating Cal.  I have gotten very used to it.  I am not as used to beating Oregon, though we certainly have beaten them many times in the last decade in some HUGE games.  I am sure their student body will be too psyched for final weekend campaigning right before the election to really get into the game (those Eugene kids can really walk some precincts), so I think the crowd will be a good edge for my Trojans.  Oregon's offense is absolutely awesome, and our defense has played one good game.  But I do believe.  And one day, so will all of you.  Fight on.