Opposing Pac-10 teams celebrating at USC's expense has become an all too familiar in season trend.
Written by: D. Wash.
Well, there's no such thing as a boring week in College Football. A couple spectacular individual performances and one HUGE upset are the stories after this week. The upset, #3 USC's loss on the road to Washington, changed the outlook of the entire college football season and gave us all some perspective on how much better Matt Barkley really is over Aaron Corp. Best showed everyone how good he was, Miami continued their stunning early season run with another good win, and a few ranked teams lost to unranked ones. In short, another good week of College Football.
USC, Consistent To a Fault
USC is a much storied program with seven consecutive outright or partial Pac 10 titles. A powerhouse with some of the best talent in the nation and a spectacular coach. USC has such high expectations that force the team to prove consistency every year. And every year they are consistent...to a fault, a fault that must baffle USC fans. For some reason, the Trojans can’t seem to get through their Pac 10 schedule undefeated. They lost to Oregon State and UCLA in 2006. Then, in one of the biggest upsets in college football history, they lost to Stanford in 2007. Then last year they lost to Oregon State again. This year’s Pac 10 and national hero that managed to topple the Goliath from Pasadena? The University of Washington, who’s only win in the past 16 games prior to the SC game came last week at home against Idaho. How did they manage to beat the mighty Trojans? They played mistake free football, took advantage of USC’s mistakes ,and (perhaps most impressively) made the USC offense one dimensional. Aaron Corp was unable to really get going and only averaged 5 yards per pass attempt. He didn't seem to have quite to poise that true freshman Matt Barkley had either, nor was his timing with his recievers always there. That forced SC to run it more and Washington was able to stack the box to limit long gains on run. One dimensional offense, a few turnovers, and a sup par QB performance equal one thing: Game, Huskies.
Bears Are Led by The Best
Cal is a spectacular home team, but they went into this game with a four game road losing streak. How did they deal with the pressure of needing a road win to maintain their top 10 ranking? Well, California’s defense didn’t look great against Minnesota and their passing attack is never gonna put up big points. But as long as the Golden Bears have Jhavid Best, they need not worry about a shaky defense or an average passing game. Best again showcased his skills as the best running back in the nation when he ran for 5 touchdowns at Minnesota. That was all of Cal’s offense, and all that they needed to get out of Minnesota with a win. While Best will look back at this 5 TD game fondly, this success of this season won’t be based on this game. No, for Best and the Golden Bears to consider this season a success, they need to capture the Pac 10 title outright, ending USC’s 7 year reign over the Pac 10. Will it happen? I’m sure Best thinks so.
USC's loss: National/Pac 10 Title Implications
What does USC’s loss mean for the national title picture and the Pac 10 race? Well, USC’s loss essentially knocks them out of title contention because the likelihood of 10 of the 11 teams ahead of USC falling apart and losing before the end of the season is rather small. Sure, SC could in theory leapfrog Boise State with a couple of dominant Pac 10 wins of top teams like Oregon State, Oregon and Cal (though the Cal game will be a game where the Trojans will assume an unfamiliar role, the underdog). LSU, Ole Miss, and Alabama do play each other, and series of wins-losses between them could let USC top them. But Florida doesn’t look like it will lose this season. Same goes for Penn St. (if it can get past OSU and UMich) and Miami looks like they have a chance to go undefeated (they’ll need to win at VT and against OU to secure that “possible unbeaten” status). That’s simply too many teams to get past for SC to hope for a national title shot. Assuming an undefeated year from here on out, a big assumption with the recent play of Cal, USC could make it to the Rose Bowl. That’s a decent season for USC, but still a huge letdown considering the amount of talent and number of returning players that they have this year. USC still has to beat Cal, Oregon, and Oregon State to earn that Rose Bowl game, and while Oregon and Oregon State don’t look too challenging for the Trojans to beat this year, Cal will be favored over the Trojans. That will be a game to watch and, unless the Trojans can pull it together, could end in the Golden Bear s of UC Berkeley earning their first Rose Bowl appearance in over 50 years.
Miami With an Impressive Win
With their win over Georgia Tech on Thursday night, Miami proved that they can play with the big boys once again. Georgia Tech, who embarrassed Miami last year by rushing for over 400 yards, was almost entirely shut down. The running game, which serves as about 80% of Georgia Tech’s offense, only produced 95 yards. Without a powerful rushing attack, the Georgia Tech offense couldn’t produce and only scored 17 points against this very fast Miami Defense. Hurricanes QB Jacory Harris had another big game this week, completing 20 out of 25 for 270 yards. Next week Miami can leapfrog both Boise St. and LSU with a win over the now #11 Virginia Tech. That might won’t be easy, but wins over Florida St. and Georgia Tech weren’t easy either. This Miami team is used to doing the unexpected, expect big things from them.
Backup QB Landry Jones Breaks OU School Record
This week, Oklahoma crushed Tulsa 45-0. That’s not surprising. What was surprising was the play of backup quarterback Landry Jones, who is currently taking over the starting spot for the injured Sam Bradford. Jones, a redshirt freshman and top 10 quarterback prospect from the class of 2008, set a school record with 6 passing touchdowns. That’s better than Heisman winners Jason White and Sam Bradford, along with some other great QB’s to play at Oklahoma. What does that mean for the future? Well, let me destroy any wild speculations right now. Sam Bradford WILL get his starting job back when he gets back from injury. Bradford is one of the most talented players in college football and has a Heisman trophy to prove it. Once Bradford gets back however, the Sooner star may be able to get some rest in games that are out of reach now that Bob Stoops knows that he has a decent option at backup quarterback. It also means that Landry Jones will be a solid starter once Bradford does decide to leave for the draft, and Sooner fans have nothing to worry about when Bradford leaves to play on Sundays.
Quickies
Michigan earned themselves their third win of the season against Eastern Michigan. No surprise there, but here’s a good stat. Michigan Leads the conference in points per game and rushing yards, and is only 1.3 yards per game behind Purdue. Not bad for a team that was last in conference in PPG and YPG and only managed 7th in rushing yards per game last year.
The Heisman race still seems to be a 2 horse race, but Jhavid Best is starting to look like he’s actually got a shot. If the Golden Bears do win the Pac 10 outright, Best could become the first running back to win the prestigious award since Reggie Bush.
Formerly ranked teams Oregon and Florida State both knocked off their undefeated ranked opponents on Saturday, Utah and BYU respectively. FSU’s win was very impressive as the Seminoles forced the usually good Max Hall to throw 3 interceptions in the game. The Seminoles then proceeded to embarrass the BYU defense by gaining over 500 yards on them. That’s a great game from the boys out of Tallahassee.
Florida pulled out a win over Tennessee. Texas beat Texas Tech. Is anyone surprised? No? Good.
USC is a much storied program with seven consecutive outright or partial Pac 10 titles. A powerhouse with some of the best talent in the nation and a spectacular coach. USC has such high expectations that force the team to prove consistency every year. And every year they are consistent...to a fault, a fault that must baffle USC fans. For some reason, the Trojans can’t seem to get through their Pac 10 schedule undefeated. They lost to Oregon State and UCLA in 2006. Then, in one of the biggest upsets in college football history, they lost to Stanford in 2007. Then last year they lost to Oregon State again. This year’s Pac 10 and national hero that managed to topple the Goliath from Pasadena? The University of Washington, who’s only win in the past 16 games prior to the SC game came last week at home against Idaho. How did they manage to beat the mighty Trojans? They played mistake free football, took advantage of USC’s mistakes ,and (perhaps most impressively) made the USC offense one dimensional. Aaron Corp was unable to really get going and only averaged 5 yards per pass attempt. He didn't seem to have quite to poise that true freshman Matt Barkley had either, nor was his timing with his recievers always there. That forced SC to run it more and Washington was able to stack the box to limit long gains on run. One dimensional offense, a few turnovers, and a sup par QB performance equal one thing: Game, Huskies.
Bears Are Led by The Best
Cal is a spectacular home team, but they went into this game with a four game road losing streak. How did they deal with the pressure of needing a road win to maintain their top 10 ranking? Well, California’s defense didn’t look great against Minnesota and their passing attack is never gonna put up big points. But as long as the Golden Bears have Jhavid Best, they need not worry about a shaky defense or an average passing game. Best again showcased his skills as the best running back in the nation when he ran for 5 touchdowns at Minnesota. That was all of Cal’s offense, and all that they needed to get out of Minnesota with a win. While Best will look back at this 5 TD game fondly, this success of this season won’t be based on this game. No, for Best and the Golden Bears to consider this season a success, they need to capture the Pac 10 title outright, ending USC’s 7 year reign over the Pac 10. Will it happen? I’m sure Best thinks so.
USC's loss: National/Pac 10 Title Implications
What does USC’s loss mean for the national title picture and the Pac 10 race? Well, USC’s loss essentially knocks them out of title contention because the likelihood of 10 of the 11 teams ahead of USC falling apart and losing before the end of the season is rather small. Sure, SC could in theory leapfrog Boise State with a couple of dominant Pac 10 wins of top teams like Oregon State, Oregon and Cal (though the Cal game will be a game where the Trojans will assume an unfamiliar role, the underdog). LSU, Ole Miss, and Alabama do play each other, and series of wins-losses between them could let USC top them. But Florida doesn’t look like it will lose this season. Same goes for Penn St. (if it can get past OSU and UMich) and Miami looks like they have a chance to go undefeated (they’ll need to win at VT and against OU to secure that “possible unbeaten” status). That’s simply too many teams to get past for SC to hope for a national title shot. Assuming an undefeated year from here on out, a big assumption with the recent play of Cal, USC could make it to the Rose Bowl. That’s a decent season for USC, but still a huge letdown considering the amount of talent and number of returning players that they have this year. USC still has to beat Cal, Oregon, and Oregon State to earn that Rose Bowl game, and while Oregon and Oregon State don’t look too challenging for the Trojans to beat this year, Cal will be favored over the Trojans. That will be a game to watch and, unless the Trojans can pull it together, could end in the Golden Bear s of UC Berkeley earning their first Rose Bowl appearance in over 50 years.
Miami With an Impressive Win
With their win over Georgia Tech on Thursday night, Miami proved that they can play with the big boys once again. Georgia Tech, who embarrassed Miami last year by rushing for over 400 yards, was almost entirely shut down. The running game, which serves as about 80% of Georgia Tech’s offense, only produced 95 yards. Without a powerful rushing attack, the Georgia Tech offense couldn’t produce and only scored 17 points against this very fast Miami Defense. Hurricanes QB Jacory Harris had another big game this week, completing 20 out of 25 for 270 yards. Next week Miami can leapfrog both Boise St. and LSU with a win over the now #11 Virginia Tech. That might won’t be easy, but wins over Florida St. and Georgia Tech weren’t easy either. This Miami team is used to doing the unexpected, expect big things from them.
Backup QB Landry Jones Breaks OU School Record
This week, Oklahoma crushed Tulsa 45-0. That’s not surprising. What was surprising was the play of backup quarterback Landry Jones, who is currently taking over the starting spot for the injured Sam Bradford. Jones, a redshirt freshman and top 10 quarterback prospect from the class of 2008, set a school record with 6 passing touchdowns. That’s better than Heisman winners Jason White and Sam Bradford, along with some other great QB’s to play at Oklahoma. What does that mean for the future? Well, let me destroy any wild speculations right now. Sam Bradford WILL get his starting job back when he gets back from injury. Bradford is one of the most talented players in college football and has a Heisman trophy to prove it. Once Bradford gets back however, the Sooner star may be able to get some rest in games that are out of reach now that Bob Stoops knows that he has a decent option at backup quarterback. It also means that Landry Jones will be a solid starter once Bradford does decide to leave for the draft, and Sooner fans have nothing to worry about when Bradford leaves to play on Sundays.
Quickies
Michigan earned themselves their third win of the season against Eastern Michigan. No surprise there, but here’s a good stat. Michigan Leads the conference in points per game and rushing yards, and is only 1.3 yards per game behind Purdue. Not bad for a team that was last in conference in PPG and YPG and only managed 7th in rushing yards per game last year.
The Heisman race still seems to be a 2 horse race, but Jhavid Best is starting to look like he’s actually got a shot. If the Golden Bears do win the Pac 10 outright, Best could become the first running back to win the prestigious award since Reggie Bush.
Formerly ranked teams Oregon and Florida State both knocked off their undefeated ranked opponents on Saturday, Utah and BYU respectively. FSU’s win was very impressive as the Seminoles forced the usually good Max Hall to throw 3 interceptions in the game. The Seminoles then proceeded to embarrass the BYU defense by gaining over 500 yards on them. That’s a great game from the boys out of Tallahassee.
Florida pulled out a win over Tennessee. Texas beat Texas Tech. Is anyone surprised? No? Good.
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