Wow. I’m not surprised the Trojans lost, but I wasn’t expecting that. After eight years without a loss by more than a touchdown — a streak dating to when I was a junior at USC — we lose to the Ducks by twenty-seven?! Holy cow.
Putting it another way… Oregon beat USC by a wider margin than Notre Dame’s over Wazzu. WTF?
So: the no-blowout-losses streak is over. The Pac-10 championship streak is almost certainly over. The BCS bowl streak? We’ll see. It’s still not impossible USC gets an at-large berth at 10-2, notwithstanding the ugliness of this loss; they’d be eligible, but whether they’d get picked would depend on who they’re up against. They’re certainly in a weaker position than I anticipated. Holiday Bowl, here we come?
Meanwhile, it’ll be fascinating to see what the pollsters do with Oregon… and with Boise State. Although, with Alabama, Florida, Texas and Iowa all stubbornly refusing to lose, it may not matter. This is looking more and more like one of those rare seasons in which two undefeated teams actually meet for the BCS title, and the positioning among one-loss teams (and unbeaten mid-majors) becomes purely academic.
*sigh*
Beat the Sun Devils.
As a Trojan, that loss hurts.
As someone who hates the Ducks, that loss hurts more.
As a Husky, i’m jealous that USC is likely to go 10-2, and is only worrying about its second loss and maybe going to the Holiday Bowl instead of a BCS bowl. 🙂
According to Wikipedia, the Trojans tried to hire just about every Oregon coach they could find (Erickson, Belotti, Riley) before they settled on Carroll. Hard to believe, but then Carroll’s only head coaching experience was two relatively unimpressive stints in the NFL prior to 2001. Where would USC be today if they’d hired their first choice, Dennis Erickson?
So have you brought the flag in yet?
One interesting Carroll side note: in the extreme Northeast US, he’s the guy that ruined the Parcells Super Bowl Patriots team, before Belichick was brought in to lead the Patriots to greater glories. To some folks in the extreme Southwest USA, he’s a hero.
If the coasts ever decided to start a Civil War, with flyover country as their killing fields, Carroll is one fellow who should have no doubt which side to stay on. (He may not actually wait for the war to decide.)
Fire Pete Carroll? 😉
Of course not, pthread. The flag stays, at least through tomorrow. Gotta have pride in my team even after a beatdown. Just like how I proudly wore my USC sweatshirt out to a bar after the Stanford loss, and took the resulting drunken abuse by gleeful Rockies fans (who had just clinched the NLDS) like a man. 🙂
My personal “USC loses when I am in New York City” jinx continues. 🙁
That makes my record for USC losses 7-1 (Texas, Oregon State, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, and Oregon.)….Only the loss to UCLA occured while I was back home in Maine.
I think this loss also highlights, again, how dominant USC has been this decade. If this is the worst USC will see after starting a freshman QB all season, then I think they’re still in good shape.
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Brendan: Yeah, I’m with you on that. I had pride in my Terps through three or four beatdowns. The Duke loss, well, maybe not so much. You can still love your team and simultaneously want them to DIAF, right?
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