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… Read more »
Iowa State’s players celebrate winning at Nebraska for the first time since 1977:
In an article I linked to earlier, ESPN’s Ted Miller wonders whether Saturday’s USC-Oregon clash will be “the sort of contest where two teams play so impressively that even the loser becomes a top candidate for an at-large BCS bowl berth.” Miller is really asking the wrong question. BCS at-large berths aren’t determined by one team’s “impressive” losing performance in… Read more »
Well, USC held off Oregon State, 42-36. The Trojans are now 6-1 heading into a Top 10 showdown with Oregon next week. That’s the good news. The bad news? First of all, USC’s defense has apparently vanished. Perhaps it’s floating in a balloon somewhere, or hiding in an attic. But one week after allowing ND’s Jimmy Clausen to go 24-of-43… Read more »
First things first: Charlie Weis is a complete and utter moron. His inexplicable and indefensible decision to go for it on 4th-and-goal, instead of taking the chip-shot field goal to tie the game with 11 minutes left, was the last straw. It convinced me, once and for all, that Charlie Choo-Choo should be fired. Enough is enough. (And yes, I… Read more »
As I did last week, I’ve gone through tomorrow’s college football schedule and highlighted the games with major implications for USC as the Trojans try to sneak into the BCS championship game with one loss (something the majority of SI’s panel of analysts think they will accomplish). The two biggest games, outside of the Coliseum, are at 5:00 PM Mountain… Read more »
Some tweets back and forth with Stewart Mandel the other day, as well as the comment thread on my post about Dan Wetzel’s BCS article, has gotten me thinking, once again, about a college football playoff proposal. Everyone talks about either a “plus-one” (basically a four-team playoff) or an eight-team playoff simply taking the Top 8 teams in the final… Read more »
Just a few days ago, I stumbled upon an early-August column by ESPN’s Rick Reilly titled “Remember us? We’re UCLA football.” Reilly writes about Bruin coach Rick Neuheisel’s little-brother complex, his hyperactive desire to catch up with Pete Carroll and the big bad Trojans across town. It’s almost sad, really. And yet, ultimately, more funny than sad, because it involves… Read more »
This weekend, ESPN GameDay is going to Provo for the BYU-TCU game. That’s cool. But could we see an even more improbable visit to a mid-major showdown by Herbie, Corso and Fowler next month? Pat Forde asks: The [Idaho] Vandals were 3-21 the previous two years. Now they’re 6-1, off to their best start since their days as an FCS… Read more »
It’s been a week since my original BCS pecking order post, and a number of things have changed: Virginia Tech and Ohio State lost, USC beat Notre Dame, Cincinnati beat South Florida, the Big 12’s implosion continued, and more. Plus, the first BCS standings came out, I looked at a few things more closely, re-considered a few scenarios, etc. Anyway,… Read more »