Last Saturday, in Baton Rouge sometime during the 3rd quarter, the P.A. announcer informed the crowd that Stanford had just beat USC. The crowd went bonkers and did appear to energize the LSU Tigers who were down by 10 at that point but pulled out a victory over the Florida Gators and which also solidified their hold on their No. 1 AP ranking.
Fast forward to this Saturday up in Strawberry Canyon where the No. 2-ranked Cal Bears were hosting the Oregon St. Beavers…. during the 1st half, in an eerily similar situation, the announcement was made that LSU was just defeated by the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington. This crowd also went wild but that is where the similarities stopped as the Beavers held on to win 31-28 and ruined any chance of Cal taking over the top spot in the polls. The conventional wisdom is that Ohio St. will take over that spot when the polls come out later this afternoon.
Pete Carroll and the Trojans are just glad they have an out-of-conference game next week… against Notre Dame no less. The long-awaited Mark “Dirty” Sanchez-era looks like it may have begun Saturday at the Coliseum where USC eeked a 20-13 win over Arizona. There was much speculation on just how bad the injury to John David Booty’s finger on his throwing hand really was. It was the classic case of an injury being a convenient excuse for making a switch that probably needed to be made.
We posted last week about this topsy-turvy season forcing us to re-evaluate some long-held beliefs. Well, here goes another one: We were big time defenders of Booty last year and the beginning of this season in the face of people who wanted to pull the plug on him and make Sanchez the starter. Our defense was based primarily on the fact that Booty, though not spectacular, was a solid game-manager who didn’t make the Big Mistake and with all the talent that SC possessed, one did not need a whole lot more.
Just looking at the last 10 games USC has played extending back to last season, perhaps this is not the case or is no longer the case because of the way all that other talent on SC is performing or not performing. Because the defense is not flying around and creating the havoc we thought they would and because the running game lacks a singular game-breaking talent (hello, Joe McKnight?), the quarterback position now needs to be a more dynamic and play-making position for the Trojans.
What John David (we couldn’t resist a reference to the Figurehead) lacks in the ability to possibly take over games with his throwing ability or athleticism is what Sanchez does possess. And in a single play late in the 4th quarter as USC was driving deep into Arizona territory trying to salt the game away, Sanchez picked up a first down by keeping his legs churning after the initial contact by the defenders and which allowed him to stumble forward to gain the necessary yardage. Two or 3 lineman came running over to help him up after he was downed… those are the type of plays that win teams over.
Booty has been the consummate student-athlete and has quietly bided his time (he graduated early from Evangeline Christian in Louisiana so he could come out to L.A. and participate in spring practices in what seems like 10 years ago now) to be the starting quarterback so it pains us to say that we believe that Sanchez gives USC the best chance to win the remainder of their games.
… and in other news, a bye week prevented UCLA from choking-away their game on Saturday.
Big week this coming week: We have some thoughts on Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the notion of the Religious Right bolting the GOP in the upcoming Presidential elections and possibly Barack Obama’s own spirituality.
Fast forward to this Saturday up in Strawberry Canyon where the No. 2-ranked Cal Bears were hosting the Oregon St. Beavers…. during the 1st half, in an eerily similar situation, the announcement was made that LSU was just defeated by the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington. This crowd also went wild but that is where the similarities stopped as the Beavers held on to win 31-28 and ruined any chance of Cal taking over the top spot in the polls. The conventional wisdom is that Ohio St. will take over that spot when the polls come out later this afternoon.
Pete Carroll and the Trojans are just glad they have an out-of-conference game next week… against Notre Dame no less. The long-awaited Mark “Dirty” Sanchez-era looks like it may have begun Saturday at the Coliseum where USC eeked a 20-13 win over Arizona. There was much speculation on just how bad the injury to John David Booty’s finger on his throwing hand really was. It was the classic case of an injury being a convenient excuse for making a switch that probably needed to be made.
We posted last week about this topsy-turvy season forcing us to re-evaluate some long-held beliefs. Well, here goes another one: We were big time defenders of Booty last year and the beginning of this season in the face of people who wanted to pull the plug on him and make Sanchez the starter. Our defense was based primarily on the fact that Booty, though not spectacular, was a solid game-manager who didn’t make the Big Mistake and with all the talent that SC possessed, one did not need a whole lot more.
Just looking at the last 10 games USC has played extending back to last season, perhaps this is not the case or is no longer the case because of the way all that other talent on SC is performing or not performing. Because the defense is not flying around and creating the havoc we thought they would and because the running game lacks a singular game-breaking talent (hello, Joe McKnight?), the quarterback position now needs to be a more dynamic and play-making position for the Trojans.
What John David (we couldn’t resist a reference to the Figurehead) lacks in the ability to possibly take over games with his throwing ability or athleticism is what Sanchez does possess. And in a single play late in the 4th quarter as USC was driving deep into Arizona territory trying to salt the game away, Sanchez picked up a first down by keeping his legs churning after the initial contact by the defenders and which allowed him to stumble forward to gain the necessary yardage. Two or 3 lineman came running over to help him up after he was downed… those are the type of plays that win teams over.
Booty has been the consummate student-athlete and has quietly bided his time (he graduated early from Evangeline Christian in Louisiana so he could come out to L.A. and participate in spring practices in what seems like 10 years ago now) to be the starting quarterback so it pains us to say that we believe that Sanchez gives USC the best chance to win the remainder of their games.
… and in other news, a bye week prevented UCLA from choking-away their game on Saturday.
Big week this coming week: We have some thoughts on Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the notion of the Religious Right bolting the GOP in the upcoming Presidential elections and possibly Barack Obama’s own spirituality.
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3 comments:
Don't know what to make of this year's college football season. The one thing that can be said for sure that all of Florida State and Miami's talent connections have now been picked up by South Florida (Which brings to mind: What's the over/under on how soon until those guys go on probation for recruiting violations?). Other than that, east coast to west, and everywhere in between, anything and everything is open for debate. - Mongo
If you're looking to trash Al Gore, Oscar winner, Nobel Laureate, and potential saint, then I want nothing further to do with this column. When planet earth is miraculously saved from "fat cat" Republican oil barons and auto executives and a future pope declares Albert Gore, Jr. to be a saint, you'll be singing a different tune. I can only hope and pray that he will now run for president and put the Democratic primary season into disarray. Since a saint needs two miracles to his name, stopping Hilary from being elected President would certainly be right up there with saving the planet and put Al over the top for sainthood.
Hey, I don't know what's going on around here anymore so I'm just going to slap "Jim Leavett for President", "Al Gore for Heisman" and "Mary Carey for French Maid-in-Chief" bumper stickers on the Gremlin and call it a day.
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