« September 2008 |
Main
| November 2008 »
The phrase "expert from USC" conjures thoughts of film, business and engineering ... but what about conjuring itself? Or cemeteries and monsters?
As we head into Halloween, it's good to know USC has the subject covered. Engineering professor Geoffrey Spedding has studied the aerodynamics of bats. Philosophy professor Edwin McCann is an expert in magic and occultism in the 17th century. Other faculty members can tell you about spook culture ranging from 19th century Gothic lifestyles to modern horror films.
The school's PR department prepared for some scary media inquiries (unrelated to Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo) with a roster of ghoulish gurus. Here's one professor who sounds like fun: "Leo Braudy, professor in English and American Literature, has taught a course for many years called 'The Monster and the Detective.' The monsters include Wolfman, Dracula, Freddy Krueger and Jason. He's also a contributor to the newly-published book, 'The Book of Lists: Horror.'"
They may even have a cadre of cadaver experts ... but can any of them dance the Monster Mash?
-- Adam Rose
USC has played in the Orange Bowl only twice, but its dominating wins continue to leave a lasting impression on the history of the event.
The Orange Bowl is celebrating its 75th anniversary this season with two big showdowns ... the Orange Bowl Game itself, then the BCS National Championship Game a week later.
As part of the festivities, a 75th anniversary team will be announced. Voting is open to the public and you can participate by clicking here. Several USC players are nominated, including Troy Polamalu (who played in 2003) and seven Trojans from the 2005 game:
- Matt Leinart
- LenDale White
- Steve Smith
- Dominique Byrd
- Lofa Tatupu
- Ryan Killeen
- Pete Carroll
The website also lets you enter into a free raffle to win two tickets to January's Orange Bowl.
Speaking of football in South Florida, I'm in Key West at the moment ... anybody know of a good place to watch today's games?
-- Adam Rose
College football teams don't all hit "midseason" at the same time, but everybody should be there by now. The midseason All American lists are out and USC's Kevin Ellison was a popular selection.
Ellison is a first-teamer on the Sports Illustrated list, with Brian Cushing making the second unit.
Two Trojans made the Sporting News list: Ellison and defensive tackle Fili Moala. The other schools with two representatives are Alabama, Ohio State and Texas.
Ellison also won first-team All-American honors on Phil Steele's first-team list, where he was the lone Pac-10 player selected. Rey Maualuga made the second team. Steele, by the way, is projecting USC to play Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl.
No Trojans made the CBSSports.com midseason list and Oregon's Nick Reed was the only Pac-10 player to make it. The entire conference was left off of the Rivals.com list. CollegeFootballNews.com (Scout.com) didn't have any USC player on the first two teams, just an honorable mention for offensive lineman Jeff Byers. It had so little love for the Trojans, it misspelled his name.
Byers made another list that speaks to his success on and off the field. He's a finalist for the Lowe's Senior CLASS award, honoring those who stay in school for their senior season. The award was started in college basketball, and this is the first year it will be given out in football. Although Byers is a senior on the field, he's well beyond that in the classroom -- he's expected to finish his MBA this year.
-- Adam Rose
Photo: Kevin Ellison (4) celebrates a big hit with Mozique McCurtis (9). Credit: Wally Skalij/LA Times
With Lute Olson retiring at Arizona, the recruiting world has been rocked a bit. Word is that Wildcat commit Solomon Hill was getting phone calls from USC even before Arizona assistants told him the news!
On the NBA level, Nick Young is back in the swing of things. His monster dunk last night was ESPN's #1 on its top 10 plays of the day. You can see that (along with a little Desmond Farmer) on this highlight reel. The Washington Post also had a great feature on Young.
-- Adam Rose
In the court of public opinion, Lou Holtz has been treated unfairly.
A lot of noise was made when he invoked the name of Hitler in a discussion about leadership. Some simply stated that Holtz was wrong while others were pretty perturbed. Holtz later apologized for what he said and ESPN plans to take no disciplinary action. That raised eyebrows, because the network suspended another employee who made a Hitler reference earlier this year.
What's really disconcerting is how poorly some people understood Holtz's comment and context. Holtz was broadcasting with fellow ESPN analysts Rece Davis and Mark May, who had been talking about the need to have strong leaders on your team to turn around a program. Here's a quick transcript, as provided by ESPN:
Holtz: "Let's remember Hitler was a great leader, too."
Davis: "You're saying he was a bad leader."
Holtz: "Yes, he was a bad leader. What I am trying to say is some people are
going to lead your team the wrong way and complain ... some will lead down the
right way."
I'm really disappointed in the indignant, knee-jerk reactions to these words. While the other Hitler reference (made by Jemele Hill) was a risky analogy, Holtz was making a sincere attempt to remind people that leadership, administered incorrectly or maliciously, can cause harm. Obviously Hitler was the embodiment of evil. But he was undoubtedly effective.
Hitler and Nazi Germany are touchy subjects, but we should never make open discussions taboo. That would be Hitler-like. Completely avoiding references to Hitler even runs counter to the wishes of Holocaust survivors. They've asked us to never forget.
I'm not sure who we're worried about offending when we discuss things openly, earnestly, and with good intentions. Coaches serve as role models and can transform lives. There's no shame in saying that their leadership should take their communities in a healthy direction. And that's all Holtz was saying, though he wasn't very glib about it.
Obviously Holtz never meant to compare anybody in the modern day to Hitler. He certainly wasn't saying Hitler was a great person. And we all know his real prejudices are obvious and mildly endearing: favoring Notre Dame and whatever team his son Skip is coaching.
-- Adam Rose
FSN analyst Jeremy Hogue noticed a telling stat on this week's Lexus Gauntlet Live show, which was filmed at UCLA (the crew will be at USC on Monday and will continue alternating ... go stand in the crowd and you're sure to wind up on TV).
"If you take Washington and Washington State out of the mix -- because this year, let's face it, they probably shouldn't count -- if you take them out of the mix, in Pac-10 conference games, the home teams are 10-1. It's been a tough conference to go on the road and get wins."
That's one heck of a winning percentage. It's affected USC, whose lone loss came at Oregon State. Pete Carroll tried to explain the phenomenon:
"If you give your opponent the opportunity to bank on the fact that they're at home, and give 'em good stuff early, and give 'em a chance to energize the crowd, then it energizes the players. It's a very emotional game, and if that emotion can really swing heavily in your favor and you can feel the effect of it, it affects everybody. It affects the fans, the players and the officials. It affects everybody. Same thing in basketball. It just affects the people just naturally and brings out the best in them.
"The way that you counter that is you just play well. You do really good things, and before long the crowd is not the factor, and then it almost works in the opposite direction when it isn't the factor. There's an emotional value out there that can be captured by either team and fueled by the crowd and fueled by the emotion of the other sideline. That's what's waged here. It's pretty cool. Sometimes you get it done when you're the road team, and sometimes you don't. And when it goes the other way it's really difficult to overcome."
When asked how to win on the road, the late coaching legend Bill Walsh had a simple way of putting it: "Bring the best team."
-- Adam Rose
Records and pride are on the line Friday night at the Coliseum.
The Women of Troy will host UCLA in what should be the most intriguing soccer game Los Angeles will see all year. You'll be there if you love the sport, and if you made the mistake of hopping on the Beckham Bandwagon, here's your chance to repent. (Seriously, the Galaxy has two wins in the last four months and Becks is scoring a zero on the zeitgeist in L.A.) At least Chivas USA will make the postseason -- but both the Trojans and Bruins are legit national title contenders. Again.
Last year UCLA won the Pac-10 and was a heavy favorite to hoist the NCAA championship trophy for the first time. The Bruins beat USC in the regular season and historically dominate the series but were derailed by the upstart Trojans in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament -- which USC won on its way to its first title.
Each team boasts an Olympic gold medalist. USC's Amy Rodriguez and UCLA's Lauren Cheney teamed up in the Olympics this summer and became friends. Both have a big scoring punch and can go blow-for-blow on the scoreboard. But it won't be easy for either.
Each team boasts a shutdown threat. The Bruins have a practically impenetrable defense, leading the nation with just two goals allowed through 15 games. One of those was in the opener, so that's just one goal in the last 14 games. They're led by Erin Hardy, Lauren Wilmoth and Lauren Barnes, who all play on youth national teams. USC counters with two big-time net minders, including Kristin Olsen (who was a finalist for last season's national player of the year awards) and Brittany Massro. They combined for 15 shutouts in 2007.
Each team boasts excellent coaching. UCLA's Jillian Ellis has built one of the nation's elite programs in Westwood and also serves as an assistant coach for the national team (she joined Rodriguez and Cheney in Beijing). On the other bench, Ali Khosroshahin won the national title in his first season at USC and was a no-brainer pick for national coach of the year -- winning the honor in three publications.
Each team boasts a top-10 ranking and a chance to play for the national championship. Each is loaded with players who could make it to the professional ranks (the new women's league kicks off this year and had two Bruins taken in the first round of the inaugural draft). Each team is just darned good.
If that's not enough reason to go (trust me, it is), the schools are hoping to play in front of an NCAA record crowd. The game is being held in the Coliseum with the hope of having more than 15,000 fans in attendance. The previous record for a women's soccer game was 14,410 for a national title bout between North Carolina and Notre Dame in 1999. UCLA played before a crowd of 9,566 in the 2000 national championship game.
This game will not be a boring 69-0 blowout like that other USC "football" team had last week, and with tickets just $7 for adults ($5 for kids), it's a great game to bring the family to. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
-- Adam Rose
Photo by Sam Haythorn
After practice on Monday, Pete Carroll was asked about his philosophy on looking at USC's old game film -- especially considering he doesn't have any footage of a Trojans opponent scoring in the last 10 quarters.
"We don't watch much film now," he deadpanned.
Of course, you know Carroll's up late this week watching play after play of Wildcat footage, trying to gain any edge over his next opponent. But looking at USC footage?
"It makes no difference at all. What we did before has no bearing, other than we want to know what they know. We want to know what our opponents are looking at and what's been effective and what hasn't, that kind of stuff. That's always part of the process.... Every week I go back and look at the last couple games, to just make sure that I know what it is their [analysts] are looking at."
Even though he may not focus as much on USC's past, Carroll double-checks later in the week. After a few days, he's had an opportunity to get inside the head of the next opponent. "It's different after you've worked on their stuff and get a feel for it," he added.
-- Adam Rose
Pete Carroll was eager to point out that the Trojans were looking replenished Monday.
"A bunch of guys returned to the practice field," he said. "I don't know if you could tell, but it was like a busload of guys came in today! It was kinda fun, and it feels different -- the energy about it. Those guys were all excited to get back out. ... That should help us keep the week competitive."
Here's who practiced after being injured and/or missing at least part of last week's practices:
- Jordan Cameron
- Butch Lewis
- Zack Heberer
- Jimmy Miller
- Joe McKnight
- Vidal Hazelton
- Everson Griffen
- Brian Cushing
- Kaluka Maiava
- Chris Pousson
After listing out all the names, Carroll mused, "It feels like there are some more guys popping out!"
No word on when Gerald Washington will be back (he was out with an ankle injury).
-- Adam Rose
 I saw the attendance was just over 25,000 [when the Trojans went to Washington State on Saturday]. When was the last time USC played in front of such a small crowd? -- JC
Not to say that people weren't excited about this one, but even I didn't show up. I could have had my own row, or maybe section. A number of people who were there think the announced figure of 25,118 was generous. I heard a parent mention today that Wazzu fans were streaming out of the gates at halftime.
The picture on the left was taken in the first half. Looks like the turnout for a high school game.
The only other time it was this bad in the Pete Carroll era was his first year -- in a bowl game! A weak crowd of 22,385 showed up to the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl on Christmas Day. The Trojans put on an even weaker performance, losing to Utah, 10-6.
In 1997, John Robinson's Trojans played before just 20,938 fans at Oregon State. USC walked away with a 23-0 victory. That matchup was so unpopular, it broke a streak of 111 consecutive televised USC games. The next 48 were televised, until a 2001 victory over Cal. All 86 games since then have been on TV. Add it up, and 245 of the last 247 games have been broadcast live, dating to 1988.
Oh, and as for the worst turnout ever? Records indicate 100 people showed up for a home game against Cal Tech in 1893. Of course, they didn't even have a coach or a team captain in those days, so who knows if anybody was really paying attention at the gate.
-- Adam Rose
Photo: Ted S. Warren/Associated Press
|
|
