After beating Notre Dame 38-3, Pete Carroll put some perspective on whether this could be his greatest defense since he started at USC in 2001:
The first question for Mark Sanchez, who had a solid performance in the blowout victory, was about his first pass being intercepted. He handled it in stride, and demonstrated the personality that makes him the player that he is:
As the lights went out in the Coliseum, LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke put his perspective on the evening:
Scenario 1: Beat UCLA. Result is USC vs. Penn State in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Jan. 1.
Scenario 2: Lose to UCLA. Result is USC vs. the Big 12's third-place team in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 30.
In other words, it'll be a local New Year's Eve.
The ironic part is that whoever winds up as the Big 12's third-place team -- Texas, Texas Tech or Oklahoma* -- will probably provide a better game than Penn State. By beating the Bruins, the Trojans actually condemn themselves to a lesser bowl opponent.
Nice work, football gods.
Some Trojan fans hold out hope that a pollster miracle could jump the Trojans into the title game. At this point, the SEC champ (winner of Alabama-Florida) will be a lock, and the Big-12 is going to have two or three teams with a legitimate claim on the other spot. That's not to say that USC's claim is illegitimate -- in fact, it's very legit. But it just won't happen. It's not unlike the 2004 season, when a 13-0 Auburn got left behind for the title game and USC ripped apart Oklahoma in Miami.
Speaking of the Big 12, the trio of one-loss teams (Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma) will be represented in the conference championship game by whichever has a higher BCS ranking on Sunday afternoon. They will face three-loss Missouri, who fell to Kansas on Saturday.
Seriously, how hard have the football gods been hitting the sauce?
If Mizzou pulls out a major upset, that still leaves a pair of one-loss Big 12 teams that are popular with the voters. USC would probably stay ahead of Texas Tech, but either Oklahoma or Texas would likely stay ahead of the Trojans even if shut out of its conference championship.
-- Adam Rose Photo by Mark J. Terrill/AP
* UPDATE: Lost amid a lot of chest-thumping comments, CM points out that the Big 12 will likely have two teams in BCS games, sending the third-place team to the Cotton Bowl and the fourth-place team to the Holiday Bowl. In that case, yes, PSU-USC would be better than Oklahoma State-USC and probably better than Mizzou-USC. Of course, what if Mizzou wins the conference championship?
This raises another glaring issue: the Pac 10's bowl tie-ins. Remember that those contracts expire in January.
Once you get over just how disgusting it is for a headline like the one you see here (I almost threw up in the back of my mouth while typing it), it's actually a fair question.
USC, unless it stumbles into the BCS National Championship game or stumbles against any outmatched UCLA team next week, will be in Pasadena on Jan. 1 playing Penn State. It'll be the Trojans' fourth straight trip, and fifth in the last six years. The one year they missed was due to a bigger engagement -- a national title game in Miami. Had Oregon State beat Oregon on Saturday, the Trojans held out hope for another BCS game -- most likely the Fiesta, but possibly the Sugar or maybe even the Orange.
If you take the BCS National Champion Game out of the equation ...
Incidentally, the Trojans secured at least a three-way tie for the Pac-10 title tonight and that makes it seven consecutive years -- extending their existing conference record. Beating UCLA would also secure a seventh straight BCS bowl and seventh straight 11-win season, which would extend USC's NCAA records in both categories. There's also a chance for the Trojans to finish in the AP top four for, you guessed it, a seventh straight year.
Yes, this was called back because of an illegal block. Yes, it was a double whammy because Stafon Johnson was tagged for excessive celebration. Regardless, this photo pretty much sums up USC's 38-3 annihilation of Notre Dame.
There's nobody anywhere near Johnson as he prances into the end zone. You know a team stinks when opponents prance. I wonder what Seinfeld would have said about the moment.
It's pretty hard to render me speechless, but I was close to it for the latter half of this beat down. Much of the time was spent watching more intriguing games on Justin.tv.
Notre Dame finished with 91 yards of total offense. We see 91-yard plays every week on "SportsCenter."
Mark Sanchez was especially elusive tonight. It's been a few weeks since I've said it ... it's fun to watch him play.
Notre Dame didn't get a first down until late in the third quarter, and received a standing ovation for it. From both sides. The Irish moved the chains only four times all game, pretty much entirely in garbage time.
Reported celebrity sightings included John Stamos, Jerry Seinfeld, LenDale "I Hate UCLA" White, and two-time ESPY winner Taryne Mowatt (the former Arizona softball star seemed pretty happy with how this one turned out).
Scouts from the Detroit Lions, Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders, Arizona Cardinals, New York Giants and Chicago Bears were on hand. So was a representative from the Sugar Bowl. That's probably irrelevant, since Oregon State lost to Oregon and USC looks like a lock for the Rose Bowl (or a really, really longshot for the BCS title game).
After the game, Pete Carroll wouldn't say that this was his best defense ever, but he said they were playing the best.
One fan summed it up nicely: "This game was over three weeks ago."
Area for improvement: Once again, USC was heavily penalized (eight for 95 yards) while its opponent was rarely flagged (two for 22 yards).
Injury report: Nick Howell suffered a right high ankle sprain and Stanley Havili suffered a mild ankle sprain. That's it.
There was a time, not so long ago, when USC fans celebrated UCLA's Karl Dorrell getting a contract extension. Charlie Weis got his not long after, but nobody in the land of Troy realized they should be celebrating until this year. That jingling sound you hear? It's not the USC student section shaking their keys to say "game over," it's Notre Dame alumni pooling their loose change to buy out Charlie's contract.
With a giant chunk of the student section empty (many were home for Thanksgiving), Notre Dame fans were allowed to migrate over from their nose-bleed seats in what looked like some sort of mass exodus. Funny visual effect -- thousands of Notre Dame fans running laterally through the aisles of the Coliseum.
USC fans seemed to be ecstatic about announcements that Oregon was thumping Oregon State. Really? I'm surprised it wasn't a muted reaction. Shouldn't USC want to play a stronger opponent in another BCS bowl? Bill Plaschke reasoned that fans have travel budgets too.
A pregame "fracas" between the teams was the first event like that we've seen all year. Former USC receiver John Jackson recalled something similar happening at Notre Dame in 1989.
Style points. Will they come? Maybe. Maybe.
Playing Joe McKnight is playing with fire. He lost seven yards and eight yards on consecutive plays to start the second quarter. Shortly thereafter, he ripped off a 55-yard touchdown run, the Trojans' longest of the season.
Stanley Havili's had an electrifying 39-yard reception out of the backfield. It's not often you get to use the word "electrifying" about a fullback. Crossing the entire field, using his blockers intelligently, he eventually ran out of steam. With the lateral movement, he put in more than 60 yards of sprinting.
It may be senior day, but younger guys are stealing the show: McKnight's 55-yarder, Havili's 39-yarder, and Damian Williams' all-around performance (as originally predicted by John Jackson, though he later said Mark Sanchez would spread it around).
With Notre Dame punting out of the end zone, Stafon Johnson returned the kick back where it came from, but was aided by a block in the back. More flags were thrown when he tossed the ball and danced around. Yes, USC was called for excessive celebration on a play that was called back. Those penalty yards piled up pretty quickly.
At halftime the Floundering Irish have a whopping nine yards of total offense. This could be one for the history books.
Halftime score: 24-0
We may not update much in the second half, but make sure to check in tonight for all sorts of stories, stats and assorted info.
-- Adam Rose Fracas photo Matt Cashore/US Presswire Mauling photo (more bars in more places?) by Harry How/Getty Images
With the denial of Alex Stepheson's transfer waiver and an injury to fellow forward Kasey Cunningham, USC is already short two big men until next year.
Six games into the regular season, they still have no word on Nikola Vucevic. The 6-foot-10 forward from Montenegro is awaiting NCAA clearance because Vucevic played briefly with a professional team when he was in his early teens. Floyd said that the clearance paperwork was filed when Vucevic signed with the Trojans in early June.
USC's forwards and Floyd's patience have something in common: Both are wearing thin. After the Trojans' blowout victory over Tennessee-Martin, the coach made his position clear:
"We're hoping that we will hear from the NCAA pronto on Nikola Vucevic. He's already missed six games. The young guy needs to be playing in these games prior to getting into the Pac-10 [season].
"The bottom line is Nikola sat on the bench on a pro team overseas ... as a 14-year-old, and he was a mascot for the team. They chanted his name at the end of two games, and he got in there for a minute in two games. Never got a dime. If they'd have paid him at 14, they'd have been out of their minds.
"Then he came to the United States to get an education and to play college basketball. I think he's sat long enough."
Similar to the period before Stepheson was denied, Floyd indicated that Vucevic's uncertain status has an effect beyond gameday. Not knowing what players they have available changes the way the Trojans practice. "We look disjointed right now," said Floyd.
And you thought football coaches had to lobby to get what they want.
Around the same time Vucevic signed with the Trojans, the NCAA started looking into extra benefits allegedly received by USC one-and-done star O.J. Mayo. As an ongoing investigation, both the NCAA and school have policies against making comments -- but clearly the wheels of justice are turning slowly. They also didn't move too quickly for Stepheson, whose case was denied despite outwardly appearing to meet the NCAA's requirements to skip a redshirt year after transferring.
Black Friday kicks off the season of ho-ho-ho, but it was mostly ho-hum for USC's basketball team against Tennessee-Martin. The Trojans cruised to a 70-43 victory behind another solid performance by Taj Gibson (15 points) along with scoring from Dwight Lewis (13) and DeMar DeRozan (12).
Percy Miller notched his first career points. He went for a dunk on the fast break but was fouled and had to settle for a layup. The effort earned him a standing ovation, which may have been the biggest reaction from the crowd all night.
Gibson had a light night in terms of playing time, putting in a relatively low 24 minutes. Hackett led the way with 32. Any rest must have been appreciated by this group, who practiced twice on Thanksgiving after slogging through a disappointing tournament in Puerto Rico.
There will be one clear concern through the first part of the season: inside depth. Whereas last season USC lacked scholarship guards, this year the Trojans have been hit with three unexpected losses among the big men (more on that in an upcoming post). As discussed previously, a lot rests on Gibson's shoulders. Freshman forward Leonard Washington had a solid night, recording a game-high nine rebounds on Friday. He's getting good reviews from his coach and teammates, but his conditioning will be an issue because he sat out all of last season.
Washington said his biggest surprise this season has been the amount of playing time he's getting. With those depth issues in the front court, don't expect that to change. During a postgame news conference, Coach Tim Floyd joked about pushing Washington to get in better shape. "He likes cheeseburgers and fries. We've got to get him brussels sprouts and, I don't know, name another fancy food we eat out here [in California]! We like to fry our food in the South." Washington, a Louisiana native like Floyd, said he's been eating better and putting in extra work outside of practice to make it happen.
One smooth move made by USC operations: The court is now two-toned. The layout makes it much easier to differentiate the men's three point line (moved out a foot this year by the NCAA) from the women's. Not sure if the Women of Troy are for it (especially with that light yellow line), but the guys owe somebody a high five.
Now if only they would fix the glare issue so that the picture windows -- framing downtown LA -- can have the curtains open during day games.
[UPDATE: Jason correctly commented that the court was two-toned last year. I guess that never stood out to me before. Regardless, the way they laid it out this season with the new three-point line is a huge help for judging where shots are taken in the men's game.]
-- Adam Rose Photo of by DeMar DeRozan by Danny Moloshok/AP. Photo of Galen Center by Adam Rose/LA Times.
Today is Black Friday and that means a lot of spending and a lot of sales ... but don't forget that you can use some of your purchasing power to make life better for somebody else.
A toy drive is being held during the USC-Notre Dame game tomorrow with a collection point at the Coliseum's Peristyle (east end). Bring donations (new, unwrapped toys or USC gear) and look for the big statues or for the ESPN volunteers. The effort is being undertaken by A Better LA, Pete Carroll's charity, and gifts will go to inner city children and teens.
Rey Maualuga is a finalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award (best defensive player) and Taylor Mays is a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award (best defensive back). [College Football Awards]
