USC football: A fan’s look back at Saturday’s victory
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The 89th victory for Pete Carroll at USC had some similarities to his first: San Jose State was the opponent and the Coliseum was the site of the game.
But unlike the nondescript 21-10 victory in 2001 that led to a 6-6 season, the Trojans’ 56-3 romp Saturday said volumes.
USC, despite starting a true freshman at quarterback and facing a schedule that has six of the next eight games on the road, will be an extremely difficult team to beat. The awesome display against the Spartans (620 yards of offense, 121 yards allowed by the defense) by no means guarantees an unbeaten season, another BCS bowl appearance or even a Pacific 10 Conference title.
But the Trojans are so talented and deep — the result of Carroll’s incredible recruiting success — they should definitely be a player in the national championship scene.
Carroll and quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates are smart enough not to put too much on Matt Barkley, the first true freshman ever to start at quarterback for the Trojans. Barkley has so many playmakers at his disposal — Damian Williams, Joe McKnight, Stafon Johnson, Allen Bradford, Stanley Havili, to name just a few — it would be silly to ask him to win a game by himself.
The Trojans also have an offensive line...
more after the jump
that will rival any in the nation. It’s a unit that will get better this week with the anticipated return of center Kristofer O’Dowd.
A season ago, Carroll had his best defense ever at USC. In 13 games, the Trojans gave up 14 touchdowns and 117 points.
It’s doubtful this year’s defense will duplicate those numbers, but USC isn’t going to start giving up 28 points a game, either. The new starters at linebacker — Chris Galippo, Malcolm Smith and Michael Morgan — will do just fine replacing now-in-the-NFLers Rey Maualuga, Brian Cushing, Kaluka Maiva and Clay Matthews. One misstep, of course, and USC’s title hopes can be dashed.
Trouble could come this Saturday when the Trojans play at Ohio State against a Buckeyes team no doubt tired of hearing about its recent failures in big games (including a 35-3 loss to the Trojans last season).
Barkley isn’t yet Matt Leinart. Or Tim Tebow. Or Colt McCoy. He undoubtedly will have his struggles. Will they come at the Shoe? At Notre Dame? At Cal?
The rub is that losing isn’t an option under Carroll. He has spoiled Trojans fans something good. Let the kid endure growing pains in 2009 to set up a true national title run next season, when the schedule is more accommodating? Forget it.
After the dark ages of USC football in the ’80s and ’90s, we’ve come to expect dominance. This isn’t 2001 anymore.
-- Hans Tesselaar
