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No USC Threepeat

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ScriptOhio said:
Maybe the only guy in the universe that doesn't pick USC.

Updated: Aug. 31, 2005, 5:14 PM ET


You heard it here first: No USC threepeat

By Bill Curry
Special to ESPN.com


Contrary to the opinions of most "experts," The University of Southern California will not win the national championship in football this season.

There are several reasons, most compelling of which is the narcotic of stardom. Teenage males do not handle it well. In this case, the elixir is magnified by next-door neighbor Hollywood. That is just the catalyst that will exaggerate two more immediate personnel concerns: the loss of offensive wizard Norm Chow and a more porous run defense. They will combine with the aforementioned potion, resulting in a loss or two. Overall, we will see a brilliant, talented team that falls just short of the prize.

[font=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Coverboys[/font]
Now, remember how you thought and reasoned when you were 19 ... then read the following. Try hard to imagine the headlines are about you and your best buddies:



g_leinart_i.jpg

It's hard for Matt Leinart and USC to ignore all the adulation.


"Doubt USC's dominance? Cue up the first half of that 55-19 smashing of No. 2 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, then get back to us." (ESPN The Magazine's Bruce Feldman)

"Arguably the Best Offense Ever!" (numerous magazines and papers)

"The Biggest Man on Campus ... Ever!" (FoxSports, referring to Matt Leinert, your quarterback, who is a great guy who figured out how to finish college with one class this semester, Ballroom Dance 101)

"What do you do with an offense that already has everything?" (Athlon)

"The Trojans are going for three with the nation's top quarterback, most electric playmaker and most dynamic wideouts. Who's to stop them?" (Sports Illustrated)

The words scream off the pages of preseason publications. They ooze into the unconscious minds of the teenaged males in cardinal and gold, blur their focus, and corrode the fierce spirits within -- eventually surfacing during games at the least propitious moments.

Of the seven national magazines I have purchased, every single cover features a Trojan. In the case of ESPN The Magazine, our cover has Leinert riding piggyback on a smiling Reggie Bush. It is wonderful metaphor but heady stuff! Those two or LenDale White adorn the covers of many more magazines that crowd the racks across the country. I bet there are more Southern California players per capita on and in sports publications this summer than any other team in the history of the sport.

At first glance, USC appears to have dodged the dreaded "Sports Illustrated Curse." SI's cover prominently features Florida's quarterback, Chris Leak. But as one focuses on the details, a red inset jumps out in bold relief. Its headline reads "SI's TOP 10," and begins with USC at No. 1, with a small picture of Bush near the top.

So, in the world of jinxes, do insets count?

[font=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]No More Carrolling[/font]
Last December, I wrote an article regarding focus titled "Boldness of Leaders Drives Unbeatens." In it, I examined the reasons men such as Pete Carroll and a few others normally are able to keep their players' heads on straight despite myriad distractions. Carroll does a very wise thing, not at training camp, not at the beginning of spring practice, but immediately following the conclusion of recruiting, in early February:

"Pete Carroll of Southern California has a team meeting each winter during which he shows tapes of the year's recruits. He then reminds the men that playing time will be allocated based on performance, and that there are no entitlements for upper classmen. He keeps the attention of his team year-round. They are desperate to play and they have no illusions about the ability of the competition on their own team.

"He does not say, 'Wow, you guys are great. Everyone will keep his position and we will continue to do well.' Leadership in Bold Strokes."

Big deal, you say. You say most coaches have some sort of motivational ploy to get the guys revved up for grueling offseason programs. What you say would be correct. Nothing unique about the above methods.

Here is what is unique. Carroll has played 40 true freshmen in the last three years. That, folks, is a mind boggling stat for any football coach, player or player's parent. It means that when this man says everybody gets a chance, everybody gets a chance. I have never seen anything to match it in college football.

It is the greatest of focusing methods, but it will not be enough this time. Even the redoubtable Pete Carroll cannot overcome the distractions and key losses.

One year ago the Trojans had a chip on their shoulder. In their minds, they had been cheated out of half the national championship by a flawed system. They were being told they could not overcome the loss of key receivers Mike Williams and Keary Colbert. Leinert had arm problems and played poorly in the early going. All of the above served to keep people's minds on their business.

This time, all they see and hear is that they are wonderful and unbeatable. Leinert is back, surgically repaired, better than ever, having delayed the NFL's big bucks for all the right reasons. When kids hear that often enough, no matter what the coaches say or do, they believe in their own invincibility. That belief alone is enough to take the edge off preparations. Combine it with the thousands of appearances, photo shoots, interviews, the bright lights of Los Angeles and you have inevitable distractions.

Do not misunderstand me. The preparation will be very good. It just will not be quite as good as it has been the last two years.

[font=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Chow Line[/font]
The debate about the worthiness of Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian to replace the erstwhile genius, Norm Chow, will not be fully tested until the following kind of situation presents itself:

Scenario #1
Tough game, Trojans with the ball, down 4, 80 yards to go, 1 minute, 43 seconds on the clock, temperature 103 degrees, Leinert exhausted, one timeout remaining, three offensive starters gone with cramps, hostile crowd, a good nickel defense sprinting on the field, ready to lay it on the line to break USC's winning streak.

It is here and now that Norm Chow's perspective and experience in the booth will be missed ... and it will make all the difference.

Defensive excellence against the run will be adequate until something like this:

Scenario # 2
Tough game against a good running team, defense on the field trailing by 1, 2:02 on the clock, no timeouts remaining, temperature 55 degrees, so fatigue is no factor for the physically inferior opponent; a stout offensive line with a massive fullback and a gritty tailback are jogging on the field to run the clock out -- and they believe they can do it.

It is here and now that Ed Orgeron, Shaun Cody, Mike Patterson and Manny Wright will be missed ... and it will make all the difference.

Football really is a game of inches, and this year's inches will be enough to deny one more great team of a threepeat.
Click to expand...
i distinctly remember a certain usc team (which was last years team) almost losing at times, they are so over hyped that the media doesn't even give any else a chance to have a breath, its all because of the place they live, l.a. which is in the most over-rated state california, matt lienhart isn't the best qb in the country he is the just most covered, (him being friends with nick and jessica SIMPSON doesn't really hurt him either) i mean the man can't even throw a tight spiral and you expect me to believe that he will the hiesman trophy again. if i'm archie i would be pissed off at the level matt doesn't isn't playing to these days, how over-rated that whole offense really is, the only reason matt is given so much attention because he looks like something off a abercrombie and fitch shopping bag, he's marketable and is the perfect "california dream-boat" steriotype that usc needed to get popular again.
usc plays in the worst confrence the fudge-pac 10 the most cake confr. in the country who will give them chase, california or oregon? look put down the peace pipe and wake up to reality, they are a team on its way to imploding. so guess what matty you may have the media in your pocket along with the rest of stupid commentators and pole voters and you may very well go back to the national championship but watch out because the buckeyes have that number 11 in their cross hairs.
 
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take a deep breath pal... their offense is definitely NOT overrated in any sense of the word. Is USC overhyped? Definitely. But that's because they aren't unbeatable, especially with their holes on D to replace.

Leinart, Bush, White, Jarrett, Byrd would all start at OSU. Smith would compete to be our #4 WR behind Holmes and Ginn.
 
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Buckeyeskickbuttocks said:
EXACTLY!

Script, we all know that. The point is, like the system or not, the BCS system is the NCAA champion, not the AP.

Ohio State isn't credited with titles in 1961 and 1970, for example. Why? It wasn't one of the two major polls at the time who anointed them. The NCAA adopted the BCS. The BCS winner is champ. Not the AP champion.
Click to expand...


BuckeyesKickButtocks,
I think you are wrong here (i.e. The NCAA did not adopt the BCS). The NCAA does not conduct a national championship in Division 1-A football. The BCS is operated by the conferences not the NCAA. The BCS winner is one Division 1-A football champion (i.e. BCS National Champion) and the #1 AP poll team (AP National Champion) can be another. Idealy they are the same, but they weren't in 2003. See the NCAA website below:



Past Division I-A Football National Champions



The NCAA does not conduct a national championship in Division I-A football and is not involved in the selection process. Since 1998, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) operated jointly by the ACC, Southeastern, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten and Pacific-10 Conferences has used a ranking system to determine the number one and number two teams at the end of the season. These two teams play each other in a post-season bowl game for the BCS national championship. Below is a year-by-year history of Division I-A football national champions as determined by various organizations:
2004
Southern California : [SIZE=-1]BCS, AP, BCS, Berryman, Billingsley, Colley, DeVold, Dunkel, Eck, FACT, FB News, FW, Massey, Matthews, NFF, NY Times, Sagarin, USA/ESPN

[/SIZE]2003
LSU: [SIZE=-1]BCS, Billingsley, Colley, DeVold, Dunkel, FACT, Massey, NFF, Sagarin, Seattle Times, USA/ESPN[/SIZE]
Southern California: [SIZE=-1]AP, Eck, Matthews, NY Times[/SIZE]

2002
Ohio State: [SIZE=-1]AP, BCS, Berryman, Billingsley, Colley, DeVold, Eck, FACT, FB News, FW, Massey, NFF, NY Times, Seattle Times, Sporting News, USA/ESPN, Wolfe[/SIZE]
Southern California: [SIZE=-1]Dunkel, Matthews, Sagarin[/SIZE]

http://www.ncaa.org/champadmin/ia_football_past_champs.html
 
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jwinslow said:
take a deep breath pal... their offense is definitely NOT overrated in any sense of the word. Is USC overhyped? Definitely. But that's because they aren't unbeatable, especially with their holes on D to replace.

Leinart, Bush, White, Jarrett, Byrd would all start at OSU. Smith would compete to be our #4 WR behind Holmes and Ginn.
Click to expand...

Hate to disagree with you, but no way Jarrett would be starting if he would of came to tOSU. Ginn is better than and him and Holmes would of had experience on him. He would play, but not start.
 
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well, if Houston can get a 70 yard kick return, and a 70 yard pass for a TD in the first quarter against the Ducks, i'm pretty sure that USC won't have too much trouble... funny, remember how high so many people were on Belotti a few years back?
 
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lv, just what i was thinking watching that game. Houston now has a 74 yard kickoff return, and 70 and 62 yard passing TD's, to lead 21-14 at the end of the first quarter.

That game for USC at Autzen isn't looking so tough.
 
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unniversity of spoiled children (usc)

First lets get a few things straight about the national champions:

  1. Matt Lienhart is a joke
  2. only major player of mention Reggie Bush
  3. this team almost lost to cal and oregon st.
  4. there are in the a joke of a confr. pac 10
I don't understand how one team can be so over-hyped so overrated, so on the verge of imploding, and have every media outlet behind them. The hype of this team makes me sick, the media talks about them like they live on mount olympus and that no other team in the entire country can even touch them, that the best anyone will do is #2 that is such arougent b.s. I don't believe it.

I think that it is so funny that the teams in the bigger markets get the most play, the most exposure, the most love e.i. the L.A. lakers, the N.Y. Yankees, the usc trojans. As soon as they show the least bit of improvement it seems everyone jumps on the band wagon, I mean living toledo, oh. I see more of their jersey's than anyone that plays around here.
But guess what there is a team behind the scenes that stays constant that don't sell out to the media that has class and will always be that way.
e.i. The Ohio State Unniversity Buckeyes, though we are unapperciated and often not defended on espn, we still play tough every saturday while the
"favorites" get top billing we're busy beating top teams (Michigan '04, oklahoma st. '05, kanas st. '04 who beat oklahoma that yr. in the big 12 championship) unfortunately when OSU beat miami in 2003 in the greatest game ever played we got no love, but were labeled not the team that won the championship but that miami lost it. More media bias towards the bigger market teams.

Back to usc the team is ok i'll give them that much. But to be on most college football mags to be on usa today more then anyone else, do you smell the b.s.? let me rant and rave about the points above, Matt Lienhart being the best qb ever are you kidding me? Isn't so conveinant that he is good looking, are people blinded by "dreamy california dream-boat looks" so much that they can't realize that he is less then average? I mean when you can't even throw a spiral tight how can you be the best? Hey I think you can put any qb with a pulse that walk and chew gum at the same time in there and be successful because a they are in a cake confr. and they have reggie bush. If matty-boy wins the hiesman again I will not believe to be prestigous award any longer. Looking back on the award's great history, I can't believe that someone so average can win it twice when men like Payton Mannning didn't win it one time. Matty-boy is the result of good enough media attention, I mean it doesn't hurt that he looks like a guy out of the abercrombie and fitch catalog and that he is friends with Nick and Jessica Simpson, the media needed a fresh california face to sell college football to the city of L.A. because lets face it they've some pretty embrassing teams in the last 10yrs. With the decline of ucla this big market of media and commerce needed to be tapped. So I ask the question when will this rediculous attention of an over hyped be over when will the mask come off and the overrated team and everyone will give the respect to THE BEST DAMN TEAM IN THE LAND.
:osu: :osu: :osu: :osu: :osu: :osu: :oh: :io: :osu: :osu: :osu: :osu: :osu:
 
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Team Zephyr said:
Here are official NCAA 2004 stats:

USC
Rushing Defense #1
Pass Defense #34
Total Defense #6
Scoring Defense #3
Turnover Margin #1
Fumbles Recovered #3
Passes Intercepted #3
Turnovers Gained #1
Pass Efficiency Defense #9

Just for comparison...

Ohio State
Rushing Defense #35
Pass Defense #41
Total Defense #30
Scoring Defense #19
Turnover Margin #85
Fumbles Recovered #116
Passes Intercepted #28
Turnovers Gained #80
Pass Efficiency Defense #19

http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/natlRank.jsp?div=4&site=org
Click to expand...




TELL AGAIN WHAT CONFR. THEY ARE IN?
OH! THATS THE RIGHT THE FUDGE PAC-10 THE EASIEST IN THE COUNTRY
 
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OK, Leinart is not a joke and all that spewage against USC (spoiled children?) is stupid. I don't even go that route.

As far as their defense is concerned, I stand by what I said...it wasn't that great. It was good. I watched the entire Cal game. If Tedford had called for four rushing plays in a row at the end of the game when it was first and goal instead of four passing plays in a row, Cal would have been playing Oklahoma or Auburn would have, it's just that simple. Arrington and Lynch shredded USC every time they got the call. Not to say that's anything to be ashamed of....those are good backs. I can only guess USC somehow finished #1 in rushing defense because no one ran against them or something, because they were NOT the top rush defense against the Golden Bears.
 
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