Every year, USC looses a game that they are not supposed to. It's always to an unranked Pac-10 team. Yesterday, it looks like they decided it's better to get this obligatory yearly loss out of the way early in the season rather than late. They lost their Pac-10 opener on the road to Washington 16-13. Washington is unranked. As a matter of fact, they are just happy to be still in Division-1 football given that they went 0-12 last year. Now they have beat the big and mighty USC. This loss has dropped USC to number 12 - behind schools like Boise State, Miami, Oklahoma and Va Tech and way behind Cal. I wonder if USC is thinking that they can recover from an early season loss better than a late season loss when it comes to BCS berths. Unfortunately, such courtesies are only extended by our beloved voters to East Coast schools like Florida! If you lose to an unranked Pac-10 team, you are pretty much done.
But this goes to show that Pac-10 is usually better than advertised. Why would USC keep losing to unranked teams in Pac-10 even though they routinely crush Big-10 big-dawgs like Ohio State and Penn state. I think the Pac-10 teams are hard to beat especially on the road. Most of them have decent offenses, though this particular contest was a low scoring one. Also, while the West Coast has "weak" sports fans in general, that description fits California and Arizona more than the North Western states. They have higher levels of passion for college football since most of the Oregon and Washington schools are located in small, campus towns with very little professional sports interests and lots of rain! So going into those hostile environments and coming out with a W is easier said than done. Of course, there is something wrong with USC's mindset and their coach that this happens every year. For all the credit Pete Carroll gets for resurrecting the program at USC, I think he has under-achieved with what he has got. May be he should have 4 or 5 rings instead of the 1.5 he's got if only his teams played with the same focus every game.
Great win for Washington even though USC played without quarterback Matt Barkley and defensive star Taylor Mays. Now let's see if USC gets it's act together against a good Cal team in a couple of weeks. Speaking of Cal, my main (Heis)man Jahvid Best ran for 131 yards and five touchdowns in a 35-21 victory at Minnesota. He is on track. The other great game of the week was Virginia Tech V Nebraska. Va Tech's mediocre QB Tyrod Taylor clinched the game for them with a game-winner. Great win for the Hokies - 16-15. The other surprising results of the week were Oregon upsetting Utah and Florida State over BYU.
I knew FSU was good, but I was surprised that they crushed BYU on the road. Tennessee and Lane Kiffin had a good day. They lost 13-23 to Florida, but weren't they supposed to lose 60-3 or something? Not sure what happened to Florida there. I am now thinking they are going to lose a game this season if not 2. If they and Texas stay on course, the Championship game is all theirs as of now. Lets see what happens.
ASU beat Louisiana-Monroe 38-14, but they start their season for real at number 23 Georgia next weekend. I am nervous!
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