1. A mobile quarterback can gash USC’s defense, at least for a little while. Tavita Prichard of Stanford had a 40-yard gain when the Trojans let him scramble, and Toby Gerhart got loose for 40 yards on a pitch. “Those were disappointing plays,” Pete Carroll said. “That goes on their rushing yards total, but it’s not really like rushing yards.” Still, USC didn’t tackle well early and got handled by Stanford’s line. Stanford led in first-quarter first downs, 7-0.
2. Stanley Havili finally got to the end zone late, but something is not right when Vidal Hazelton gets the ball before he does.
3. USC doesn’ t have a special teams coach, per se, and might not need one after 230 yards of kickoff returns that led to 10 first-half points that were like gold, since the halftime score was 17-17.
4. A little more Gerhart might have stopped the second half bleeding for Stanford. The Norco baseball-football standout had 85 of his 101 yards in the first half and only eight carries in the second half. Gerhart became the first 1,000 yard rusher for Stanford since Tommy Vardell in 1991. Good grief.
5. USC isn’t in the same league with Florida right now. Trojans fans who claim to be bored with the Rose Bowl should reassess. They looked Holiday Bowl-bound for a while in the first half Saturday. A Penn State-USC Rose Bowl would be more competitive than the past two punchouts of Michigan and Illinois, especially if USC gets out of the gate as slowly as it did Saturday.
More from the USC blog:
- USC football: 100 games in, 15 losses bug Carroll the most
- USC football: Carroll takes shot at SEC
- USC football: Carroll says call against Turner was wrong
- USC football: McKnight aggravates toe injury
- USC football: Holding steady at No. 6 in BCS
Interesting observations - I found something you might find of interest. This Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. PT Pete Carroll is taking part in a free online question and answer session where anyone can ask the coach a question. The conference is set to run for 30 minutes and is being hosted by someone called Synclive.com. It sounds pretty cool in that the people participating in the call can chat while the call is taking place. Anyway here’s a link to the press release discussing the program: http://petecarroll.com/index.cfm/pk/view/cd/NAA/cdid/408377/pid/400025
All the best,
JB
REPLY:
1)Ah! The old belie that a spread offense can defeat USC myth is raising it’s head. The only trouble USC has ever had with a spread offense was with Texas. That’s the game where USC was leading by 12 points near the end of the game. The game that Young clearly threw a TD pass with one knee on the ground and Keith Jackson called it robbery by the refs or ignorance by the review crew or both. Jackson also has stated time and again that it was the most poorly officiated game he had seen and it all favored Texas. USC’s defense had been depleted with injuries. Then there was the 7 point loss to Oregon, who had the best offense in the nation at the time and USC was playing with a second team QB. USC destroyed Illinois after Illinois had beaten Ohio State. Since USC is 86-15 under Pete Carroll, teams just don’t really bother them. The 15 losses were by a total of 26 points.
2) Hazelton hasn’t practiced much.
3) Gerhart became a mind numb after Maualuga hit and stopped him dead in his tracks. Gerhart only limped around after that. Watch the film.
4) USC will complete the season as CO-CHAMPIONS of the PAC10, as did ASU did with USC last year. Even though USC destroyed ASU, it didn’t matter. In the PAC10, if two team finish with the same conference record, they are CO-CHAMPIONS. The Rose Bowl selection goes to the victor of the head to head meeting, but both are CO-CHAMPIONS. USC has either won or shared the PAC10 title the last 6 years and this will be the the 7th if OSU wins out.
I agree with ESPN’s current belief that USC will play Texas in the BCS Tostitos Bowl or Alabama in the BCS Sugar Bowl. Either way, USC will continue to play in it’s 7th consecutive BCS Bowl. That leaves a very low rated OSU playing a team lower ranked than USC (PSU) in the Rose Bowl. I don’t think the Rose Bowl is hoping for that. Now what Bowl game would you want to watch?
My question is why are there so few reporters/announcers who actually understand that the PAC10 has no “tie breaker” and only CO-CHAMPIONS? I think someone should hit the rule book.
Mr. Whicker:
Why do you insist on the nonsense that Florida is actually a team with no flaws? They’re record in bowl games leaves a bit to be desired. Losing to Michigan in a non BCS bowl last year? Losing 4 games last year? This all while having the great Tim Tebow, who his coach has described as the finest college player he has ever seen?
Then you have this year. The Gators lose to an unranked pathetic team at home? In the “Swamp?” USC lost by 6 points on the road to a ranked team. USC’s Out of Conference games are head and shoulders above anything Florida plays. Florida, like most SEC teams stay in the south and play small schools for their Out of Conference games. Do you see the difference? When Auburn is rated #1, USC goes into Alabama and shuts them out and beats them two years in a row. USC goes into the south and beats the SEC West Champions 54-14. See the difference? The (then) #1 team Georgia actually travels west for the first time in a decades and ASU scores on them! USC shut ASU out. What gives?
While Florida was stinking up their campus last year with their record, USC had 10 of their players drafted into the NFL. This year the same thing will happen. Holiday bowl? You better ask a team that is very familiar with losses in the Non Bcs Bowls - like a Florida. USC wouldn’t know what not having an 11 win season, conference championship, BSC Bowls, and players getting drafted into the NFL was like.