Preseason Is Over, Bring On The Huskies!

Well, it was still far from a flawless game, but USC sems to be moving in the right direction. The two interceptions (and should have been at least 3), are a bit disconcerting, but hopefully each game brings more wisdom to Matt Barkley and his receivers because they will need it in October.

Special teams is going to win the Trojans a game or two. What a difference having a full time ST coach has done! Kickoffs for TDs, punts for TDs, blocking PAT's and FG's. Good punt coverage and kickoffs into the endzone. These are hidden things that will help USC in the future.

Sure, the schedule was set up for a 4-0 start, but Lane Kiffen becomes the first USC coach since Jess Hill did it in 1951 to win his first 4 games as the Trojan's head man. Of course, I'd love to see him win the rest, but that is too tall an order to fill this season with a depleted roster, and a strong looking conference, especially since the folks in Powder Blue & Gold beat up on highly ranked Texas, in Austin over the weekend.

Of course, Oregon, Stanford, Arizona and Oregon State all look very tough, and if the Beavs took an SEC schedule approach and played Idaho and Willamette College, they'd be undefeated and not potenially rob a Pac-10 team, a shot at the BCS Chjampionship like they did in 2008 when the 1 loss debate between USC and Florida hinged on the loss to the opponent. In that case, Oregon State lost at Utah (undefeated) and at Penn State (1 Loss), whereas Mississippi State had played a bunch of nobodies and basically "bought" their non-conference wins. The voters failed to recognize this, and considered Florida's loss at home "better" than USC's loss in Corvallis, even though OSU and MSU had the same records.

This week, it is payback time for Sark, Locker and Company.

WOW, What A Victory!!!

WOW, what a game! Matt Barkley wrote his own Hollywood script Ohio and drove the Trojans an impressive 85 yards (95 if you consider a penalty pushed the Trojans back to their own 5 yard line) in a little over 6 minutes with the game on the line. Fighting off a previous injury, and with victory-minded Joe McKnight determined to take the team on his legs, Pete Carroll's squad snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in front of 101,000 silent Buckeye fans. The other 5,000 in attendance were of course the boisterous Trojan fans. Definitely a game for the ages.

Of course, after such a BIG victory, comes the annual Pac-10 conference road opener, a.k.a. USC's annual trap game because this is traditionally where the Trojans lose their focus and gag. The Men of Troy will hardly have any time to unpack their bags before making the journey up to the Emerald City an face former Trojan coaches Steve Sarkisian and Nick Holt and their up and coming scrappy Husky team. UW is improving, they gave LSU all it could handle and if there is anyone who knows what USC looks like behind the lines, its Sark and Holt. Its a classic Master vs. Student match-up and the Trojans need to be razor sharp to avoid another letdown.

Game time is 3:30 PM, Greensboro location is TBD.