Pac-10 Separation Saturday

Hey Trojans:

This weekend begins "separation Saturday" in the Pac-10 as the Trojans and Wildcats, both at 3-1 look to get on top of the conference which has 5 teams all with 1 loss. Along with the Trojans and Wildcats, join the Ducks, Beavers and Bears. None of those teams play each other this week with the Beavers taking a bye. The Bears scrap with Skippy and his bRUINS and the Ducks take on a reeling Arizona State group which is falling from high expectations.

Arizona will be a good road test, they are a much improved team and their offense is second in the conference scoring just over 40 points/game. USC leads that stat at just over 44 points/game. Of course, USC will be the best defense the Wildcats will face all season as the Trojans lead the country in scoring defense (7.8 points per game with back to back shutouts the last 2 weeks) and passing defense (137 yds/game).

We also need to pull for Ohio State to beat Penn State at the 'Shoe (and Terelle Pryor is much improved and Beanie Wells is getting back into the lineup), as well as Virginia and (barf) Notre Dame. Our non-conference opponents need to keep winning to boost our SOS, and strange as it may seem, we need Oregon State to win out too, thereby negating the perception that it was a "bad loos" by USC. By the way, 2 of OSU's three losses were on the road at #3 Penn State and #11 Utah. If the Beavers had played Eastern Washington and Idaho (like an SEC team would play UL-Monroe, North Texas, The Citadel, etc.) the Beavs would have only the one loss on the road vs. Stanford. Here is an interesting article by Ted Miller on ESPN that nails it.

Fight On and BEAT the Wildcats!

I Feel Bad For The Cougs...

They are just a horrible, horrible team. I haven't even watched the replay of the game yet, I was at a wonderful day-retreat at a place called, Meadows of Dan, Virginia. It is about 90 minutes from Greensboro, just past Martinsville and right on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Friends of ours have a cabin up there and it is just spectacular! They are at the peak of Fall and the colors are just breathtaking! This was one of the reasons I moved my family from Maui, so they could experience the change in seasons. Days like this make it all worthwhile.

Anyway, not much to take away from a game against a team that has given up over 60 points its last 4 games. Paul Wulff certainly has his work cut out for him.

Next game is another biggie as the Trojans head to the desert to play enigmatic Arizona, who knocked off Cal late Saturday night. They feature another "smurf" a la Jacquizz Rogers of OSU, which makes me a little nervous, but I just don't see USC getting beat again this year. The OSU game was the perfect trap game, coming off a big win in a nationally televised game against a worthy opponent, to go on the first conference road game against a team that just got blown out by Penn State 45-14. USC was looking ahead, no doubt, and Pete's teams ALWAYS struggle in their first conference road game every season. I don't see any team being able to stay within 14 points of the Trojans until maybe bowl season. Sure, stranger things have happened, but there is still a lot of opportunity for teams ahead of the Trojans to stumble, so they need to play like every game is to get into the BCSCG.

Since the Trojan/Wildcat tilt STARTS at 10:15 pm (yawn), no get together will happen.

Fight On!