Fan the flames

The USC program gets plenty of praise.  It’s hard not to admire a program that routinely recruits the best athletes and competes for the national championship every year.  However, all is not rosy at USC with losses to vastly inferior teams the past three years.With all due respect to coach Carroll and USC, it is time to throw a bit of criticism on the “Best College Football Program” in the nation.  

In 2006, USC was on the verge of playing for another national championship.  In fact, most fans, sports writers, etc. were begging for another USC appearance after witnessing one of the best college football games the year before versus Texas.  What happened?  Well, after dismantling Notre Dame 44 – 24, the Trojans went on to lose to UCLA 13 – 9 ending its title hopes.  USC was heavily favored against UCLA.

In 2007, USC again was expected to play for another title.  However, this time the slip up happened early in the season with an incomprehensible loss at Stanford.  To say USC was heavily favored against Stanford is like a kid declaring love for all things sweet.  By the way, they barely escaped defeat at the hands of Washington the previous week as well.

This year USC brought a number one ranking into Corvallis fueled by blasting Ohio State only to lose to Oregon State.  This game was no fluke, either.  OSU ran all over USC’s defense with a 185 pound running back.  Those runs weren’t on the corners, either —  they were mostly between the tackles.  Was this the same OSU team that got hammered by Penn State?

People rip Ohio State for losing “big” games.  Fine.  However, not one of those games featured Ohio state as a 3+ touchdown favorite, either.  These same people that rip Ohio State should cast a few discouraging remarks USC’s way for not taking care of business against inferior teams, because, you know, to play in the “big games” a team has to win the “small ones” as well.