State of the USC Trojans: Overrated?

A 5'6", 180-pound freshman ran for 186 yards and two touchdowns against the "best team defense in the country."  Hell, the "best team in the country."

USC fans, I'll let that sink in for a second...

Supposedly the weakness of the Oregon State offense was the run game.  Jacquizz Rodgers proved that accusation to be wrong.

This freshman running back walked (or should I say juked) right into your living room and became a household name, or at least claimed the tag of being "that freshman that made USC look like a high school JV team."

Rodgers is either the next Heisman winner or the USC defense is a tad bit "overrated."  Something has to give...

I wasn't the one that said USC was overrated.  Blame the 42,839 Beaver fans chanting "Overrated" once safety Greg Laybourn intercepted Mark Sanchez's pass with less than three minutes to go.

Don't come hunting for me, Rey Maualuga!

As half of Beaver Nation rushed the field, many thoughts probably circulated in the heart of Los Angeles.

Did Mark Sanchez damage his resumé for Heisman?

Did Pete Carroll offer Jacquizz Rodgers a large sum of money to transfer to USC?

Is the National Championship still attainable?

In order for USC to get to the top of the polls at the end of the year, not only will Pete Carroll have to rave about the strength of the Pac-10, he will also have to rely on Oregon State finishing the season at least 8-4.

I never thought I would say this, but an Oregon State win against No. 15 Utah on Thursday would give a big boost to USC.

USC will have one last shot to prove to the pollsters that the loss was just a fluke when they face No. 23 Oregon this week.

USC will have to win out, because as we saw last year, a two-loss SEC team will get into the National Championship over any other team.

Oh yeah, and don't forget about Penn State, Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Just think, a couple weeks ago the winner of the "Collision at the Coliseum" would guarantee the winning team in the National Championship.  It's a good thing the game was played so early in the season, or ESPN would have nothing to talk about leading up to the game.

We know Pete Carroll is a great big-game coach, but is he just an average little-game coach?

Carroll lost to Oregon State two out of the past three years.  And don't forget last year when Stanford ended USC's 35-game home win streak.

Was the USC loss just a small hiccup, or should USC fans get used to being just an ordinary team in an ordinary conference?

It's never a good thing when the WAC and MWC have the same amount of teams in the Top 25 as the Pac-10.

Maybe it was a good thing that USC lost.

USC can take the same approach Tim Tebow did after Florida got upset by Ole Miss. 

"We wanted an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida has never done here. I promise you one thing, a lot of good will come out of this," Tebow said.

"You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see another player push his team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season. You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season."

Then again, they're in the SEC.

Then again, Tim Tebow is God.

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