USC Trojans quite naturally are of the general opinion that they deserve a shot at the national title, and are being unfairly denied because of bias against western football.
Curious that this bias did not prevent USC from splitting the AP title with an LSU team with a better record in 2003, or gaining a unanimous title over an Auburn team with a better record in 2004, but USC fans only seem to remember the times when the system did not give them what they wanted.
In any event, let us attend to USC's case for the title point by point.
1. USC has the No. 1 defense.
It is great that USC is using this argument this season, because if it works for them, they can give back their 2003 and 2004 AP titles. Why? Because LSU and Auburn were either No. 1 or No. 2 in defense in 2003 and 2004, and while USC's defense was good both years, they were not as close to the top as the defenses for Florida, Alabama, and Penn State are this year.
No, in 2003 and 2004, the USC argument was how they were piling on the points so fast that the SEC teams couldn't keep up. Now that it is Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, and Penn State with the "we had our starters on the bench by midway through the third quarter!" offenses, now USC wants to use the "defense wins championships" argument? Obviously hypocrisy runs deep in college football.
But wait, you say, USC's defense is not only No. 1, but one of the greatest in history, probably the best ever!
Pardon me, but we have heard "best ever" superlatives about USC before, such as how the 2005 team was "the best ever" and how Reggie Bush, who has 1440 NFL career rushing yards at 3.6 per carry on a team with a great passing game and offensive line in three NFL seasons, was "the best college tailback since Gale Sayers."
Well, let us apply another argument from the USC 2003 - 2004 years to the current USC team: USC's defenses look great because they are playing bad offenses. The 11 teams that USC have played this year contained only ONE 2500 yard OR 20 TD passer, ND's Jimmy Clausen.
It contained only one rusher to surpass 1200 yards in a 12 game season (Jacquizz Rodgers, who torched USC for nearly 200 yards). And it did not contain a single 1,000-yard WR.
So, USC's historic defensive season came with QB Jimmy Clausen, RB Jacquizz Rodgers, RB Jahvid Best, RB Toby Gerhart (Stanford, who scored 23 points on USC in what was supposed to be a "revenge game" by the way, with Gerhart rushing for 100 yards), RB Jeremiah Johnson, and WR Sammie Stroughter being the only players that can be accused of being above average.
And some of these, particularly Clausen, would be exonerated of that accusation upon actually seeing him play against good teams.
Let us compare this with, say, the Big 12.
They have NINE passers with more than 2500 yards, including six with more than 3000 yards, and please consider Josh Freeman's 2,945 yards and Jerrod Johnson's 2435. I will grant you that there are only four above average rushers in the Big 12 (Tom Osborne, Bill McCartney, Darrell Royal, and Barry Switzer cannot be pleased), but Oklahoma has two of them.
Oklahoma's No. 1 tailback would be No. 5 in the Pac 10 in rushing, and their No. 2 tailback would be No. 6! (And that is with Sam Bradford having 4000 passing yards and 46 TDs.)
3 comments Last one added 7 months ago — Leave a Comment
Jonny Solovy 7 months ago
Hey Henry, your writing is great and I, even as a USC fan respect your opinion. But I have one question, where are all these USC fans and people claiming USC should be in the title game? Go to the USC section on BR here and tell me who wrote articles on why USC deserves it.
I can tell from your writing that you 1. Hate the pac 10 2. Hate USC 3. Are from the south or east...
I am a HUGE USC fan and would love to see them in the title game....however I DO NOT think USC deserves to go over Texas or Oklahoma or Bama... I also don't think Florida deserves to go over them either. Florida's schedule this year, if you look at the teams records now, is not very good and their loss to Ole Miss is just as bad or worse than USC's... Florida lost at home to a 8-4 Ole Miss team... USC lost to a 8-4 Oregon State team on the road... call it a draw fine. Who is UF's best win against? Georgia? Ok they are ranked out of top 15 now... who is USC's best win? Number 10 Ohio State with a score of 35-3.... Now I am not arguing that Ohio State is better than Georgia but it looks better considering UGA has 3 losses and Ohio St has two losses and is ranked 7 or 8 spots ahead.
Texas should go over Oklahoma thats BS and if Bama wins they should go. I don't care who Texas Tech has beaten... if you give up 65 points and lose by 44 points you do not belong in the top 5, period! USC in the past 5 years has not lost a game by more than 6 points... 6! They never get blown out and even if they are vastly outplayed in a half like they were vs Oregon St... they always come back and nearly win... when they lose which is rare considering since Pete Carroll took over he is 85-15... and his first year was not all that good, impressive?
Nobody, even USC fans I know, thinks USC should be in over the teams that are up there now, I definitely don't... but if you are going to write an article at least show both sides to be fair instead of completely bashing and attacking a great program like USC... you bring up Bush's rushing stats but where are his impressive receiving stats like 100 catches in each season the past few years? How about his punt returns? Oh yeah thats right you wanted to write a one sided and unfair article,, my bad... probably why when you mentioned USC's non conference schedule you left out Ohio State and just mentioned Virginia and Notre Dame... and that crappy Virginia team you referred to may not have been too good but they did beat that Georgia Tech team in Atlanta.. that very same GT just beat the big bad sec Georgia team.
Like I said I respect your opinion and if you want to write a one sided and unfair article you can, you have that write but I just wish you would be a little less ignorant. Your writing is great as I said.
As a USC fan I would say Fight on to you.. but since I know you have 4 page worthy hatred (length of your article) I will say HATE ON for your satisfaction
Edit Comment Cancel
Mark Gronlund 7 months ago
Should USC be in the NCG, probably not but your article claims they have no case. Of course they have a case, they lost one game on the road, Florida lost one game at home.
I'm not saying they should go but theyre definitely in the disscusion. Anyone who says theyre not obviously has a bias.
As a USC fan I think they can beat any team in the country and have a history of showing they can. It is why most SC fans I know were rooting for Oregon State so they could go play a Texas or OU in the Fiesta but now even if they beat Penn State it will be dissmissed by people who wrtie articles like this.
Edit Comment Cancel
Michael Peila 7 months ago
I am also a USC fan and do not think USC deserves to be in the NC Game this year. Offensively they did not prove anything but how can anyone argue about their defense. Nice points and all, but USC only played ONE bad quarter on defense and it probably cost them an undefeated season. I feel that their defense is ONE of the all time best and they proved it game after game no matter how badly you think their opposition was. Since you brought up the Big 12 and their "prolific" offenses, maybe their offenses are so good because the defenses stink. I watched a lot of Big 12 games and there was not a team that I saw that had a quality defense. No offense to anyone, just my opinion. I honestly feel that even though Oklahoma made it to the championship game Texas should be the team in there. They are the ones that got ripped off. I think Florida, who has a defense, will stop Oklahoma's "great" offense and expose Oklahoma's defense. Again, just an opinion.
It really cracks me up that USC haters have to write on the USC posts trying to beat down USC. Not enough confidence in your own team(s) or maybe they are just plain bad. I am pretty satisfied with seven straight 11-win seasons, two NC's, seven consecutive Pac-10 Championships, etc. After living through the Hackett-Tollner coaching fiascos (where were the haters then?) I am relishing the consistency and greatness of the USC teams like I did in the 60's, 70's and early 80's. Articles and posts like yours just proves that the most successful programs have the most critics mostly because of jealousy. USC has had a great run in what is supposed to be an era of parity. Live with it. FIGHT ON!!!
Edit Comment Cancel
Leave a Comment
You must register to post a comment.