USC Football Preview from Saturday Sound Offs

Hey, this is Eric from the blog Saturday Sound Offs.  I thought using the Bleacher Report would be a good way to expand my blog audience.

Basically, I'm just going to repost some of my previews of college football teams from my ongoing segment called "2-a-Days" where I preview two teams daily, hence the "2."

This is one I did on USC—tell me what you guys think.

USC Trojans

Pete Carroll has wasted no time building USC into a Pac-10 power and one of the most dominant forces on the college football landscape.  With that said, the 2004 season is still the last time this team won a real national championship.  Will this year be the year it happens again?

THE OFFENSE

There's a QB battle brewing in L.A. between Mitch Mustain, the Arkansas transfer, and Mark Sanchez, the hotshot recruit from a few years ago.  Even though Sanchez is officially the starter (for now), Mustain still has some time to impress the staff.  Expect Sanchez to be the guy in the opener though.

The RB position is stockpiled with talent, again, but Joe McKnight should receive most of the touches.  He should come through big-time this season and remind people of those Reggie Bush days.

USC has some good receivers, but they haven't exactly been the kind of top-notch guys many expected them to be.  Even so, that's nitpicking because there aren't many QBs who would have an issue with Patrick Turner and Vidal Hazelton as a one-two punch at that position.

LG Jeff Byers leads a pretty solid core of offensive linemen, but this position does have some competition right now.  It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out.  Basically, let's just say there have been better offensive lines to pass through USC.

THE DEFENSE

This is USC's bread and butter.  The offense was good, but it was sort of disappointing last year if you were expecting astronomical numbers.

The Trojan D, on the other hand, did live up to the hype.  This was a team that only gave up 16 points per game in the offense-oriented Pac-10.

If that's not impressive enough, USC was third in sacks and fourth in run defense, not to mention fifth in pass efficiency defense.  This unit is just going to reload every year, so expect similar production.

Fili Moala should make huge waves throughout every NFL draft war room with his size and skill at the interior tackle position.  The guy hasn't played a lot, but that's because he was buried on the depth chart.

Of course, how could we talk about USC's defense without mentioning the linebackers?  These guys are something else.  Brian Cushing and Rey Maualuga should have gigantic years playing LB.

Even though Cal's set of LBs are really good, this set is probably the best.  Luthur Brown should get a spot, mainly due to his upside, and he'll have a fantastic year.

Kevin Ellison and Taylor Mays will team up to make one ridiculous duo at the safety position, and Shareece Wright will have a great year filling in for Terrell Thomas.  It's the same-old, same-old with the USC defense heading into 2008.

THE SCHEDULE

Aug. 30 at Virginia

Sep. 13 Ohio State

Sep. 25 at Oregon State

Oct. 4 Oregon

Oct. 11 Arizona State

Oct. 18 at Washington State

Oct. 25 at Arizona

Nov. 1 Washington

Nov. 8 California

Nov. 15 at Stanford

Nov. 29 Notre Dame

Dec. 6 at UCLA

Okay, despite whatever I said about California and UCLA, this schedule is tougher.  When the easiest team you play on the schedule is Stanford (who beat you last year), it's never an easy slate.

The road game against Virginia will be a challenge and, oh yeah, not to mention, USC gets to face a L-O-A-D-E-D Ohio State team.  The Pac-10 schedule should be pretty hard, but at least they get to face Oregon and Cal at the Coliseum.

Don't Even Think About It: None 

Ehhhhh.....Maybe....: None 

Good/Probable Shot At It: The whole schedule.

THE OUTLOOK

This USC team should be good enough to get to the national championship game.  There's no reason why they shouldn't.  As long as Mark Sanchez doesn't do what John David Booty did (try to win the game on each and every throw), USC should be fine.

I do think they'll stub their toe once, but it won't matter.  In my unlikely scenario (remember, it's just a blogger's worthless prognostications), USC will lose the last game to Rick Neuheisel's revamped UCLA Bruins, but it won't stop them from getting to the title game.

This team isn't flawless, but they're about as close as it gets.

BOWL GAME?

BCS Championship.

Be sure to check out my blog, Saturday Sound Offs.