Armchair Quarterback: USC not good, not even ‘OK’
Oklahoma will beat USC for the national championship at the Orange Bowl Jan. 4.
Why? Because USC is a pretender, anointed No. 1 in the country by a bunch of folks who either felt the Trojans were ripped off last year by not being included in the championship game or because they are dazzled by the bright lights of Tinsel Town and how cool it is you have a No. 1 from the left coast.
All year I’ve felt USC was barely a No. 4 rank, if anything, kept alive only due to their conference which is just barely tougher than the Mountain West. Oh wait, UCLA was beaten by Wyoming from the Mountain West in the Las Vegas Bowl recently, the same Bruin team which took the Trojans to the wire in the final regular season game. Frankly, only the Oregon State Beavers and their blowout win over a lame duck Notre Dame squad have given the PAC-10 any credibility this year. I’ll go so far to say even California is inflated, with their only claim to fame a close loss to USC.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma, except for a close call against Oklahoma State (a rivalry game always close) has been dominant this year against good teams like Texas. They were dominant last year until the giant killers from Kansas State surprised the world, pretty well bursting their balloon going into the showdown with LSU last year.
This year we will be the first ever to see two Heisman Trophy winners play against each other as last year’s winner, Sooner quarterback Jason White takes on this year’s winner, Matt Leinart. We will also see Heisman finalists in running backs Reggie Bush of USC and Adrian Peterson of Oklahoma, square off.
No, I’m not saying USC is bad given all their weapons, I’m just saying they are overrated. Plus, they haven’t played anyone, something which will change dramatically when the Sooners get ahold of them. You’ve got to remember this is the same Sooner team basically which the experts were calling one of the best college squads ever up until the Big 12 Championship game debacle last season.
The only way I see USC having a chance is that the Sooners come out and play tight all game like they did last year. It seems to be a staple for the championship game each year. Both squads seem to never open up. Remember Tennessee and Florida State a few years ago? It seems like teams come not to lose, rather than to win. If the Sooners do this, this USC may have a chance, but I believe Oklahoma has learned from their choke last year. It may also have something to do with the fact these squads haven’t played a game in a month. Rust may have something to do with the sluggish performances.
Really, the upsets seem to be much easier on the lesser bowls since attending these bowls is usually a bigger deal for the underdog schools. Meanwhile, for perennial powerhouses, the bowls are more a chance to have an extra month of practices to evaluate next year’s talent, which is a forgotten advantage of being invited to a bowl. I think this is why we see the Wyoming’s and Fresno State’s coming out and surprising the heavy favorites since they focus more on the short term of winning the bowl than the long term of seeing who will be starting quarterback next season.
Regardless of who wins, I still believe Auburn would have taken either team but thanks to the ridiculous system in place, we’ll never know for sure. How do you go undefeated in the SEC and finish behind USC who played a bunch of weak sisters all year?