Look who’s 4-0 these days!
Posted: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 8:15 AM
While wondering if Pete Carroll’s knack for recruiting should be blamed for destroying the Pacific 10 Conference, here are this week’s EXTRA POINTS.
NO. 1 AND ONLY ONE: For the fourth week in a row, USC sits atop the AP Top 25. For the first time in a long time, the Pac-10 has only one ranked team. That’s simply startling. Last season at this time, California was No. 6 and Oregon was No. 11. Before the end of the campaign, both of those teams climbed as high as No. 2. And even Arizona State hung out at No. 4 during the second half of October.
With the odds of a Pac-10 team finishing within the top 14 of the this season’s BCS rankings being roughly equal to that of Lane Kiffin’s finishing out the year with the Oakland Raiders, the conference won’t be able to take advantage if USC makes it to the championship game and pick up a second BCS berth, which is accompanied by $17.5 million.
That if is becoming increasingly iffy. And it sure will be interesting to debate the merits of a one-loss SEC or Big 12 team with three or more quality wins over ranked foes against that of an undefeated Trojan team that figures to be largely untested over the course of its entire schedule.
0-FOR-11: We aren’t talking about the Seattle Mariners in the fourth inning. This oh-for represents Rice’s batting average last Saturday after setting up shop with a first-and-goal from Texas’ two-yard line. Not even pair of pass interference penalties against the Longhorns helped the Owls get points on the board.
If this is a sign of things to come, the Texas defense, which also sacked Rice quarterback Chase Clement seven times, could end up being a factor in the offensive showcase that is the Big 12.
A GOOD OH-FOR: Going back to the end of last season, Florida has not turned over the football in its last five games.
IN A RUT: With the mighty Morgan State Golden Bears visiting Piscataway on Saturday, Greg Schiano will finally stop the bleeding (and hopefully the slapping). Rutgers has lost its last five regular-season games and seven of its last eight. The Scarlet Knight program has come to a standstill, if not shifting into reverse. If he could do it all over again, you think Schiano would have accepted that offer to replace Lloyd Carr at Michigan?
TRADITION TURNED UPSIDE-DOWN: Look who’s 4-0 these days … Vanderbilt, Northwestern and Minnesota. Each of those squads has as many victories as the combination of Texas A&M, West Virginia, Tennessee, Michigan and Washington.
Ranked for the first time since 1984, the Commodores have already beaten South Carolina and won at Ole Miss. Vandy takes this week off before welcoming Auburn to Nashville. If Bobby Johnson can somehow pull that one off, he’ll be the most popular Commodore since Lionel Richie. The blemishes figure to start to showing up for Northwestern and Minnesota this weekend as they open Big Ten play at Iowa and Ohio State, respectively, but it was fun while it lasted.
DEEP DEPTH CHART: Since Nov. 15, 2007, Oregon has had to use seven quarterbacks . . . and that doesn’t count Nate Costa, who would have seen action if not injured in practice in both 2007 and 2008.
DEMOTIONS: If you think it’s tough for Todd Boeckman to get used to being on the Ohio State bench, how about Mitch Mustain at USC? In 2006, he was 8-0 as a starter for Arkansas. After sitting out last season due to his Trojan transfer, Mustain fell to fourth string on Monday. Junior Garrett Green, who was a reserve wide receiver last season, leapfrogged both Mustain and heralded redshirt freshman Aaron Corp to become Mark Sanchez’ backup for Thursday’s game at Oregon State.
BIG GAME OF THE WEEK: Alabama at Georgia. Knowshon Moreno had his way with Arizona State’s defense last Saturday, but going up against the Crimson Tide will be an entirely different challenge. It’ll take more than breaking out the black jerseys to get it done against Alabama, which hasn’t allowed a rushing touchdown in its last five games.
It’ll be interesting to see freshmen wide receivers Julio Jones and A.J. Green performing on the same field. Green was anything but versus the Sun Devils. He looked like seasoned veteran, auditioning for NFL scouts as he toyed with ASU in the first half.
LITTLE GAME OF THE WEEK: Stanford at Washington. Last season, the Huskies ended a six-game losing streak with a 27-9 victory over the Cardinal. That was one of the few bright spots for U-Dub in the past two years. With the benefit of having last weekend off and the home crowd (albeit a grumpy one), Tyrone Willingham better make it two in a row versus Stanford. If he doesn’t, this could be it.
