Fight On (Beavers)

Leave it to the Beavers. The scene in Corvallis, Oregon last night was simply stunning. Breathtakingly, eye-openingly, stunning.

In yet another example that college football can just as easily be affected by emotion as it can by talent or coaching, Oregon State thoroughly dominated the near-unanimous # 1 Trojans. It wasn’t a fluke or an accident, it was pure and simple an ass-kicking.

After two blowout wins for USC, the Pac-10 schedule was expected to be a march toward coronation. Next stop, National Championship. Maualuga, here’s the Butkus. Jeff Byers, here’s your Rimington. Sanchez, the Heisman’s yours next year, this year if you really, really want it.

Oregon State had been at best inconsistent; at worst hapless, up until last night. An opening season loss at Stanford by 8. A game two blowout at Penn State 45-14. A game three win over a weaponless Hawaii.

USC was favored by 25 points and expected to roll against an unranked, inferior team. Not so much.

The best headline I’ve seen this morning is from Trojanwire.com. The headline simply reads: “Jacquizzed”.

Jacquizzed indeed. The Trojans have five-star recruits washing towels back at their training facility. Oregon State had the 52nd ranked recruiting class in the country last year according to Rivals.com, sandwiched just between Baylor and Iowa. OSU had one 5-star recruit, and the undoing for the Trojans was a 3-star, five and half foot (barely) true Freshman Jacquizz Rodgers. Rodgers gashed USC for 186 yards on 37 carries.

You just got Jacquizzed bitches

Rodgers made use of his fleet feet by constantly cutting back against the speed, and dare I say overpursuit of the USC defense. Both lines were dominated by OSU and the Beavers were able to convert several key 3rd downs through the air when they needed to, despite the erratic throwing of Junior QB Lyle Moevao. Moevao’s passes were so erratic that there could have easily been 4 or 5 interceptions, including a tipped pass at the end zone at the end of the 1st half. That pass instead landed in the hands of James Rodgers (Jacquizz’ older brother) for a touchdown. Sometimes that’s how the ball bounces.

A side bar to the Rodgers family: what was the thought process between naming one son “James” and the other “Jacquizz”? Just curious. No matter, it’s my new favorite adverb.

And getting back to emotion, perhaps no other team in America is as emotional as USC. And last night they were emotionless. They looked like they were in a fog- questioning who was slapping them in the face, wondering why receivers were dropping passes, and trying to figure out how the hell to tackle the diminutive and elusive Jacquizz.

USC consistently relies on loose, fun practices and the ability to “turn it on” between the lines. The trouble is that great teams, even the best teams have trouble consistently “turning it on”. And USC has certainly proven that with last night’s loss, last year’s shocker to Stanford, and the loss the year before to the same Oregon State team.

It’s one of those take the good with the bad things. The good is very good; most teams would make multiple deals with the devil (and do) to get a piece of it. But the bad is staggering. And yet, of all the USC fans I met out in L.A. two weeks ago, only two seem to be tinted with any dose of humility after such events.

Where to go next is the question for the Trojans. Sanchez made mistakes you would expect a first-year starter to make last night, but clearly was favoring his injured knee so there could be trouble there. Linebacker Rey Maualuga left the game with a sprained knee. Safety Taylor Mays left the game with an undisclosed chest injury after coughing up blood. Linebacker Brian Cushing broke a bone in his hand. And damaged worst of all was the Trojan Machismo- getting bitchslapped by your younger, much uglier cousin on national TV.

Taking a step back and looking at the Pac-10 landscape, consider that not a single team in the league stands undefeated a mere four weeks into the season. Arizona and Oregon stand at the top of the conference at 3-1. For USC, they’ve got consecutive home games with Oregon and Arizona State coming up and who knows where their heads will be. Assuming Carroll circles the wagons and Maualuga puts the pink thong back on, USC will no doubt roll through the rest of their schedule, and be at the center of the “playing the best football” argument at the end of the season as Matt Hinton so deftly pointed out over at Dr. Saturday.

The effects on the national landscape are profound, just like it was last year. I think it’s a lock now that we’ll have another one-loss team in the national championship. I’ve stated either Oklahoma or Missouri should come through the Big XII untouched but after that, it’s unlikely anyone else will. Either because of the quality of opponents or the mediocrity of offenses (you decide) in the SEC, it’s highly unlikely an undefeated team will come from there. It certainly is possible that a team like Penn State could run the table in the Big Ten but would you bet any material sums of money on that? I sure wouldn’t.

After that, who are we looking at? Wake Forest? South Florida again? Utah/BYU/TCU? We’re headed for more BCS trouble, that’s where we’re headed.

You’re welcome.