Eye of the Potato

Corny title, I know. Before we jump into the game that will never be… a game, let’s take that quick look I promised around the Pac Ten and our own… Pretenders and Contenders. While no team should be taken lightly, as all have the uncanny ability to rise up and dethrone a champion, they are…in reverse order, as follows:

10. Stanford Cardinal, or Tree, soon to feel like little Indians again… Stanford for 2007 is the great Pretender. Granted their coach has brought a tough attitude with him and that might translate onto the field. Or then again, it might not. Prediction: Stanford beats somebody this year just not SC.

9. Washington: Pretender. Its hard to believe that a team that has been such a stalwart of talent in the Pac Ten is so far down the ladder right now but that’s where they sit. Willingham deserves a break considering what he inherited and what he was dealt from Notre Dame but will fans give it to him? Time will tell.

8. WSU: Pretender. Man, I like Bill Doba but he just doesn’t have the talent to compete this year. Sure, he’ll beat the two teams sitting above him in this article but we are currently looking at things upside down, so he should. The Coug’s are rebuilding or just redecorating the same old place with some new knick-knacks.

7. Arizona: Pretender. Mike Stoops, one of the better coaches in the league who is probably better served being someone’s coordinator than trying to run the whole show. Still, I like the guy and think his teams, like Doba’s, play hard for him. The Cats have some interesting talent, that if let out of the bag, could do some damage to anybody who comes a callin’.

6. ASU: A little Contender and Pretender. Why not Contender? Dennis Erickson kept the Beavers band-wagon rolling and delivered a national championship in Miami. While he struggled in the pros, not a knock anyone at SC should pass around, he’s been a more than respectable college coach. The Sun Devil’s schedule could help Erickson leap his team into the upper-echelon of the league. Just being rid of Dirk, “Can’t win the games he should have” Koetter, alone, should be a tremendous motivator. ASU will catch more than a few napping.

5. OSU: Contender. Great running back and a nice defense coupled with a coach whose proven he can win the big game, now and again, gives the Beavers the rank of Contender. OSU will play spoiler to a few teams’ bowl hopes and perhaps be the difference maker for the Roses when they face off with Cal.

4. Cal: Contender. Action Jackson, alone, leaves a bad enough taste in my mouth to want to call the Bears Pretenders, but I have too much respect for Jeff Tedford’s coaching ability to label them as anything less than a Contender for 2007. The press has been all agog with Desean Jackson and the other Cal receivers, labeling them the best unit in the nation. Wide receivers, however, do not win football games, defenses do. Cal lost too many key men to a defense that wasn’t great last year, to place them at the top of the Pac. I’m also not sold on their quarterback, Nate Longshore. While he looks the part, in the big games, he doesn’t hold up his share of the bargain. If they beat Tennessee to open the season, look for the prognosticators to start calling for the upset when the Trojans visit Strawberry Canyon. As I said, in league play you can’t look past anyone, but in my opinion Cal was better last year.

3. UCLA: Contender. I have to give them the nod after beating cross-town rival USC last year though I believe way too much has been made of that victory. In fact, everyone is so enamored with Jeff Tedford’s handling of SC but really Bruin head coach Karl Dorrell has done a better job with less talent at competing with the men of Troy in the last two years. With a very solid secondary and talented, although thin, defensive line, look for UCLA to be in just about every game they play in. However, with paper-thin depth at too many positions offensively, look for them to lose a game or two they shouldn’t, as well. This season, like that for Ty Willingham in Washington, could be make or break for Dorrell. Rumor has it, that’s fine with some of the upper-management in Westwood who have Dwayne Walker pegged as the next man-in-charge of the powder blues. UCLA has more talent on defense and that’s why I give them the nod over Cal for 2007. I’m interested in seeing how Big Ben runs the team as well. As much as I am not sold on Longshore, I feel like the Bruin qb is a natural field general with worlds of potential – he just needs someone to play catch with.

2. Oregon: Contender. I like the staff at Oregon. I love their home-field advantage and I really like Dennis Dixon. All that together could make the Ducks the second best team in the Pac Ten. A few mental lapses, nothing that ever seems beyond the men in green, could also spell doom to a very promising season.

1. USC: Contender. Too much talent at every single spot makes the Trojans a tough bunch to conquer in 2007. Every Pac Ten coach knew that 2006 was a reloading year for Troy and therefore the best chance of knocking USC off. Two capitalized on that charter, keeping the Trojans out of last year’s BCS championship game. That left a Rosebowl victory as the appetizer to this season’s main course of the big enchilada. Another four game gauntlet is the only thing that lies in SC’s way of getting back to the big show. Expect the Trojans to go undefeated and you might be sadly disappointed. Be content with a one loss season and a trip to New Orleans and you should be left smiling come January.

Now, onto Idaho and a possible “Hot Potato”…

In looking for the raison d’etre, the true “eye of the potato” in Saturday’s match-up between the Trojans and the Vandals, I uncovered the origins of the name “Vandal”.
No, it has nothing to do with thieves, although Idaho fans may not know it. Vandals: The 5th century Vandals took their name from the region of Andalusia, which was theorized to have once been known as Vandalusia, or land of the Vandals.

I thought further… Vandals versus Trojans… and then, with visions of the classic mythology; the splendor of dramatic conflict and Homer all dancing in my head, I got the idea of co-opting the whole of it, inserting the Vandals into one of the great Trojan tales and voila – Saturday’s game becomes an epic. Instead of what it appears to be to so many: much ado about nothing.

Forty-five points: that’s the margin of victory the experts have given to the Trojans. To the Vandals, however, that number might fuel their march onto the Coliseum floor as if it were a journey into the abyss. A voyage where there is nothing to lose and no gold gained unless every bit of themselves is left, splayed out, like sacrifices on a great battle field...they just might dare to make this a war.

Boise State against Oklahoma; David versus Goliath…history loves to repeat itself – doesn’t it?

Okay, I tried. Even I can’t take the above that seriously. I mean really: Idaho has been a Division 1 A football team for just a little over a decade while USC has been national champions ten times over in the last century.

Most are in agreement, save some backwoods kook, living completely off the grid, that there’s zero chance in Hell for the Vandals to win the game, much less even score.

What’s great is, it doesn’t really matter for Trojan fans. They don’t care who’s standing across the field, they just want to see the latest version of their beloved USC Trojans get started on what promises to be a national title campaign.

For fans in Cardinal and Gold, there’s not much interest in the fight the Vandals put up, as there is in who’s the next star at Troy’s.

All eyes will be CJ Gable, Joe McKnight, Patrick Turner, Ronald Johnson, Stafon Johnson, Alan Bradford, the entire Trojan defense and justifiably, USC’s offensive line.

The O-line may not look or sound as sexy as all their skill-position counterparts but through camp and going into the season, it certainly seems to be where the action is.

Joe McKnight is supposed to be the next Reggie Bush, Patrick Turner the next Mike Williams, Sed Ellis the next Mike Patterson and so on…but who will be the next team leader and super center like Ryan Kalil? Answer: Kris O’Dowd.

Matt Spanos, once healed from his triceps tear, will most probably win back the starting center spot from the freshman O’Dowd but the truth be told, Kris could prove key to a Trojan Sugar Bowl appearance, come January.

His recruitment far out-weighed any other incoming freshman for me, because Ryan Kalil proved exhibited time and again how invaluable a great center can be to a team. O’Dowd is that next great center for the USC Trojans.

And as exciting as it will be to see the next back in I-formation, or receiver to go wide-out, it should be equally as thrilling to watch the future of the USC offensive line pancake his first defensive tackle.

I started this talking about Greek mythology and great battles of history but truly there is nothing archaic about the 2007 USC Trojans. More like the best PlayStation game money could buy, the Men of Troy, are straight out of the new millennium.

You could take Rollerball, Logan’s Run and Warriors, mix them all together with a splash of Jet Li’s War and you still wouldn’t have anything close to the modern day mayhem the Trojans can unleash.

I mean doesn’t everybody have Rey Maualuga’s assault of Bruin quarterback Patrick Cowan looped as their screen-saver? That’s better than any action-flick Hollywood’s come up with in a long time. It’s epic; so great it’s nearly mythological…

“Mythological…” Oh thank Heaven, somehow I was able to wrestle this rambling piece out from under Tinsel town and back ‘round again to where we started - Troy.

Yes, what’s going to be mythological about the Trojans’ 2007 season are the stories to be told when these men return as the National Championship team at the 2027 Salute to Troy.

It’s no great prediction to call USC’s first 50 point game for the year. What could be outstanding is a shut-out for the defense. I know it sounds greedy to expect so much but in Carroll’s best defensive year, the year that launched SC back onto the national map, shut-outs were a regular occurrence. This defense has more promise than any of its predecessors; therefore serving up a baked potato to Idaho would be a welcome side in this first Fall feast.

Man, I’m all over the place. Enjoy the game. Have a blast watching all the new stars for the USC Trojans get to do their thing. Pray for zero injuries, especially at center, a perfect start for Booty’s Heisman hunt and thank Pete Carroll for making college football so much fun again.

SC 52 Idaho 3