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(Observations from Autzen's 26th Row)
What a Squirrelly Sports Saturday!!!
LA LOSERS: Stanford 24, USC 23 Notre Dame 20, UCLA 6 Stanford came into the Coliseum against the No. 2 Trojans a 40 -point underdog! You don't have to be a Stanford brainiac to deduce that the according to every expert, the Cardinal had absolutely no chance of giving USC a decent scrimmage, let alone a probability of defeat. Rookie head coach Jim Harbaugh and his players deserve a ton of credit, but it makes you wonder what it will take to get the most talented players in college football (USC) to play up to their potential. Wasn't the Husky game in Seattle a big enough wakeup call? Are there really that many chinks in the Trojans armor? USC Coach Pete Carroll has to be wondering if last night in the LA Coliseum was some lost episode of "The Twilight Zone". Or, did some mad team of scientists at Stanford somehow develop a machine to warp reality and create some sort of parallel universe? If Pete Carroll actually got to sleep last night, what a horrible thing to wake up from. A nightmare only to encounter the REAL nightmare.
The UCLA Bruins experienced a similar fate as their crosstown counterparts except it wasn't that big of a surprise to view the current version of "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde". We had seen it before in a bewildering loss to Utah just previous to their opportunistic thrashing of OSU. UCLA has a bye coming up which begs the question, "Are there any really good psychiatrists in Los Angeles?" What might we conclude from these startling events? 1) Smart guys from schools with stringent entry standards CAN win. 2) Gambler's Anonymous enrollment is sure to increase today, but...don't bet on it. 3) Football games are not played "on paper". As we know from ESPN's Kenny Mayne, they are played inside TV sets...no really, the number of stars in your recruiting bio doesn't always add up to "W’s" (wins). 4) There will be some adjustments at USC, both in attitude and personnel. John David Booty may not play next week and may lose his job to his replacement if he (Sanchez?) lights it up against Arizona. Booty was helped immensely by last year's very experienced receivers, Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith. Booty just isn't mobile and is not capable of making plays when things break down. 5) With some of the sports scandals this year some fans believe some games could be "rigged". Believe me, the Pac-10 would prefer to gain from the immense revenue generated by the LA schools when they, or at least one, is very successful and the respect a team like USC creates nationally. The same can be said for Major League Baseball. MLB would much rather have the Cubs or Phillies and the New York Yankees advance for TV ratings. 6) The Ducks better bring their "A" game this week against WSU or a similar fate could await them as we witnessed yesterday in Los Angeles.
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