8) I didn't know if anyone was interested in this, but here it is... re: USC The Trojans looked a little different, but very good in obliterating Arkansas again. Forget the magazines. They're probably better than last year, because the defense is much better and the offense is the same. Today's LA Times Sports headline called the game "Pigs in a Blanket." It wasn't that close. The locals only scored 50 this time after scoring 70 last year and they couldn't play the walk-ons, because they're not allowed on road trips, but everything else was the same old story. New QB John David Booty is a fiery leader who yells at his troops in the huddle and between plays. He was almost perfect and did pretty much whatever he felt like doing out there and I saw no weaknesses in his game. He's another great one... The USC OL has two returning All-Americans, Ryan Kalil and Sam Baker who just crushed the Arkansas line allowing a trio of former HSAA backs to run at will. CJ Gable from Los Angeles is the starter and they rotate four of them in there. The fourth string back is Emmanuel Moody who is a HSAA from Texas. With Dwayne Jarett and Steve Smith catching passes, these guys are good. Real good. Maybe even the real #1. The LBs on this team are awesome and they have six of them... The only bad news in Troy was the possible season-ending injury to safety Josh Pinckard, who was their best Dback... re: Oregon The Ducks massacred Stanford so badly in Eugene, that I couldn't tell if they were that good or Stanford was that bad. Maybe a little of both. The Duckies certainly do have a lot of team speed and weapons on offense. It looked like a track meet out there. We'll find out a lot more in their next two games with Fresno State and Oklahoma. I've seen both of those teams and I suspect that the Duckies will have too much speed for both of them... re: UCLA The Bruins shocked everybody; maybe even themselves in blowing out Utah. The Utes ran their mouths all summer about what they were going to do to the "soft" UCLA defense and their "high school quarterback" Ben Olsen. Guess what? That defense isn't there any more. Neither are the coaches who ran it. They're all gone and the new DC is the guy who used to run USC's defense and the difference was dramatic. Ben Olsen was even better than advertised. Wow. He's the most polished looking rookie QB this side of John David Booty and he should be: they've both been waiting for this season for years. Of all the QBs that I saw yesterday, Ben Olsen of UCLA looked the best. He's big, quick, rifle-armed, fast feet, poised, smart...the total package. I had to laugh at the Westwood originated rumors flying around that Olsen was having trouble winning the starting job there. His on-campus nickname for two years has been "Southpaw Jesus", he's also known simply as "The Savior." He won the starting job last season too over Drew Olsen, but suffered an injury that cost him the job. He's back and he is something. Even though the Bruins only have 6 scholarship seniors in the school and most of their starters are freshmen or sophomores, I still think that they will do MUCH better than anyone expected, based on what I saw yesterday. Utah had good defensive backs, including local kid Eric Weddle, who's a 3rd team AA from Alta Loma HS, but they couldn't really contain Olsen. Any team that can't put pressure on him is going to give up a lot of points to the Bruins. He's a good one. re: Arizona Its like watching grass grow, but they're making steady progress, despite wearing the ugliest uniforms south of Oregon. They beat BYU in their opener on a Babe Ruth called shot. Before kicking the game-ending winning field goal, the kicker looked at the camera and winked; then rammed it home. Remind me not to go into a bar with that kid when he grows up. Guys like that can get you arrested... re: ASU I asked BDR about Arizona State and he assured me that they suck and deserved to lose to Northern Arizona... re: Tyrone The Huskies hung on against hapless San Jose State which is probably going to drop football. TW claims that recruiting is going great and there's no hurry to worry about next year just yet...
And... <t>Just think UCLA gets a BAD Rice team this week.<br/> <br/> Ole Ty never gets it. I feel for the devoted fans of the UW program.</t>
UCLA/ND just got bigger with the emergence of UCLA as a team on the rise. u figure UCLA to always have a lot of talent, but just a little to sufer dude hollowood and all that to be consistently good. But with this Olsen dude at QB now and a new DCoord, this will be a very tough game for the Irish. Terry
Re: AZ In most instances you figure that by year 3 that you know wheter a coach is going to be able to do it at a place like AZ. It appears that Mike Stoops is going to make it, and word on the street is that Mark Stoops is now the best DCoord in College football. Watch out for the return of the Desert Swarm. Terry
RB Jonathan Stewart is a load for Oregon. The Ducks looked very good in their first game, albeit against Stanford. U-Dub fans are not happy with Willingham, particularly his recruiting. Out of 52K tickets sold for the SJSU game, only 37K showed. That's a big drop-off for the Huskies. That was ex-UA coach Dick Tomey on the sidelines for the Spartans, btw. I didn't watch the USC or UCLA games. No questions about USC, though. As for UCLA, Utah is no slouch. ASU scored 21 points in the 4th quarter to pull out of a tie with D1AA NAU. There's plenty of turmoil in the Sun Gerbil program. Senior WR Jamal Lewis was suspended indefinitely last week for driving 120 mph under the influence at almost 3am (yes, on a school night :wink two days before their first game. He'll be back by conference play if there's a loss to Nevada or Colorado. Arizona is slowly getting back to being competitive. The Wildcats had almost no running game against BYU, though, and that does not bode well. The defense is looking good, but along with the running game there are also concerns about the depth of the OL and the offensive schemes of OC Mike Canales. The next game is at LSU and I hope they can keep it respectable. D1A teams that lost to D1AA teams during the first week: Colorado - to Montana State, 19-10 New Mexico - to Portland State, 17-6 Duke - to Richmond, 13-0 Portland State used to be a DII powerhouse before moving up to D1AA. Ex-UCLA head coach Bob Toledo is the new OC at UNM, working for Rocky Long, his old DC for the Bruins.