The outcome of this game really surprised me. I am afraid it is going to be a very long summer for Lloyd and Company.
Especially if you are a Pac 10 fan. What a God-awful, stinking, miserable performance. Outcoached, out-played, out-hit, out everythinged. I didn't watch the half-time show, but I suspect the Trojan band also probably kicked our band's ass. A great coaching job by USC. They took away our defensive pressure by roll-outs and quick strike passes. Their defense took Hart out of the game and then hit us with a blitz schemes that we were never able to figure out. Being a Michigan fan, I should have been psychologically ready for our traditional banana-peel pratfall on New Year's Day but I really thought we were going to take in to USC this year. I never thought we were going to get humiliated like this. Oh well, time to put away the X-mas decorations and switch to hockey fan mode. And Go Bucks. In contrast to Carr, I know Tressel will have his team ready to play on the 8th.
Me too Don. I was sure SC couldn't run vs SC. What surprised me is that M couldn't get to Booty like UCLA did. I also thought that M should have thrown shorter passes like OSU did against them. Too often Henne just didn't have any time.
Good point, Gip. Also, I am surprised they did not use the shotgun more. Usually, when Henne dropped back to pass, he had USC players closing in on him as he was setting up to pass. But, when in the shotgun, he had time to set him and scan the field. Henne is not the most mobile guy in the world and very little was done to try and buy him some time from USC's pressure.
By the way Bob, the highpoint of the halftime was the SC cheerleaders. Needless to say, that's some impressive asskickin'
I was surprised in the 1st half that it was such a defensive struggle and shocked that SC just rolled over UM in the 2nd half like they were from South Bend instead of Ann Arbor. SC will be just as good next year....of course we can always hope that Pete loses his mind and decides that coaching for the Bidwells is the job he needs to restore the luster to his tarnished NFL reputation.
I had a different perspective from you guys on this one. I had a few rude surprises in the bowl games, like UCLA's dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks performance against Florida State,...but the Rose Bowl went exactly as I thought it would. The only common opponent of the two teams was Notre Dame. I've never heard so much bogus analysis (on TV) of the Irish season as I heard this year. All this crap about "skill players" and "speed" based on those two games, as if the two games were in any way similar. Notre Dame had 6 players who made at least one All-American team and 5 of them played skill positions. Am I the only one who thought that the ND-Michigan and ND-USC games were completely different events? They had nothing in common but similar scores. That's not much of an analysis. Notre Dame played its worst game of the season against Michigan. The score went quickly out of hand, because the Irish were giving away points. While Michigan had the better team and deserved to win, the score spread was a result of ND miscues. That's NOT what happened in Los Angeles. I thought the Irish looked pretty darn good and made very few mistakes. The score got away in the 4th quarter, because USC was that much better. There was nothing we could do to contain their LBs or their WRs. Those USC LBs are the best in the nation. As you saw today, its not even close. Woodley and Harris of Michigan are supposed to be AAs, but they didn't compare in any way, shape or form to Rivers, Lua, Sartz, Maualuga, Cushing...not to mention Mays, the 6'4" 230lb freshman strong safety who would rather be a LB. In fact, the Trojans have two LBs playing fullback who're better than any LBs starting for Notre Dame...and one of them (Alan Bradford) is a freshman. Its pretty difficult to throw short on those guys, because nearly every one of them was a running back in high school. When PC sez they're the "fastest" he's ever had, believe it. They are... I also thought that Michigan folks had a very inflated view of their team, based on the ND game, without taking the poor play of the Irish into account. Remember Desmond Howard on GameDay saying that he had voted for Hart #1 on his Heisman ballot and left Brady Quinn completely off? He was serious. That was his real analysis of what was going on. No offense, but USC has half a dozen guys just like Hart on their bench. The Wolvies have some outstanding players, especially the WRs, LBs and that DT Branch is a great one, but the running game was way overrated and the USC LBs were just too quick for them. Things will get worse for everyone next year. USC's team was mostly 1st and 2nd year players and I think they only lose a total of 5 players to the NFL draft. I can't imagine that any of them will actually graduate... ..............JO'Co :evil:
:roll: BTW- the general feeling out here was that USC would win this game going away. The only big surprise we've had was the poor performance of UCLA...
Did anyone else hear or read that USC denied Reggie Bush credentials for the sidelines? He was supposedly informed to "stay away"
"I also thought that Michigan folks had a very inflated view of their team, based on the ND game, without taking the poor play of the Irish into account" I actually had some young Michigan punk threaten to kick my ass the other night for wearing a Gator shirt to the Motorcity Bowl....and he was serious. What an asshole but it typifies the anti-Florida garbage going on around here. If I saw that kid I would return the favor after that lousy performance.
Not to hijack this thread away from Florida, but... Bush: USC asked me not to show USC is saying that their sideline passes were already given out before Bush asked. Whatever the case may be, he was a distraction the Trojans didn't need.
Don, I read about Reggie Bush being denied credentials to be on the sideline and being asked to stay away from the game. It all relates back to the house and/or other benefits he and his family got while he was in college. Quite a slap in the face, but I imagine he will survive.
Oh, maybe Michigan was over rated, but I have to say that their win over Notre Dame and their loss to Ohio State were both pretty impressive performances to me and I thought they were a pretty good team. And they did have a very good season.
I was surprised at the second half performance. As I expected, SC could not run at all vs M. They couldn't against ND and UCLA. But the were able to give Booty just enough time and he was hitting on all 8. As to a comparison between teams, Having seen us play M and UCLA I thought that Michigan could handle SC. While we didn't turn the ball over against SC we did make mistakes, big mistakes especially Rhema McDrop who coughed up some critical possession passes. The biggest difference I saw between the SC game vs the Irish and the Rose Bowl is that when SC completed a pass, more often than not there were 2 M defenders next to him. When they completed passes vs ND, there were no defenders in the picture.
Great job by the SC front on both sides of the ball. Petey did a great job preparing his team for the M attack and Lloyd had no answer. Congrats to the Trojans.
Interesting observation by Bob Davie on how even with the great season that Michigan had and a finish in the top 10. That Carr will still have to deal with another season where he lost to Ohio State and lost the Bowl game. There will be little focus on the top 10 finish, when they were ranked very low to start the season and the expected top 5 ranking to start next year.