USC Preview

Did you watch USC destroy Virginia in the first week of football this year? I did. The team with some pretty big question marks traveled cross-country and absolutely pimp slapped the Cavaliers. The final was 52-7 in favor of the Trojans and it wasn’t as close as the score indicated. However, did you notice that the Cavaliers struggled to beat DIAA Richmond at home last week, 16-0? Hmmm. Is USC that great or is Virginia that bad?????

You would be hard pressed to find a team that has had as much success in the past 8 years as the USC Trojans have enjoyed. They’ve been dominant going 77-14 during that stretch winning an outright Championship, an meaningless split AP Championship, and losing another classic Championship to Vince Young and Texas. Of USC’s recent losses, they’ve all been by a touchdown or less. This is the hallmark of a team full of talent that is very well coached.

Would it surprise you to know that over the past 8 years that Ohio State is 75-16?

Reading the media pundits this week, it seems that OSU would be better off to not even get on the airplane because they’re going to be dusted so badly in LA it will be embarrassing. The Vegas money line has the Bucks as 10.5 point underdogs. Everyone knows Beanie is banged up and the offense stunk up the joint in the win in last week’s Ohio University game. Didn’t you see OSU get destroyed by Florida in 2006 and beaten by LSU in 2007? Everyone knows the Buckeyes can’t win against the big boys. So clearly, we’d best pack up and not even play the game.

Well, you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t buy into the hype and negative sentiment. Generally, when things are bad, they’re never as bad as people say and when they’re good the same is true. What do we know about these two teams? They’re both talented, both well coached, and both motivated. What we don’t know is their heart and we don’t know how they’ll face adversity.

There has been plenty of ink spilled (characters typed?) citing the relative strengths and weaknesses of each team. But ultimately, I think the difference is experience and poise. Here’s what I think is most likely to happen, a defensive struggle with a 3-7 point margin of victory. When it’s close like that, I have to take the Buckeyes. 60% chance that’s the game we see Saturday. If turnovers and wacky things drive the day, we’ll be looking at a blowout and in that scenario, I favor the Trojans 25% of being on the delivering end and 15% for the Buckeyes delivering the whipping.

In the end, no one knows what will happen and that’s why they play the game. The thing that I’m most looking forward to seeing is a group of people playing the game at a very high level of skill with very high stakes involved. My heart causes me to believe that the Buckeyes win, my head tells me it’s going to be a very tough game with anything but an assured winning outcome. Regardless of the outcome, both teams still have a ton to play for and I believe will have successful seasons. But the loser, will be out of the MNC hunt - and that’s as it should be.

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