Picked this up off the Michigan Forum (and then added a few stats for enhancement)... hope I didn't ruin the author's intent in the process. Quick. Name three players at USC. If you’re normal, you said Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and Lendale White. If you’re a football nut, you may have added Dwayne Jarrett or Jeff Byers. When most fans think of USC, they think offense. They see some ungodly scoring machine that leaves opposing defensive coordinators shivering in their laced up Nikes. They envision Reggie Bush tearing through their favorite team’s beloved defense for 15 – 20 yards every time he touches the ball. They see Matt Leinart completing every pass to wide open receivers sprinting towards the end zone. They see their favorite team being “Oklahoma” for a day. So why would we not conjure up the same fears if we had to face Michigan State? (Michigan State, you say? How did they get into this conversation? They didn’t even go to a bowl game last year.) Well, Michigan State had a higher ranked offense than USC, that’s why. So did Oklahoma, Texas, Cal and seven other schools. USC was ranked right there with Purdue. Does the name Purdue keep you up at night? Matt Leinart’s good, 7th in the nation in passing efficiency… but for total offense he was 25th… third best in the Pac-10. LenDale White and Reggie Bush are great backs, ranked 48th and 85th in the country. Would you have rather faced them than Auburn’s Williams (38th) and Brown (65th)? Or how about facing Minnesota’s Laurence Maroney (16th) and Marion Barber (18th)… if you want to watch your defense get steamrolled on Saturday? No, what sets USC apart is their defense… and it’s not just the fact that they had the #1 rushing defense. (There are a number of high profile teams that can stop the run.) What USC did better than anyone else was force turnovers… 38 of them to be exact. USC was #1 in turnover margin, #3 in passes intercepted and #3 in fumbles recovered. USC was +19 in turnover margin… that’s not just great, it borders on unbelievable. Now some may want to argue that opposing teams fell behind, had to alter their plan, got anxious, and turnovers resulted. Not so fast, my friend… USC forced more first half turnovers than either #2 (turnover margin) Oklahoma State or #3 Iowa. One thing in football is for sure. If your offense is constantly getting the ball at your own 40 or better, you’re going to win most of your games and your offense will look dynamic. Is USC good? Yes, very good. Do you want to beat them? O.K. … then hang onto the ball and make them go 75 yards on each possession. Football is actually a simple game.
Great post, Hawker....makes the media love-fest all the more surreal....maybe when the Tigers win the MNC in the Rose Bowl vs. the Condoms (sorry Hawker) the media will blame it on altitude. :geauxtige
I'd like to know where we stood, statistically-speaking, vs USC last year? Sure I could look it up right now, but I just don't have the time (I'm breaking work rules by being on this site )
I've stated on numerous occasions that USC's defense has been the key to their beong so good the past 3 years. They've had terrific dlines and LB's that have made plays all over the field, in addition to the turnovers. In 2003 they did a terrific job replacing a bunch of stud dlinemen(as well as QB and RB's), in 2004 a terrific job of replacing their olinemen and their rush DE. This year on defense they are taking a huge hit and will IMO have to replace their best defensive players from the past 2 years. It will be very interesting to see how this works out. They may have to rely on their offense for more of the load this year.
From ncaa.org (and of course I had to add Iowa) Official Stat... USC.... LSU.... Iowa Schedule .......18....... 26...... 10 Rushing......... 33....... 20..... 116 Passing.......... 13....... 72...... 37 Total O........... 12....... 38..... 101 Scoring........... 6........ 41...... 68 Rushing D....... 1......... 7........ 5 Pass D........... 34........ 5........ 39 Total D........... 6......... 3........ 11 Scoring D....... 3........ 14....... 16 Turnovers....... 1........ 73........ 6 Fumbles rec.... 3........ 60........ 5 Passes Int....... 3........ 34........ 9 Fumbles lost... 81...... 107....... 6 Turnovers +..... 1........ 44........ 2 Easy to see where Miles can have an immediate impact.
When most knowledegable fans think about USC's offense, they think, "Norm Chow." IMO, by mid-season, Matt Leinert's gonna be pretty pi$$ed at Pete Carroll because by then he'll have figured out how much money he lost by skipping the NFL draft this year. My prediction is that Leinert will not be one of the first 4 players taken in next season's draft, whereas he'd have gone number 1 in the past draft...... a difference of several million dollars.
the one game that sticks out in my mind is the usc-nd game last year. nd was much more physical than usc and looked the better team. dropped two sure ints and then game the big plsyd from usc's offense and then nd couldn't run their base offense and thats when the problems started. remember nd basically ran the ball down their mouths and the usc deffense couldn't handle their physical ability. i never looked at the stats of the game just remember nd being much more physical but couldn't catch reggie bush when he got the ball in the open field.
Yep, this is what I thought. To me, it seems maybe the players were 'tuning him out' last year. Meaning he yelled and screamed at them so much, they just kinda stopped really listening to what he was saying. There were widespread credible reports that many players were going to transfer this year if Saban had come back.
