With the recent Lakers loss, I am in no such mood to discuss the current state of the team or anything else regarding the National basketball Association. In fact, I am just about ready to ignore basketball and baseball entirely and get ready for some gridiron talk. Nothing gets me more excited than the release of NCAA Football video game series in July, the start of two-a-days in August, and Opening Weekend in September.
As a result of my hunger for some college football talk, I have been scanning the blogsphere in the hope of finding some interesting material related to USC and UCLA football. To my surprise, I learned that VegasWatch has already given their Pac Ten championship odds:
USC -300
ASU +400
Oregon +600
Cal +800
UCLA +800
Arizona +2000
Washington +2000
Stanford +3000
Oregon St. +5000
Washington St. +5000
The odds weren’t terribly surprising since USC is still regarded as the king of the class, most of Cal and Oregon’s offensive weapons are gone, and Arizona State and Dennis Erickson will very likely hit some sort of sophomore slump after overachieving in 2007.
At first glance, it seems like a Rose Bowl berth, at a bare minimum, is in USC’s future, especially since the Trojans have lost just four conference games over the past two years and have been sent to Pasadena as a consolation prize. It doesn’t hurt that three of the four biggest contenders in the Pac Ten (Arizona State, Cal, Oregon) will be coming to the Coliseum this season as well. So on paper, it’d be crazy for anybody not to select USC to win the conference, at least right now.
However, if the Trojans somehow do stumble, then it’s a much more interesting debate as to which team is left to earn a trip to Pasadena. Arizona State is the team with the second-best odds, but it’s hard for me to imagine the Sun Devils repeating last year’s success, especially since their schedule is much tougher this year. They only played three really tough teams, Texas, Oregon, and USC, and they were dominated by all three. So, I am a little wary of them right now.
I actually think that Oregon at +600 is much more of a threat to USC than is Arizona State even though Dennis Dixon and Jonathan Stewart are now playing on Sundays. During the Sun Bowl against South Florida, the young quarterback Justin Roper showed some potential to run the spread option quite effectively and he could possibly make fans forget about Dennis Dixon. Over the course of the thirteen game season, running backs Andre Crenshaw and Jeremiah Johnson proved to be capable backups and could help to form a consistent running attack.
I think UCLA was a little high at +800 and Oregon State a little low +5000, but what do you guys think? Is USC a lock to win it all? Is ASU or Oregon the bigger threat to the Trojans? Is their a sleeper team in our midst?
Fully Clips
Go Joe Bruin
Lake Show Life
Lasorda's Lair
Reign of Troy
Rink Royalty
An early Big 10-Pac 10 clash will be Oregon at Purdue. Expect the winner to score 40+ points. Boiler Up!
I think USC is pretty much a lock for the PAC-10 title and Oregon does not have a shot. WIth the loss of Dennis Dixon, Oregon is not going to be able to handle USC. Dennis Dixon was an incredible player who basicly took the team on his shoulders to win. I cant count how many times plays would break down or teams had their offens locked down and Dixon would pull so kind of incredible play, a long run, or scrambling and completing a bomb. I cant see him being replaced that easily.
The Team that could be a Darkhorse is the Huskies. They lead at halftime in all games last except Oregon. They are loaded with the 14th best recruiting class in the nation. Willingham must win or he is out. He will have to play his best Freshmen. Chris Polk dumped USC for Washington and is the real deal. Jake Locker is the most exciting player in the Pac-10. Will they win the title? No. However, they will beat either USC and/or ULCA this year. Thats right remember I said it here!