Bill Curry of ESPN.com goes against the grain in picking USC to fall short of its third consecutive national title.

To give Curry credit, his is probably the most well-thought-out piece on why USC may not win again. Most others who say so merely resort to vague generalities and can’t support their stand with specific reasons.

That said, there are a few things I disagree with Curry on in particular. On a few more, he’s really reaching.

Do I even need to comment on the silly caption on the ESPN front page, underneath a photo of Matt Leinart with a towel over his head?

Photos like this of Matt Leinart could thwart USC’s threepeat.

Boy, talk about a reach. Is this what we’ve come to in college football analsyis? But there’s more:

On the unprecedented fame accorded the Trojans as manifested in a plethora of magazine covers:

The words scream off the pages of preseason publications. They ooze into the unconscious minds of the teenaged males in cardinal and gold, blur their focus, and corrode the fierce spirits within — eventually surfacing during games at the least propitious moments.

That would seem to be true. Except there was a lot of hype last year for players like Leinart and Cody. There was the distraction of Mike Williams leaving and the rape allegations in camp of Hershel Dennis. But none of that affected the Trojans then. Why would it affect them now?

One year ago the Trojans had a chip on their shoulder. In their minds, they had been cheated out of half the national championship by a flawed system. They were being told they could not overcome the loss of key receivers Mike Williams and Keary Colbert. Leinert had arm problems and played poorly in the early going. All of the above served to keep people’s minds on their business.

On the contrary, they were the PRESEASON NO. 1 team. That means that the same issues the Trojans face this year–being the target of every team, for instance–was there last year. And when you are Preseason No. 1, that means you have respect from people who follow college football.
Clearly, plenty of people figured USC would overcome its losses on offense and they were right.

Writes in Riley Hayes from Los Angeles:

Curry contradicts himself at the start, saying this USC team isn’t hungry like last year’s, that people said they couldn’t overcome the loss of Colbert and Williams and they had something to prove, while ignoring the fact that he (and many others) are flogging the defense…wouldn’t that same defense have the same “something to prove” attitude the offense had last year? And his two scenarious are totally random. If you’re down 1 with 2:02 to go w/o no time outs, you’re probably screwed anyway.

That’s a good point and one that I think people are overlooking. It could very well be that USC gets beat. I think the Oregon game and the Cal game are the most likely spots (not ASU–Carroll has Koetter figured out).

BUT, until they actually DO get beat or are suffering from major issues, I don’t think it is enough to just say ‘Oh, they won’t do it because someone will beat them.’

Give me the WHO and give me the WHEN.

Who will beat them? I’m not convinced anyone can right now.

Update: It appears Curry HAS given the WHO and the WHEN right here.

Which begs the question: If he thinks Texas is going to beat USC, why didn’t he just say so?

Last week, we asked bloggers to describe their typical college football Saturday, among other things.

Our top prize for best recitation of the activities of that Holy Day goes to Michigan bloggers Straight Banging.

An excerpt:

I have watched a lot of Michigan football games, and not once have I avoided feeling chills as the team jumps up and touches that M Club banner. Just writing these last two paragraphs has made me shiver. It’s crazy and pathetic, but Michigan football is not just about the sport. It’s also about 400,000+ people having a shared something to which they can attach all of the adoration they have for the University. Michigan is not a football school, and it’s not just a university. It’s the greatest school with the greatest team in all of sports, and people like me live and die with the team each Saturday not just because we want to score more points and feel good while we get wasted at The Brown Jug, but because we want to continue to feel connected to a wonderful experience.

One of the tools I use to write this blog is Google Alerts. With this tool, I can get links to stories on any number of college football players.

Some players get more stories than others. Google doesn’t always get too precise, so sometimes a story about Drew Rosenhaus gets included in the search for ‘Maurice Drew.’ Other times, Quinn Buckner might come up instead of ‘Brady Quinn.’

But, the one player whose stories never fail, never seem to stop is Matt Leinart’s. And, the stories are all the same:

He passed up on millions to come back to school and try to win a second Heisman and third national title. It will be tough now without Norm Chow, but he’s also got Reggie Bush. Have we mentioned that–despite being the most famous player in college football history–he is still the same old Mattie who only wants to hang out on campus?

How many different ways can the above story be written? How many different ways can poor Leinart answer those same old questions? How many more times will we have to see this story when the TV people get in on the act?

Start the season! Please!

While it’s Paul Thompson at OU and Erik Ainge at Tennessee, California coach Jeff Tedford announced today that redshirt freshman Nate Longshore has won the Bears’ starting quarterback job.

Does anyone care to bet that either Longshore or his backup (for now) Josephy Ayoob won’t turn into a very good college quarterback?

After all, the last couple times Jeff Tedford had to replace a first-round quarterback, it turned out pretty well from what I remember:

Old Player Replacement
Akili Smith Joey Harrington
Kyle Boller Aaron Rodgers`

Here’s the link to my appearance yesterday on AOL.com’s Sports Blogger Roundup where I talked about the Heisman race.

Fresh off being named to the prestigious Heismanpundit preseason All-American squad, LaMarr Woodley of Michigan appears in this story in the Ann Arbor News.

Seems the talented junior end has gotten a lot stronger than last year, when he was Michigan’s best defender and hardest hitter.

Among Woodley’s notable smackdowns last fall was the blow he dealt Michigan State quarterback Drew Stanton, which knocked Stanton from the game. In the Rose Bowl loss to Texas, Woodley was the lone Michigan defender to make slippery quarterback Vince Young appear mortal.

And that is why we put him on our squad.

Reggie Bush is No. 1 on the Heismanpundit Preseason Top 10 Candidate List for a lot of reasons. One big factor is his all-around ability, which gives him a chance to make an impact on a game in so many ways.

But now, according to the Daily Trojan, he’s the third-string punter for the Trojans.

Bush is really more of a quadruple threat since he can run, catch, throw and now kick, as shown by hitting a booming punt with defenders in his face on Monday…..

Punting is not foreign to Bush, as he was the high school punter for Helix High School in San Diego. He even earned second team all-conference honors as a punter during his junior year.

If he gets a chance to punt just once this year, I think you will never hear the end of it from the media (assuming he does a decent job). And you could just wrap that Heisman up for him right then and there.