Fighting On: The USC Trojans Thread [R]

[christopher d]

On the cusp of the new season: plenty of stories, plenty of questions:

Hershel Dennis: Assault charges looming, curfew broken, it looks as though the tailback may return (http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~28860~2356925,00.html) to Coach Caroll's lineup, but not for Saturday's game against Va Tech. Should he come back? How's his head going to be come gameday with allegations like this hanging over it.

Mike Williams: Can he play? And if he can't, what will that do to the Trojans' vaunted offense? Perhaps more importantly, will the NCAA make a determination before the Notre Dame game (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1867053)?

The Pac-10: Are we going to fall asleep for one game like last year? Can any team beat us in conference play? Cal? Oregon?

The NCAA: Simple. Can we repeat? Are we as good as we're made out to be?

It's my last year on campus, my last year with the cheap seaon tickets, so I'll try to keep up with happenings. If anyone's interested, great. If not, it'll keep my typing skills polished.

Root for Cal-Los Angeles? Notre Dame? Some other team? Bring your best smack -- Hell, we were National Champions last year... and your team wasn't (unless you're an LSU fan).

Enjoy, and Fight On!

[christopher d]

USC's 2004 Schedule

8/28 @Virginia Tech
9/11 Colorado State
9/18 @BYU
9/25 @Stanford
10/9 California
10/16 Arizona State
10/23 Washington
10/30 @Washington State
11/6 @Oregon State
11/13 Arizona
11/27 Notre Dame
12/4 @UCLA

And yes, I forgot the [R]. If someone would be kind enough to add that to the title, that would be great.

[Auriaprottu]

Plastic Trojan checking in. I'll be keeping up with this thread, and posting in it occasionally. Good luck on Saturday.

Why is the NCAA dragging its feet wrt Williams? These are the sort of issues they ought to be trying to resolve before the summer ends. Almost seems like they deliberately take their time to make a point. A quick review of any paperwork and a simple yea or nay would be nice.

[christopher d]

Why is the NCAA dragging its feet wrt Williams? These are the sort of issues they ought to be trying to resolve before the summer ends. Almost seems like they deliberately take their time to make a point. A quick review of any paperwork and a simple yea or nay would be nice.
Probably some kind of "message sending". If they can't milk the cash cows of Football and Men's Basketball, they have very little relevance, and they've seen what's happened to Men's basketball of late, so... I'm not optomistic on Mike's return.

BTW, a second glance at that schedule gives me pause. Our non-conference schedule is a bunch of tomato cans. Sure, BYU plays us tough, but you have to go pretty far down the "others receiving votes" list to find Colorado State. VaTech with Vick may have looked better, but when the Pac-10 season is tougher than the non-conference games, our strength of schedule has some real issues.

[ThreeApples]

Aaron Rodgers sends his regards.

http://www.dailycal.org/images/art/09.29.footballmain.KATZER.jpg

[Toolhead]

Mike Williams and USC get screwed, he's ruled ineligible by NCAA, as reported by ESPN news.

[christopher d]

Mike Williams and USC get screwed, he's ruled ineligible by NCAA, as reported by ESPN news.
Both parties expected this; both parties will be just fine. Coach Carroll built his team around no Mike, and Mike's going to get in shape for the draft inbetween classes. Fair? Nope. Protect the NCAA and NFL's intrests? Yup. Par for the course, imho.

Yes, Noah, that was a hell of a game you folks played last season; and if I remember correctly, it was the comeback win against Cal at the Coliseum that sparked the Trojan's rise to BCS consideration (and Carson's Heisman hopes) the year before. Sure can't wait to see you folks come by LA this year.

But it does suck to see the difference between National Champion and Co-National Champion layed out in inches like that :(

[ProfZodiac]

USC's 2004 Schedule

8/28 @Virginia Tech
9/11 Colorado State
9/18 @BYU
9/25 @Stanford
10/9 California
10/16 Arizona State
10/23 Washington
10/30 @Washington State
11/6 @Oregon State
11/13 Arizona
11/27 Notre Dame
12/4 @UCLA

And yes, I forgot the [R]. If someone would be kind enough to add that to the title, that would be great.
Got ya covered.

[christopher d]

Players say they're past the controversy, so does Coach Carroll. We'll see in about an hour. Best line I've read: (http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/usc/la-sp-uscreport28aug28,1,5897472.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-coll-usc) "We were always hoping that it would go the other way, but we've got to live with it," (Senior offensive tackle John) Drake said. "It affects us because he's a great player. But Coach Carroll had us prepared for him not being here. It doesn't change the game plan for Virginia Tech or anything like that." Good attitude.

[Auriaprottu]

10-7 VA Tech at the half. Doesn't look good.

[christopher d]

10-7 VA Tech at the half. Doesn't look good.
Sure doesn't, even at 14-13 half way through the fourth. Even if we do pull this one out of our asses, we can kiss the #1 rankings goodbye.

We miss Williams about 32 different ways right now. Fight on, nonetheless.

[Auriaprottu]

24-13. This looks a bit better, but not much.

Someone please install a playoff in college football.

[christopher d]

And that's ballgame. We're 1-0 right now, and I sure as hell hope our boys got a wake-up call. That pass-interference call was shady, they played with us for three and a half quarters, and we came out flatter than flat. Not a performance by a #1 team, imho. Grace and benevolence by the College Football Powers That Be (yeah, right) will see us keep the ranking, but I'm looking for better things from the Men of Troy this year. Ugh.

[christopher d]

And, much to my surprise, we're still #1, at least as far as the coach's poll is concerned. No AP results, yet, maybe they won't come out until next week.

2 weeks to review film will do us some good.

[christopher d]

49-0

to nothing. zero. zilch.

Colorado State's not a bad team, either. Dude threw for over 400 last week against Colorado. Not today, though.

Stats, articles, more to follow tomorrow. I'm not worried about our #1 ranking right now. The Cali-clasico was a bit more important (eat *******, baldysmurf), so I didn't see but the first quarter, but I can tell you the campus was certainly a-buzz when I was up there this morning. Stayed that way too, apparently :D

Fight on. 2 down, 10 to go...

[Alberto]

Didn't see the game, but SC ran for over 300 yards and shut out a pretty good program in Colorado State. They played the Golden Buffs very tough last week.

I think that USC is far and away the best team in the country. The level of talent and execution across all positions is second to none. I'm hoping for USC to have great season and hopefully cap it off with an undisputed national championship. The offensive line really jelled yesterday.

How big was the crowd at the Coliseum?

[christopher d]

How big was the crowd at the Coliseum?
Well over 80k. Great crowd, from everything I heard... really involved from the get-go. Had we not been playing San Jose, I would certainly have been there. I'll be there for Cal, though :D

[guamster]

Well over 80k. Great crowd, from everything I heard... really involved from the get-go. Had we not been playing San Jose, I would certainly have been there. I'll be there for Cal, though :D

85,521 in attendance, the biggest home opener since the 1988 Oklahoma game. The roar from the crowd was deafening when the team took the field and the 2003 National Championship banner was unveiled. SC basically toyed with the Rams on both defense and offense. A great night indeed.

The SC-Cal game in October is shaping up to be a downright grudge match. Other than the traditional rivals at the end of the year (ucla, domers), the Bears perhaps represent the Trojans' toughest foe on the schedule. I can't wait.

Fight On! Beat the Cougars!

[christopher d]

Apparently the LAPD investigation into Herschel Dennis is closed, and coach Carroll may be putting him back into the lineup.

'Cause we needed another offensive weapon ;)

Fight On!

[guamster]

Apparently the LAPD investigation into Herschel Dennis is closed, and coach Carroll may be putting him back into the lineup.

'Cause we needed another offensive weapon ;)

Fight On!

You can never have too much depth: White, Bush and now Dennis. Add in the freshman Desmond Reed, who looked impressive in mop-up duty Saturday (8 rushes for 56 yards) and SC has quite the backfield.

USC report (http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-usc13sep13,1,6690272.story?coll=la-headlines-sports) from the LA Times:


Carroll is expected to announce today that suspended junior running back Hershel Dennis has been reinstated and will practice and be available to play against BYU.

Dennis has been held out for more than three weeks for violating team rules. Dennis told The Times last week that coaches had informed him he would return this week.

On Sunday, Carroll declined to confirm Dennis' return date.