The Darkest Day

The Darkest Day

Yesterday was likely the darkest day in the history of Los Angeles Football. The UCLA Bruins, vacillating between brilliant (40-14, Oregon St) to pathetic (44-6, Utah) this season, saw their second-string quarterback knocked out in the first quarter by the Irish defense and handed the reins to a walk-on Freshman. As one might expect with such inexperience leading the veteran offense, the Bruins put up a fight but could not overcome the 5 turnovers, giving Notre Dame their first win of the year. The Irish shocked the Rose Bowl crowd as 21 point underdogs, leaving the Domers undefeated in Pasadena in two tries (the last was in 1925 against Pop Warner and Stanford.)

Speaking of Stanford, Notre Dame’s upset was not the biggest of the day. Nor the biggest in Los Angeles! Just 13 miles down the road (I know the distance because I’ve made the drive a hundred times), the Stanford Cardinal pulled off the biggest upset in College Footbal History. One source (Yahoo Sports) put the Cardinal at 41 point dogs, easily topping Syracuse over Louisville (37 points) and smashing the previous record (Oregon State over Washington in the late 80’s at 36 points). As I mentioned in a previous post, Appalachian State – Michigan had no official spread but some sources put it at 28 points).

What happened to USC? Good question. Certainly the 92,000 in Baton Rouge did not care how it happened; they cheered louder for the announcement of the USC score than they did for one of LSU’s touchdowns in their comeback win over Florida. The Trojan defense came to play, but the offense didn’t. Stanford stayed close into the 4th quarter because USC couldn’t punch it into the endzone. USC QB John David Booty threw 4 picks, keeping the Cardinal’s hopes alive. Stanford made the best of the opportunity, converting a 4th and 20 with less than 2 minutes left to get to the Trojan 9. Tavita Pritchard, the Stanford QB in his first career start, tossed a perfect lob on the ensuing 4th and goal to score the winning TD.

As Coach Jim Harbaugh ran ecstatically onto the field in front of 85,000 stunned into silence, I was reminded of his somewhat bizarre comments at the Pac-10 media day in August. He called USC not only the best team in the league, but possibly “the best team of the history of college football.” No doubt his players have been focusing on their date the Trojans since then and Harbaugh had them primed to play their best. On the other side of the ball, USC tends to play the worst against teams they expect to handle easily (UW, Oregon State, ASU). USC’s lackadaisical approach to a supposed weak opponent cost them again- big time. Jim Harbaugh won this chess match- Pete Carroll would be the first to admit it.

This crazy, underdog-friendly season continues to surprise. Three top 10 teams lost, although number 5 Wisconsin’s stumble in Champaign-Urbana is not technically an upset. Illinois was actually a 3 point favorite. Still, I counted at least 3 national TV broadcasters label it as such. Some folks just don’t do their homework.

There were plenty of other upsets this weekend and many of them were in the Mid-American Conference. That’s the silly Ohio-based conference with such nationally known powers as Akron and Kent State. Saltzman, our Columbus, OH- based underdog pooler aside, who really knows anything about these teams? Seriously? But week after week, our poolers defy the odds makers and dip into the MAC pool. Desperate? Absolutely. Random? You bet. Effective? Count on it. It might just get me back into the race. Because lord knows I can’t predict the Pac-10 anymore!

Fight On,

Hans
PS: What does a die hard Trojan fan do to cope with the loss? Stumble to Kells, a classic Irish pub in downtown Seattle and drown his sorrows in Guinness to the tune of live traditional music. Sounds good, Vjohnson?