ogdocvato's Blog

Give Ohio State a Break

The national media are busy skewering the Ohio State football squad, but nobody stopped to notice that OSU overachieved this year and last.  If you give Jim Tressel the athleletes that Florida had in 2006 or that LSU has this year, then no one comes even close to him.  Ohio State is losing championships because they are not able to recruit the speediest athletes. It is a myth that winning is all about preparation and discipline. If you don't have the genetic code of a champion then the best that you can be is runner up. (an exception to this rule might be hefty doses of nandrelone and HGH) The most talented football teams in the NCAA in 2007 were LSU, Georgia, and Southern Cal, hands down.  I still think that Ohio State deserved to be in the BCS title game because they accomplished more during the season than Georgia or Southern Cal. Nevertheless, the result of the Ohio State vs. LSU matchup was very easy to predict.  There are only two other teams that have the speed, physicality and talent to compete with LSU and they are Georgia and Southern Cal. To prove my point let me make another prediction.  Ohio State will travel to the L.A. Coliseum for the second game of the 2008 NCAA football season.  USC will run by, through and around Ohio State for 4 quarters.

Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators a Disgrace

I hope that the Georgia Bulldogs and the Florida Gators are proud of themselves for not having the intestinal fortitude to accept a Rose Bowl invitation for 2008. The Bulldogs beat up Hawaii, a junior college team from the lowly WAC, and the Gators couldn't even beat the hapless Michigan Wolverines.  Illinois lookes so bad in the Rose Bowl that it was a frank embarassment to the Rose Bowl Committee who selected them.  The Big 10 has never been weaker than it was in 2007-2008, yet the Ohio State "pretenders" got invited to the title game.  LSU will demolish the over-rated Buckeyes.  LSU deserves the National Championship, but the Georgia Bulldogs and the Florida Gators disgust me for being afraid to play the USC Trojans in the Rose Bowl.  If the SEC football teams are afraid of competition, why do they even bother to play football?

Big 10 Weak In NCAAF 2007

Many fools have cited tradition in the Rose Bowl matchup for Jan. 1, 2008 - USC vs. Illinois. The fact is that the Big 10 has never been weaker than in 2007.  At the end of the 2006 NCAA football season Michigan and Ohio State were unmasked as lightweights by USC and Florida respectively.  In 2007 the weakness in the Big 10 continues.  We Trojan fans are bored with the Big 10 teams with the exception of Ohio State who will play in the BCS championship game on Jan. 8, 2008.  The "Trojan Nation" wants to see our USC football team take on one of the elite teams from the SEC.  Pac 10 vs. Big 10 Rose Bowl tradition is outdated in the new BCS system!  The new rivalry should be Pac 10 vs. SEC in NCAA football - especially after LSU coach Les Miles shot his mouth off and called the Pac 10 weak and USC's strength of schedule "weak".  College football sportswriters call the SEC the nation's best conference.  Well, the nation's best conference should not be so afraid to play USC in a bowl game.  Georgia would rather play Hawaii, and Florida would rather play the "toothless" Michigan Wolverines.  Face reality SEC players, coaches, and fans; you guys all have big mouths, but when it comes to stepping out on the gridiron with the mighty USC Trojans you lack cajones and intestinal fortitude.

SEC Teams Afraid of USC

This is what the Los Angeles newspapers are reporting on December 3, 2007.

"The Rose Bowl was not allowed to select Georgia because of a rule that protected SEC teams from being selected once LSU went to the BCS title game. Florida was also not an option under that rule, which was passed when Iowa was selected in the 2003 Orange Bowl to play USC, which forced the Rose Bowl to select Oklahoma."

What does loumouthed LSU coach Les Miles think about this?  It's obvious that even elite SEC teams do not have the intestinal fortitude to step out on the gridiron with USC on New Year's Day.  I would have thought that  after all of the disparaging remarks about the Pac 10 made by SEC coaches at the start of the 2007 NCAA football season that they would welcome the opportunity to slug it out with the six-time champions of the Pac 10.  Now all of America can see the cowardice of the SEC as plain as day.  Too bad Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon tore his ACL; otherwise, the Ducks would have probably administered a beating to LSU.  The Fighting Illini have a fine football team, but USC is going to annihilate them on Jan. 1, 2008.

UCLA vs. USC 2007

Sure, the Trojans beat the hell out of the Sun Devils.  But that doesn't erase the fact that USC still lost to lowly Stanford.  USC is still capable of laying an egg this Saturday against the Bruins of UCLA.  It all depends of which USC team shows up at the L.A. Coliseum.  There is not one player on the UCLA football squad who would be a starter at USC. But still the Trojans lost at home to an even less talented Stanford team.  If UCLA plays a great game and USC continues to make mental mistakes then the Bruins might have a chance to win.  Nevertheless, most cognescenti expect the Bruin Bear Cubs to be dismembered on Dec. 2.  UCLA has not seen a defense as punishing and as fast as USC since the last time these two teams met in 2006.  The Trojan offense is finally playing with consistency, and the two best high school football players in the nation last year, Ronald Johnson and Joe McKnight, continue to improve with each passing week.  Once the USC wideouts acquire confidence, no defense will contain them.  Hazelton, Turner, and  Ausberry are big, fast, strong receivers.  Throw in tight end Fred Davis and fullback Stanley Havili and you have the ingredients for an unstoppable passing game.  Coach Pete Carroll will be out for Bruin blood to avenge last year's debacle.  The Trojan offensive line is getting back to full strength.  USC vs. UCLA should be a mismatch.  My prediction:  USC 53, UCLA 17.