In another bowl game that was not as close as the final score indicates, the USC Trojans absolutely laid the wood to the Oklahoma Sooners in the BCS National Championship Orange Bowl game on Tuesday night.
In this previous post on November 7, I noted that OU’s defensive secondary was probably not good enough to beat USC, and that certainly turned out to be the case as USC QB Matt Leinart (18-35 for 332 yds; 5 TD’s; 0 Int) sliced and diced the OU secondary as if he was preparing a salad.
Meanwhile, OU’s offense could never find a rhythm against the speedy USC defense. OU QB Jason White (24-36 for 224 yds; 2 TD’s; 3 Int) finished a marvelous college career by throwing three interceptions and looking generally overwhelmed the entire game.
White’s first interception — the result of a brain fart decision of throwing into triple coverage while under pressure — was arguably the turning point in the game. It came at the end of the first quarter as OU appeared poised to tie the game at 14, and USC promptly took the ball and drove for a quick TD and a 21-7 lead. After an OU receiver slipped and White threw another interception on the next possession, the Trojans quickly scored another TD and the game was effectively over.
USC is now 34-3 over the past three seasons with one and a half National Championships and two Heisman Trophy winners. They are now indisputably the best program in college football at this time.
Houston's Clear Thinkers
Longtime Houston attorney Tom Kirkendall's observations on developments in law, business, medicine, culture, sports, and other matters of general interest to the Houston business, professional, and academic communities.
How often do you get to say a 36-point demolition wasn’t as close as the final score suggests?!
My goodness. USC was definitely ON. I don’t know that OU could have hung if they had played a perfect game on offense, but it’s disappointing we didn’t get to find out.
It’s a strange thing. I had a pretty good opinion of the Big 12 South much of the season. No longer. It was exposed as overrated in bowl games, to be sure. And I don’t see any truly elite teams emerging next year. UT and OU will be good, but I don’t think they’ll be Top 5 caliber (too many tough road games for UT along with that one-dimensional offense, too many new starters for OU).
Stout?? Tom, you must be joking. Who, exactly, in the Big 12 was stout??
Well, stout at least in comparison to the ACC. ;^)
Right, Tom, which just shows that the Big 12 was not really significantly better than any of the other major conferences this year, and was almost certainly not as good as the SEC. The fact that the media continuously lauds them as head and shoulders above all but the SEC, when in fact, they are comparable to any of them, is why it is overrated.
I think that the Big 12 South and the SEC were the best overall conferences this past season. But as the bowl games showed, the difference between those conferences and conferences such as the Big 10 and Pac 10 is not as wide as some folks think.
Big 12 South is a division, not a conference. You can’t just throw out the other division in the Big 12 just because every single one of the teams stunk.
But otherwise we agree — there is little gap, if any, between the Big 12 and any of the other major conferences.