USC Trojans Football: Same Old Song and Dance

This is becoming a yearly thing: USC is picked to go to the National Championship in the preseason, they get upset once, they go to the Rose Bowl, and they absolutely dominate led by an outstanding performance by their standout player from the regular season.

Yet again, this unexpected event occurred. (Catch the hint of sarcasm there?)

Let’s flash back to last season: preseason ranking was #1. In Week 5, Stanford upset them. Just routine, right? However, then, in Week 9, they were upset again, this time by Oregon and Dennis Dixon. Still, 2 conference losses couldn’t keep them down, as they stilled played in the Rose Bowl game against Illinois. Of course, they killed the Juice Williams-led team: 49-17 was the final score, in favor of the Trojans.

A Brett Favre-Like day for Matt Cassel

Remember December 23, 2003? Probably not, unless you’re Brett Favre. I’ll refresh your memory.

Monday, December 23, 2003, was the day after Brett Favre’s dad died, and the day that Favre was set to play the Oakland Raiders on Monday Night Football. He decided to play.

The Packers eventually won that game, 41-7, and Favre had 399 yards and 4 touchdowns, moving him into 2nd place all-time in passing touchdowns, only behind Dan Marino.

But, how does this relate to Matt Cassel, you ask? He most certainly didn’t move into second for all-time passing touchdowns, no. But, what he did do is this: have a sensational game soon after his father died.

Very soon after his father died, Matt Cassel lead the Patriots to victory over the Raiders(another coincedince: they both played the Raiders) with 218 yards passing, 4 touchdowns, 1 interception, and 18 yards rushing for a 108.1 QB rating.

This year, Cassel has been a huge surprise. Coming into the season, the Patriots had the best QB in the league in Tom Brady. But, when he went down with an injury, everyone thought that it was the demise of the Patriots. However, as it turns out, it was actually a blessing in disguise as Matt Cassel stepped into the quarterback role. On the year, he has 18 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, a 63.8 completion percentage, and 3,270 yards for a 87.1 QB rating. And it’s not like he’s had a great offensive line, he’s been sacked 44 times.

 But that’s off-track. The main thing is that Cassel had a great day soon after his father died.

I would have never predicted this kid.

That’s all I have for you.

Thanks for reading!

Bradford Wins the Heisman!

It’s official: Sam Bradford won the Heisman.

It was definantly only a three man battle: 3rd place (Tim Tebow)having 1,575 points, then 4th place (Graham Harrell) having  just 213 points.

But, boy, oh boy, was it close between those three! The voting within those top three went like this:

Heisman Finalists Announced

The Heisman finalists have been announced, and they are:

Sam Bradford, QB, Oklahoma, Sophomore

Colt McCoy, QB, Texas,Junior

Tim Tebow, QB, Florida, Junior