Monthly Archives: October 2010
Early Prediction
With USC playing No. 1-ranked Oregon on Saturday, we have an early score prediction from our favorite cheerleader, Amanda Pflugrad. She likes the Ducks, 46-33.
We’ll run our regular prediction post Friday morning.
Answer Thursday!
Well, let’s see what questions are on the minds of the readers.
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Pac-10 Poll
Here’s the Pac-10 basketball preseason poll, which picked USC to finish sixth.
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Barkley 16th
USC quarterback Matt Barkley moved up four spots to 16th place in this week’s poll of 62 actual Heisman Trophy voters by StiffArmTrophy.com. Auburn quarterback Cam Newton is No. 1.
Full results after the jump:
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Morning Buzz
USC players do believe this week’s game with No. 1-ranked Oregon is a bowl game and one even calls it the “Super Bowl.”
It’s time for the latest on the USC-Oregon game on this episode of USC Report with myself and correspondent Kari Van Horn.
Star Wars
Lane Kiffin and Oregon coach Chip Kelly traded barbs about the talent level of USC’s defense Wednesday.
“In their two-deep, out of their 44 players, they have 12 five-star recruits and 26 four-star recruits,” Kelly told the Oregonian. “I don’t know if there is anybody in the country who has that. I keep hearing USC is down in talent. We have zero five-star recruits in our top 44 and 11 four-star recruits.”
Most coaches scoff at recruiting-service rankings. Challenged about his five-star soliloquy, Kelly reacted with mock incredulity.
“They’re the most talented team in the Pac-10.”
Kiffin, who regularly decries the state of the roster at USC, was incredulous over Kelly’s comments.
“I really wish that I had good enough players and we were good enough coaches that we could spend enough time counting how many four- and five-star players we had on each other’s rosters,” Kiffin said Wednesday. “I don’t have time for that unfortunately.”
USC 4th
The NCAA released its Graduation Success Rate today for players who entered college in the 2003-04 academic year. USC tied for fourth with Arizona State. Here’s the Pac-10 standings:
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More Recruiting
We mentioned in a story two weeks ago how one reason for USC’s dropoff the past couple years was recruiting evaluation. In Pete Carroll’s first six years, he had Ed Orgeron and Lane Kiffin as recruiting coordinators to hold him in check or stand up to him regarding recruits.
An example is Stanford defensive linemen Sione Fua who went to three straight summer camps at USC but never got offered a scholarship. A few weeks ago, he gave USC problems in the Cardinal’s narrow victory over the Trojans.
As one high-ranking member of the athletic dept. says, “we were just taking guys off recruiting lists.”