There was a minor uproar yesterday because Auburn was No. 7 and USC was No. 8 in the CFP rankings, so here are a few facts: USC’s only victories over Top 25 teams were two over Stanford. USC was 11-0 against four-loss teams but 0-2 against three-loss teams.
Auburn beat two No. 1-ranked teams. It lost to the current Nos. 1 and 3 teams. Would USC have won those games? USC almost lost to UCLA and Stanford in its final two games. Auburn’s third loss was to LSU, which is ranked No. 17. USC lost to No. 18 Washington State. It is absurd to think USC should be ahead simply because it lost one less game. Wins matter too.
Perhaps the CFP committee did not hear Clay Helton tell ESPN that USC “overachieved.”
Hey Scottie, love Auburn’s win over a highly rated UL Monroe. Just like Alabama’s win over a tough Mercer team.
And our’s over Western Michigan.
You can’t compare an FCS school to WMU. MAC and Sun Belt teams are comparable though.
Careful, that’s beyond Killer’s pay grade
Some FCS schools are better than FBS schools
Named after Monroe from Too Close For Comfort?
That’s what I thought, thanks for clearing that up for me..
Scooter, with your logic, why is bama ahead of auburn? They lost to auburn, beat a division 2 team and played only eight conference games. They did not play over the weekend, ye they are ahead. Yes, SC should be ahead of auburn, they have 3 losses. Remember scooter in 2nd grade, 2 is better than three when 1 is the best?
Most observers think that ALA would beat SC. Would Auburn beat SC, in your view?
SEC knows how to work the system. 8 conference games and 3 powdered puff games. Get their teams ranked high before they play each and it guaranteed 2-3 teams in top 10. No way they should have 2 teams in playoff.
Make it 4 powdered puff games. They play 4 OOC games, when they should be playing 9 conference games like the other conferences do. Just another way the system is rigged in their favor
Let 8 teams in the playoff
That’s what they should do.
The only way to make Alabama pay is to beat them in the playoffs. Until SEC teams start losing playoff games, they will continue to get the benefit of the doubt. Clemson beat Alabama last year which completely changed the perception of their program. Like it or not, Alabama is the benchmark.
I thought Chip kelly was the benchmark
Nice try. Go back and find anything that I said that was making a big prediction. I said it was a good hire because I think it was, as do most people that aren’t at USC. I also said I was surprised that Guerrero could pull it off.
I said he is an upgrade over Mora. But then, I wouldn’t expect you to actually comprehend what I have said. Cheap one liners are easier.
A ruin trolling a USC blog, daily …..I wouldn’t expect you to actually comprehend the optics
(nice try)
Just a weak response. Try dealing with actual facts, as difficult as that appears to be for you. There are plenty of reasonable and bright people here that don’t mind discussing football with a Bruin. You aren’t one of them. Feel free to block me. It’s quite simple.
What do you care what Jack and Gabby think?
I’m making a prediction: UCLA will be a handful starting in 2019, and Clay is unlikely to survive past 2020.
Write that down, Jack.
As 2019 season unfolds, please feel free to rub my nose in it if I’m incorrect.
Let’s hear Jack’s prediction. Not “show cause silliness”, not “little gutty silliness”, rather a simple prediction.
I think Kelly will do a fine job. I get a chuckle out of those that say that Kelly will fail. His track record suggests otherwise. I’m looking forward to see how recruiting goes this year.
Kelly is getting a late start recruiting, and he inherits the current Bruin roster, sans Rosen and seniors, plus all juniors who plan to leave (the best juniors leave at both schools–let’s face it).
So Kelly is at a disadvantage for 2018 recruiting. He needs to snag Shea Patterson (AND get the RS waived), or snag a ready guy, and he needs to max out on the best JC transfers (many have already set their mind on somewhere else, plus he must get UCLA to take a shot that the transfers can hack the academics (I’m not disparaging USC’s academics; problem would be the same).
If Georgia were not in the final four, he could probably make a strong run at Fields, which would supercharge his other recruiting and the whole program. Kelly may well be sweet talking the mother, who wanted her kid to take the Harvard offer. UCLA (or USC) vs. GA on academics–big edge to CALI, plus Kelly (vs. a D coach)+ Fields almost guaranteed to start in 2018.
He’ll make SOME inroads vs. USC in recruiting for 2018, especially if OSU wins big in Dallas, or if it appears Sam is leaving Stanford2 game did not harm his draft stock, after all).
But absent an unrealistic run of luck, the big impact of the hire is unlikely to be seen until 2019, unless Kelly somehow gets a top 5 class, with 5 top transfers, i.e., Walt Disney ending. Fantasyland, pretty much.
So, still no prediction from Jack. Now, I’m worred… Does he live in the North Valley? I know he hates the Westside. (I doubt most recruits will share that aversion.)
I agree about 2019 but disagree about Shea Patterson. UCLA has a top QB coming in this year and he has remained steadfast in his commitment to UCLA through everything and Patterson is probably a one year player. In 2018 we have 2 capable QBs on the roster allowing UCLA to redshirt the incoming freshman.
The most immediate needs for the offense is the OL. We lost the entire class on the line. We have recently added one back and are in the mix for a couple of JC transfers.
Kelly should bring some immediate improvement but it is still going to take a few years. The DL is improving and young. The linebackers were atrocious overall and the new LB coach and DC will need to improve that. Kelly is not retaining the DB coach as previously thought. It is the defense that needs to make the biggest leap.
88, you know details that I don’t. I do know that Shea was big-time, mobile, savvy, and that he’s kind of short to appeal to the NFL at the level that Sam D or Rosen might. So, two years made sense to me, in my ignorance.
Chip should be good for the Pac-12, and a good change for UCLA. Hope so. Enjoy it!
He is a good QB that will probably end up at Michigan. We will see. I’m a rabid Bruin but went to many SC games with my Trojan uncle over the years.
Come on 88! Guilt by association. You are a little gutty after all and this place has been littered with the constant Show Cause Chip braying by your clan. Not every post of yours is read.
Gabby was pretty low profile on her Kelly benchmark joke, which is actually pretty funny. It wasn’t really a cheap one-liner. It was a well=placed clever dig on every Troll on here, except you. Hah! You just shouldn’t have used the word benchmark. That was pure bait!
That’s fine, Jack. You also know what I said and I think you and I agree on Saban. Things worked out as expected. Just thought it would be at the Fiesta instead of the Cotton.
And I don’t consider myself a troll as I don’t come over and spew nonsense whenever SC loses a game. It’s just stupid, IMO.
Both USC and STAN really hit the motherload in Texas games with USC/OHIO ST and STAN/TCU.
I’m so glad we’re getting into the Cotton on 12/29 night. Great stage, great opponent. USC and OHIO ST go way back. The best is that we’ll go in as the underdog. We hardly ever get to play that role and we have a shot at the top 4 final rankings again. It was a bizarre year for USC football, with some of the best wins and worst defeats ever and now a 12-win season is a real possibility. Love CFB. Now looking forward to Dec 20.
Believe it or not, i went to a couple of the SC-OSU Rose Bowls growing up with my Trojan uncle. Woody Hayes didn’t fare so well in Pasadena.
Agreed. At the very least have a 6 team playoff with 1&2 having a bye.
would love to see the clip of Helton saying that…if so…shame on him….and I mean that
Seen AL’s next 3 season of OOC opponents?
2018 Louisville (neutral-Orlando) and home against AR St., LA-Lafayette and the Citadel
2019 – Duke (neutral Atlanta) home NM St. $ So. MS
2020 – GA St. and Kent St – both home
Auburn
2018 – WA (neutral Atlanta) home AL St., So. Ms and Liberty
2019 – OR (neutral Dallas) home Tulane, Kent St and Samford
2020 – all home – So. MS, MA, AL A&M
Georgia
2018 – Austin Peay, Middle TN, MA, and GA Tech all home
2019 – Murray St., AR St., Notre Dame – all home & @ GA Tech
2020 – VA (neutral Atlanta) home LA-Monroe and GA Tech
LSU
2018 – Miami (neutral Arlington-TX) home South East – LA, LA Tech and Rice
2019 – home GA So., Northwestern and UT St. & @ TX
2020 – home UTSA, TX Nicholls St. & @ Rice
Florida
2018 – home Charleston So., CO St., ID and @ FL St.
2019 – Miami (neutral Orlando) home FL St.
2020 – home Eastern WA & So. AL & @ FL St.
These are the only credible programs in the SEC and the only squads showing a minimum of effort is FL only because they play FL St. annually.
These are the reasons they have a rigged play in for the SEC.
Let’s hope for a trifecta in late December and January 2018 – Auburn gets tossed by UCF, AL goes down to Clemson and GA gets stopped by OK as well as the same for the Big 10 – OH St. gets stuffed by USCV same for PA St. against WA and also WI loses to Miami.
Here’s some schools the PAC 12 payed this year
N Colorado
Montana
N Dakota
Portland St
W Michigan
Southern Utah
Montana St
N Arizona
Texas St
Weber St
And Memphis!
Must not have thought they would finish ranked.
Did you see their defense on display last weekend?
I don’t watch Memphis football.
UCF and Memphis combined to score 117 points in this 62-55 game. There were 1,479 yards of total offense, and 15 touchdowns scored.
Bubba Cortez, you have named 10 bogus weak teams, but there are 12 members of the PAC12. That being said, two PAC12 teams could have played 3 valid opponents, the rest playing two valid opponents. Your chopped liver on this on, Hombre……..!!
WHEN BAMA has open dates for non conference games, how many programs say OH BOY I want to play those BALL CRUSHERS…we don’t care about winning…or being in the top10…little guys want the guaranteed money ,probably more than their whole season and get on tv…do you think Bama really chooses these…does SC??? they have schedules to fill…or a day off without money.
Ok then why doesn’t USC schedule div 2 kiddie schools the way the entire, and AL in particular, do year after year after year?
Good point!
I know lots of Pac12 schedule the lesser ones they are rivals, even here in ACC Virginia schedules U Of Richmond or James Madison they are local rivals the fans like it and they do compete and win on occasion…why do they have to do what you want…they don’t…SC used to I remember lesser teams in 40’s and 50’s …maybe they need some more rules now on who they can schedule or forfeit any right to BCS
USC, ucla and Stanford don’t schedule those humps but: AL, GA, Auburn, LSU do repeatedly
Of course these schools all do their own OOC scheduling. Of course AL wanted to play Mercer.
Small schools know they will get beaten but will walk away with a nice check.
They don’t get penalized for the practice so why stop?
When is the SEC going to do a Home and Home with a legit program? Never.
ALL your replies are shallow, unthinking…give me the evidence Pac8Pac10Pac12 continually pursue a series with SEC teams you disparage…Mercer filled a game for Bama why didn’t some one else volunteer from Pac12?…most schedules are years in advance, not all but most…I doubt BAMA pursued Mercer as a team they really really wanted….
Lot of work, good job.
Thanks steve
Thanks for the gumball, Ruskie
Spasebo
It’s all relative. I don’t know if USC is better than Auburn in the real world, but in my mind we can hold our own with any team. If it has to do with who we play versus who they play the debate will rage until USC goes independent. The PAC 12 has about as much credibility as a tweet from the real Donald Trump
SC will never go independent even though it’s the smart move
In you mind we didn’t lose to ND 49-14. You have as much credibility as Hillary Clinton.
SC got blown out by ND with a ton of injuries and then Stanford blew out ND and USC beat Stanford the next week, so the logic of college football rankings is crumbling before our eyes. Can’t compare common opponents anymore or even same opponents. Auburn destroyed Georgia 3 weeks ago, and then lost Saturday, so what’s it all mean?
It means we need a 8 team playoff including all the conference champions, then all this scheduling cream puffs will go away.
Oh we got beat, but was it really a beating as it appears? How often have you seen the refs award the ball to the defense after taking it from a downed player?
Prior to that play the USC defense held ND and was hanging tough. Now you have your QB telling guys on the sidelines there was no fumble. The momentum shift was titanic and affected the team. Couple that with holding being ignored when the leprechauns had the ball and suddenly you have a rout. And listening to Scott, who never acknowledges bad refs will only help you become negative.
I will agree that I have no credibility as I only got as far high school football (and then the student body at CSULA voted to cut funding to the football program, so no college experience) but that’s why I believe I said in my mind.
I thought Auburn should have been #5 and SC above both Big10 teams after watching those title games….Wisconsin q/b ran well but passing??? and wide open receivers too, Sam would have had a great day in that one…Ohio St will have to play better than that,Stanford or SC would have beat both.
Scooter draws attention to “minor uproar.” News at 11.
LOL!
W*lf, you are becoming as sad as it gets.
Sam, any recruiting nuggets?
It looks like Amon-Ra St. Brown has given a silent or close to it because there were a bunch CB’s last week to SC.
He visited the Notre Dame/Stanford game where his brothers play and that probably was enough.
But Jackson Carman will be visiting in a few weeks, and it’s now more interesting with the SC/Ohio St matchup. We made a big push with Penei Sewell the last month and we look like we’re in real good shape for him. He being the #1 OT in America and probably at the the top of the board for both Helton and Meyer, we get his last official visit and it’ll be a tug of war I’m sure from here on.
Other than that I haven’t heard much, except that Safety or CB from Servite is now back on SC’s board from what my buddy told me.
Have you heard anything, anything on Isaac Taylor-Stuart? We need a lockdown corner who’s a lockdown corner.
HE’S BAAAAAACK………After a couple posts with positive USC
Information,WW woke up seeing what he had done and has returned to form.
Meam while. How many practices do we get? When do we start preparing for OSU? With the first early signing date coming, who will sign.?
How has a Jack Sears looked in practice this season?
All of that is a challenge for wolf when he’s on the outside looking in
Time to rename the blog from “Inside USC” – G, you are absolutely right that Wolf is about as far outside the program as someone in the mainstream media could be.
It’s truly laughable
“Outside USC” with Scott Wolf
Whinny Wolfy aside,
Anyone know our practice schedule?
Good question… may not be released to the public yet
Gomer is going to practice ?
Yeah, Gomer is going to have the team practice not tackling each other. LOL!
Who cares about the teams. Nice to see the two best marching bands in the country duke it out with each other.
AUB lost the last game it played in the championship and got slaughtered in the process. It also feasted on the likes of Mercer, ULM and GA SOUTH. Plus they already lost to CLEM, which means they don’t belong top 5 and they lost in a historically sick second half collapse to mediocre LSU (which STAN would handle) It’s the SEC way. Schedule a bunch of cupcakes and walkovers like ARK (coach fired), MO and A&M (coach fired) get you boosted.
USC won 5 straight and is the conference champion. Finished stronger – yes, that counts, lose your last game played and you should feel the pain. Something about we remember the losses you have in November. Well, AUB lost in DEC!
It’s a close call – but it doesn’t matter now. USC gets to play #5 OHIO ST while AUB got stuck with UCF in a completely attractionless Peach Bowl (snore).
And of course, SW loves AUB and voted those three-time losers #6 and punchless late flop WIS #7 (even though they beat nobody any good all year long). SW predictably stuck USC at #12 – six spots behind AUB. That total anti-USC bias.
But the joke was on SW. AUB got stuck playing #12 UCF in the Peach and USC got rewarded with Big Ten Champ and storied #5 OHIO ST in the Cotton.
Too bad SW. USC struck the post-season motherload despite your best efforts.
OSU was the matchup that made sense. Too bad it’s in Dallas and not Arizona.
Speak for yourself.
I’ve never been a fan of strip-mall Phoenix and would much rather play in Jerry World on 12/29, and be home for New Years, than stuck playing on NY’s eve in that desert erector set. Not even a close call there.
Oh, I didn’t realize it was in Jerry’s stadium. Thought it was still in the old Cotton Bowl. My mistake.
Maybe that loss to a Ala last year will have a silver lining, we’ve been to Jerry’s house before and won’t be too impressed or overwhelmed by the stage. At least it will be familiar
I’d like to see Stanford vs Auburn come end of month.
Love near full strength, KJ better, so forth. I like that game match up
USC won the PAC 12 Championship, they should be playing on New Years Day as had the tradition always had been.
Now the Trojans will be playing December 29th and the teams that will be playing on that day that the Trojans and Buckeyes will be lumped in with…are crap teams.
Hey Lynn Swann, good looking out for your Trojans…not!
Lynn Swann, you’re a disgrace! If you’re not going to argue on behalf of the Trojans to be in the playoff after your team won its conference championship and lost out to a team that didnt even play in its conference title game, what effing good are you?
Seriously Swann, just resign…you’re absolutely worthless! You failed in your bid for public office and you’re a failure at being an Athletic Director!
He wants to be like Pittsburgh, 3 coaches in 60 years, sadly, Gomer isn’t Noll, Cower or even Tomlin
USC has had 3 Stooges as head coach in the past 7 years and one Stooge still remains.
USC likes getting clowned by the NCAA, Nikias and Swann dont mind the Trojans being disrespected and pushed around. The Trojans being relegated to irrelevancy throughout the college football landscape keeps the limelight off their second rate flunky of a head coach and their acceptance of low expectation and being mediocre alive and well.
Auburn coach Gus Malzahn voted Trojans ahead of Auburn.
Wolfie, just quit your job already. You have so much hatred for USC. It’s really embarrassing and quite pathetic. Go cover FAU please.
I’m sure Gloomy Gus watched every single Auburn game this year to make such a claim. Oh, and now we are doing the “USC almost lost to UCLA and Stanford” game…
Did Gloomy Gus know that Auburn actually “almost” lost to Mercer? Yeah, he conveniently forgets this point. Auburn played Mercer and the score was 17-10 late in the 4th Quarter, then Auburn scored with 4:50 left to make it 24-10, that was the final. Yup, Mercer was hanging with Auburn late into the 4th Quarter. I can only imagine the outrage Gloomy Gus would blog about had USC been in a 7 point game with Mercer with 4:50 to go.
Auburn was a good team this year, but they got two Home Games late against Georgia and Bama, and they played well at home. When they went on the road in a rematch, they got rolled by Georgia, by 3 TDs. And again, let’s not forget that Mercer thing…LOL
USC won it’s conference and that should trump any question about teams ranked ahead of them from Auburn to Wisconsin to division loser Alabama.
The eyes say Auburn would beat Georgia because they beat them 40-17 3 weeks ago. Trust me, not your lying eyes.
There you go again, omitting facts. Allbarn had three wins against Georgia Southern, Mercer and Louisiana Monroe. USC had more wins (10) against power 5 schools than any team in the country. It’s about balance too. Tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth…
Wolf kept picking against SC and then said “they only played ____”, “they barely beat ____”
That sounds like Wolfian logic. Eyes don’t play the games. Auburn, with Johnson healthy and Pettway available, beat anyone in the country. Injuries, as you know, are part of the game.