Oh

Oh

I love how the new standard is that they suck if they don't blow the other team out. You know, on the road, in the noisiest, most hostile environment in the Pac-10, two O-linemen injured on one play. I don't remember this much angst since we lost in the Las Vegas Bowl after PC told the kids to hitch-hike to the game.

I hear you Bosco. We won! Does anyone else still appreciate a win, or are we that spoiled from the past four years?

yep...the standards and expectations have been raised by PC

he was pretty bad. not sure if he was watching the right game....

he was pretty bad. not sure if he was watching the right game....

Why is it that the 2006 games I recall and enjoyed the most (in a perverse way, I suppose) were the losses to Oregon State and UCLA? SC's victories last year over ND, Cal and Oregon are a blur because they were not competitive. This year's Washington game, because of the drama, will also stand out in my mind. Close games are much more entertaining than wipeouts. I have no interest in this week's Stanford game.

Lawyer John-

The Cal game was very competitive, and the momentum turned after Buehler kicked the long FG.

Frankly, there is nothing wrong with a blow-out, as it gives the backups a chance to play. I call it the "no stress express."

We need a few more blow-outs and less nail biters. However, with our tough road schedule, and mounting injuries, I doubt we will see any blow-outs after USC disposes of Notre Dame.

As for Booty, I suppose he played well enough to win. Thankfully, we had instant replay to nullify his third pick.

Let's be honest: Booty is terribly inconsistent. He'll make a great throw on one play, then miss horribly on the next throw. He does not seem to have great touch on the deep ball. He isn't particularly impressive at finding secondary receivers. He has been pretty durable though, and seems to be a leader. But he can't move around in the pocket and avoid pressure very well; his footspeed is below average for a QB. And he constantly has passes batted down at the line of scrimmage, which I'm sure the NFL scouts have written in red ink in their notebooks. Has anybody forgotten the end of the UCLA game last season? He's just an above-average quarterback. Still, he's a Trojan and he's our quarterback. I'm sure he's doing the best he can, but please don't tell us it wasn't that bad last week. It was not good.

Sanchez might be better. Mustain comes in with lots of hype. But the kid I want to see next season is Aaron Corp. The guy can throw, and runs like a deer.

Sportswriter, I think that the reports from practice show that Sanchez is nowhere near Booty's level. I don't have a horse in the Sanchez-Mustain race like most of the commenters seem to, but his practices and scrimmages suggest that Sanchez probably isn't the savior that people were anticipating, at least not last season or this season.

Thanks uscmike for jogging my memory, you are right. But there was no drama in the 4th quarter in that game, the matter having been resolved in the 3rd. I guess I look for great memories like SC-ND and SC-Texas in 2005. Those I will take to the grave with me.

Thanks uscmike for jogging my memory, you are right. But there was no drama in the 4th quarter in that game, the matter having been resolved in the 3rd. I guess I look for great memories like SC-ND and SC-Texas in 2005. Those I will take to the grave with me.

Captain Intangibles, I wrote that Sanchez MIGHT be better - not that he is better. But we just won't know until Sanchez sees the field sometime late in a rout this season, or maybe next season.

Still, my point is that Booty is terribly inconsistent and is not a Heisman caliber quarterback. That may be hard to swallow, but it is the truth.

Correction John David. You did play in the northwest last season. At least this time you won.

Hey, Ex-Sportswriter, terribly inconsistent? And that's the truth? Shucks, if that's the truth, then two-thirds of the starting QBs in the PAC-10 are "terribly inconsistent." Olson is only 51% and Cowan 56% while JDB is third in the league at 66% right behind Dixon at 69% and Brink at 67% (And Booty just happened to outshine Mr. Brink when they went head-to-head two weeks ago.) You want to know what terribly inconsistent is? It's what Matt Leinart is down in the desert 7-14 last week. 53.5% overall and a QB rating of 63.8. You want to know what consistency is? It's Kurt Warner ranked #1 in the NFC with a 125 rating.

I agree that Booty's not "Heisman" caliber but it is absolutely unreasonable of us as fans to expect every USC QB under PC to be Heisman caliber. College football has never worked that way. Even on the greatest dynasties of all time they won differently with the different teams. They didn't always have the best RB or defense or QB every year. The challenge for PC is to find ways to keep winning when the strengths of your team keeps changing year to year. It's not as easy as PC makes it look. USC will not always have the best QB in the country every season. That would be insane.

USC's won more Heisman trophies in the last 5 years than most schools have in their entire storied histories. The perspective for a lot of USC fans is warped. Booty's lost 2 games so far in his career and that suddenly makes the guy a complete bust in the minds of many. I guess that's to be expected when you have back to back Heisman QBs in your backfield.

Booty doesn't have to be "Heisman" caliber on this team to win he just has to be good enough to allow the strength of the team (the defense) to do their job and put up enough points to give them some cushion to work with. If Craig Krenzel, Josh Heupel, Ken Dorsey and Chris Leak could win NCs on the backs of their defenses I have more than enough faith in Booty because he's better than all of them.

He's no Matt or Carson but he doesn't need to be.

If I'm NOT mistaken PC had stated before it does NOT matter if you win or NOT if there is room for improvement the problems will be addressed and corrected in practice.
Thanks

"Uh CJS, I meant that Seattle is more north and west than Corvalis. Yeah, thats it." - JDB

Didn't we read elsewhere JD complained that the slick ball was sailing on him a bit? And in his defense, 2 of the 3 picks, and the one that was reversed, were not his fault. The margin of victory could've easily been about +17 more than it was had a few drops and deflections not happened.

He does need to work on that deep ball though, and we need someone other than Davis to catch them...