Road Dog
Talking to Lane Kiffin today, he thought the last time before 2009 that USC might be this big a road underdog was in 2003 against Auburn. Thoughts?
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Talking to Lane Kiffin today, he thought the last time before 2009 that USC might be this big a road underdog was in 2003 against Auburn. Thoughts?
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Could be true. My thoughts are that I do not believe a win at Notre Dame will trigger a run the way the win at Auburn did. I also think that the 2003 defense was gritty and tough shutting down the Auburn offense, and that this defense can't stop anyone besides Cal. Hopefully my thinking is all wrong.
SC 23, Auburn, which was #1 in the polls, 0. It was an away game. This game put SC on the map as a program everyone would have to sit up & pay attention to. Maybe if Kiffin would copy Norm Chows playcalling that game, with another "Matt" at QB, it might be lucky for him. As for the defense.... maybe Monte could follow the game plan of PC that game too.
Marky, are you looking forward to the 4th Quarter in South Bend, Saturday night? I dread it. Halloween one week early for the Kiffins and our Team?
I'm not so sure Vegas odds makers aren't baiting LA sports fans into making a wager. It seems a little wide to me.
USC was a 4 pt underdog against Auburn in Sept 2003.
USC was not an underdog again until the 2007 Rose Bowl (2006 season) when USC got 1.5 pts against Michigan. That's basically four straight years of being the favorite. USC was also a 3 pt dog against Oregon in October 2007. USC thereafter remained the favorite for the remainder of the Carroll era.
Kiffin has a short memory (and Scott is too lazy to look it up, which took about a minute). USC got 10 pts against Stanford last year. USC also got 6 against Oregon and 4 against Arizona last year. USC is a dog against Notre Dame this week.
Thus, USC has been an underdog more in Kiffin's 1.5 years (4x) than it was in Carroll's last 8 years (3x). (In fairness to Kiffin, USC was a dog 4 times in Carroll's first year.)
http://www.covers.com/pageLoader/pageLoader.aspx?page=/data/ncf/teams/pastresults/2011-2012/team71.html
Math error: Carroll's last 7 years (2003-2009).
mike, the quote says before 2009. Get your head out of your ass...
I did miss the 2009 reference. My bad. But then what is the point of Scott's comment? USC hasn't been this big of an underdog since Auburn (which isn't true) ... so long as we exclude 2010?
So excluding 2010, the last time USC was this big of an underdog on the road was 1997 when USC got 17 points against Washington.
Perhaps some of the Bruin trolls might add their thoughts here. They are used to being big road dogs three or four times per season and could share the experience with us.