5. USC

The Trojans played like the best team in the country in their final four games of 2007, but will go into 2008 with plenty of questions. USC will lose quarterback John David Booty and tight end Fred Davis on offense, along with three very good players on the offensive line. The heart of the defense also will be gone, with tackle Sedrick Ellis, end Lawrence Jackson and linebacker Keith Rivers leaving. But coach Pete Carroll still has plenty of talent on hand. Freshman Joe McKnight looked spectacular against Illinois in the Rose Bowl presented by Citi. Mark Sanchez, a redshirt junior next season, is Booty’s heir apparent, but Arkansas transfer Mitch Mustain will battle for the starting job in the spring. Another Arkansas transfer, Damian Williams, should boost the receiving corps. The Trojans’ schedule includes two difficult nonconference games (at Virginia on Aug. 30 and home against Ohio State), but the Pac-10 schedule flips with Oregon, Arizona State and California coming to the Coliseum.

Now, after signing day and the early entry deadline he has revised it.

4. USC Trojans
The Trojans will have to rebuild their offense [blah blah blah]. The defense also takes several hits, [blah blah blah]. But if USC can avoid the injuries that hampered it in 2007 — and if Mark Sanchez or Arkansas transfer Mitch Mustain plays well at quarterback — the Trojans again will be a national championship contender.

Plus, with Ohio State jumping from #6 to #3, that makes the game on September 13th a battle of top-five teams on ABC in primetime.

What’s that you say? A preseason #1 team hasn’t won anything since SC in 2004? True. But starting out with support is a good thing any way you look at it.

1  USC at Notre Dame            20-Oct       $409          1        $379
2  Ohio State at Michigan       17-Nov       $408          3        $876
3  Oklahoma vs. Texas            6-Oct       $400          2        $419
4  UCLA at USC                   1-Dec       $312          4        $172
5  Tennessee at Alabama         20-Oct       $238          5        $181
6  Georgia at Florida           27-Oct       $274          7        $284
7  Texas at Texas A&M           23-Nov       $268          6        $233
8  Alabama at Auburn            24-Nov       $373          8        $321
9  Tennessee at Florida         15-Sep       $248          9        $180
10 Michigan at Michigan State    3-Nov       $218         11        $193
11 Notre Dame at Purdue         29-Sep       $105         10        $281
12 Arkansas at LSU              23-Nov       $128         12        $226
13 California at Stanford        1-Dec       $118         13        $ 77
14 Miami at Florida State       20-Oct       $113         14        $137
15 Army/Navy Game                1-Dec       $285         16        $150
16 Florida State at Florida     24-Nov       $401         15        $195
17 Georgia at Georgia Tech      24-Nov       $156         17        $161
18 Oklahoma State at Oklahoma   24-Nov       $160         19        $228
19 Pittsburgh at West Virginia   1-Dec       $139         18        $ 87
20 Oregon State at Oregon        1-Dec       $170         20        $173
21 Clemson at South Carolina    24-Nov       $414         21        $282
22 Virginia Tech at Virginia    24-Nov       $191         23        $147
23 Iowa at Iowa State           15-Sep       $122         22        $218
24 Arizona at Arizona State      1-Dec       $ 80         24        $ 69
25 Purdue at Indiana            17-Nov       $ 77         25        $ 59

Granted, this is a fairly useless ranking, as it only uses gross dollar volume of tickets sold through StubHub. But it’s interesting nonetheless. Also, it looks like the Washington schools didn’t make the cut.

First, maybe I was wrong about SC. For the first time in two years, we just lined up and kicked the sh*t out of someone with our OL and running game. So that was nice and made the game very boring very quickly—after 5 minutes were gone in the 3rd, in fact. The great JD Booty is still not wowing me with his throws, but he handed off very well. The secondary remains a question mark, but when you have to face 50+ throws you tend to tire out. So: it’s Oregon, Cal, and ASU, all on the road, that make me nervous.

Notre Dame has now gone 304 days without a win (page 11) and man does beating Army rock.

Lloyd Carr just needed a game against a team with less speed than his.

Tennessee looks slower than a pig in slop.

Alabama had no business beating Arkansas after blowing the 21-0 lead, but without McFadden the Razorbacks couldn’t run out the clock.

UCLA might reconsider a home and home contract with teams from Utah.

Thanks for playing this year Louisville, now take care of West Virginia so that we don’t have to hear about an undefeated Big East team getting left out of the title game.

And finally: October 6th can’t get here fast enough.

• College Gameday: live from Lincoln, Nebraska, 10:00 AM EDT (Fowler/Herbstreit and the other two)
• No. 5 Florida (2-0) vs. No. 22 Tennessee (1-1), 3:30 PM EDT, CBS (Lundquist/Danielson); Florida -8
• No. 10 Ohio State (2-0) at Washington (2-0), 3:30 PM EDT, ESPN (Franklin/Cunningham); Ohio State -4
• No. 16 Arkansas (1-0) at Alabama (2-0), 6:45 PM EDT, ESPN (Patrick/Blackledge); Alabama -3
• No. 9 Louisville (2-0) at Kentucky (2-0) 7:30 PM EDT, ESPN Classic (Collins/Curry); Louisville -6.5
• No. 21 Boston College (2-0) at No. 15 Georgia Tech (2-0), 8:00 PM EDT, ESPN2 (Jones/Davie); Georgia Tech -6.5
• No. 1 USC (1-0) at No. 14 Nebraska (2-0), 8:00 PM EDT, ABC (Musburger/Herbstreit); USC -10

Please plan your Saturday accordingly.

On November 17th, they have Michigan finally beating Ohio State and finishing the season 12-0.

Then, over Thanksgiving weekend, they have SC and LSU surviving scares from ASU and Arkansas.

Finally, Championship Weekend arrives. While Coach Holtz likes Florida, Rece and Mark give LSU the win and the national title game bid (along with USC, who they have blowing out UCLA).  Hence, Michigan and the 13-0 undefeated Big 12 champ Oklahoma are shafted by the system (and the preseason polls).

End of the ESPN Championship Series Regular Season:

1. USC (12-0)
2. LSU (13-0)
3. Oklahoma (13-0)
4. Michigan (12-0)
5. Texas (11-1)
6. West Virginia (11-1)
7. Louisville (11-1)
8. Ohio St (10-2)
9. Virginia Tech (10-2)
10. Cal (10-2)

That is the theme of the Sports Illustrated college football previews. Also, it’s USC and everyone else in the Top 20.

Oklahoma still doesn’t have a starting QB. I think that Oklahoma is playing this situation as safely as it can because they have seen teams win the national title with caretaker QB’s (Krenzel 2002).

The Sooners are expected to be in the national preseason top 10 in spite of the quarterback uncertainty, largely because they have experience at most every other offensive position.

Whoever wins the quarterback job, Kelly said, will have “a security blanket, knowing that everybody around him has played football and made a boatload of plays. That will make the job a lot easier.”

UCLA gives WR coach back his job. Even setting aside our strong opinions about UCLA, this guy should not be representing any university.

“I am sorry for any embarrassment I have caused the football team, the athletic program, and the University,” Scott said in a statement. “I am grateful to Coach Dorrell and the UCLA administration for allowing me to resume my position.”

Scott has a criminal record, admitting guilt to separate misdemeanor concealed weapons charges in 1996 and 2005, and misdemeanor disturbing the peace in 2002. UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero has said the athletic department was unaware of that when Scott was hired.

Arkansas’ season is over. Darren McFadden’s mom announced that Darren will be done with college football after this season. When the star player announces it’s over before the season starts you know that 4-8 is not far behind for the Razorbacks. Adios, Coach Nutt.

Georgia Tech had a fight at practice. Apparently the offensive players really do respect the “no-contact” jersey. Quarterbacks are still football players right?

Finally, it looks like Lane Kiffin already misses USC. I am sure that originality is not a prerequisite for Raider Nation since all has been wearing the same jumpsuits for 30 years.

Most of the major preseason polls have closed, and with 97% of precincts reporting, we can report that USC is getting a little bit of attention. They top both the College Football News poll and the USA Today coaches poll. That should be good news for Trojan fans, but America’s Newspaper puts it into perspective for us.

The last five preseason number one teams in the USA Today poll have made the BCS title game. But their combined record is 1-4, with USC winning in 2004.

In a related story, MSNBC’s Mike Celizic says Pete Carroll could the next Knute Rockne. Jeez, why does Carroll continue to fly under the radar? The sport’s best-kept secret, that guy.

Speaking of legendary coaches who should be mentioned in the same breath as Rockne, the still-fiery Joe Paterno says he has no plans to retire. And who can blame Joe Pa? He’s just discovered how much fun it can be to coach from the press box.

“You can see so much more, you can do things,” he told reporters, according to the Post-Gazette. “I tried not to interfere with the guys upstairs because they know what they’re doing. But, every once in awhile, I’d drop a little note to them and say, ‘Hope to get this,’ or ‘That corner’s playing awfully tight.’

“You’re really a cheerleader most of the time down on the sideline. … I enjoyed being upstairs, I really did. I sat down, had a nice time, had a cup of coffee. I felt like a newspaper guy. I was even able to watch television.”

If Joe Pa’s plan to have his players clean Beaver Stadium every Sunday didn’t have them shaking in their sweatervests in Columbus and angst-ridden in Ann Arbor, these latest comments no doubt strike fear in the hearts of the Big Eleven. The thought of Paterno sitting eight hundred feet from the field, having a nice time, drinking a cup of coffee, watching TV, means Penn State is nowhere near irrelevant.

The LSU Tigers have pulled off quite a coup, swiping an athletic beast from Indiana. I mean, this latest addition to the program is an absolute man-eater, a stone-cold killer. That’s right: a new Bengal tiger. The latest Mike the Tiger will arrive from an Indiana state facility called Great Cats. Les Miles would no doubt prefer a Southern tiger because everyone knows the Southern cats are much tougher, but he’s at least content with the fact that the new tiger isn’t coming from the wussy West Coast.

Texas DT Andre Jones is being sought by police for questioning in last week’s aggravated assault in Austin. Should have just settled things like a man: by throwing a water balloon.

In preparation for the Olympics, Beijing police are threatening to arrest fans who swear at a soccer match this weekend in the capitol.

“It is just way out of line to have 30,000 people shouting and swearing en masse,” police spokesman Liu Chunjiang was quoted as saying.

The spokesman is right: 30,000 people shouting and swearing is embarrassing. I mean, only 30,000? Those fans clearly have a lot to learn from the majesty that is 90,000 college football fans shouting and swearing en masse.

The Northern Colorado punter allegedly stabbed by his depth chart rival once considered sharing an apartment with his alleged attacker. That would be like Single White Female. Only with two dudes. And a football. And a shank. And a tiny program nobody has heard of.

With wide receiver Andrew Norman transferring from Arkansas, only one of the heralded ‘Springdale Four’ remains in Fayetteville. Despite this complete implosion of one of the most vaunted recruiting classes ever, we still say that the pressure-packed recruitment of 18-year-old kids upon whose shoulders universities’ profile and athletic revenues will ultimately reside, remains an exact science.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops says players’ last names will return to Sooners jerseys. Since Miami is now removing player names from their jerseys, when the Sooners and Canes meet on September 8 why don’t they just switch jerseys?

Alabama’s Tyrone Prothro has taken a medical scholarship, which sadly means his playing days are most likely finished. That’s the bad news. The good news is, Prothro will most likely retire knowing he made of the most ridiculous catches ever. It doesn’t beat an SEC title or a BCS ring, but it’s something. Something cool.

We’d like to thank the always entertaining Every Day Should Be Saturday for calling our attention to Mike Leach’s outstanding performance at Big 12 Media Day.

“It’s very savage to play in Lubbock,” Leach said. “I would recommend that everybody try to avoid it. There have been scalpings and there have been some people that quite just haven’t returned.

“There are some people, unfortunately, based on the way the conference goes, that are going to have to come to our place. Sadly, I can’t guarantee their safety or that things will necessarily go the way that they like.”

Why do we get the impression that that would be true in Lubbock even if they didn’t have a football team there?

We’ll end on a serious note. You can forget about USC trying to go wire-to-wire, or Darren McFadden trying to get that Heisman, or the Gators trying to repeat. The story of the season is life trying to return to normal in Blacksburg, Virginia. After one of the most trying offseasons in the history of the sport, the Virginia Tech Hokies returned to practice yesterday. Hokies QB Sean Glennon said it best:

“I think it’s a relief,” Glennon said. “We’ve been asked so many questions. There’s been so much media attention. ‘When are you going to get back out there?’ Now it’s good to have all these questions behind us. Just to be back out here and to be with my teammates. It feels good to be out here throwing the football around. I missed it.”

So did we, Sean.

27 days until kickoff…

“I can tell you that I would like nothing better than to play USC for the title,” Miles said in a speech that radio station WWL made available on its Web site.

Playing to an audience largely populated by LSU fans, Miles saw an opening for a chance to plug the strength of the SEC, calling into question the strength of the Pac-10 Conference, which USC calls home.

“I can tell you this, that they have a much easier road to travel,” Miles said of the Trojans. “They’re going to play real knockdown drag-outs with UCLA and Washington, Cal-Berkley, Stanford — some real juggernauts — and they’re going to end up, it would be my guess, in some position so if they win a game or two, that they’ll end up in the title (game). I would like that path for us.

“I think the SEC provides much stiffer competition.”

This warrants some comment. First, to whom it may concern, it’s B-e-r-k-e-l-e-y.

Second, if that “juggernauts” comment is supposed to be sarcasm, it’s not working. For example, two of those four schools—which are apparently supposed to be so far from juggernauts that it’s humorous to call them juggernauts—frequently show up in the Preseason Top 25.

Third, if Mark Schlabach is even close to right, then USC’s schedule is significantly more difficult than LSU’s. (There’s a thing called out-of-conference competition, Les.)

Finally, ESPN’s Michael Smith, filling in on “Jim Rome is Burning” earlier today, had this to say …

Look, coach, nobody doubts that the SEC is going to be a murderer’s row this season, and I agree it’s the toughest conference in college football, and your school produces as many pro prospects as anybody, but you might want to focus on, I don’t know, winning said conference before you start calling out potential title game opponents. Never mind that under Pete Carroll USC is 4-0 against the SEC, by an average score of 42-12, or that they hung 50 on Arkansas, the team that last year won the SEC West—Les Miles’ own division. You say you want to play USC, Les? Thanks to your comments, I’m sure the feeling is now mutual.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

UPDATE: Stewart Mandel has a nice piece on Lestergate, including an excellent treatment of the monomania behind the “onepeat” folks (and their ilk).