What's going on in College Football?

After recovering from "Black Saturday" here in L.A., I have some thoughts and realizations about college football in this country. First, let's start with our L.A. teams. So who had the worst weekend? UCLA gift wrapped Notre Dame's first win for them, while losing another quarterback in the process, leaving them with a Grizzly Adam's look-a-like walk-on QB who was honorable mention in his high school league. (In the LEAGUE!) Across town, USC's loss was one of the biggest of all time, losing to 41-point underdog, Stanford. It was the first Trojan loss at home since 2001, and they will be without John David Booty this upcoming Saturday.

UCLA season hinges on how fast Pat Cowan can recover from his injury. All reports are that he may be able to go by the Cal game next week, but you never know how fast someone will recover from such a severe injury. Cowan is clearly a better option than Ben Olson at this point, with or without Olson being injured. But that leaves UCLA with 3rd string walk-on McLeod Bethel-Thompson and 4th stringer, freshman Chris Forcier to hold down the quarterback position. This doesn't bode well for the Bruins, and the longer they are without Cowan, the closer to rock bottom they'll get. The bigger question for the Bruins, is how a top 25 coach put himself in this position? Some people have let Karl Dorrell off the hook because of the injuries to Olson and Cowan, but shouldn't they have more than a walk on for a third string quarterback? Shouldn't they be prepared for a worst case scenario? And shouldn't Bethel-Thompson be somewhat ready to go when he was the backup for the Notre Dame game? As soon as Olson went down, the Bruins were unable to call a pass play without having it ensue in a turnover. It's not like they needed an All-American to beat the Irish, they just needed someone who could hand it off, take a quick 3 step drop without getting sacked, and actually be able to take the snap from the center. Look at Stanford. They put in their back-up, and beat USC! The Bruins need Cowan back and they need him now.

USC on the other hand has a few different problems. But first, take a look at this video, with the quote at the end basically sounding like any USC fan I've ever met.



No USC fan would ever even conceive of losing to a team like Stanford, and they will surely let you know about it. Maybe you think that's a good thing, fans should be somewhat confident. But SC fans tend to take it the next step up, acting cockier, and more arrogant than any college fan base in America. Just like the school bully, the team needed a bit of humbling, and who knows, maybe it will change the attitude of the school and its fans. )And who doesn't like to so the "Pete Carroll face" after a loss I mean, trying going to http://www.petecarroll.com/ and not thinking that he's a smug asshole).....But back to the game.....Booty threw 4 picks and became the scapegoat for the fans, who seemed to overlook the Washington game which showed that the USC passing game isn't quite what it used to be, and the team is not as dominating as it had been in the past. Add a few extra mistakes against Stanford and TavitaPritchard playing lights out, and you have yourself an upset. Who knows what backup QB Mark Sanchez will give them, and if he will even be an improvement over an injured Booty. Besides the on-field troubles, the Reggie Bush situation has reared it's head again this week. I think USC just though, "If no one talks about it, maybe it will just go away". Well, this isn't going away, and is now going to be a full blown NCAA investigation. We don't have any clue what the outcome will be, but things look pretty fishy, and I wouldn't be very excited about how this will play out. It will probably drag on for a while, USC will get a few sanctions, have to "give up" a title or two, and then move on. But you never know, it could be as drastic as a Pete Carroll firing, and a complete program overhaul. Only time will tell with that situation, but look for the Trojans to have a tougher time this season in the Pac-10 than maybe people assumed.

In terms of college football in general, ESPN is calling this season, "the season of the upset". Why so many upsets this year? Is it an aberration? Are college football teams more even than ever before? What's the deal? My opinion is somewhat simple, and somewhat controversial. I think that the reason that the traditional powerhouses of college football have had a down year this year (or a down couple of years if you're Notre Dame or Stanford), is that a lot of mid-major or lower schools are getting more and more of the phenomenal athletes that are unable to academically qualify for the traditional schools. With our society placing more and more importance on athletic performance in high school, it's now O.K. to fail out of high school, go to a junior college for two years, transfer to a mid-major school, and try to make it in the NFL. The growing trend of JC transfers at lower tiered schools has created this paradox. Can't get into Notre Dame? That's O.K., you can go to a school who has lower standards of entrance and be just as successful.

As always, there are exceptions to the rule. Schools like BC and Cal are having great years and sill hold onto their academic integrity. That's true, but those teams are led by a couple of stars, not an entire team of them. Even the new age football powerhouses like LSU and Florida, have way less academic standards for their players that schools like Notre Dame, Stanford, BC, Cal, Michigan, UCLA, Northwestern, and others. This trend will continue, and we may have a different idea of who the traditional powerhouses are in the future. We'll also have entire classrooms filled with football players learning "ballroom dancing" like Matt Leinart a couple of years back.