USC saw their BCS Title hopes vanish last night in Oregon with a 47-20 beating by the Ducks. Now the Trojans have two Pac-10 losses on their resume and will likely not be making a return trip to a BCS bowl. The Trojans just got flat out beat by the 10th ranked Ducks. Now to be fair it shouldn’t come as a complete shock that the Ducks won, they are a top-10 team and they were at home. But we have become so accustomed to USC, dominating and winning regardless of the situation that it is a bit of a surprise to see them lose like this. Even those who did predict Oregon would win last night, couldn’t have thought they would have made the Trojans look so helpless.

On paper it looked as if the Ducks would be susceptible to the pass, and might struggle running the ball. For starters they were without their best defensive player CB Walter Thurmond III, who is out the rest of the season with an injury. The Ducks defensive backs were young and inexperienced to begin with and were facing a Trojans team with a number of quality receivers. That matchup looked to distinctly favor USC, but when the dust settled the Trojans had just 187 yards passing, and averaged just 4.9 yards per attempt. To put that number in comparison the Trojans running backs averaged 4.8 yards per carry, and the Ducks passing attack (which isn’t their strength) averaged 7.2 yards per attempt. The Ducks defense did a great job of taking away anything deep, and holding the Trojans top four receivers to under 10 yards per catch.

The Ducks offense faced a similar challenge since it looked like they didn’t matchup with the Trojans defense. USC’s defense hasn’t been as dominate as it has been in the past, but the majority of their failures have come against the pass. Their rush defense is much better than their pass defense. Their front seven is extremely quick and strong, and both of their safeties excel against the run. Oregon’s offense lives and dies by the run, while their quarterback Jeremiah Masoli is a very good dual threat QB, the Ducks lack the big play receivers to really challenge teams vertically. Though Oregon hasn’t had any problems running the ball this year, they are still without their big back LeGarrette Blount, who was suspended after getting into a fight after Oregon’s week 1 loss at Boise State. Blount would have given the Ducks a big weapon against the size and strength of that USC line. In the end though it didn’t matter, because the Ducks rushed their way to 391 yards on the ground, and put up a total of 613 total yards. Both the yardage and points allowed were the most allowed by a USC defense while Pete Carroll has been the head coach.

Oregon’s rout of USC should be a wake-up call for the rest of the college football nation, the Ducks are not to be taken lightly this year. They have beaten USC 47-20 and Cal 42-3, the two teams who were originally considered the best in the Pac-10. The Ducks have outscored their Pac-10 opponents 208-58 so far this season. As long as the Ducks don’t get too overconfident they should easily win out the rest of the season, and will be in the mix to play for a BCS Championship.

By Contributing Fanspeak writer Geoff Nelowet

The Southern California Trojans have won seven straight Pac-10 titles. They hope – and are expected – to continue that streak, but they will have to come from behind this season, which is something they are unaccustomed to. They are also unaccustomed to having a starting freshman quarterback in Matt Barkley, but this season is an adjustment process in which the Trojans will be learning on the fly. Playing Oregon in Eugene is arguably the Trojans’ toughest task of the season, and should they win this game, and win out the rest of the season, they will have earned a Pac-10 title in very impressive fashion.

The Ducks boast a potent offense at 45.7 points per game and 484.7 yards, and this is bad news for USC because over the last few weeks, their defense has been shaky at best. The Trojans have given up 482 and 367 yards the past two weeks to offenses that are arguably inferior to the Ducks’ attack. USC narrowly defeated Notre Dame and Oregon State, so their hands will undoubtedly be full against tenth-ranked, 6-1 Oregon.

Oregon’s lone loss came at Boise State in the first week of the season. Oregon has won six straight – and they have won impressively. On September 26^th, they took down then-ranked No. 6 California 42-3. The week prior, they beat then-ranked No. 18 Utah. In short, USC needs to bring their best performance to take down this flourishing Oregon unit.

Dual-threat quarterback Jeremiah Masoli leads the Ducks this season. He has accounted for 12 touchdowns this season – seven were on the ground. Since the Boise State game, LaMichael James has taken over at running back for the infamously suspended Legarrette Blount. He has rushed for over 700 yards and six touchdowns in his freshman campaign.

Barkley has shown he can lead the Trojans into a hostile environment and come out with a victory. He has done it twice now at Notre Dame a week ago, and at Ohio State early in the season. He will do it again against Oregon, but he will only play a partial role. The Trojan defense will correct its past errors, and they will contain the Oregon attack. Final score: USC 34 Oregon 24

Yankee Bowl?: The New York Yankees announced the formation of the “Yankee Bowl” yesterday. Which will pit the 4th place finisher of the Big East against the 7th place team in the Big 12, or potentially Notre Dame if they don’t have a better bowl offer. The game will be played at Yankee Stadium starting in Dec. 2010. If approved by the NCAA (which lets be honest isn’t going to turn down the New York market or the Yankees) the “_____” Yankee Bowl (can’t wait to see who will be the corporate sponsor here), will represent the 35 post season bowl game in college football. I love the idea for two main reasons. One it brings to mind the nostalgia of a time when football and baseball shared stadiums, and it will be interesting to see how they reconfigure Yankee Stadium for the game. The other reason I like the idea, is I’m in the group of people that don’t mind all the bowl games in December/January. Look I want to see the BCS scrapped and replaced with a playoff system as much as the next guy, but that doesn’t mean you have to get rid of all the various bowls to do it. Its a topic for a longer post, but taking the top 8, 12, or 16 teams and separating them out in a playoff to determine the National Champion, should have no impact on all the other bowl games out there. Already these bowl games have no impact on the National Championship and are for league and team pride, which I see nothing wrong with. We still have the NIT and other postseason basketball tournaments that have no impact on the NCAA tournament. I like having a number of bowl games to watch around the holidays, why because I enjoy watching football. Also these bowl games are crucial to a number of programs survival. Plenty of teams really don’t have National Title hopes, but they do have a chance to get a moderate bowl, and that money allows them to recruit better, build a program, and maybe one day be an elite program.

Injuries piling up: Baylor sophomore QB Robert Griffin is now out for the year with a knee injury. Griffin is a dual-threat quarterback that made the Bears a team with upset potential against the big boys in the Big-12. Senior cornerback Walter Thurmond will miss the rest of Oregon’s season with a knee injury as well. Thurmond was the Ducks best defensive player, and one of the best defensive backs in the nation. He was a dangerous return man as well, already returning one punt this season for a touchdown. The Ducks will need some help in the defensive backfield with Washington and USC coming up on the schedule. Speaking of USC their freshman defensive end (sack machine) Nick Perry, who leads the Pac-10 in sacks will likely miss Saturday’s game against the California Golden Bears. Its a huge game for USC on Saturday, if Perry can’t go they will need to find someone else to generate pressure in the Golden Bears backfield. USC’s senior running back Stafon Johnson is communicating after surgery yesterday to repair this throat after a serious weightlifting accident on Monday. Johnson’s playing days at USC are done, but the fact that he is alive and well, and should make a full recovery after the injury that he had, is a great blessing for him, his family and all of USC football.

Heisman Quarterbacks, Coming Back: The last two Heisman winners, Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford should be making their return to the gridiron soon enough. Bradford who has been out since week one, could play in this week’s match up against Miami. He will almost assuredly be back the following week when the Sooners begin their conference schedule against Baylor. Personally I’d give the redshirt freshman Landry Jones a chance to see what he can do against Miami, and have Bradford there in case things go sour quickly. Don’t rush your star QB back when you still have your whole season ahead of you. As for Tebow, he won’t miss any games since Florida is off this week. But it sounds like it was a pretty serious concussion if he is still dealing with headaches and prohibited from watching game film. The Gators face a major challenge in two weeks against LSU, and will need Tebow at 100% to stay undefeated.

Week four of the college football season will go down as the week where National Championship dreams, and hopes for BCS Bowl bids were shattered. Seven of the Top 25 teams lost this week, and four others (Michigan, Houston, Georgia, and LSU) barely escaped with a victory. Of the seven teams that lost, four were top 10 teams that lost crucial conference games. Only one of the seven teams lost to another top 25 team (Miami to Virginia Tech). Now the Top 25 is a complete mess and no one has any answers as to why.

Some might say that the quality of college football is down this season compared to years past, but I’m not buying that. This is probably the deepest that college football has been in talented quarterbacks in quite some time. Not only do you have the big name returners (Tebow, McCoy, and Bradford) and the future first rounders like Jevan Snead, Jimmy Claussen, Terrell Pryor, and Matt Barkley (last two based on hype and potential), but there are plenty of other quality quarterbacks. Guys like Max Hall (BYU), Zac Robinson (OKST), Jake Locker (Wash), Kevin Riley (Cal), Tony Pike (Cinn) also are great college quarterbacks with some pro prospects. That doesn’t even include the dozen or so other quality college quarterbacks, capable of leading their team to victory any given week. That’s just the talent at the quarterback position. The talent level at running back and receiver, is just as good. On the defensive side of the ball the talent level might even be better. While their is plenty of talent at every position around the country, the talent along the defensive line is particularly exceptional. The the 2010 NFL Draft should have at least 10 defensive linemen taken in the first round.

With all this talent across college football the logical answer for why seven ranked teams lost this week would be that there is so much parity between the teams. Parity would make sense if it was just the Top-25 upsetting each other, but with the exception of Miami parity isn’t a good excuse as to why these teams lost this weekend. Parity or even bad luck could explain if these Top 25 teams were losing close games on last second field goals or fluke plays.  Only Ole Miss lost by less than seven points, and they were lucky it was that close considering how bad they played. Every other team simply got beat, no chance for a last second comeback or a miracle, they just got outplayed. Now I realize teams like Oregon, South Florida, and Iowa are quality college teams, but they had no business winning on Saturday. Cal went into Oregon ranked 6th in the nation, and had a firm control of the Pac-10 with USC’s loss the week before. The Golden Bears have a very good team, with the best running back in the nation in Jahvid Best leading the offense. Oregon held their “high-powered” offense to just 3 points, and a 42-3 shellacking. The Ducks embarrassed Cal despite having their best boxer running back, LeGarrete Blount, suspended for the season. There is no reason why Cal’s team but up as many points as the Ducks second stringers yesterday. South Florida is a good program, but their senior quarterback Matt Grothe is out for the season. Grothe was a very good college quarterback, and always made the Bulls a tough team to play, without him in the game Florida State should have been able to walk all over USF. In the end though it was Florida State who looked unprepared for the game, and now leaves them with two losses on the year. Iowa is a spoiler, they upset a top ranked Penn State team last year at home with a last second field goal to win 24-23. Yesterday in Happy Valley, they trounced the Nittany Lions 21-10. Penn State was a team that was supposed to compete for the Big Ten title and even the National Championship coming into this season. You can’t do either if you lose to inferior opponents at home. There is no reason why Penn State should have lost that game last night. Parity can’t be the answer as to why any of these teams lost yesterday, there was nothing equal in any of these matchups.

The real reason I think why we are seeing more and more upsets like this comes down to the coaching and systems. I think the level of coaching has gone down in college football, and we are seeing more of a utilization of special systems and athletes over fundamentals and football players. Every year teams like USC, Florida State, Penn State (and plenty more) recruit the best players in the country, and are loaded with talent. But that “talent” isn’t showing up on the field this season. I think there has been a new ‘fad’ to recruit 40 times, and size, instead of actual football skills. Instead of showing these prospects how to run perfect routes, or find the hole, these teams just game plan on getting these athletes the ball in space. Now that works against inferior opponents, but when you go up against smarter coaches who play fundamental football, they can find a way to stop it. Its also a reason why these storied football programs, have produced a dearth of NFL talent in recent years. USC is the best example, of all the 4 and 5 star recruits they have on their offense, there best player is actually a transfer from Arkansas, WR Damian Williams. I think until teams start going back to basics in college football, we will continue to see a higher number of major upsets.

With both teams ranked in the top 25 and the higher seed (according to the AP poll, they are flipped in the USA Today poll) at home it would seem like the smart pick would be the Boise State Broncos, but I think the Cinderella team is going to have their hands full tonight. As much as I love the Broncos I can’t pick them over the Ducks tonight. It boils down to one major ‘BIG’ reason, 6’2″ 240 lbs. senior running back LeGarrette Blount. Despite sharing time with Jeremiah Johnson last year, Blount still managed to rush for over 1,000 yards and lead the team with 17 touchdowns. Blount’s size makes him a power back, but before you label him a “three yards and a cloud of dust” running back, remember he averaged 7.3 yards per carry last season. Joining Blount on offense is the dual threat junior quarterback Jeremiah Masoli. Masoli proved last year that he could handle the Oregon offense and really sparked the Ducks success. The Ducks weakness on offense is their receivers, but Masoli finds a way to make big plays regardless of who he’s throwing the ball to.

The Broncos aren’t without hope though. They return one of the most intriguing college quarterbacks in redshirted sophomore Kellen Moore. Moore last season took the college world by storm, by throwing for almost 3,500 yards and 25 touchdowns. He was extremely efficient with a completion percentage of 69.4 that led to a 157.11 QB rating (which ranked 11th in the nation). They also have a pair of quick running backs that could give the Ducks some problems on the perimeter in juniors James Avery and D.J. Harper. The Boise State defense has some weaknesses in the front 7, but their strong secondary should give Masoli fits.

Overall I think Oregon’s ground game will be too much for the Broncos to handle. I don’t think they have the speed to contain Masoli, or the talent up front to stop Blount. While Moore and company should keep Boise State in the game, I think Oregon’s talented line backing corps will stifle the Broncos’ ground game. Also I think the Ducks should be able to get solid pressure on Moore that should keep him from being the winning quarterback. I think it will be a close high scoring game overall, with the Ducks coming out ahead 38-31.