USC Ranks

The votes keep coming. While USA Today gave USC a third place preseason ranking, The AP and other polls have put USC at the top. Numero Uno. The logic being that with the much ballyhooed Heisman candidate Matt Barkley returning for his senior season to a team loaded with talent on the offensive side -- the same team that beat Oregon last year, no less -- how can you NOT rank them #1?

I share Mr. Burns' sentiment as he would say:  

"Ex-cellent!"

Let the Trojans start the season at the top. Let them begin defending their #1 ranking from the moment their two-year bowl ban ends. Sure, the Trojans may be feeling like they're on a Wheaties box right now, but anyone knows that those who start #1 are very rarely there at the end. And this will be especially true for a USC team with glaring holes. 

Pollsters have propped Barkley and Company
on top of a rickety ladder to start the season.



The following ESPN video echos what everyone is saying. While USC has excellent personnel on offense -- perhaps even the best in the country-- their defense has question marks, particularly at the front line. USC's D-line lacks the depth a team must have to maintain that #1 ranking. And even though they have Oregon in L.A., they are at Stanford, Utah, Washington, Arizona, and UCLA. Good luck with that.

OREGON DRAWS THE LINE

The more I read about Oregon's offensive and defensive lines, the more excited I get. Old school coaches like Rockne and Lombardi will tell you that it all begins at the line. Ohio State, LSU and Auburn taught Chip Kelly's Ducks that they couldn't beat the big boys until they improved their lines.

In the Oregonian's recent article, Oregon Ducks offensive line jelling on schedule,  Center Hroniss Grasu said, "The pace that we play at, we're going fast," he said. "We're trying to get the defense to get tired, to get them to throw up in the middle of the game." That would include USC's defense.

When the opponents have the ball, I believe that is when we will see the secret about Oregon this year. As great and well publicized as their offense is, the Ducks defense will prove to be the catalyst that takes this team to the top. This will be the defense they wish they had when they faced LSU and Auburn, especially when one of their freshmen is 6-8, 280 lb. man-child Aric Armstead. A defensive end so big, so fast, so formidable, that whenever anyone misspells his first name with an 'E', not only will Aric correct him, but that person will never ever spell any 'Eric' he meets with an 'E' ever again. 

Here's The Oregonian's article on the defense: Evolving Ducks Defense after more Sacks in 2012

MARIOTA'S MEN
At the writing of this post -- well, not exactly at the writing, but a couple of days before while I was vacationing near Mt. Hood . . . (Ya, I have a life, OK so SUE ME.),  I learned with the rest of you that QB Marcus Mariota had been given the keys to the team. The redshirt freshman, who had a superb Spring Scrimmage, continued to show his edge through fall camp and beat out sophomore Brian Bennett to start for the Ducks.

In the Sunday Oregonian, John Canzano's column revisited former QB Darron Thomas' reasons for leaving school early. The chances were high of Bennett beating out Thomas this year. But then Mariota beats Bennett! Canzano wrote:

Mariota will start on Saturday against Arkansas State. It may take two months to figure out if he can win a big game, but we're going to learn right away if the kid has presence, command of Kelly's offense and can run, throw and make good decisions on a football field. We've seen it in a single glimpse on a spring day, but I'm not joining the ranks of critics saying they'll need to see Mariota against USC's defense to know if he can really play.
I suspect we'll know it in a single afternoon.

Matt Barkley threw for 39 TD's and over 3500 yards last year. Mariota's stats read all zeros. Yes, it's a big unknown for Oregon. But it's an unknown for Oregon's opponents as well. And the pollsters have no evidence that Oregon could be any better than #5.

No stats. No game film. No scouting reports. Only that single spring scrimmage, plus the consensus of behind-the-curtain witnesses who say that Mariota could be Kelly's best QB to date.

Later: A look at Arkansas State.