Sooner than expected

Right before the USC-Ohio State game, I made the comment that I believed neither the Trojans nor Buckeyes would run the table after winning that game.

To no one's surprise, everyone began to jump on the USC bandwagon and buy into Mark May's talk about the Trojans being the greatest thing since sliced bread. After that 35-3 beatdown of Ohio State, USC was the bully of college football.

Some bully.

USC's loss to Oregon State last night came exactly one month BEFORE the date I had circled as when I thought the Trojans would be conquered by an inferior Pac-10 opponent, so as far as I'm concerned, this loss came ahead of schedule.

First, you got to give credit where credit's due to the Beavers. Just like in 2006, Oregon State jumped out to a big enough lead that USC would simply run out of time to catch up. That's the key to beating a team like the Trojans. You have to establish your gameplan early and often because as I've said before, Pete Carroll might be the best coach in all of college football in terms of making halftime adjustments, something that the Trojans did do. At the start of the third quarter, USC came out full of energy that was missing in the entire first half.

By the way, I love how Oregon State went for the touchdown right before the half, contrary to what Chris Fowler, Craig James, and Jesse Palmer were all saying. Granted, that TD should've been picked off, possibly a pick-six, but nonetheless, I love how they had the guts to stick it to USC, and luckily for them, they did.

Now here's the bigger question from a Big Ten perspective: Is Penn State better than we all think, or is Ohio State highly overrated? The Nittany Lions clobbered Oregon State earlier this month, and we all know what happened to the Buckeyes. But it brings up an interesting topic of discussion. This is something I'd like to see people chime opinions on if they so desire.

For now, though, I'm sticking to my guns about Georgia and Oklahoma being the two best teams in the country and how I think they're BOTH destined for Miami on Jan. 8. As for USC, let's just hope someone other than Ohio State wins the Big Ten, otherwise, it could be another bad Rose Bowl this year.

- Brendan