Just Another Saturday, Right?

So here we are, once again. Knocking on the door of "consider us". The record begs a little consideration, but the method for getting there might beg otherwise. We're Top 25 bottom feeders again, but for how long?

The answer is, only 9 more hours. If we pull off the improbable today, we just might disprove Godfather's Poll Inertia Theory (PIT). That would probably take at least a few losses in the 15-20 slots today. Numbers 19, 20 and 22 are all playing much higher ranked teams, and I would categorize #s 11, 15 and 16 as vulnerable. So it could be a very fluid day, poll-wise.

Of course, if we lose, then we'll be banished from the rankings unless we pretty much run the table. The pollsters are very happy "keeping us down". I was frankly surprised we snuck in this week.

Good article in the SBT today about the pep rally. Crowd estimated at 20,000. Rocket was the highlight according to the paper. I deduced this reporter hasn't attended many pep rallies. He noted as "interesting" the fact that "large chunk of members of the Notre Dame marching band showing up in shorts, bare chests or both". Sounds pretty tame to me.

The local coverage has been a bit muted by normal standards, given both the Dodgers and Angels are in the playoffs, and the defending champion Lakers are starting their exhibition season. But there’s that “inevitability “ in the coverage, as in, “we’ve beat them 7 times in a row; of course we’ll win Saturday”. But like Don read in that blog, it never seems like the tide will turn…until it does.

Under the weird places we wind up during games, I’ll be at a church choir rehearsal for a good chunk of the game. Our church’s 50th anniversary is this weekend, and the choir I sing in will be part of the festivities tomorrow. And it’s an “Alumni Choir Weekend”, so we all have to practice for two hours this afternoon to get it right. Sound familiar? I’m counting on our organist, who wears his USC t-shirt under his cassock every Sunday, to have some kind of TV gig set up so we can keep up. And of course I’ll Tivo it to do my full evaluation (win or lose) when I get home.

So yes, win or lose? Well, according to the transitive property of football, we’ll win. We beat Washington, Washington beat USC, so we’ll beat USC. Isn’t that how it works?

As Don noted, SC is a 10 point favorite. The over/under is 49 ½ (take the over). I think we have the athletes on offense to do enough damage to win. We probably won’t hit our average 470 yards (that’s a lot, isn’t it?), but enough to get a good amount of points on the board. This game will rest on our turnovers and our defense. If we give up our average 400 yards (yes, 400 yards), then we will have a tough time winning. What our defense needs to do today is give our offense a couple of short fields, either through turnovers or 3-and-outs deep in SC territory.

I think it will be our 5th nail-biter in a row. And if the defense can step it up a notch with help from the crowd and a few SC mistakes, we can pull this off with a late field goal.

I’m going with the Nancy Rose cockeyed optimism. IRISH 30, Southern Cal 27.

GO IRISH!!!! BEAT TROJANS!!!!