College Confidential

Patterson discusses top 25 rankings

During Tuesday's weekly luncheon with the media, someone asked TCU coach Gary Patterson if he voted Oklahoma No.1 in this week's coaches poll.
"I voted them No.1,'' he said. "To be honest, I also voted us in the top 25.''
Patterson then shared his thoughts on the top 25 rankings. Here's Part 1, unfiltered:

"It's not something that's upsetting but you know it's interesting that you penalize people for dropping out of the top 25. I'm not saying that we deserve it one way or the other. I'm not sure. I think it's kind of interesting that you go and you have a USC team that gets beat by Oregon State, that gets beat by Stanford, who gets beat by us and they drop eight ranks.

"We play the No.2 team in the nation and at the time (Oregon State) played USC, the No.1 team in the nation. And they don't drop out of the rankings, but we drop out. There's still people that voted for us. You know me, I don't care about all that stuff until November, or December. But, I mean, you penalize people. Everybody's upset cause nobody will play somebody really good. They won't go out and go play at somebody else's stadium and go play those kind of games. So how should TCU do it? Should TCU play somebody that you have more of a 50-50 chance with?"

(Pause real quickly. First, Patterson does care, and it's obvious. I appreciate his frankness, and I wish more coaches were like that. Second, I think he does have a point in terms of people who don't schedule difficult teams. It's easy as a powerhouse to schedule cupcakes, pad your stats and play it safe. But I guarantee most fans admire powerhouses who take big risks. They also respect those teams like TCU and Fresno State - whose motto is "anybody, any time, any place" - who aren't afraid to schedule powerhouses.)

Patterson continued to praise Oklahoma on Tuesday for their success and tradition. He was also proud of how his team wasn't intimidated and played hard all game. As a coach, he said, "that's all you can ask your kids to do."
"People don't want to play Ohio State, they don't want to play USC, they don't want to play anyone that always ends up in the top eight in the country,'' Patterson said. "You don't want to go play them. Unless you have to play them in conference. And we're fortunate enough in a couple weeks we've got (BYU), who's (eighth) from our conference."
At the end of his press conference, I asked Patterson if his frustration from dropping out of the top 25 is due in part to voters possibly forgetting about the national attention that's been centered around the improvement of the Mountain West Conference, and not taking that into consideration. His answer (part 2):

"I'm not frustrated by that. I'm frustrated that we didn't win. I don't have any control over the top 25. My point on that was...my point was that I think everybody needs to be treated equally. That you shouldn't get brownie points by what conference you come from. It doesn't matter. Either you're a certain level of team or not. You're not all of a sudden a better team cause you come from a certain conference.

"I'm not saying we should be in the top 25. My point is I think all anybody's looking for - not just TCU - is a balanced chance. I mean is a loss to Oklahoma by TCU worse than Illinois beating Louisiana-Lafayette by (three points)? It's how you look at it.

"(Illinois is) not in the top 25 now, cause they got beat this last week. My point is, nothing against coach Zook and Illinois, perception is reality. (The Mountain West has) got a chance to do that again Thursday night. We had a chance Saturday against Oklahoma. Utah's got a chance Thursday night against Oregon State to prove that point again. How well we do in that ballgame will be the perception of what everybody thinks." 

It's a nice wish to want fairness in the polls, but Patterson himself said it: Perception is reality.
The Mountain West has proved it's making strides in its 10th year, but it's up to teams to continue to improve and be competitive on a consistent basis if the conference hopes to gain more legitimacy and credibility with voters.
-Trae Thompson

The madness begins: Beavers beat Trojans, 27-21

Oregon State did it right from the very beginning.
The Beavers didn't trick up their gameplan to face No.1 USC on Thursday night in Corvallis. Instead, Oregon State went right at the Trojans defense, pounding away at them with the help of Texas native Jacquizz Rodgers, daring them to do something.
And USC couldn't.
Oregon State (2-2, 1-1) - a 25-point underdog - held on to topple the Trojans 27-21, shaking up the top 10 rankings, the BCS and putting another major dent in the USC (2-1, 0-1) mystique.
This game just continues a pattern that began in 2007, when the top 10 rankings were jolted on a weekly basis by shocking upsets. There's no reason to expect that to change, especially with this weekend's games and others looming in the coming weeks like OU-Texas.
If you're a fan of Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia or Missouri, Thursday's result simply clears one team out of your way, but in the big picture does very little in terms of national title hopes. All four schools still have to survive playing in the Big 12 and SEC, which are the two toughest conferences in the country this year. Do good there, and conference championships loom the first week in December.
The biggest questions that loom from this game are with the Trojans. Are they a good team? Sure. Oustanding? Hardly. Outstanding teams don't lose these games, and certainly don't trail 21-0 like the Trojans did at halftime on Thursday. This is the third straight year USC has now lost a game it should've won handily. Go back to 2006, when it last lost to Oregon State in Corvallis 33-31, then there was last year's 24-23 loss at home to Stanford (a 41-point underdog).
What you saw on Thursday night was a USC team that was all hype, and no substance. Once again, ESPN and other national media outlets rolled out their Trojan hype machine in the preseason, and with Don King-like gusto, proclaimed USC to be superior to everyone else in the college football universe. A model of perfection. All that was missing were ludicrous comparisons to Tom Osborne's Nebraska teams in the late 1990s, or the Miami Hurricanes during their glory days.
Those teams became legendary because they beat the teams they were supposed to.
As they showed again on Thursday, that's something USC struggles with.
-Trae Thompson

Ridiculously off base

While reading my blogs earlier today, I was a little stunned to see USC coach Pete Carroll refer to his team's Pac 10 schedule as "ridiculously difficult." I thought I was missing something, so I checked the latest AP Poll. Other Pac 10 teams besides USC in the rankings? Zero. The current record of USC's conference opponents: 15-17.

A closer look at the "ridiculously difficult" schedule the Trojans face entering tonight:

tonight, at Oregon State (1-2)
The Beavers have won two of the last three in Corvallis, but opponents have score 30 or more points in Oregon State's two losses. Penn State finished with 454 total yards in a 45-14 victory.

10/4 vs. Oregon (3-1)
Beat Washington 44-10 in their season opener, but gave up 424 total yards in last week's 37-32 loss to Boise State.

10/11 vs. Arizona State (2-2)
Lost to UNLV 23-20 and had four yards rushing in last week's 27-10 loss to Georgia.

10/18 at Wash. State (1-3)
Its first win came against Portland State, a championship subdivision team.

10/25 at Arizona (3-1)
Wins over Idaho and Toledo, and opened Pac 10 play with a 31-10 victory over UCLA, which was 4-of-17 on third down conversions and had 196 total yards.

11/1 vs. Washington (0-3)
The Huskies' 41-point loss to Oklahoma was its largest at home since a 48-0 loss to USC in 1929.

11/8 vs. Cal (2-1)
Cal lost to a Maryland team whose only loss is to Middle Tennessee State (1-3).

11/15 at Stanford (2-2)
Jim Harbaugh's team has a bright future, but lost to Arizona State 41-17 and allowed San Jose State to control the clock longer in last week's 23-10 win.

12/6 at UCLA (1-2)
BYU finished with 521 total yards in a 59-0 victory over the Bruins.

-Trae Thompson

Opening night thoughts

Check back throughout the night. I got some dinner made, and am just going to be giving my thoughts on what I see.

America, say hello to Jacquizz Rodgers. If you've followed Texas high school football, you know all about the Oregon State tailback from Lamar Consolidated. ...

...Tough late hit penalty there Baylor. Way to hang in there, though, and keep Wake Forest out of the endzone. Baylor fans should feel OK with giving up just a field goal. ...

...The Planters peanut commercial is very disturbing, but I laugh all the time. I love physical comedy. ...

...I completely forgot that Mike Riley coached Jim Harbaugh. ...

...Uh, weird moment there seeing Chris Fowler hand Jesse Palmer a rose. "It's been a thorny first half," Fowler said of the NC State-South Carolina game. We can do without anymore of those lines. ...

...Big touchdown by South Carolina on fourth and goal to open the second half. The Old Ball Coach is happy. For now. ...

...Stanford looks better. Not getting carried away. Let's see if they can keep this up. ...

...I could listen to Ron Franklin call any college football game. The man's one of my favorites. ...

...Wake Forest quarterback Riley Skinner just doesn't get rattled. Pretty impressive. ...

...Now that's an amazing move by Stanford athletics. In case you didn't hear it, they've told ticket holders this season, "Don't like what you see? We'll give you your money back." Wow. ...

...South Carolina's flying around. Seen all I need to see here. ...

...Long night for Baylor. Wake Forest looks sharp. ...

...Nice running by Stanford's Toby Gerhart. Love the shots of Jim Harbaugh on the sideline, too. ...

...It's late, and that's all the blogging. I'm going to keep watching Stanford-Oregon State. Tonight's words of wisdom: " When life hands you paper jams, hand them paper footballs."

-Trae Thompson