Is Stanford a trap game for Oregon? Should Jeff Tedford be fired for that halfback pass call with less than a minute to go against ASU? Is Vegas daring me to bet the Cougs +33 at Arizona?

All that and we pick this week’s games against the spread. Click the links below to enjoy!

11.03.09 Pac-10 Football Podcast (part one)

11.03.09 Pac-10 Football Podcast (part two)

I really am passionate about the football played in this conference. I think it’s the best. The SEC is nice, but the Pac-10 has always had more innovative/effective offenses. Florida’s 23-20 win over Arkansas was alright, but there’s something about West Coast teams throwing haymaker after haymaker.

It is indeed possible to have well played football where both teams score the shit out of the ball. Skeptics look at the 81 total points and say, “No defense.” Wrong. Both Stanford and Arizona have shown themselves to be solid defensive teams this year. That was just transcendent offense. That was the Pac-10 doing just the fuck it do.

Was the USC loss a moral victory for Charlie Weis? Masoli or Costa for Oregon? Does it matter? Vontaze Burfict: crazy or really fucking crazy? (And to be clear: yes I would want him to play for Washington.)

All that and we pick next week’s games vs. the spread. Then we never talk about how we did because it’s usually poorly. But our hearts are in the right place. Click the links below to enjoy!!

10.20.09 Pac-10 Football Podcast (part one)

10.20.09 Pac-10 Football Podcast (part two)

Did UW do us the favor of winning a single game in our first season of podcasting? Absolutely not. But we still did 16 shows.

Who knows? If the Dawgs do well enough this year we might actually continue doing this throughout the season.

This week on the show:

Taylor Mays for Heisman? Was Kevin Craft worse than Casey Paus? Is it too early to anoint Sark the greatest coach ever in the history of sport?

All this and more! Click the links below to enjoy!

08.11.09 Pac-10 Football Podcast (part one)

08.11.09 Pac-10 Football Podcast (part two)

With two games to play, Oregon State controls their destiny for the Pac-10’s BCS slot after humbling the Bruins. They’ll have to earn it though, with Cal and Oregon looming to close out their schedule. USC’s defense neutered Cal in a 17-3 win to keep their title hopes alive. UW and WSU both showed improvement, albeit in big losses.

So do the Beavers have what it takes to close things out? How in god’s name is Arizona State a 36.5 point favorite? (Hint: WSU) Has Jeff Tedford taken his Cal program as far as they are ever going to go?

Fig Jam is back, and we turn in a whiz bang effort as the conference season draws nearer to its conclusion. Big time show this week.

11.11.08 Pac-10 Football Podcast (part one)

11.11.08 Pac-10 Football Podcast (part two)

Photo: USA Today

Thanks a million to Dank the Tank for providing the stats/lines, as well as for filling in last week.

Check it out! It’s still Tuesday! (At least on the west coast….and not by the time you read this.)

This week in the Pac-10 UCLA surprised upstart Stanford with a last second Kevin Craft TD pass, Zona knocked Cal out of the polls, and USC did whatever the fuck they wanted to in Pullman.

Does Ty Willingham have anything in his bag of shit with which to beat Notre Dame? Can Cal rebound at home against UCLA? Will Paul Wulff blame Bill Doba recruits for the bye week?

10.21.08 Pac-10 Football Podcast (part one)

10.21.08 Pac-10 Football Podcast (part two)

Oregon State proved that Penn State, and not the USC game, was the fluke…..albeit in a loss. A handful of aspirant top Pac-10 teams squared off: USC blew out Oregon, and Cal handled an increasingly shaky looking ASU team.

Did Utah take the wind out of OSU, or will they regroup at home against a dismal WSU team? Can Arizona keep things going at frisky Stanford? Why is Ty Willingham burning redshirts like he’s trying to heat his basement?

10.07.08 Pac-10 Football Podcast (part one)

10.07.08 Pac-10 Football Podcast (part two)

Oh, and fun song at the end of the first segment.

Tradition. Major market. Sexy location. First choice of most all recruits. USC has it all. Even in the John Robinson/Paul Hackett mire of the 90s common wisdom was that Southern Cal was a sleeping giant.

And common wisdom was correct. USC hired NFL washout Pete Carroll before the 2001 season, who after one 6-6 year turned things around in epic fashion.

Of course it didn’t hurt having Carson Palmer and Troy Polemalu in place (both Hackett recruits).

Now most all other colleges would love to have USC’s “problems”. Discounting that first 6-6 year, Carroll’s juggernaut is 78-9 since 2002. They have finished 1st or tied for 1st in the Pac-10 all of those years.

Yet consider that USC was probably favored to win all but a few of those games, and is Carroll’s record that impressive?

Why does USC annually crap their pants against one woefully undermanned Pac-10 opponent? Why did USC seemingly play everyone close in the Pac-10 last year? I have a theory.

75% of USC games are over after the first quarter. 90% are done after the first half. They get the ball, score, stop you, score, the band starts playing that incessant song and lights out. You expected to lose. They expected to win. Expectations met is one of life’s true pleasures.

But look out if you’re the team that can stick around with USC. For whatever reason, and despite their massive advantages in personnel, they have a fragile disposition. It’s like they don’t know how good they are.

The Pete Carroll/Wade Phillips caretaker coach method is perfect for blowouts, and a disaster in tight games. Watch the replay of Oregon State’s tipped ball td at the end of the first half where they show Carroll. His emotions are on his sleeve. When the play is resolved Pete’s holding his clipboard on his head with an expression that screams, “Well maybe it’s just not our day.”

On his way to the locker room Carroll gave his standard happy-go-lucky interview, “It’s fine. We’ll figure it out.” If I was a USC fan I might have enjoyed something along the lines of “This is an unacceptable effort. Our starters are taking their positions for granted. And if they don’t start playing I have plenty of guys who want to.”

Why not pull a Coach K and come out of the locker room with the backups for a set of downs? They’re still all elite recruits that Oregon State didn’t get a sniff of. They show the starters that the game is simple, USC has their swagger back, the starters are dying to get back into the game to prove they deserve it, and suddenly the Trojan sideline is back where it ought to be: smelling blood.

I wonder if they miss Ed Orgeron. For his faults as a head guy, he certainly would not have stood for the 100+ yards of rushing the Trojans surrendered in the first half to Jacquizz Rogers and co. (And jesus did that young man look like a talent. You’ve done it again Mike Riley.)

I imagine Orgeron would have called Brian Cushing to the front of the assembled defense at the half, told him to close his eyes, and mercilessly beat the hell out of him with an arm he just ripped off one of the trainers.

Instead Pete Carroll took his “We’ll figure it out” countenance to the locker room and USC continued to play as if their season was not on the line. His idea must be that USC’s superior talent and athleticism at literally every position will manifest itself. Most games it does, after all.

But that leaves me to wonder, couldn’t any number of coaches do that?