USC vs. Virginia expectations

Now that I've gotten Yellfish Nation off to such a rousing start it's time to slam on the brakes and halt any and all momentum I may have had with this thing.

I'm out of town for a wedding this weekend and most likely won't be able to watch the game until sometime Sunday night (provided my DVR doesn't decide that Sopranos repeats are of higher recording importance). I'm not going to be that annoying guy who tries to stay away from any and all sports news until I get home. Too hard to do that nowadays. I'm sure I'll check the score and maybe watch SportsCenter Saturday night to catch any highlights (being a late game against a lame opponent, we might actually register a three play highlight package).

Anyways, Virginia is, like Hawaii, not a good team. Currently the spread favors USC by about 20. Based on last week's dreadful defensive performance, you'd be inclined to bet against the Trojans. However, I have a sneaky suspicion that the Trojan D will put up a better and more consistent effort against the Cavaliers. Really I just think the defense will have a much easier time with a less athletic, pro-style Virginia offense than they did with a fast, spread attack. That said, the Trojans will give up points. Due to traitors (err, um, I mean 'transfers') and general lack of depth, Coach Lunch Money publicly declared his intentions to pull his starters early. If this goes like last week did that means pulling first teamers once we have about a three score lead. Which means we'll have guys who can't even start for our semi-cruddy defense not-tackling. Wonderful. Maybe the USC student section should stop chanting "HURRY UP AND LOSE" to the opposing team and start yelling "HURRY UP AND WIN" to their team.

The only other conceivable angle of interest is the debut of freshman phenom Dillon Baxter, aka the Next-Next Reggie Bush. Or, as I guess it must be post-sanctions, the Next-Next He Who Must Not Be Named. The original Next HWMNBN was Fumbles McKnight, and look how amazing he turned out. Anyways, Next-Next lit it up during spring ball, only to get suspended for the opener for getting caught in the vicinity of marijuana (or something vaguely nefarious like that). We'll see how this goes, I'd be shocked if gets more than ten touches on Saturday, but hopefully that'll be enough to put on a good show.

Again this week, there's not a whole lot of good that can come of this game for the Trojans. Anything but a resounding victory will cause handwringing and overreaction.