Cougars were Crushed....Road Trip to the Farm

USC rolled to another lopsided victory, beating BYU 42-10. The Trojans have now won 12 straight games and are an amazing 13-3 against the spread the last 2 years (despite several 20+ point spreads). I am not sure anyone reads this, but we will give a special reward to to the first person who emails Tim with the 3 games USC has not covered in the last 2 years. Award will be presented at the Cal tailgate on October 9th.

Couple notes on the BYU game:

• Trojans got hosed on several calls in the first half including a bogus holding call on Alex Holmes (which negated a pass from Bush to Steve Smith on the BYU 1yd line), a "dead ball" foul on Reggie Bush while the play was developing and a phantom PI call on Jason Leach (notice how he shows the official that he is not using his hands)

• USC dominated the ground game with 290yds rushing and is averaging over 300yds rushing in its last two games. Both Reggie and Lendale went over 100yds, the first time 2 Trojans rushed for over 100yds in the same game since 1998.

• The OL and WR groups continued to improve. OL seems to be pretty darn good right now, but the WRs still have a way to go
• Ronald Nunn was burned deep for a TD and will likely lose his starting CB spot to freshman Eric Wright

Road Trip to Stanford
As promised in the preseason tailgate release, we will be road tripping to Palo Alto for the game. We will be bringing a "slimmed down" version of the tailgate including TV/Satellite, grill, USC EZ Up, USC flags and a few chairs. No keg, no bar and no second tent. Among the 20,000+ Trojans expected to make the trip will be tailgate veterans Flynns, Hoovers, Pataos, Haggquists, Dan Cherrie and Aaron Wooler.

We will be set up in Lot 10 (on Galvez outside tunnel 6) at about 11:30 Click here to find Lot 10. Due to travel/space constraints we will not be able to provide the same amount of food and drink as we are accustomed to. To make sure you get your fill, you may want to bring your own food/drink to the tailgate...sorry for the hassle, but we simply do not have the space as we are only bringing one cooler. Feel free to call Tim's cell (310 508 5858) or Andy's cell (310 480 7798) if you have trouble finding us or have questions.

We will be watching ND/Washington, Florida St/Clemson and WSU/Arizona pregame and likely will watch the Oregon St/Arizona St game post game. This is a key Pac 10 match-up. Hope to see you at the tailgate and the game!

Stanford Preview

• Stanford is better than last year and is 2-0 with blowout wins over San Jose St. and BYU.
• The Cardinal will likely rely on their talented wide receiver duo of Evan Moore (6-7) and Mark Bradford, both of whom were recruited by USC
• Stanford's OL and RBs are OK, but not great. I would expect USC to play a basic defense early, shut down the run and bring blitzes later in the game if needed....very similar to the way the Trojans defended BYU.
• On offense, the Trojans will likely take advantage of a mediocre Stanford DL and really punish the Cardinal with the run. For the first time since Pete and Norm arrived, we may actually run to set up the pass as opposed to vice versa.
• I also expect to see Leinart throw the ball deep out of play action. Look for William Buchanon (#31) to get involved in the offense. Buch looked great in camp, but suffered a hyperextended knee the week before VaTech. Norm will put him in rotation to give Cal something else to think about on Oct 9.
• There may be more USC fans than Stanford fans at this game...lets hope the Trojans can grind out another win on the road. With next week off, the Trojans they face off against Cal on October 9th.

Fight On! and Beat the Farm!