2-a-Days: USC and Cal Poly

USC Trojans



Pete Carroll has wasted no time in building USC into a Pac-10 power and one of the most dominant forces on the college football landscape. With that said, it's still been since the 2004 season that this team won a real national championship. Will this year be the year it happens again?


THE OFFENSE: There's a QB battle brewing in L.A. and it's between Mitch Mustain, the Arkansas transfer, and Mark Sanchez, the hotshot recruit from a few years ago. Even though Sanchez is officially the starter (for now), there's a chance that Mustain still has some time to impress the staff. Expect Sanchez to be the guy in the opener though. The RB position is stockpiled with talent, again, but Joe McKnight should receive most of the touches. He should come through big-time this season and remind people of those Reggie Bush days. USC has some good receivers, but they haven't exactly been the kind of top-notch guys many expected them to be. Even so, that's nitpicking because there aren't many QBs who would have an issue with Patrick Turner and Vidal Hazelton as a one-two punch at that position. LG Jeff Byers leads a pretty solid core of offensive lineman, but this position does have some competition going on right now. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. Basically, let's say there have been better offensive lines to pass through USC.


THE DEFENSE: This is USC's bread and butter. The offense was good, but it was sort of disappointing last year if you were expecting astronomical numbers. The Trojan D though did live up to the hype. This was a team that only gave up 16 points per game in the offense-oriented Pac-10. If that's not impressive, USC was third in sacks and fourth in run defense. Not to mention fifth in pass efficiency defense. This unit is just going to reload every year so expect similar production. Fili Moala should make huge waves throughout every NFL draft war room with his size and skill at the interior tackle position. The guy hasn't played a lot, but that's because he was buried on the depth chart. Of course, how could we talk about USC's defense without mentioning the linebackers? These guys are something else. Brian Cushing and Rey Maualuga should have gigantic years playing LB. Even though Cal's set of LBs are really good, this set is probably the best. Luthur Brown should get the spot, mainly due to his upside, and he'll have a fantastic year. Kevin Ellison and Taylor Mays will team up to make one ridiculous duo at the safety position and Shareece Wright will have a great year filling in for Terrell Thomas. It's the same-old, same-old with the USC defense heading into 2008.


THE SCHEDULE:

Aug. 30 at Virginia
Sept. 13 Ohio State
Sept. 25 at Oregon State
Oct. 4 Oregon
Oct. 11 Arizona State
Oct. 18 at Washington State
Oct. 25 at Arizona
Nov. 1 Washington
Nov. 8 California
Nov. 15 at Stanford
Nov. 29 Notre Dame
Dec. 6 at UCLA

Okay, whatever I said about California and UCLA, this schedule is tougher. When the easiest team you play on the schedule is Stanford (who beat you last year), it's never an easy slate. The road game against Virginia will be a challenge and, oh yeah, not to mention, USC gets to face a L-O-A-D-E-D Ohio State team. The Pac-10 schedule should be pretty hard, but at least they get to face Oregon and Cal at the Coliseum.

Don't Even Think About It:
Ehhhhh.....Maybe....:
Good/Probable Shot At It: The whole schedule.


THE OUTLOOK: This USC team should be good enough to get to the national championship game. There's no reason why they shouldn't. As long as Mark Sanchez doesn't do what John David Booty did (try to win the game on each and every throw), USC should be fine. But, I do think they'll stub their toe once but it won't matter. In my unlikely scenario (remember, it's just a blogger's worthless prognostications), USC will lose the last game to Rick Neuheisel's revamped UCLA Bruins, but it won't stop them from getting to the title game. This team isn't flawless, but they're about as close as it gets.


BOWL GAME?: BCS Championship.








Cal Poly Mustangs



Welcome to the first edition of the FCS Wildcard 2-a-Days preview. Usually, I'll try to pick a team from that state, but if that team isn't a player on the national FCS scale, I'll pick something else that makes geographical sense. For instance, the day Colorado State is previewed, I'll have North Dakota State because it makes more sense than previewing, say, Northern Colorado. And, I must say, I'm not an FCS expert although I follow it to some extent. Rest assured though, I will have done my research....Did I mention the Cal Poly preview is coming up? The Mustangs only went 7-4 last season opening up the year 0-2 with losses to Texas State and Idaho (....I know....). Not to mention they only beat Western Oregon by a touchdown. Even so, with North Dakota State and South Dakota State out of the Great West picture, can Cal Poly take home the title in 2008?


THE OFFENSE: If you're not an FCS fan, you should be a fan of Mustang QB Jonathan Dally. His legs do more damage than his arm, if you can believe that. Cal Poly was fifth last year in rushing, gaining over 270 yards a game. Dally was the leading rusher statistically. That, however, doesn't mean he can't chuck it as well. Dally was second in the FCS in passing efficiency which is the holy grail of QB stats. Cal Poly relies on FB Jon Hall more than most teams utilize that position and James Noble did a good job at RB last year with over five yards a touch. Tredale Tolver and Ramses Barden team up to make a pretty impressive combo at WR and the line did its job finishing 27th in sacks allowed. In the FCS, there's just about no offense as feared as Cal Poly's.


THE DEFENSE: The defense was really good a few years back, but it was merely average last year. However, it was a pretty young squad as they do return ten guys to fill in the depth chart. Look out for NT James Chen who should be fully recovered from a knee injury and Marty Mohamed at LB to have solid seasons. Carlton Gillespie could be the team's best defensive player at end and he's only a junior this upcoming season. Mark Restelli is the other LB who had a nice year leading the team in tackles per game. The defensive backfield was really young and, led by David Fullerton, should only improve with more experience.


THE SCHEDULE:

Aug. 30 at San Diego State
Sep. 6 Montana
Sep. 13 at McNeese State
Sep. 20 at Northwestern State
Oct. 4 South Dakota
Oct. 18 at South Dakota State
Oct. 25 Southern Utah
Nov. 1 Idaho State
Nov. 8 North Carolina Central
Nov. 15 UC Davis
Nov. 22 at Wisconsin

The non-conference schedule is really difficult. Road games against San Diego State and McNeese State are tough enough, but when you add a home date with the Montana Grizzlies sandwiched in between, it certainly toughens up the schedule. There's also a road game against South Dakota State as well. The season closes out with an oddity as the Mustangs travel to Madison to face the Wisconsin Badgers.

Don't Even Think About It: @ Wisconsin
Ehhhhh.....Maybe....: @ San Diego State, Montana, @ McNeese State
Good/Probable Shot At It: @ Northwestern State, South Dakota, @ South Dakota State, Southern Utah, Idaho State, North Carolina Central, UC Davis


THE OUTLOOK: From what I can infer, we're talking about a team that should win 8 games or so. It's possible, but the schedule will be a hard one to come out of with eight victories. With a reloaded defense and one of the FCS' more potent offenses, Cal Poly should be ranked in the FCS top 25 near the end of the year. They should easily be the best team from the Great West.


FBS UPSET?: Against San Diego State, it's very possible. The Aztecs have a really bad defense, especially against the run, and Jonathan Dally should have his way with them. Still, this was a team that did lose to Idaho, so we should probably take that into consideration. Cal Poly should improve, but I like San Diego State in that game, too much offense. The Wisconsin game should be competitive early on, but the Badgers will pull away. It will be sort of like what The Citadel did to Wisconsin early in 2007.