Showing posts with label pac-10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pac-10. Show all posts
Thursday, November 22, 2007
USC Beats Arizona 44-24; Tied For First In Pac-10
Wow. Arizona State was poised for the Rose Bowl, but USC presented a massive doorstop. USC won 44-24 , marching back from being almost left for dead before the Cal game.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Pac-10 Tables Turned - Cal Ranked #2, USC Ranked #10
Wow. read it and weap! Plus, USC's coming to Cal in November. This is going to be a game for the ages!
LSU is unanimous No. 1 after week of upsets; USC falls to No. 10 - Associated Press
NEW YORK -- No doubt about it, LSU is No. 1.
As for the rest of the Top 25, five wild weeks of college football have taken quite a toll.
The Tigers were a unanimous choice for the top spot in The Associated Press rankings released Sunday, receiving all 65 first-place from the media panel. The last unanimous No. 1 during the regular season was Ohio State in December.
LSU is one of just four teams that started the season ranked in the top 10 and remain there. The others are No. 6 Oklahoma, No. 8 West Virginia and No. 10 Southern California, which became the latest team to take a tumble after a startling loss to an unranked opponent.
The Trojans fell to Stanford 24-23 on Saturday, then dropped eight spots in the rankings.
California is the new No. 2, with its best showing in the AP Top 25 since 1951, when the Golden Bears were No. 1.
Ohio State is No. 3 and No. 4 Boston College has its highest ranking since Doug Flutie had the Eagles fourth in 1984. South Florida, which entered the poll for the first time three weeks ago, is now No. 5.
A week before the first Bowl Championship Series standings are released, LSU is a unanimous No. 1 in all the major polls. In the coaches' poll, the rest of the top five is California, Ohio State and Boston College while Oklahoma and South Florida are tied for fifth.
In the Harris poll, the top four are the same as the AP and coaches' poll, but Oklahoma holds the No. 5 spot all to itself with USF sixth. The Harris and coaches' polls are part of the formula to determine which teams will play in the BCS national title game Jan. 7 in New Orleans.
A week after half the top 10 and nine ranked teams lost, another four top-10 teams and 11 ranked teams overall went down Saturday.
As a result, there are 10 teams in the latest rankings, including four in the top 10 (BC, USF, No. 7 South Carolina and No. 9 Oregon), that were unranked to start the season.
Coach Steve Spurrier has led South Carolina to its highest ranking since Dec. 12, 1984, when the Gamecocks were also seventh.
"It's nice, very nice," Spurrier said Sunday. "We appreciate it. Obviously it's good for our football program, for our university and all that, but we realize that it's almost exactly halfway through the season, six games, a lot can happen in the next six."
The second 10 starts with No. 11 Missouri, which has its highest ranking since 1981, when the Tigers were No. 8.
No. 12 Virginia Tech is followed by Florida and then three unbeaten teams -- Arizona State, Cincinnati and Hawaii. No. 17 Kentucky fell nine spots after losing at South Carolina 38-23 on Thursday.
Five teams fell from the rankings this week. Illinois, which beat No. 5 Wisconsin 31-26, and unbeaten Kansas, which won at Kansas State for the first time since 1989, moved into the poll for the first time this season.
The Illini are No. 18 and ranked for the first time since 2001. Kansas is No. 20 and ranked for the first time since 1995. In between is No. 19 Wisconsin, which dropped 14 spots after its first loss of the season.
No. 21 Florida State, winners of four straight, moved back into the Top 25, as did No. 22 Auburn. No. 23 Texas benefited from so many other ranked teams losing and stayed in the poll after a second consecutive loss. The Longhorns fell to Oklahoma 28-21.
No. 24 Georgia dropped 12 spots after a 35-14 defeat to Tennessee, and the Vols moved back into the rankings at No. 25, giving the Southeastern Conference seven ranked teams, the most of any conference.
Falling out of the Top 25 were Nebraska, Clemson, Kansas State, Rutgers and Purdue.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
LSU is unanimous No. 1 after week of upsets; USC falls to No. 10 - Associated Press
NEW YORK -- No doubt about it, LSU is No. 1.
As for the rest of the Top 25, five wild weeks of college football have taken quite a toll.
The Tigers were a unanimous choice for the top spot in The Associated Press rankings released Sunday, receiving all 65 first-place from the media panel. The last unanimous No. 1 during the regular season was Ohio State in December.
LSU is one of just four teams that started the season ranked in the top 10 and remain there. The others are No. 6 Oklahoma, No. 8 West Virginia and No. 10 Southern California, which became the latest team to take a tumble after a startling loss to an unranked opponent.
The Trojans fell to Stanford 24-23 on Saturday, then dropped eight spots in the rankings.
California is the new No. 2, with its best showing in the AP Top 25 since 1951, when the Golden Bears were No. 1.
Ohio State is No. 3 and No. 4 Boston College has its highest ranking since Doug Flutie had the Eagles fourth in 1984. South Florida, which entered the poll for the first time three weeks ago, is now No. 5.
A week before the first Bowl Championship Series standings are released, LSU is a unanimous No. 1 in all the major polls. In the coaches' poll, the rest of the top five is California, Ohio State and Boston College while Oklahoma and South Florida are tied for fifth.
In the Harris poll, the top four are the same as the AP and coaches' poll, but Oklahoma holds the No. 5 spot all to itself with USF sixth. The Harris and coaches' polls are part of the formula to determine which teams will play in the BCS national title game Jan. 7 in New Orleans.
A week after half the top 10 and nine ranked teams lost, another four top-10 teams and 11 ranked teams overall went down Saturday.
As a result, there are 10 teams in the latest rankings, including four in the top 10 (BC, USF, No. 7 South Carolina and No. 9 Oregon), that were unranked to start the season.
Coach Steve Spurrier has led South Carolina to its highest ranking since Dec. 12, 1984, when the Gamecocks were also seventh.
"It's nice, very nice," Spurrier said Sunday. "We appreciate it. Obviously it's good for our football program, for our university and all that, but we realize that it's almost exactly halfway through the season, six games, a lot can happen in the next six."
The second 10 starts with No. 11 Missouri, which has its highest ranking since 1981, when the Tigers were No. 8.
No. 12 Virginia Tech is followed by Florida and then three unbeaten teams -- Arizona State, Cincinnati and Hawaii. No. 17 Kentucky fell nine spots after losing at South Carolina 38-23 on Thursday.
Five teams fell from the rankings this week. Illinois, which beat No. 5 Wisconsin 31-26, and unbeaten Kansas, which won at Kansas State for the first time since 1989, moved into the poll for the first time this season.
The Illini are No. 18 and ranked for the first time since 2001. Kansas is No. 20 and ranked for the first time since 1995. In between is No. 19 Wisconsin, which dropped 14 spots after its first loss of the season.
No. 21 Florida State, winners of four straight, moved back into the Top 25, as did No. 22 Auburn. No. 23 Texas benefited from so many other ranked teams losing and stayed in the poll after a second consecutive loss. The Longhorns fell to Oklahoma 28-21.
No. 24 Georgia dropped 12 spots after a 35-14 defeat to Tennessee, and the Vols moved back into the rankings at No. 25, giving the Southeastern Conference seven ranked teams, the most of any conference.
Falling out of the Top 25 were Nebraska, Clemson, Kansas State, Rutgers and Purdue.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
UCLA's 7 Turnovers Lead To Loss: Notre Dame 20, UCLA 6
Notre Dame was outgained by UCLA, 282 to 140 total yards. Given that performance, this may be the only game they win all year. Seven turnovers don't happen every week.
Notre Dame takes advantage of UCLA walk-on QB to win first game
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- Maybe this will stop the laughing.
Jimmy Clausen scored on a quarterback sneak and Maurice Crum returned a fumble 34 yards for another touchdown during a 50-second span of the third quarter as Notre Dame fought its way out of one of the worst slumps in school history with a 20-6 victory over UCLA on Saturday.
It was only the second time Notre Dame had played in Pasadena. Knute Rockne's "Four Horsemen" defeated coach Pop Warner's Stanford team 27-10 in the 1925 Rose Bowl to give the Irish their first undisputed national championship.
This win was significant in quite a different way. It was Notre Dame's first victory of the season and assured the Fighting Irish they won't equal the longest losing streak in school history.
Coach Charlie Weis obviously was relieved.
"When you're 0-5, everyone in the country is laughing at you," Weis said. "The only thing you can do is do something about it on the field. I'm really happy for the kids.
"We never had a better week of practice since I've been here. I said good things will happen, and it happened."
After a school record 0-5 start, the Irish avoided tying their longest losing streak. The victory was their first in eight games dating back to last season. The only other time the Irish lost eight straight was in 1960, when they won their opener and didn't win again until the final game of the season.
This time, Notre Dame (1-5) knocked UCLA quarterback Ben Olson out with a knee injury late in the first quarter, then hounded freshman redshirt McLeod Bethel-Thompson into a string of mistakes.
A walk-on pressed into the backup role for UCLA (4-2, 3-0 Pac-10) because of an injury to Patrick Cowan, Bethel-Thompson had not thrown a pass in a college game.
The Irish picked off four of his throws, with Crum getting two of them. He also recovered the quarterback's fumble and ran it in for a touchdown.
"It's unfortunate that Ben went down early in the game," UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said. "It's the kind of game where Notre Dame played everything close to the vest and didn't make any mistakes. They put some pressure on our offense, and our offenses made some mistakes.
"Mac (Bethel-Thompson) did a nice job, given the circumstances with the type of game and his experience. I give credit to Notre Dame. When they don't have any turnovers and you have six, that's unfortunate."
Clausen put the Irish ahead 13-6 when he bulled over from 1 yard out, with 1:53 left in the third quarter. David Bruton set up the score when he intercepted a pass at the UCLA 21 and returned it to the 4.
The Irish players began to celebrate a bit on the sidelines when Clausen scored, and Weis said he told them to tone it down.
"It's been a while since we've been up in the second half," he said. "So I told my guys to act like they've been there before. Don't make me look an idiot."
Crum gave the Irish a 14-point pad when he scooped up the fumble and scored with 1:03 remaining in the third.
Notre Dame's Brandon Walker kicked a 26-yard field goal in the first quarter and a 48-yarder that bounced off the cross bar and went over to tie it 6-6 midway through the third quarter. UCLA's Kai Forbath kicked a 29-yarder in the first quarter, then gave the Bruins a 6-3 lead with a 49-yarder late in the first half.
Bethel-Thompson completed 12-of-28 for 139 yards. Brandon Breazell and Joe Cowan each had five receptions for 69 yards for the punchless Bruins.
Clausen, a freshman who was a high school standout in the Los Angeles suburb of Westlake Village, completed 17-of-27 for 84 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
John Carlson had six catches for 38 yards for Notre Dame.
The oft-injured Olson left the game when Tom Zbikowski sacked him, twisting the quarterback's left knee, late in the first quarter. Olson fumbled on the play and Kerry Neal picked up the ball to give Notre Dame the ball at the Bruins' 1-yard line and set up Walker's first field goal.
Last year, Olson went out with a knee injury in the fifth game and Cowan was the quarterback the rest of the season. Olson missed this year's game against Washington because of concussion-like symptoms.
Notre Dame takes advantage of UCLA walk-on QB to win first game
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- Maybe this will stop the laughing.
Jimmy Clausen scored on a quarterback sneak and Maurice Crum returned a fumble 34 yards for another touchdown during a 50-second span of the third quarter as Notre Dame fought its way out of one of the worst slumps in school history with a 20-6 victory over UCLA on Saturday.
It was only the second time Notre Dame had played in Pasadena. Knute Rockne's "Four Horsemen" defeated coach Pop Warner's Stanford team 27-10 in the 1925 Rose Bowl to give the Irish their first undisputed national championship.
This win was significant in quite a different way. It was Notre Dame's first victory of the season and assured the Fighting Irish they won't equal the longest losing streak in school history.
Coach Charlie Weis obviously was relieved.
"When you're 0-5, everyone in the country is laughing at you," Weis said. "The only thing you can do is do something about it on the field. I'm really happy for the kids.
"We never had a better week of practice since I've been here. I said good things will happen, and it happened."
After a school record 0-5 start, the Irish avoided tying their longest losing streak. The victory was their first in eight games dating back to last season. The only other time the Irish lost eight straight was in 1960, when they won their opener and didn't win again until the final game of the season.
This time, Notre Dame (1-5) knocked UCLA quarterback Ben Olson out with a knee injury late in the first quarter, then hounded freshman redshirt McLeod Bethel-Thompson into a string of mistakes.
A walk-on pressed into the backup role for UCLA (4-2, 3-0 Pac-10) because of an injury to Patrick Cowan, Bethel-Thompson had not thrown a pass in a college game.
The Irish picked off four of his throws, with Crum getting two of them. He also recovered the quarterback's fumble and ran it in for a touchdown.
"It's unfortunate that Ben went down early in the game," UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said. "It's the kind of game where Notre Dame played everything close to the vest and didn't make any mistakes. They put some pressure on our offense, and our offenses made some mistakes.
"Mac (Bethel-Thompson) did a nice job, given the circumstances with the type of game and his experience. I give credit to Notre Dame. When they don't have any turnovers and you have six, that's unfortunate."
Clausen put the Irish ahead 13-6 when he bulled over from 1 yard out, with 1:53 left in the third quarter. David Bruton set up the score when he intercepted a pass at the UCLA 21 and returned it to the 4.
The Irish players began to celebrate a bit on the sidelines when Clausen scored, and Weis said he told them to tone it down.
"It's been a while since we've been up in the second half," he said. "So I told my guys to act like they've been there before. Don't make me look an idiot."
Crum gave the Irish a 14-point pad when he scooped up the fumble and scored with 1:03 remaining in the third.
Notre Dame's Brandon Walker kicked a 26-yard field goal in the first quarter and a 48-yarder that bounced off the cross bar and went over to tie it 6-6 midway through the third quarter. UCLA's Kai Forbath kicked a 29-yarder in the first quarter, then gave the Bruins a 6-3 lead with a 49-yarder late in the first half.
Bethel-Thompson completed 12-of-28 for 139 yards. Brandon Breazell and Joe Cowan each had five receptions for 69 yards for the punchless Bruins.
Clausen, a freshman who was a high school standout in the Los Angeles suburb of Westlake Village, completed 17-of-27 for 84 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
John Carlson had six catches for 38 yards for Notre Dame.
The oft-injured Olson left the game when Tom Zbikowski sacked him, twisting the quarterback's left knee, late in the first quarter. Olson fumbled on the play and Kerry Neal picked up the ball to give Notre Dame the ball at the Bruins' 1-yard line and set up Walker's first field goal.
Last year, Olson went out with a knee injury in the fifth game and Cowan was the quarterback the rest of the season. Olson missed this year's game against Washington because of concussion-like symptoms.
Stanford Shocks USC 24-23 - Southern Cal Loses To Cardinal
It's hard to tell who's more shocked over Stanford's improbable 24-23 win over Number 1 or Number 2 ranked USC, Cardinal Fans or USC Fans , or College Football fans .
Or for that matter, me.
When I thought about the Stanford / USC matchup, it never occured to me that this would happen. It wasn't even on my radar screen to see it. I happened to hear it flipping the radio tuner and stopped. I was expecting that USC would be clobbering Stanford. And even when I learned that the Cardinal was only six points down with just over 2 minutes left, I thought to myself, "watch their fear of success doom them."
That's what I thought.
And those final two minutes gave me a lot of reasons to think that, from the several near-interception throws, to the final holding penalty on Stanford, and then the 12-men-on-the-field penalty, to the 4th down -- 4th down -- touchdown pass. It seemed that Stanford would almost -- but not -- win the game.
But, just as in life, they had chance after chance, and one of them turned up in their favor when it mattered most as this video shows:
And when it did, I screamed. I hollered. I'd wished I was at a sports bar just to see the reactions. Even the annoucer couldn't believe it, screaming "Touchdown USC! No! Stanford! Stanford!" Geez.
What's cool about this is it proves that nothing is certain, nothing is given, and it's all up to God. Think about it. The winning quarterback Tavita Pritchard, a sophomore from Tacoma, Wash., filling in for the injured starter T.C. Ostrander, completed 11-of-30 for 149 yards and the winning TD in his first college game as a starter.
Wow. Another reason to expect a Stanford loss. But it didn't happen.
I thought about going down to Stanford to celebrate the victory. After all, looking at this video from the Stanford campus celebration, you can see it was fun:
USC QB John David Booty who threw four interceptions, said of the loss, "You just gotta deal with it and move on."
The Meaning Of The Number 4
What they've got to deal with is the biggest upset in college football history. Stanford was a 40-point-underdog and pulled out a game that's marked with spritual references to the number 4: 24 -- the Stanford score; 14 -- Stanford QB Tavita Pritchard's jersy number; 4th down -- the down the TD pass was thrown -- 4 interceptions thrown by USC QB John David Booty; 4 -- the number of sacks by the Stanford Defense. What is it about the number 4? Well, is seems that the number has some real significance.
In Buddhism:
The Group of Fours 1. The Four Noble Truths 1. Suffering 2. The Cause of Suffering 3. The Cessation of Suffering 4. The Way Leading to the Cessation of Suffering
2. The Four Mental Principles 1. Wisdom (Panna) 2. Truthfulness (Sacca) 3. Abandonment of evil and selfishness (Caga) 4. Appeasement (Upasama)
3. The Four Bases of Success 1. Appreciation (Chanda) 2. Effort (Viriya) 3. Attention (Citta) 4. Investigation (Vimamsa)
4. The Four Divine States of Mind 1. Loving-kindness (Metta) 2. Compassion (Karuna) 3. Sympathetic joy over others' achievement (Mudita) 4. Equanimity (Upekkha)
5. The Four Virtues Conducive to Social Welfare 1. Generosity (Dana) 2. Kind Speech (Piyavaca) 3. Benevolence (Atthacaritya) 4. Adaptability (Samanattata)
6. The Fourfold Right Effort: 1. Effort to restrain from evil 2. Effort to abandon evil 3. Effort to develop good 4. Effort to maintain good
4 Virtues According to Plato:
Wisdom, courage, self-control, and justice.
Considering that Stanford was suffering, given their being waxed by Arizona State and losing their starting QB the week before, the 4s came into play, but it seems to mean that in this, Stanford has finished their journey through the road to success and achieved it, and in doing so reached a divine state of mind.
Will the Cardinal run the table and win all of its remaining games? Even this Cal fan has to admit the possibility seems real. I know it places a bigger light on this year's Big Game.
Boy this is a fun year!
