Are Stanford, USC and Texas all Bad at Football?

Submitted by UMBSnMBA on

USC struggles against WMU, beats Stanford and edges Texas.  Stanford beats Rice loses to USC and loses to SDSU (!).  Texas loses to Maryland (!), beats San Jose State and gets beaten by USC. 

So within the 3 teams we have a couple of big loses, some close wins against each other and blowouts against some teams best characterized as NPC's.  Anybody with a pulse outside of this troika has given them a game or beaten them. 

The narrative is that they are all good or improving.  Put on a different set of lenses and they are all bad and struggling.  I guess that this is why we play the games. 

Go Blue.

maize-blue

September 17th, 2017 at 10:30 AM ^

USC is probably not the 4th best team in the country. They are there because they won a bowl game and of course their name.

HAIL-YEA

September 17th, 2017 at 5:23 PM ^

were missing 2 starters, cry me a river. No sane Florida fan thinks either of them could have helped them. Of course we don't know for sure Florida is a top 25 team but in all probablility they are. It's early and nothing is guaranteed but They beat a ranked Tennessee team and are 2 time defendeing sec east champs...and the team looks the same as it has the last few years. We are having major problems in the red zone right now, mostly because Speight is not to be trusted. Harbaugh will figure it out and have us converting from the red zone more often, then all of the geniuses on this blog will shut up about how terrible we are, and go back to attacking anyone who criticizes Sp8.

Bones032

September 17th, 2017 at 10:43 AM ^

Speaking of Penn State, what is up with them never playing a good team out of conference? Their last quality OOC opponent was Alabama in 2011, only played Pitt since. And they don't play another quality opponent until 2020 they play at Virginia Tech. So that's 8 years of not playing anyone good OOC. If they get rewarded for that by the CFB committee at some point, it might change the way teams schedule OOC games. And no Pitt is not considered a quality team. They have not won more than 8 games since 2009, and have had a losing record 3 of the last 6 years, and look due for another losing record this year.

whidbeywolverine

September 17th, 2017 at 10:41 AM ^

The power in the Pac-12 is in the North. UW, Wazzu, and Oregon are better than USC, UCLA, Stanford. Huskies don't play Trojans, and they have UCLA, Oregon, and WSU late in the season at home, so they look to be going to the Pac-12 title game, and probably the playoffs, again this year.
Right now, we deserve to drop a spot or two, but if we beat A good Purdue team on the road, Speight and Co. should get their red zone efficiency up to three of nine...

TheTeamTheTeam…

September 17th, 2017 at 11:02 AM ^

Yesterday day started 1 for 6 and we went 1/4 if I am not mistaken so we are already at 2 for 10. Although I firmly believe we were robbed on 2 of our red zone trips. 1 in the Florida game and 1 yesterday on the Crawford "Holding" call. I don't think we are AS BAD in the red zone as everyone is making it out to be considering we should easily be double the production we currently are but we are quite predictable in our play selection and it baffles me that we don't target out 6'3" jump ball specialist, red zone threat in Tarik Black more often or leave our power back Ty Issac in, though they did once or twice yesterday.

Sten Carlson

September 17th, 2017 at 10:43 AM ^

I don't know what Texas' staff said or did but the defense (finally) looked like the defense Strong kept promising Longhorn fans he was building. Fast, athletic as hell, and aggressive. Yes there were som laspses, like before the half, but time after time they had their backs to their own goal line and bowed up. They easily could have folded and let USC walk all over them. I was impressed.

On offense, however, it's still "sandlot" looking run around and fling it to a huge WR most of the time. The throw back for the tie was awesome though. USC has amazing skill players but isn't a complete team yet. Their QB is awesome, IMO and the kid from Texas is McCoy 2.0.

But, I wonder if Texas will find themselves in a similar QB recruiting aituation -- the true freshman QB trap, as I call it. Your depth at QB is low, you start a true freshman, he does well and then you have a lull for two years where your elite QB's don't want to come in because they don't want to sit behind the other young kid. Sitting behind a 4th or 5th year guy while you RS is different. I feel like this (negative?) dynamic really hurt Texas under Brown and is what Harbaugh is trying to avoid with QB depth and development.

Herd of Funk

September 17th, 2017 at 12:13 PM ^

I was about to post something similar. The Texas D played well and took advantage of some big plays. I haven't seen enough of the Longhorns to compare them against other games, but DeShon Elliott had one heck of a game. He seemed to be everywhere. Turned one INT into a touchdown and was really close from doing the same on another pass he broke up. 

I have to think that USC will get better as the year goes on. We certainly hope that's true for the Wolverines. 

 

AA Forever

September 17th, 2017 at 1:25 PM ^

They get the pick of the litter every year in one of the most talent-rich states in the country.  They ALWAYS have great raw talent.  But their coaching has been a mess, and they haven't fielded a decent QB since McCoy.  Does Major Applewhite still have an 8th year of eligibility?

Sambojangles

September 17th, 2017 at 12:41 PM ^

That not a very hot take. The winner will likely have a different coach next year too. Unless Kelly can win 9 games, I think ND will finally dump him. It's been 5 years since the run to the national championship game, and they haven't done anything of note since. On the MSU side, plenty of people have speculated that Dantonio might be forced to retire. The on field performance slide is bad enough; the discipline issues are worse. The AD is in turmoil beyond the football program. It would make sense to clean house and start over fresh with a new young staff and try to do what Durkin is doing at Maryland.

charblue.

September 17th, 2017 at 11:06 AM ^

I don't know how you make the assumption that USC is bad because it barely edged Western and then turned around and beat a major conference rival and a historically good if not currently strong Texas team. In any case,  I think the opener against Western was a performance by USC that was lackluster based on the opponent's reputation. It then walloped Stanford, clearly it's biggest early game, and then played Texas thinking it could run all over the Longhorns based on Texas' game against Maryland in its third straight home game.

Texas as many college teams do, showed up and played one of the most inspired games in recent memory with a freshman qb. I mean that game was not only highly entertaining and exciting but extremely well-played. 

I think Texas just showed the country they have some strong character and a few athletes on both sides of the ball who can play. Really can't tell much about USC at this point, except they have some great talent and never give up. Not a team I'd want to necessarily face in a bowl matchup with Darnold at qb and their talented running backs.

 

BananaRepublic

September 17th, 2017 at 11:15 AM ^

Is it possible that there are very few overwhelmingly dominant teams this year? Alabama looks like a meat grinder, but aside from that  you've got an OK looking Clemson, a beatable USC, a beatable OSU, and whatever PSU is. OU looks very solid, and maybe Ok St. as well. I dislike when people say Michigan doesn't look like a top 10 team, because those people always struggle to point to teams that look to be definitely better but are ranked below us. Just let it all shake out come November, folks. I love football.

corundum

September 17th, 2017 at 11:35 AM ^

Alabama also gave up 23 points to Colorado State yesterday. The injuries on the defensive side of the ball are definitely affecting them right now. Unfortunately, LSU and Auburn are both incredible one dimensional and probably won't be able to take advantage of the opportunity, and Mississippi State just doesn't have the pieces on the offensive perimeter to pull the upset.

Mike Damone

September 17th, 2017 at 11:19 AM ^

by Texas' true freshman QB, Sam Ehlinger.  Kid looks about 15, starting at the Coliseum against the #4 Trojans.  Reminded me of Tate Forcier v Notre Dame.  Too bad he couldn't get the win.  Some talent, ways to go.

Lot of talent on USC - but their D is inconsistent.

As near as I can tell - Alabama, Oklahoma and Clemson the cream at this point.  4-10 (including the good guys) have work to do...