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Originally Posted by Kurant
[...]If USC goes down, it's going to be this year. I'm not sure if they've gotten lazy, but they are not nearly as crisp in the previous 2 years.
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It's not laziness. The team has been plagued with injuries to some key positions and has had to not only deal with the stratospheric media hype, but also takes on the best shot of every team they play every single week. Most teams won't understand it, as they aren't back-to-back National Champs vying for an unprecedented 3rd consecutive championship as well as riding one of college football's longest win streaks ever. Having one of the biggest targets in all of sports on your back leads to teams coming out to play well beyond their normal game. Take the classic at Notre Dame earlier this season, or last year's too-close-for-comfort wins over Stanford and fUCLA. None of those teams would play with that same focus and intensity were they taking on just any other squad. The cliched line in sports is that players treat every week the same, and each game is prepared for and played the same as any other, but no one can deny that playing the Trojans right now is something much different from your normal Saturday. In fact, for some teams, their game against USC is the equivalent to their National Championship game....
Anyway, now that I'm done with my long-winded tangent I just have to say that as good as the Longhorns appear to be, and as "lazy" as USC may be criticized as seeming, you can bet that this Trojan team will heat up and steamroll from here on out. Under Pete Carroll, USC simply does not lose from November on. The past couple of games, anyone who has watched SC play has seen them do what they do every year around this time: step on the accelerator and start motoring towards the Pac-10 Championship as well as the Bowl season. And no matter how much the so-called experts pontificate about Texas' defense or the gamebreaking ability of Vince Young, it will not stop the fact that the USC coaches will have several weeks to prepare the team for this game. And, if you bet against Pete Carroll when he's had more than a week to gameplan another team, you are friggin' insane. Fight On.