ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Ted Miller

Did some housecleaning and reviewed some older notes that got lost in the shuffle.

Jordan from Wilsonville, Ore., writes: hey ted love the blog but i was just wondering what will happen with darron thomas for oregon this year. Will he be able to redshirt if so do you think the coaching staff will choose to do so? Also do you think masoli will be as effective this year or do you think teams will find a way to contain him?

Ted Miller: Thomas, a freshman last year, seems to have tremendous upside as a spread-option quarterback. My guess is the Ducks would like to redshirt him and have Justin Roper and perhaps Nate Costa back up Jeremiah Masoli. Of course, if Thomas is lights out this spring, he might earn the No. 2 job.

As for Masoli, a junior, I think he's only going to get better -- if his offensive line holds up. While Masoli's big highlights last year were runs, he arrived at Oregon as more of a passer. My guess is that side of his game will be much better in 2009.

Josh from Berkeley writes: Hey ted! first of all i'm a big fan of the blog. however, i'm started to get a little hurt over the lack of attention cal gets. i went back and checked and, unless i'm mistaken, there hasn't been a cal link on the last seven lunch links - you have to go back to february 20th to find one. is there just a lack of cal articles out there? and just so you know, aside from this i think you're doing a fantastic job! thanks!

Ted Miller: Thing about links: I can't make them up.

If there are no stories on Cal football, then I can't link anything. I've even been checking the best Cal football blogs and haven't found a lot of stuff.

This is the reality we all may be facing. With more newspapers shutting down, and the ones surviving cutting back staff, there will be less local reporting.

I don't think that's a good thing, but the free market doesn't care what I think.

Andrew from Stillwater, Okla., writes: I grew up in Southern Cal and am a die hard Trojan fan even while attending school in the Big XII. Can you explain to me what the situation is with Allen Bradford never getting enough touches in the Trojan RB rotation. Coach Carroll preaches hard work and competition but I know this spring will be more the same, hearing about Bradford tearing it up during spring ball and getting 5 or less carries a game. It's just frustrating to see when McKnight can fumble 3 times and stay in, Gable fumble and get pulled and Bradford still not get any carries.

Ted Miller: You won't hear much about Bradford this spring because he's sitting out while still recovering from his hip injury.

More than a few folks have commented on the double-standard for McKnight. And more than a few believe Bradford has been underused.

But if we can all agree that USC's coaches really do want to win games, we have to assume they have a good reason for giving more carries to the other guys, rather than Bradford.

Michael from Los Angeles writes: Ted, Three Pac-10 vs. SEC games come to mind in the 2009 season: 1) LSU at Washington 2) ASU at Georgia 3) UCLA at Tennessee. Please tell me which Pac-10 team has the biggest chance to upset the SEC team. Also, is it possible the Pac goes at least 2-1? Did I leave out another Pac-10/SEC match-up?

Ted Miller: That looks like a big goose egg to me.

First, I just can't imagine any scenario where Washington beats LSU.

Second, Arizona State and UCLA are both taking cross-country trips into extremely hostile venues. That's a problem -- see how the conference struggled on the road last year.

Georgia will be using a new quarterback, but so will ASU. The Sun Devils best hope is Georgia being unfocused and overconfident.

As for Tennessee, it should be highly motivated after losing at UCLA last year and by the prospect of losing three in a row to the Pac-10.

Of the three, however, I think the Bruins have the best shot. They know they can beat the Vols because they have and they've got a good core of talent coming back. Plus, who knows how long it will take the Vols to get comfortable with a new coaching staff.

Still, my guess is the Pac-10 blog will receive a lot of crowing from SEC fans after these three are played.

Steve from Los Angeles writes: Wouldn't college football be better off if every conference had only 10 teams and we did away with preseason rankings? I mean, really, look at these and try not to laugh. As for having 10 teams, everyone could play everyone else in their conference, and there would be no need for a conference championship game. And everyone should have to play at least 1 other out-of-conference bowl team so that the SEC doesn't play The Citadel, Troy, and Georgia Southern. Sure, Alabama went undefeated last year in the SEC, but when you look at their schedule, they really only had 1 really good win over Georgia. Without preseason rankings, does that game against Clemson really resonate throughout the season? And how did LSU manage to stay ranked by the time they played Bama? They had gotten trounced by UGA and UF and had 0 good wins. Maybe that preseason top 10 ranking and the win against another jokingly top 10 team in Auburn had something to do with it.

Ted Miller: Steve, I hear you, but preseason rankings aren't going away. Fans just love 'em too much.

And the 12-team conferences aren't going to revert to 10 teams, particularly the SEC which is rolling in revenue.

In fact, the next Pac-10 commissioner might want to reconsider the Pac-10's nine-game round-robin schedule.

Sure, it's equitable, but it also means that at least five conference teams lose on nine weekends, while larger conferences play just eight conference games -- and often miss top conference teams -- and then load up on nonconference patsies for four games.

UCLA, Arizona State and Stanford would have been bowl teams if they'd played Kentucky's or LSU's schedule last year. And Washington would have won at least four games instead of going winless if it had played Texas Tech's schedule.

With so much in college football being about manipulating perception and avoiding competition, the Pac-10 might want to step back and play the game the way other conferences do.

Gerald from Atlanta writes: Gerald's note was 550 words long, so it has been edited for space.

His concern is this sentence from the Pac-10 blog: "The Trojans have lost one nonconference game -- to Texas in the national title game after the 2005 season -- since Sept. 28, 2002."

Gerald then lists USC's non-conference games since 2002, discarding home-and-home sweeps of Auburn, Nebraska and Arkansas. He then writes:

So this "no one beats USC out of conference" is actually "the Big 10 and Notre Dame doesn't beat USC out of conference"...

Again, remove the Big 10 from the picture, and USC has played 3 conference champions: Virginia Tech and Oklahoma in 2004, and Texas in 2005. USC's record? 2-1. US
C blew out Oklahoma, but Virginia Tech played USC mighty tough, and oh yes VT also lost to Auburn that year. Now it's not USC's fault that they get stuck with a Big 10 team in the Rose Bowl each year. But then again, it's not everyone else's fault either. So, the rest of us are going to have to see USC beat up on someone other than 3rd place teams (not to mention the same Big 10/Notre Dame cannon fodder that everyone else also beats) before we join your conclusion that "no one beats USC out of conference." There is actually far more justification for saying "no one (except Nebraska!) beats the SEC in national title games"

Ted Miller: Hmm.

First, pick any SEC team. Take the measure of their nonconference success since 2002.

Golly. That won't be making any showoff lists anytime soon.

Next: The Big Ten.

If we're throwing out the legitimacy of games vs. the Big Ten, that means we discard two SEC national titles, which means the SEC has just as many national titles as USC during the Pete Carroll era.

Oh, and the SEC won its other two Pete Carroll era titles vs. Oklahoma, which has lost five consecutive BCS bowl games, though none as badly as the 55-19 pasting delivered by USC in the 2004 national title game.

But let's wander back to the poor, ole Big Ten.

The nation, particularly SEC adherents, trash the Big Ten quite often, and that contempt is used to cast doubt on USC's college football supremacy.

We're not supposed to be impressed that USC has won nine straight vs. the Big 10, all by double digits and by an average of 24 points. Six of those wins came in BCS bowl games.

After all, the SEC has dominated the Big Ten in two BCS title games.

Oh, but what about other SEC vs. Big Ten games? Hmm ... do we have any of those to help us out here?

Yes we do.

The Capital One Bowl has the first selection from the Big Ten and SEC after the BCS games.

In the Pete Carroll era -- since 2001 -- the Big Ten and SEC have split eight games. Georgia this past season broke a four-game Big Ten winning streak.

Next in the pecking order is the Outback Bowl.

In the Pete Carroll era, the Big Ten and SEC also have split eight games.

Of course, if we discard these results and pretend these stone-cold facts don't exist, we can continue to pretend the SEC is that much better than the Big Ten.

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