USC, Oklahoma make strong top two

By Chris Dufresne of The Lost Angeles Times

In sizing up this year’s powerhouse college football teams, there appears to be USC, Oklahoma and...take a number, please.

Anything can happen between now and January’s Orange Bowl, site of this season’s Bowl Championship Series title game, but here’s guessing that it won’t.

From where we pontificate, USC and Oklahoma, like a couple of booster rockets, have separated themselves from the mother ship and will go this BCS journey alone.

Oh, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out.

In the late-night afterglow of USC’s 42-10 victory over Brigham Young, star tailback-receiver-kick returner Reggie Bush complained the Trojans “weren’t perfect.”

We likened this to Cameron Diaz complaining of a “bad hair day.”

It is saying something that USC could take its sweet time in getting started against BYU—no points scored in the first quarter—and end up winning by 32.

Imagine what happens when the Trojans work the kinks out?

Oklahoma has problems, too. The Sooners only defeated Oregon 31-7 and will have to deal with the weekend news that star defensive lineman Dusty Dvoracek has been kicked off the team for disciplinary reasons.

Yet we’re going to be surprised if USC or Oklahoma loses a game.
Both teams are complete packages.

You can’t top the men at the top, coaches Pete Carroll and Bob Stoops.

Jason White, Oklahoma’s quarterback, won the Heisman Trophy last year.
Matt Leinart, USC’s quarterback, may win it this year.

Both schools are balanced on offense and play in-your-face defense.

As off-the-charts good as people were saying Oklahoma was last year before fading when it counted, the Sooners actually lacked a dominant running back who could take over a game in the fourth quarter.

Oklahoma appears to have one now in Adrian Peterson, who has reeled off three consecutive 100-yard games and is the most talked about freshman tailback in Norman since Marcus Dupree.

Besides, when you get past USC and Oklahoma, here’s what we are left with:

(1) Georgia. Coming off a (yawn) 13-3 win against Marshall. It was the fewest points Georgia has scored in a win since 1996.

(2) Miami. To believe in the Hurricanes, you have to believe in quarterback Brock Berlin. Anyone ready to do that?

(3) Texas. Perpetually plagued by the jungle fever known as Oklahoma-itis.

(4) Ohio State. No contender in the country is more dependent on the well-being of its field-goal kicker.
(5) West Virginia. Notched a defining win against Maryland, but how are the Mountaineers going to score any more beauty points playing in a watered-down Big East?

(6) Virginia. Interesting team. Too bad the Cavaliers still have to play Florida State and Miami.

(7) California. The Golden Bears’ season is riding on an Oct. 9 visit to Los Angeles.

(8) Auburn. OK, any 3-0 team in the Southeastern Conference is a factor, although nothing gets us less excited than 10-9 home wins.