Bumped...A great read by Frak! - Paragon

The last 2 or 3 years of the Pete Carroll era have created an interesting dynamic when the Trojans go on the road.  It seems like the entire Pac-10 is polarized against USC.  You see it in the faces of their fans everywhere that I have travelled in the Pac-10.  The one exception being Oregon State.  I found the fans there to be extremely gracious whether they win or lose a game, and usually pretty good tempered.  However, every other school has spawned "THAT GUY."  "That Guy" is the guy from the opposing school, who goes out of his way to sit in your section, even though his ticket is in a section surrounded by his own fans.  He drops by basically to talk smack and make an ass of himself.

That guy showed up at a ucla game that I went to,  in Arizona, and Stanford this year.

"That Guy's" team gets a score and he starts yelling about how the "upset" is coming.  Then his rhetoric extends to other teams that have beaten us in the past, such as Oregon State this year.  Nothing makes me laugh harder than a fan who has to invoke a team other than his own to come up with someone who has beaten us.  They have T-shirts printed up with the final scores of games that they had no stake in.  It would seem to be really quite embarrassing for them, however they seem oblivious to it.

Then comes the Trojan rally when our team scores like 7 times in a row.  All of a sudden "That Guy" gets really quiet.  A few minutes later he disappears never to be seen again.

My question is this.  Has USC so completely demoralized the Pac-10 that the other teams and their fans have resorted to focusing all their attention to their contest against us?  Is beating USC such an incredible feat that it must be immortalized in eachs teams football lore?  Maybe some non-USC people can offer your opinions on just what beating USC means because I fully expect to lose once or twice a year.  A USC loss is actually very probable since we have only had 1 year where we haven't lost a game in recent history.

I'm the type of fan that doesn't resort to the smack talk.  Its just flat out stupid to talk crap in the 1st half as my buddies at Stanford did.  Maybe thats all that "That Guy" has to hold on to.  Tying USC in the 1st half and making a general ass out of himself before quietly sneaking away when his team runs out of gas.  For all you out there that practice this type of fan behavior, please by all means keep coming around.  Its pure comedy.

So every year I hop in the car with a good bruin friend of mine and go watch a ucla game on a day that USC is not playing.  This year it happened to be the Fresno game.  I usually just wear my USC hat since I sit in the ucla donor section, and I don't really want to cause too much of a disturbance to people out there just trying to enjoy their day in what usually is a Trojan free environment.  Usually I hear a few wisecracks about "being in the wrong stadium" and stuff like that, but today was a little different.  Today I had to take my medicine from the crosstown rival since USC just melted down in Corvallis.  Just because my team loses, doesn't mean my USC gear stays at home.  I dress just like I always do, USC hat, and shirt, and headed to the Rose Bowl ready to hear the best the bruins had to throw at me.

I tail gated near tunnel 7 and had the pleasure of talking to a former bruin basketball player from 1978.  He was a really nice guy and we had a nice conversation on how the Pac-10 was doing, and how our respective teams were doing this far into the season.  To my suprise the only call outs I heard were "Oregon State" and "Beavers."  For the most part people just kept their mouths shut , probably because ucla wasn't doing very well this season.  Fresno State fans actually gave me more crap than the bruin fans which was a shock.  When I got into the stadium there were only about a half a dozen more reminders of Thursday nights game.  I responded to them by asking them how they enjoyed the BYU game, or asking them if they take their bruin gear off if their team loses.  Most of the people who mouthed off weren't looking to have a discussion on the state of USC football vs. the state of ucla football though. 

The worst I received was a bruin fan in front of me calling me a derogatory name.  Some guy after ucla lost called me out on the Beavers, and I simply pointed to the scoreboard.  Then he started in on how point spreads were more important than wins and losses.  That made me chuckle a bit.  The best comment of the day was directed at my brother and a buddy of mine.  My brother and a friend of mine were also sporting their USC gear.  The bruin fans sitting directly behind them stated, after recounting the whole Oregon State game, that they didn't care if they won or lost the Fresno game.  All they cared about was that USC lost on Thursday.  This made me crack a smile.  It seems like those particular bruins were more concerned about our football team than theirs.

The game was a fun one to watch.  The bruins could have easily won if they hadn't turned the ball over late in the 4th.  Coach Rick Neuheisel addressed the remaining fans after the game over the P.A.  He asked them to stay with the team.  He said they were getting better every week, and that they were going to get a win for them soon.  Funny how he said "a" win, instead of "some wins."  I'm not sure if that appeal to the fans was a good or bad sign.  On one hand it shows that he has the guts to address the fact that they are fielding an inferior product that is unacceptable to bruin fans.  On the other hand it could be viewed as a desperate attempt to beg people to buy tickets.  After advertising in the Fresno Bee to try to bring more of your opponent's fans to a game, it would seem that ticket begging isn't too far off the mark.

Juarez said Wright had returned to Colton for a goodbye party for his friend Luis Alvarado, who, according to a mutual friend, was deployed by the Marines to Iraq on Wednesday. Neighbors had complained to Colton police about the party being loud, Juarez said, and officers arrived with a police dog, ultimately using a Taser on at least one of the partygoers.

Although three individuals were arrested at the scene for resisting a police officer, Wright wasn't, but he was ultimately briefly detained by Colton police last week and was charged by the district attorney.

Wright's attorney said the player was charged for not leaving his friend's home. The player told police he had a suspended driver's license -- which was confirmed at Wednesday's hearing -- and had been drinking. Ruben Morales, a friend of Wright, said Alvarado's mother told police she wanted Wright to spend the night at the party home, informing the officer, "He stays here."

from the L.A Times

There are rumors that Wright kicked a police dog, but no hard proof that that story has any merit.  If the above is true, Wright should be fine.  All he did was not want to drive home drunk on a suspended license.  This may not be true so I guess we will have to wait and see.  Any way you look at it, hes going to trial after the season ends, which will make our buddies at BN cry.

Here are some shots from the game last Saturday.  I took a lot during warmups and pregame.

Mark Sanchez during warmups

Rey Maualuga practicing catching passes low to the ground.  Its nice to see that the work Rey has been doing with his hands paid off in the 2nd quarter.

The TMB takes the field

Traveler

Flyover

Nice Moon Shot

Final Score

If anyone wants to check out the rest of the photos that I took, here is the link.  Enjoy...Ohio State @ USC Photos 9-13-08

For those of you who couldn't attend yesterdays game, Trojan fans in attendance got their first look at the Coliseum's minor face-lift.

The main vision board was replaced and it looks fantastic.  It was very easy to see in the bright light of mid-afternoon, and even with direct sunlight hitting it.  Over the tunnel a new scoreboard display replaced the old lightbulb one.  There are a pair of new speaker cabinets on both sides of the torch that sound very nice.  During the pregame festivities there was an awful lot of static and loud noise hits through the new system, but it seemed like that problem was corrected during the game.  The best improvement by far was the replacement of the Coliseum turf.  The field looked fantastic.  There really is no substitute for real grass.

The only negative that I had with the face-lift was that the main scoreboard is that same old piece of junk that hasn't changed in decades.  Hopefully they will find a way to junk that thing and get something that you can see during the day time.

Here are some photos of the Coliseum's new toys:

The new vision board

The new speakers

The new tunnel scoreboard

The new turf

Same old piece of junk

I really enjoyed this quote:

"Did Troy Aikman ever sound off before we played Texas or Texas A&M, saying that he couldn’t stand Cowboys fans talking about their school? I don’t think so."

Its nice to know that this particular bruin fan thinks that Aikman's vocal allegiance to ucla stopped the moment he became a Cowboy.

If there ever was a perfect illustration of the saying:

"You're a bruin for 4 years, but a Trojan for life." 

 It seems that all an opposing player has to do is call USC classless to get a bruin to make a post agreeing with it.  Nevermind that pesky logic or reason.  In Small's mind anyone living in the state of Ohio, that isn't rooting for Ohio State, is classless.  Man what a load of garbage.  The funny thing is that all Carson did was vocally support his alma mater.  He did so in a way that was not very PC mind you, but all he said, and I heard it live, was say that he wanted to watch USC lay a proper beat down on Ohio State, and that he was sick about hearing about the Buckeyes all the time.   I don't see how Carson's statements call his character into question.  Perhaps the proper thing to do is to quietly listen to Buckeye fans talk about how they are going to roll over the school that developed Carson into the player that he is today.  Perhaps thats how a bruin fan would handle that situation.  But thankfully Carson has balls.  Carson has swagger.  Carson has moxy.    Carson bleeds Caridinal and Gold.  Carson is a Trojan for life.  Fight on man and beat the Buckeyes.

Bumped...always great to see. Paragon

I never get tired of this view

Warmups

Scott Wolf pretty much said it all over on his blog.  The offense needs work.  All the QBs threw interceptions, with Mustain throwing his on the first pass of the scrimmage.  Sharice Wright returned the INT for a touchdown to start things off for the first string defense. 

USC security was tight.  They were checking peoples IDs before they would let us into the Coliseum.  No doubt they were looking for

The running game did really well with Bradford showing signs of being a power running back, and Stafon Johnson doing a little bit of everything on his carries.  Its hard to choose which running back had the best day, because they are all so different.  Gable, Bradford, Johnson, and McKnight all did some impressive things.

The quarterbacks, and receivers looked sluggish.  Travon Patterson caught a touchdown from Mustain, and Garret Green threw a long one to Jimmy Miller.

The defense looks solid.  There were some hard hits out there and we had one casualty.  Cary Harris absorbed a hard hit by Allan Bradford and immediately fell to a knee.  His right arm appeared to be popped out at the shoulder.  The LA times is saying that it is a shoulder sprain, and I hope thats all it was.  Here is a picture of the trainers working on Cary.

Cary Harris down

Sanchez spent the beginning of the scrimmage doing a little bit of rehab with a bungie cord attached to him.  This probably is being used to test the amount of force he can put on his knee.  Here is that photo

Sanchez rehabbing or bungie jumping

He threw some balls after that.  He didn't seem to have much trouble throwing some bullet passes, and some rainbow fades.

Anyone that wants to look at the videos and other pictures heres the link for the album.

USC Saturday Scrimmage pictures and videos