I saw a post from the clowns from across town speculating that it might be a bad week to be a Trojan.
You might say that it has been a difficult week, but hardly a bad week.
Expectations and results are high at USC so it is obvious that the loss to Stanford may have tempered the enthusiasm of some of the fans. No one is immune, as even I have questions about the direction that we are going and how to fix the deficiencies that are currently plaguing our team. But make no mistake, while that loss was embarrassing for a multitude of reasons, can anyone here think of another team to root for with all that we have accomplished? It happens, I'm not happy with it but it happens.
The clowns from across town have been having perpetual bad weeks for the past 4 years and it will get worse before it gets better. At least we have this incredible run that we've been on to point to and marvel about as one of the best overall performances in college football history. Do you think they have EVER had that across town?
I don't.
Which brings me to how the future may affect the past.
What will Lloyd Lake give the NCAA?
With the news yesterday that Lake is going to talk to the NCAA in regards to the Reggie Bush situation the obvious question is what does he have?
Most SC fans have taken a wait and see approach. I have made my opinions known on this subject in the past, here and here. My stance has not changed but I have taken the path of choosing to hear all of the information before finally passing judgment. This reasons I think are obvious. While USC is the toast of the town for many reasons the way of the world is one of balance. The yahoo's at Yahoo, pun intended, have speculated about many things, they have claimed that they have seen, heard or obtained written or taped conversations allegedly tying Bush to the alleged sports marketers. I would quite simply ask... show us what you got. This whole peeling another layer off the onion without anything really being put forth but speculation is getting old.
It is not a distraction, not any more. We are focused on the here and now and we have some issues to work out. IF the NCAA finds that Bush was in the wrong I will worry about it then and even then I may not worry about it too much because unless they can prove that SC was complicit in these allegations there may not be a whole lot they could do to SC. I can't worry about vacated wins or awards because we all saw what we saw and regardless of what people think about how these allegations may have affected Reggie Bush it just doesn't matter to me.
Remember I'm a fan, not alum, so I am not bound or concerned about school pride and such. There is nothing wrong with that and I don't begrudge those who want to bang that drum but that is not important to me. What is important to me is the image and future of USC football; I'm not worried about the past. I have no idea where this will all go and I'm to going to worry about what may happen until something actually breaks. The NCAA may have a lower evidentiary threshold than law enforcement but that doesn't mean that the "evidence" that Lake has is damning. Remember, this guy is holding out for a big payday so his motives are dubious at best.
So in the end to answer the original question it hasn't been the best week to be a Trojan but it certainly isn't a bad week. Compared to what is going on across town, at least we still have a shot at another great postseason, that program across town will be lucky to get to the post season.
FIGHT ON!