Not long after the the end of last night's BCS Title game focus turned to the 2012 campaign...for many specifically USC.
There is already a lot of hype for a season that is nine months away.
USC has a tough road to hoe. It certainly isn't impossible but it won't be a cake walk and all USC has to do is to look at the very recent past...
USC has legitimate national-championship aspirations next season. But LSU’s plight in the BCS title game provides a neat little reminder of just how difficult it is to go undefeated.
Do you know how many times those great Pete Carroll teams went unbeaten? Try once, in 2004.
Of course, USC won the Associated Press national championship the previous year with one loss; as Alabama and others have proved, it’s doable.
But it’s harder now that the Pac-10 is the Pac-12. USC would have to win its division, then the Pac-12 Championship Game, and hope to finish in the top two of the BCS. That could require beating Oregon twice.
I am sure that Oregon will have something to say about it.
I think we have the staff to keep this team on an even keel. We saw it this season and I see no reason why they won't do it again next season, but it will take EVERYONE being on board. They will have to live to the tired cliche of taking it one game at a time.
But before we can get there this team needs to make sure they are all on the same page. I am confident that with Matt Barkley at the helm that we have the right leadership to guide us through what is yet to come.
It starts now.
As I said to Barkley on Twitter last night....Time to go to work!