Green Phone

The rise of the Trojan fan
Caller 1: Hi, I was wondering why the Dispatch does not cover any of the Monte Vista Christian sporting events. There are a lot of students that attend Monte Vista who lives here in Gilroy, San Martin or Morgan Hill and a lot of good sporting events going on over there, but nothing is ever covered in the Dispatch. It would be nice to see some of the coverage every once in awhile.

Green Phone: Caller 1, we appreciate your concern. However, a great number of student-athletes from this area attend private schools scattered all over the Bay Area, and we simply don’t have the resources to cover all the different teams. Very few papers do. With that said, we’re always looking for interesting feature stories on local athletes and are open to any ideas readers might have in mind – no matter where that athlete might attend school.

Caller 2: This message is for Brett. Brett, you did a great job on the article for the JV boys’ team from Gilroy High. Thank you.

Green Phone: Uh wait Edge, stay on the line …

Caller 3: Hey, I was in Hollister over the weekend to attend a family funeral and happened to read the column, “Hippies and sports fans agree: The polls stink” in the Hollister Free Lance. I must say that I was very disappointed, or as you put it “annoyed,” with your view on USC.

Let’s start with the SEC being the self-proclaimed “toughest” conference. You, like many others, were believers of all the preseason SEC hype. However, as the season progressed, starting with LSU’s narrow victory against Oregon State, the SEC proved to be at best a mediocre conference. Fact: the North division winner, Tennessee, lost at home to Notre Dame! What did USC do to Notre Dame? Win by 31 points for the third straight season. The truth is that Auburn did not start high enough in the polls and unfortunately they had a very weak non-conference schedule, thereby not allowing them to make up ground. Anyone who schedules The Citadel, Louisiana Monroe and Louisiana Tech as part of their schedule has very little hope to win the computer rankings unless their conference is head and shoulders above the other conferences. The SEC proved to be a weaker conference than many first thought.

Secondly, how can you reason that USC got a free pass?! What does a defending national champ, albeit co-national champ, have to do? Let me make my point, what other team in the country beat two top ten BCS teams? USC did not open against SDSU or a team you are more familiar with, SJSU, this year. They went undefeated and beat Cal and Virginia Tech along the way. Free pass? USC finished No. 1 in both polls and No. 2 in the computer polls. I do agree that Stanford was a disappointing game for USC but Auburn and Oklahoma had similar games. The one thing you must consider is that every week is a championship week for any team that played USC. Every team was up for the game against the defending national champ and USC rose to the occasion every week. USC did not get a free pass, they beat every team whether it was away in D.C. or in bad weather in Oregon or against its crosstown rival that had three weeks to prepare. 

Lastly, you make the argument that there was a conspiracy against Cal and that they are more deserving than Texas to play in the Rose Bowl. You cannot make that argument unless you truly believe that Cal was a better team than Texas. If that was the case, then you must believe that USC is more deserving than Oklahoma to play for the national championship. I believe that Cal is one of the best teams in college football and they could beat Oklahoma, Texas and even USC on any given day. Fortunately for USC, they did not get a free pass and they beat Cal on the field this year.

Green Phone: Handing it off to the Edge … I do think USC is a very good team (although not as good as last year’s edition, in my opinion). I have a lot of respect for the program and I believe Leinart’s Heisman was well-deserved. In all honestly, my beef is with the whole system in general. If a team goes undefeated in a major conference, they should be able to play for the national title. Period. Somehow, someway. And yes, that includes the Trojans and Sooners.

Now when I said USC basically got a “free pass” all season long, I meant that you never heard one bad work spoken against them after unimpressive wins over mediocre teams. Please tell me why last Saturday, everyone on ESPN was saying “this day proves once and for all USC and Oklahoma are the right teams for the Orange Bowl.” Um, what?? Oklahoma beats what has to be the worst team that’s ever played in a conference title game, USC beats one of the worst defensive teams in the country by five, and Auburn beats a top 15 team by 10. Am I missing something here? And did I miss all those close Auburn victories you referenced? The Tigers had two games all season that were in single-digits….a victory over defending co-national champ LSU and an eight-point win on the road against hated rival Alabama, owners of the country’s best defense statistically.

And I really hope you weren’t trying to claim the Pac-10 is one the same level as the SEC. If you haven’t noticed, the Pac-10 is considered a bit of a joke in all but about four states in this country. You mentioned Tennessee’s loss to Notre Dame. I hate to tell you, but Tennessee is the fourth best team in the SEC (and there is no North Division by the way). Again, if you haven’t noticed, the Pac-10 pretty much goes two deep. And beyond all this, why should Auburn’s conference title game even count if the Pac-10 and other crummy conferences aren’t man enough to play a league title game, too? How fair is that? Give me USC and Cal again at a neutral site. I’d love to see it. Like you, I believe Cal is one of the best teams in the country.

One more thing: let’s remember the Virginia Tech of right now was not exactly the Virginia Tech of August. If you recall, they were unranked at the time and lost to NC State at home a couple weeks later. Regardless, I’ll give you that as a nice, solid win. BUT…

Even with that, USC won two games against teams in the BCS top 20. Oklahoma won ONE. And Auburn? Auburn won four against teams in the TOP 15. I rest my case, sir.