Your Mandatory USC Football Post

Do Toby Gerhart and Stanford signal the end of the USC Dynasty?

Some people called it before the season, and some hailed the end two weeks ago after a trashing in Eugene. Everyone is saying it now. USC is dead, their reign at the top of the Pac-10 is over, and an unforeseen date with the Las Vegas Bowl is in their future. Everyone else has caught up to the former king, and the conference is wide open for the foresee able future.

Hold the phone. Maybe we’re going out on a limb here, and just refuse to believe that one of the most dominant teams of the past decade is suddenly defunct. While this season is certainly a “disappointment” in Southern California, this program is far from “dead.”

Pete Carroll saw it coming. An injury plagued group of pass catchers that, even when healthy were not striking fear into the hearts of defenses a la Dwayne Jarrett, Steve Smith and Mike Williams. A stable of mediocre running backs. A banged up offensive line. A defense that sent 8 players to the NFL. It does not matter if you “never rebuild, only reload” You cannot replace that kind of attrition. So Carroll did what made sense then and still makes sense today. He played a true freshman, Matt Barkley, over guys with experience in the system (Aaron Corp and Mitch Mustain). Carroll has always played the experienced veterans, but not this year. He with the young gun. Something most teams with losing records do at the end of the year. If anything, it speaks to what Carroll has built that the team was in the top 5 at one point and will still likely win 9, possibly 10 games, with a true freshman under center and all of the previously mentioned issues.

Given time to rebuild his defense, and get some playmaking skill guys (all due respect to Damian Williams, but you need more than one) Pete Carroll will have his team back on top, possibly as soon as next year.

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