Totally agree here, USC is playing better than just about anybody right now. That having been said, they may not have beaten Oregon with a healthy Dennis Dixon regardless of all the injuries, but if they had stayed healthy they are playing in N’Awlins next week.
With this performance by USC, there is a small chance that the AP vote may go to USC.
Thought y’all would like a little love from the Houston Chronic Illness blog:
SportsJustice
A sports blog with Richard Justice
January 01, 2008
Guns up! Red Raiders come from behind to win another bowl game.
Comeback? Are you kidding me? Texas Tech didn’t even have to break a sweat this time. This simply was a nice finishing touch to another season in which Mike Leach proved again that he’s one of the best coaches in the country. It’s your loss, UCLA.
Next season could have a Texas Tech flavor in the Big 12. The Red Raiders return the core of a team that went 9-4 and ended OU’s national championship hopes. Tech finished the regular season first in the nation in yards and sixth in points.
(In a survey conducted by the Temple University SID office, Texas Tech is second nationally with 63.3 percent (or 76 players) of its 120-man roster consisting of freshmen and sophomores. Of the Raiders’ 66 regular-season touchdowns, 35 came from freshmen and sophomores. Defensively, freshmen and sophomores accounted for more than 50 percent of the tackles and 70 percent of the sacks.)
The Red Raiders rallied from 14 down in the fourth quarter to defeat Virginia 31-28 Tuesday afternoon in the Gator Bowl. Alex Trlica’s 41-yard field goal wrapped it up with two seconds remaining.
That was small potatoes compared to last season when the Raiders came from 31 down in the second half to defeat Minnesota 44-41 in the Insight Bowl. Tech was down by 24 at the start of the fourth quarter. Trlica’s 52-yard field goal as time expired forced overtime.
Leach has said many times that bowl victory propelled the Raiders into this season. “No one believed we could do it, but we did,’’ Tech quarterback Graham Harrell said.
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Trlica has a double major—finance and accounting—and that reminds me to mention academics. I know, I know. You don’t want to know how the sausage is made. But Texas Tech proves you can win football games and graduate players. Mike Leach is graduating 79 percent of his football players, according to figures released by the NCAA last fall.
Mack Brown and Bob Stoops could learn a few lessons from Leach. Attention, parents: if you’ve got a kid considering playing college football and if you think graduating is important, you might consider Texas Tech.
Mack Brown is graduating just 42 percent of his players. That’s the worst in the Big 12 and far below the 67-percent national average. It’s slightly below OU’s 44 percent. The only major football programs with lower rates than UT are Georgia (41), Arizona (41) and San Jose State (36).
• • •
Mike Leach has fully embraced his inner pirate. Leach laughed off the whole idea that he’s been nicknamed a pirate and said, “You don’t really select your nicknames or identities they pick out for you, so I could do a heck of a lot worse.”
• • •
After researching Texas Tech, Virginia coach Al Groh concluded Texas Tech’s offense was like nothing he’d ever seen before.
• • •
Though Leach is laid back off the field, it’s not unusual for him to launch into loud, angry tirades on it. Danny Amendola said Leach dished out some of that during a bowl practice back in Lubbock. One afternoon, too many passes were hitting the ground and, therefore, so did the entire offense. Everyone did 20 up-downs, and then it was back to work. “We had a pretty good practice going and we kind of slowed down a little bit, and he jumped us for it,’’ Amendola said. “That’s why he’s so successful in bowl games - the preparation he takes and everything like that.’’
• • •
• Texas Tech is the only Big 12 team to be bowl eligible every year of the league’s existence.
• Texas Tech is also the only Big 12 program to have a winning record every season since 1996.
• Tech won a New Year’s Day for the first time since winning the 1954 Gator Bowl.
• Mike Leach is 5-3 in bowl games and has won five of six.
I think if they had playoffs the last couple of years, USC would have won the championship for the last few years.
I believe USC lost to Oregon.