Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Trojans are Pre-season #1? I, for one, am SHOCKED! Oh wait, no I’m not…

So USC has been picked by nearly every publication and sports authority across the country as the NCAA preseason #1 for football this year. Anybody surprised that the Rose Bowl winner, returning its starting quarterback and introducing the #1 recruiting class is being forecasted to go head to head with Michigan once again this year? Nope? Ok, good. Because I really don’t want to waste my time spelling out to you how stacked SC is since everyone else already has.

Now, as far as LA’s other team….how do they look to be shaping up this year? The Bruins are returning 20 starters this year, including QB Ben Olsen out of Thousand Oaks High School. I had the “pleasure” of competing against Ben in varsity basketball, but he is a much better football player, though he did have his growing pains last year. UCLA is also stacked with leadership, totaling 25 seniors. The AP has UCLA opening at #14, though solid performance early in the season could see them rise well into the top 10. They will be touting a veteran –line to help protect Olsen, and the Bruins actually have a formidable looking defense this year, returning 10 starters. Saturday marked the annual scrimmage in Westwood, with the coaching staff coming away pleased with the team’s performance. The Bruin squad looked sharp on both sides of the ball and they feel prepared for the 2007 season to kick off.

Should make for some exciting football this year in LA! Perhaps we’ll actually get to have two undefeated Los Angeles teams go head to head on December 1st! Noteable games to be played in the City of Angels this fall:

10/6 - Notre Dame @ UCLA

10/20 - Cal @ UCLA

12/1 - UCLA @ USC

Sadly, the Trojans will be playing most of their big games on the road this season, but that always means better national coverage for the Pac-10, so we can’t really complain!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

considering the trojans are 46 fuckin point favorites in week 1, id say they are primed for another title run. however considering all their tough games this year are on the road i just dont see them running the table. at Nebraska and at Cal are going to be two tough games, and we all know that the Trojans always seem to not show up one week a year against some inferior opponent and are forced to squeak out a victory in the final minutes. id look to the game with arizona possibly being this game.