Results tagged “collegefootball”

Yesterday Ohio State printed their ticket to the Rose Bowl with their 27-24 win in overtime over Iowa, but who will they be facing? That is a question that no one has had to ask in the last four years.

As Adam Rose pointed out on his twitter it was schadenfreude yesterday with losing being the cool thing to do. Losses by Iowa, Notre Dame, Oregon, Michigan, Penn State and LSU made it almost seem trendy. By looking at the rankings it’s easy to think college football is having a down year, but the rankings are only part of the story. There have been great games all weekend long with teams looking evenly matched. Whether that’s due to parity or mediocrity does not diminish the excitement.

Let me channel my inner Vic the Brick. "Trojan fans! One word: UY!" In a Saturday where all of the excitement was contained to the margins (Southern Miss-Houston; Miami (FL)-Wake Forest; Cal-Arizona State; Rutgers-UConn), all eyes were on USC and Oregon. And in the spotlight, the Trojan defense withered.

All of us who care about college football here in the marble-lined halls of the LAist headquarters always have a case of head-explody once the BCS rankings come out. "Oh hell no," some say. "EAST COAST BIAS," others yell in pure hackneyed apoplectic shock.

Sports Ed. note: With USC taking a week off, our guest writer Zack Jerome takes a look at this supposed rivalry.

According to Shelley Smith of ESPN, Trojans senior running back and Dorsey High standout Stafon Johnson was rushed to the hospital after a weightlifting accident where the bar fell on his throat. Smith is reporting that Johnson was coughing blood and bleeding from the nose. Ben Malcolmson's USC Ripsit blog confirms that this accident occurred while he was bench pressing with a spotter when the bar slipped from his right hand. Johnson is undergoing throat surgery. Supposedly he was pressing 275 pounds when the accident occurred.

People have been asking me all week what I thought of Saturday’s game between USC and the Washington State Cougars. I guess they expected me to eviscerate the Trojans and expect them to lose two games in a row just because I accurately predicted they would lose to the Huskies. How silly. Of course the Trojans are going to cream the Cougars.

The third-ranked USC Trojans passing game completely let them down as they got outplayed down the stretch in their 16-13 loss against the Washington Huskies.

The USC Trojans have a lot to prove. True they did defeat a tough Ohio State team last week 18-15, but who was impressed by their offense? The offense looked stale and stymied by a Buckeye defense that gave up 186 rushing yards to Navy on September 5. After an early interception by linebacker Chris Galippo taken to Ohio State’s three-yard line, it took the Trojan offense four tries to get into the end zone.

LA Dodgers defeat Arizona Diamondbacks 5-4. Chad Billingsley got racked for four runs on eight hits and three walks in the six innings he pitched against the DBacks. In that time the Dodgers managed to score a run in the first inning thanks to Andre Ethier's double. But after that, they tied a franchise record by hitting into five double plays. But in the eighth inning they patched together six singles and a walk to score four runs against three separate pitchers while managing to avoid the double play. While it was a great come from behind victory for the Blue, it by no means alleviates concerns of their inconsistent offense.

Football is such a barbaric game (see: Blount, LeGarrette) that I decided to add some technology on opening night. First I got a high-def TV to distinguish Boise State's blue players from their blue field. Go figure, it was the Oregon Dayglo Ducks that didn't seem to be out there.

Today marks the first Saturday of the college football season. Millions across the country; especially here in the home of the #4 ranked USC Trojans and the recipient of seven votes in the AP Top 25 - UCLA Bruins, are excited to get the 2009 campaign kicked off. I, on the other hand, could couldn't care less.

So has Pete Carroll. Unfortunately for USC's opponents, the NCAA doesn't approve of settling things with pitchforks and torches. Fortunately for USC's opponents, they also don't approve of settling things with a playoff. The Trojans start this season with another mind-boggling collection of talent -- and expectations. Ranked No. 4 in most of the preseason polls, the only schools ahead of USC all feature a quarterback who already won the Heisman Trophy (or should have).

With the college football season fast approaching, its time to see how the local team from Westwood looks coming into the new season. The UCLA Bruins have a lot of work to do after last year’s campaign that started with promise defeating Tennessee at home but ended with pain losing four of their last five games. The Bruins finished with a 4-8 record overall 3-6 in the Pac-10, eighth in the conference just ahead of the Washington schools.

ESPN's Shelley Smith reported that Matt Barkley has been named starting quarterback for the USC Trojans. Trojans head coach Pete Carroll confirmed the news on Twitter. Barkley, 2007 Gatorade national player of the year, graduated early from Mater Dei so he could participate in spring practice. With presumed heir to the job unior Aaron Corp out since August 11 with a cracked fibula, the chatter has been louder in recent weeks of Barkley to be the first true freshman starter during Carroll's tenure since 2001. While this confirms him to the starter in USC's opener against San Jose State, this by no mean gives Barkley job security past that game as is Carroll's modus operandi.

LA Lakers defeat Toronto Raptors 115-107. It took three quarters but the Lakers defense finally thawed out and showed up to get the stops against the Raptors. Kobe Bryant scored 36 points far less than the 61 he scored Monday night in Madison Square Garden. Pau Gasol showed his consistency playing center with a 31 point, 15 rebound effort after his 31-14 game Monday night. A little alarming is the fact that Gasol played all but 3:30 of the game while Kobe played for 37:33. With the game tonight against the Boston Celtics, hopefully they don't have a lethargic performance.

After many "sleepless nights", Mark Sanchez officially declared himself eligible for the NFL draft this spring. "It is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to this university," he said in a teary news conference at Heritage Hall this morning. In his only year as a starter, he racked up a 65.8% completion percentage for 3,207 yards, 34 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. According to the draft gurus, Sanchez should be a first round pick.

LA Lakers defeat Houston Rockets 105-100. True the Lakers can't win pretty, but who cares? With the injuries to Jordon Farmar, Sasha Vujacic and Luke Walton forcing Derek Fisher to log a lot of minutes on those aged wheels. Even Sun Yue had to log three minutes in this game. Lamar Odom was back in action after his bruised bone injury to score ten points in 27 minutes of play. Kobe led all scorers with 33 points. However former Laker Von Wafer had a career game scoring 23 points and seemed unstoppable for three quarters. But Kobe finally shut him down in the fourth quarter and gave the Lakers a nailbiting win in Houston.

While the actual game will be played at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, FL, we here will be able to gather at Grauman's Chinese Theater Thursday evening at 5 pm to watch the game in 3D.

                

Downstairs in the sportsbook of the Flamingo, casual fans and degenerates alike are placing their bets on Thursday's BCS Championship game between Florida and Oklahoma, two teams that aren't meeting because they knocked off foes in a playoff system to reach the championship round. Upstairs on the conference room level of the Las Vegas hotel and casino, more than 400 teams from across North America are competing in tournament for a championship.

The Trojans are leading the Bruins 21-7 at the half. Surprisingly the Bruins drew first blood taking a 7-0 lead, but the Trojans got back on track and scored three unanswered touchdowns. However penalties and two missed field goals are what is keeping UCLA in the game. Follow my liveblog.

Final

With the Dodgers postseason run, the Lakers undefeated start to their season and the election and subsequent hangover getting in the way, let’s talk some football!

Tampa Bay Rays and Philadelphia Phillies 2-2 (bottom of 6th inning). There have been rainouts in the World Series before. But never before has a game been suspended in the World Series. Cole Hamels had managed to keep the Rays down to only one run until the top of the sixth inning when the Rays manufactured a run to tie the game. Although the commish Bud Selig promised that even if the Rays hadn't scored the tying run the game wouldn't have been called, it allowed the Rays to take a sigh of relief. Meanwhile the Phillies once again regressed to the team that couldn't get a hit with runners in scoring position. The final 2 1/2 innings will be played tonight at 5pm. The Phillies still lead the series 3-1.

The "Collision at the Coliseum" turned out to be the huge mismatch that most predicted, while the Bruins made some personal history that they would rather soon forget. Records broken in Anaheim and the Dodgers extend their lead.

Here in Los Angeles week two of the college football season meant a week of calm between UCLA’s Rose Bowl upset victory over the Tennessee Volunteers on Labor Day and USC’s showdown with Ohio State at the Coliseum.

After UCLA's upset victory over the 18th ranked Tennessee Volunteers last night, head coach Rick Neuheisel got on the mike to Bruin faithful still at the Rose Bowl and gave a victory speech. Indeed it is great to be a Bruin.

The first college football Saturday has come and gone, and despite some of the lopsided scores provided by the top ranked teams there were some revelations learned.

Colorado Rockies defeat LA Dodgers 4-3. Impatient hitting, bad bullpen and awful defense doesn't help any team to win games. On the Kamenetzky Brother's Purple, Gold and Blue podcast Wednesday morning, I said the Dodgers have to be wary about a tired bullpen. The bullpen has been making games more interesting than they needed to be lately, and it will be cause for concern if they continue to falter down the stretch. What more can be said about this game?