I imagine the kids in Corvalis had a pretty good time last night.  I mean, upsetting the #1 team in the land is always nice, especially when that team is already starting to be tabbed as the best team ever (after two games, maybe a bit premature).  Absolutely incredible game.  It wasn’t a fluke thing either with a bunch of wacky turnovers or gimmicky plays.  Oregon State just came out and took it to USC, running straight at their vaunted front 7 with a 5-6, 180 pound true freshman RB who managed just north of 180 yards on the ground.  I was particularly impressed with the way Oregon State protected their QB.  USC’s pass rush was basically nullified all night.  USC showed spurts of being the dominant team that they should be but it just wasn’t consistent enough.  I will say that I thought of Munson last night for a brief moment when Oregon State missed that late extra point.  At the time it looked meaningless, but years of listening to the most pessimistic announcer of all time (and the biggest homer…the beauty of Munson) meant that in the back of my head I thought: “wow, that could be huge”…I could just hear Munson saying that.

What does this loss mean?  Sure, other than angering the people football betting, it’s WAY too early to be thinking about our spot in the title game but just as a general college football fan I think it’s important to consider the ramifications.  USC had BY FAR the easiest route to the title game.  That helped them considering they had already risen to #1, a spot traditionally difficult to lose as the season progresses.  The problem with that easy schedule was that once you lose a game, it becomes that much harder to get back in.  The computers were never going to love USC, especially if Ohio State starts slipping, which its looking more and more like they will.  Now they’re in a quandary of hoping that Notre Dame starts winning a lot (easy given their even weaker schedule) because the lumps the Pac 10 took this season in OOC play are really going to hurt their chances.

As for how it impacts our game, I think if nothing else it reinforces the fact that you can’t let up on aynone.  Oregon State had already lost to Stanford (yes, the same team that beat USC last year, like a west coast Duke) and got absolutely destroyed by Penn State 45-14.  Knowing that, I think it’s pretty safe to say we need to focus on every game we play, starting with the #8 team in the country.  Win this one and we likely get back our #1 spot.

Wow, you think we could muster something, anything to get some energy behind this game?  I mean, you’d think a matchup between top 10 teams would get some type of buzz going and all we’ve got is a blackout, college gameday and a shot at making another statement on national TV that we deserve to be included in the national title discussion.  Please hurry up Saturday.  It’s gonna be awesome…

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edit:  I always forget to turn the comment feature on, that’s changed now…sorry about that…

Big week and I can’t imagine there being more going on…

Blackout, Munson’s retirement, ESPN Gameday in town for the 1st time in 10 years…oh, and a classic SEC battle between two top 10 teams, jus the 9th top 10 showdown in Sanford history.  I fully expect a really, really raucous crowd for this one.  I can’t imagine the emotion in that place when Munson’s voice comes over the speakers in pre-game…goosebumps I say.

I haven’t heard yet where Gameday is going to set up and my guess would be Reid quad just because it’s close to the stadium and I’m pretty sure it’s a family friendly zone, meaning no one uses it.  Given the inability to use Tate due to construciton, my personal choice would be to put the stage just south of the intersection of Sanford and Baldwin.  You could still have the stadium in the background and the crowd couls spill down Baldwin as well as go up the hill towards North Campus.  The only problem with that spot is it couldn’t be set up prior to Friday afternoon due to bus traffic.  The nice thing is it wouldn’t limit traffic on game day as Baldwin is mostly closed already and there are still ways around that intersection on foot.  It would present some really cool aerial shots as well.  Anyway, just my thoughts.

• Yes, Bama’s coach did say that we were wearing black because we were going to a funeral.  He just doesn’t know who’s it is.  To his credit, it was said at practice and I’m sure our guys say stuff like that all the time.  Probably the reason we close practices.
• AJ Harmon’s move to OL was probably eventual, but it would’ve been nice if it had happened as soon as he arrived.  If he had started out there, he would likely have been in the playing rotation by now.  Excellent move for down the road.
• You knew it was coming eventually but Munson’s announcement still hits hard.  The way he phased himself out makes this easier but I wish his last called game had been something more significant than Central Michigan.  Somehow just doesn’t seem right.

Sorry for the lack of posting, I’m actually nearing completion on the bathroom remodel (not that you care) and frankly I didn’t feel much like writing about that game.  Way too much has been said about it already.  Anyway, here’s this week’s writeup and I’ll try and do better now about posting regularly.

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Looks like a few tidbits came out since the writeup went “live” so view this as an ammendment…

• Smelley will start and it doesn’t look like Beecher will play at all as he’s suffering from some type of infection that’s caused him to lose 20+ pounds in two weeks.  No word on if it actaulyl caused him to suck in the opener.  I think that was all him.  
• Garcia will defenitely play according to Spurrier.  Everytime I hear Garcia, I think of Officer Garcia from Reno 911, which is ironic given the QB’s numerous run-ins with the man.
• Looks like Mike Davis will be splitting carries with the tw young backs, Maddox and Baker.  Baker is shiftier than the others which might help behind their porous OL.
• Spurrier indicated that McKinley was highly unlikely to play, saying he was out but following up with a “never say never”
• Meredith’s return to the OL will initially be as LT instead of LG.  It’s the position he played until this year and isn’t unexpected.  If the LG (Lemuel Jean-Pierre) can’t block anybody, look for Meredith to slide inside and King to take over at LT.  
• None of the players involved in a fracas yesterdya on SC’s campus will be suspended and rightfully so, doesn’t sound like they did anything wrong.  None were big time players anyway.
• As of this writing it appears that Steve Spurrier is still a jackass.  Nothing new to support that, just nothing to refute it.