Three games separate USC from greatness, but if the top-ranked Trojans pull off a trifecta and go 13-0, just where will they reside among the school's greatest teams?
USC is going for its 12th national championship (by its own count), but if the 2004 Trojans go undefeated, they immediately secure a place as one of the best.
But just how good will they be?
"I never really thought of that," wide receiver Chris McFoy said. "I don't know any USC history. Coming in, I wasn't big on USC history. Before I came here, I wasn't a USC fan. I came in here knowing nothing."
That means McFoy doesn't know about the 1972 team, which went undefeated and is generally considered one of the greatest teams in college football, period. It's closest game was a nine-point victory (30-21) over No. 15 Stanford.
This year's Trojans were nearly upset by the Cardinal (31-28) and struggled against Virginia Tech (24-13) and Oregon State (28-20), so it's unlikely they could eclipse the '72 team.
USC football historian Mike Glenn said this year's Trojans would be the school's fourth-best national champion, behind the 1932, 1962 and 1972 teams.
The 1932 Trojans were undefeated (10-0), gave up only 13 points and recorded eight shutouts.
"As far a historic USC teams, the 1972 team dominated all its opponents, including No. 3 Ohio State in the 1973 Rose Bowl," Glenn said. "[USC coach] John McKay famously indicated to [Ohio State coach] Woody Hayes that [tailback] Sam Cunningham would dive over the line for touchdowns, and Sam did, an example of a team that was truly unstoppable. There's been no better 'SC team before or since."
Like any good historian, Glenn cautions against making a final judgment on the current Trojans because there are three games left. He points out that for USC to go the BCS title game at the Orange Bowl, it will need to do something it has never done before: Defeat UCLA and Notre Dame in the same year for the third year in a row.
"Arguably, this 'SC team is three or four plays away from being 7-3, rather than 10-0," Glenn said. "But even though teams that win with ease are always remembered as the greater teams, there is something to be said for a team such as this year's which comes through with the plays, even on the brink of disaster, with no room for error."
It's notable to point out that several USC teams were in similar positions to the 2004 Trojans, only to falter at the end of the season.
There are four prominent examples:
-- In 1959, USC started 8-0, then lost to UCLA and Notre Dame. Coach Don Clark resigned after the season, and the Trojans discontinued playing the Irish at South Bend, Ind., in November.
-- In 1952, USC started out 8-0 but barely beat UCLA (14-12) and lost to Notre Dame.
-- In 1951, USC was 7-0, then lost to Stanford, UCLA, and Notre Dame, all at the Coliseum.
-- In 1988, a 10-0 USC team lost to Notre Dame at home and then to Michigan in the Rose Bowl.
The 2004 Trojans could go down as one of the top four teams in school history, but cornerback Justin Wyatt said he doesn't think going undefeated would give this year's team a special place in people's minds.
"The way our heritage is, excellence is just par around here," Wyatt said. "Making our mark on history is just keeping the stats going. As far as being greater, it's already been done before here. We're just trying to follow up."
The importance of a national championship this season to Wyatt is that USC wouldn't have to share it, like last season.
"If we get it solo, it would be special," he said. "Last year, we shared it. This is our chance, if we finish up undefeated. They can't take us out of the [championship] game this year."
Even if the Trojans go undefeated, some observers might wonder if they could beat the 1978 or '79 teams, which were 12-1 and 11-0-1 and among the most dominant in school history.
"You could say some of the teams with losses or ties, such as 2002 and 2003, or 1978 or 1979, were better, although I really have not seen many defenses better than the current USC team," Glenn said. "In fact, USC only seems to be scored on when the offense makes the defense defend a short field.
"With three games to go, it is difficult to recall a stronger Trojan defense."
Such lofty talk doesn't do much for the players. McFoy said he has been startled by how relaxed everything seems this year, despite being ranked No. 1 every week of the season.
"It doesn't seem like we're No. 1, we just take everything the same around here," he said.
But he acknowledged he is seeing benefits of being successful that he never anticipated when he decided to come USC.
"With Snoop Dogg coming, oh yes, it's different," McFoy said. "He's letting us know where we are."
Bryan Randall threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score Thursday to help Virginia Tech move closer to a Bowl Championship Series game with a 55-6 rout of Maryland.
One night after his mother died, coach Frank Beamer guided the No. 15 Hokies to their sixth consecutive victory, keeping them alone in first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Jimmy Williams returned an interception 34 yards for a touchdown, and Mike Imoh ran for two scores before leaving with a hamstring injury. Playing their first season in the ACC, Virginia Tech (8-2, 5-1) can wrap up the conference title and a lucrative BCS berth with wins against No. 18 Virginia and at No. 12 Miami.
The Hokies scored 24 points off four first-half turnovers and yielded little on defense. They turned an interception and a fumble recovery into touchdown drives of 29 and 17 yards to lead 14-0 after four minutes.
Things never got better for the Terrapins (4-6, 2-5), whose hopes of winning their last two games to qualify for a bowl were gone by halftime, when they trailed 41-3.
South Carolina coach Lou Holtz will retire at the end of the football season, opening the way for Steve Spurrier, the former Florida coach, to take the job. Holtz will retire as one of the most prolific coaches in college football history, as his 249 wins rank him 8th all-time.
An athletic department official at South Carolina confirmed Holtz's impending retirement late Thursday night. He said Holtz, 67, would coach Saturday's game against Clemson and in the Gamecocks' bowl game.
Holtz told the team before practice Thursday that he was retiring, AP reported.
Spurrier will sign a contract with South Carolina early next week, a friend said Thursday night. He will be returning to the Southeastern Conference, the same conference as Florida. He won the Heisman Trophy with the Gators in 1966 and coached them to the 1996 national title.
The main appeal of the South Carolina job, the friend said, was for Spurrier to return to the SEC. Spurrier won six conference titles as Florida's coach, from 1990 through 2001.
Spurrier built his reputation in Gainesville with a high-octane offense, a sharp wit and lopsided scores. He left after the 2001 season to coach the Washington Redskins. He was widely regarded as a failure as a pro coach, going 12-20.
Holtz also failed in his foray in the NFL going 3-10 with the Jets in 1976. He made his name in college, coaching William and Mary, North Carolina State, Arkansas, Minnesota and Notre Dame before South Carolina. Holtz led the Irish to a 12-0 record and the 1988 national championship.
Holtz's final stop at South Carolina wasn't as glamorous but was ultimately successful. He lured better recruits, raised the program's profile with more nationally televised games and led the Gamecocks to back-to-back New Year's Day bowl games in 2001 and 2002.
Heading into Saturday's game against Clemson, Holtz is 33-36 in his six seasons at South Carolina. He hasgone 1-4 against the Tigers.
Holtz will be leaving the program in the hands of a friend. Spurrier helped Holtz's wife, Beth, get medical help at Florida in 1999 when she had throat cancer.
the game
When is the game still The Game, an event stubbornly clinging to an identity cultivated solely on institutional traditions and resistant even to the almighty corporate revenue stream? As Bud Selig and Major League Baseball did last summer, Bill Martin discovered recently that the fan's foul line doesn't often get in the way, but you'll know it when you cross it.
Martin is the athletic director at the University of Michigan, which last month announced it was entering a two-year agreement with Ohio State to rename their annual football game the SBC Michigan-Ohio State Classic. The universities were to receive US$260,000 from SBC Communications each year, beginning with Saturday's showdown in Columbus, the 101st renewal of what is arguably the most storied rivalry in the college game.
Then something decidedly uncommon in a sports culture of numbing sponsorship occurred: a deluge of e-mail messages and telephone calls complaining that the universities had gone too far.
"I didn't recognize the sensitivity to naming a rivalry like this one," Martin said in a telephone interview. "Last year, we celebrated the 100th anniversary, and selling it rubbed people the wrong way."
One of them happened to be Mary Sue Coleman, the Michigan president, who has reportedly embarked on a fund-raising campaign to raise billions in donations and possibly didn't fancy the football-crazed alumni grousing over a measly US$520,000. Coleman nixed the SBC deal, and Martin stood up accountably to say the miscommunication occurred because "Bill Martin screwed up."
Thus the game goes on today as The Game, hyped for its venerability and heightened by 9-1 Michigan's unanticipated (until Wisconsin was beaten last week) opportunity to win a berth in the Rose Bowl.
That's the Rose Bowl Game, presented by Citi, and one of the four Bowl Championship Series games that include the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the Nokia Sugar Bowl and this year's national championship game, the FedEx Orange Bowl.
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