Pac-10 roundtable, Stanford front-runner

John Robinson: There are nine teams that are happier than hell in the Pac-10 and one that’s in the tank.  I don’t have to tell you which one that is.  It looks like the Oregon-Oregon State game is going to be a big deal.  I think the winner goes on to the Rose Bowl.  Both teams are well coached.  I think Riley and Kelly have both done a great job.  Oregon is one of those teams, like Georgia Tech, that you just don’t want to play.  They are wild on offense and really hard to handle.  USC never got it going this year.  I don’t think the team ever improved from the start.  Their philosophy is kind of a wide open, pass-oriented offense.  They got caught up with the freshman quarterback, then he got injured.  He wasn’t able to lift them and in the meantime their defense got worse.  I don’t know if they just don’t have the speed they did in the past.  Something is missing on defense because it’s just awful.  But it’s great times in the Pac-10.  There have been great games.  I don’t know how strong anybody is but it’s sure a good conference from within.  There’ll be a new team in the Rose Bowl.

Did Pete Carroll’s assistants leaving for new jobs have an impact on the team?

Don James: I didn’t think so but maybe it’s true.  Pete Carroll is the defensive coordinator.  The offense hasn’t changed, the coaches have changed.  Maybe with them coming in from Denver, they had a difficult time with it.  They weren’t very dynamic.  They don’t like to run the ball.  They will very seldom run the ball twice in a row.  They’re a great offensive team when it’s going.  This is the first time the quarterback and the receivers (they lost their best receiver) didn’t get it going.  They didn’t have other people to come in there.  I think that probably made a difference, a combination of things.  Not a good year.

Frank Kush: USC has the talent, but they just don’t have their act together offensively or defensively.  It seems like one of those internal problems where the coaches don’t know who to play.  We’ve got the same problem here at Arizona State.  We’ve gone through three quarterbacks and we still don’t know what we want to do.  It’s unfortunate because it’s affecting the team in general, psychologically in my opinion and certainly offensively here at Arizona State.

John Ralston: I feel the same way, I think Stanford is the best team in the Pac-10.

John Cooper: I was talking to the Ohio State coaches and they still think USC was the best team they’ve played all year for what it’s worth.

Robinson: I think a number of things worked against them.  They’ve had a change in the coaching staff and that got them off a little bit.  Their overall squad isn’t as fast as it used to be.  You don’t get a sense of that speed.  You look at some of these teams and say “Wow, they’re fast” and you just don’t say that about USC this year.  They’re good, they’re physical and all that, but that never happened.  They got caught up early too in the quarterback thing.  They were going with the freshman starter and than he got hurt.  It seemed like it used up all their attention and the rest of the team didn’t come along.  They didn’t do well.  You’ve got to have some perspective.  They’ve been champions seven year in a row in the Pac-10 and contending to be national champions so this is an aberration in that regard.  I don’t think there is dissension or discontentment.  They just aren’t doing it.  John Ralston made the point that Stanford is really good.  Maybe the rest of the Pac10 has come up and is not afraid of them.

Jim Harbaugh is a guy who says, “I’m not afraid of you, I’m going to kick your ass,” and he did.

And then there’s Oregon.  No one wants to play Oregon.  They’re like Georgia Tech.  You just don’t want to play those guys that are crazy.  They run all over the damn place and you don’t know where the ball is.  A lot of things have conspired against USC, but there’s no falling off the mountain.  They may have slipped down from the top, but they’ve got their hiking boots on and they’ll get their ass back up there.

Terry Donahue: I think one of the things to me that has been the most interesting about USC over the last couple of years is that they have kind of moved away from the really hard, physical running game USC traditionally has always had.  It was one of those things they always had.  They would pound on you with good backs and really good offensive linemen.  It doesn’t seem like that philosophy is ingrained at USC any longer.  It seems that they’ve gotten away from that and it seems to me they’ve become so reliant on the quarterback position to play.  They’ve had Heisman Trophy winners and first round picks at quarterback and they’ve been really good in the past.  But still in terms of leading with the run and countering with the pass, I think they do more of the opposite now.  When you have a young quarterback who makes a few mistakes things can blow up on you.

Ralston: Stanford’s red-shirt freshman quarterback has come on strong.   A guy who is a red-shirt freshman playing with the varsity you would expect not to be very good, but he’ll keep Stanford up there as long as he’s there.  We keep talking about their running back but their quarterback is as good as anybody.

Legends say Oregon can play with the big boys

After Oregon dismantled perennial Pac-10 power USC in Eugene on Saturday, the Legends Poll became the only collegiate top-25 poll to rank the Ducks in the top-5. The Legends Poll voters were overwhelmingly impressed with the way Oregon dominated the Trojans. On this week’s conference call, the Legends Channel had a roundtable discussion with the voters, and former BCS commissioner Roy Kramer joined us to offer his take on the fifth-ranked Oregon Ducks.

Dick MacPherson: Everybody who plays Oregon better know how to defense the spread or they’re in trouble.  Because they’ve got a guy who knows exactly what to do if they don’t have the defense right and I think USC blew it.

Frank Kush: I watched that game very closely and I was so impressed with the diversity of their offense.  Not only the quarterback running the ball. Masoli, he’s very capable of passing, running, etc but their running backs too.  They’ve got two running backs —James and Barner — that I think are exceptionally good.  But above all I think the coaching is remarkable and the diversity of their offense is just as good as I’ve seen in the country.  They attack just about every hole at the line of scrimmage.  Whether it’s the quarterback or the running backs, whoever it may be, they’re pretty dog gone athletic.  James, that running back, to me has to be one of the quickest I’ve ever seen.  I was really impressed with them.  They just kicked the hell out of (USC).

Kush: I don’t think the entire Pac-10 matches up with the SEC what I’ve seen of them.  Southern Cal has talent but I don’t think they were into it for some reason.  Just watching the Pac10, Cal was over here (Arizona) and I wasn’t impressed with them even though they kicked Arizona State’s butt.  But the interesting thing about it is that Oregon and Oregon State, in my opinion, get the maximum out of what they have from the standpoint of talent.  But I think the Southeastern Conference, from what I see, has a heck of a lot more talent than the other conferences.

John Cooper: I’m going to tell you guys, Southern Cal has as much talent as anyone in the country — including Florida, LSU, and any of those teams down South.  And for Oregon to beat up on them like they did…I think if they play like that I think if you were to play them on the west coast or in Pasadena they could beat anybody in the country.  Based on what I saw.

Kush: They were remarkable.  No question about it.

John Robinson: I think SC hasn’t developed as a team.  They started out having to replace 10 defensive players and they just couldn’t do it.  They just haven’t matured as a team.  They got preoccupied with the quarterback position and it seems like they just forgot about the rest.  Now Oregon. Utah was like Oregon a year ago.  I think they had an undefeated year and nobody thought they were any good and they go down and beat Alabama badly in a bowl game.  So those teams out West don’t see the spread as much and it’s effective especially when you put the speed element with it.  SC hasn’t seen it very much, doesn’t know how to defend it.

Robinson: I think Oregon for the last few years has really recruited speed.  They’re little guys, they all look like midgets when you see them but they can RUN.  And they teach speed.  I remember back in the wishbone, teams like Oklahoma were faster than everybody.  I think Oregon and Texas who throw the ball a lot are tough to handle.  And I know we’ve been talking about all this conference stuff, but what it comes down to is one team playing one game.  We don’t know that Oregon doesn’t match up with anybody in the country for one game.  Now, they’ve lost a lot of defensive players.  I think they could get embarrassed on defense against a really strong powerful team.

Robinson: SC is not the team it wanted to be and it’s slipped away from them.  The good players are not playing the way they’d like to be playing and it’s an anomaly for them because Pete Carroll’s teams have always played really well.  The story out here is Oregon, and I think they’re going to go the rest of the way and that’s a great thing for the Pac-10.

Pat Dye: I was impressed with Oregon’s defense against Southern Cal, and I know everyone’s going to be impressed with their offense…that quarterback is like Houdini, but I thought their defense was quick and they ran to the football.  After looking at them against Southern Cal, I guarantee you that you can call Nick Saban or Urban Meyer and neither one of them is going to want to play them.

Roy Kramer: I think Phil Knight gave Oregon new shoes to wear because I’ve never seen so much speed against Southern Cal as I did that night.  They were impressive.  You know they’ve got that loss to Boise State and in all fairness if you look at the ratings across the board, Boise State is riding Oregon’s balloon.  And if that balloon were to burst it would affect Boise State as much as Oregon.  This makes TCU a much stronger outside candidate because they beat Clemson at Clemson, they had that good win over BYU and if they beat Utah they’re going to have a better resume across the board than Boise does.

The only good thing about it at the BCS is that it sort of plays out with the rankings because Florida and Alabama play each other and I think Texas can ride it out to the national championship game.  You can argue about the other people but I think it’s hard to argue against Texas and the SEC champion playing for the national title.

If you asked me about the two best-coached teams in the country I agree that Oregon and Iowa should be it from what I’ve seen based on what they’re playing with.

Saban’s coaching philosophy makes ‘Bama great

Former USC head coach John Robinson posed a question on this week’s conference call:

“It’s the coaching part of the game that I’d be curious about. Like why Alabama is different from everybody else. They’re more physical and tougher, and it seems like a year or two ago, it was the fast quick, not so physical teams that were good. And here Alabama looks like a throwback to the era when we all coached.“

Why do these teams have certain things going for them?

Pat Dye: I think Alabama can play the way they’re playing because they have better people than anybody else in the conference except Florida and maybe LSU. That’s Saban’s style of coaching: He’s going to get better people and they’re going to line up and he’s going to be as simple as he can be. They’re not too simple on defense, but they impose their will upon you on offense. They make you defend the run game, and then they go with the play action pass.

Robinson: It’s good to hear that still works!

John Cooper: Nick Saban, I’ve coached against him and Bill Mallory has in this league, and he’s a damn good football coach. He’s a tough, hardnosed, no-nonsense type guy. He coaches probably the same way as us when we thought we were pretty good.

Dye: Auburn can’t line up against Alabama and be conventional and beat them. There’s no way. They have to do something that’s going to give them problems with getting in the right place on defense and keeping up with where the ball’s going. I think that’s what you’re seeing across the country —with the Houstons and the Boise States and their offenses — is creating problems for defenses until you get to somebody like Alabama where their people are better than your people.

RC Slocum: I hear people talk right now, saying that nobody even plays defense anymore. I think you need to look at that. Back in the day, when both sides of the ball were running a wishbone or a conventional run-type offense and were getting 50-55 plays on offense and both teams were doing that, defenses weren’t giving up as many points. But they weren’t getting exposed. Now when teams are getting 90 snaps against you — with the way they’re managing the clock and the no-huddle offense — a defense can play pretty well and still give up some points. If you get exposed that many times, you’re probably going to give up some points.

Frank Kush: Some teams — like Oregon State — are very consistent. They’re not the most talented, but I’ve been impressed with them fundamentally. In contrast, there are some teams that commit a lot of penalties, make a heck of a lot of mental mistakes and are inconsistent. I think coaching is so significant. That’s why the likes of the Paternos and some of these guys continue to win — they’re getting the maximum amount out of their players and get them prepared mentally.

Blog: Kush talks return to glory

I was recently asked which team (Nebraska, Miami, Notre Dame, Michigan, or Tennessee) I thought was closest to returning to prior glory by The Sporting News. Here was my response:

Regarding your question on which team I think is closest to returning to glory, it’s difficult to evaluate programs unless one knows the head coach. He in my opinion is the key to success at these institutions. He must be a recruiter, a teacher (football fundamentals), and a disciplinarian on and off the field in social, academics, and athletics aspects. All of these must be controlled by the head coach and he and his assistant coaches must follow his philosophy.

With that being said, after two weeks of football I am most impressed with Miami out of this group in regards to their players. They are an extremely fast and athletic football team.