• Archives

Tag Archives: matt barkley

USC Beats UCLA, Ends Bowl-less Season

December 04, 2010   Michelle Smith   No comments

Filed under: , ,

USC UCLAPASADENA, Calif. — The last football game in Pac-10 history was played Saturday night at the Rose Bowl between two games that weren’t going to a bowl, but were trying to lay the foundation for a better future.

Malcolm Smith’s 68-yard fumble recovery in the second quarter and a pair of fourth-quarter scores by senior Allen Bradford were the difference in a 28-14 USC victory that lacked offensive fireworks for most of the night.

With a decisive win, USC salvaged an 8-5 record in Lane Kiffin’s first season as head coach and the program’s first under NCAA sanctions.

UCLA (4-8), meanwhile, closed the season with six losses in seven games and made coach Rick Neuheisel 0-3 in games against USC since he arrived in Westwood.

It was the first time since 2000 where neither team was ranked going into the game and the first time since 1999 that neither would be bowl-bound.

USC has known all season that this was the last game thanks to NCAA sanctions. UCLA was eliminated from bowl contention after a wildly inconsistent season and a stagnant offense.

The Rose Bowl filled up slowly but surely on a chilly Southern California evening. And the day got off to a rocky start when two people were stabbed in a large parking lot brawl that reportedly involved as many as 75 people. The victims were hospitalized but are expected to recover. Three people were arrested.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Read More

Pac-10 Report: The Season Has Been Rough on Quarterbacks

November 24, 2010   Michelle Smith   No comments

Filed under: , , , , , , , , , ,


It started as the Year of the Quarterback in the Pac-10, the conference feeling pretty good about its collective of talented passers.

Instead, It has turned out to be a rough year to be a quarterback in the Pac-10.

Eight starting quarterbacks have been knocked out of games this season.

Three quarterbacks — two starters, Cal’s Kevin Riley and UCLA‘s Kevin Prince and Oregon’s No. 2 Nate Costa — have been knocked out for the season with knee injuries.

Arizona’s Nick Foles and Washington’s Jake Locker have missed games because of injuries. Foles’ backup Matt Scott was injured as well.

Oregon’s Darron Thomas and Arizona State’s Steven Threet were knocked out of games, only to return the following week.

And the hits keep coming.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Read More

Oregon State Throttles USC, Continues to Dominate Trojans in Corvallis

November 20, 2010   FanHouse Staff   No comments

Filed under: , ,

With USC coming off the biggest win under Lane Kiffin — a victory last week over Arizona — the Trojans took a step backward Saturday night. It was in Corvallis, Ore., which has become a house of horrors for USC. The Oregon State Beavers, who had lost three of four games and were just smoked by Washington State last time out, handled USC from start to finish. It was the third consecutive game Oregon State won at home against USC — including a win in 2008 that likely cost USC a shot at the national championship.

USC star quarterback Matt Barkley was injured and did not return to the game, however, he played a full half and the Trojans already faced a 20-0 deficit by that time.

The Beavers held the Trojans’ high-octane passing attack to just 135 yards. Oregon State running back Jacquizz Rodgers (right) carried the ball 26 times for 124 yards and a touchdown. He also added 42 yards on seven receptions.

Oregon State (5-5, 4-3) can still salvage a relatively disappointing season by winning one of its two final games and making a bowl. The problem is that opponents are No. 7 Stanford and No. 1 Oregon. When all is said and done, the Beavers will have faced a whopping five top-10 teams (at the time they played them).

USC (7-4, 4-4) faces Notre Dame next week and will end the season at UCLA — two opponents the Trojans should be able to handle. They cannot play in a bowl game due to the sanctions relating to the Reggie Bush incident.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Read More

USC Knocks Off Arizona in Tucson

November 13, 2010   FanHouse Staff   No comments

Filed under: , ,

Lane Kiffin’s tenure at USC thus far had been good, but not great. USC had beaten six teams it was supposed to beat. Two of the Trojans’ three losses were games they were favored to lose — to Stanford and Oregon. And the Trojans were upset at home by Washington. So there was no real big win for Kiffin in his thus-far short stint.

No more.

Saturday night, USC went into Arizona and beat the No. 18 Wildcats, 24-21.

Even better, the Trojans showed they could win over a good team without having Matt Barkley carry the offense. The sophomore quarterback did throw for 169 yards and a touchdown, but it was his lowest yardage output of the season. Instead, USC did it the old-fashioned way: running the ball.

Junior running back Marc Tyler paced the Trojans offense, carrying the ball 31 times for 161 yards and a touchdown.

USC (7-3, 4-3 Pac-10) has three winnable games remaining, too. The Trojans have road games against Oregon State and UCLA and will host Notre Dame in between.

Arizona (7-3, 4-3) will look to rebound against No 1 Oregon the day after Thanksgiving before closing against rival Arizona State.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Read More

Stanford May Not Get What It Deserves

November 06, 2010   Michelle Smith   No comments

Filed under: , ,

Stanford football ArizonaSTANFORD, Calif. — Stanford has lost just once this season — to Oregon, a game it led at halftime. The No. 10 Cardinal have beaten everyone else in front of them, including two of the best “other” teams in the Pac-10.

They are a potent combination of skill and confidence and they are led by a young man who is more clearly by the day the best quarterback in the country not already playing in the NFL. They are a legitimate top-10 team.

But with Oregon in the national championship picture, the end of this story is fuzzy for the Cardinal.

The burning question after Stanford’s 42-17 win over No. 13 Arizona at Stanford Stadium Saturday night is this: What’s Stanford playing for?

“We’re playing to win a championship,” said Cardinal coach Jim Harbaugh.

But Stanford (8-1, 5-1), which will vault a few spots in the rankings, probably isn’t going to win a Pac-10 title. Even if Oregon loses once now before the end of the season, the Cardinal couldn’t win a tiebreaker because of their 52-31 loss in Eugene on Oct. 2. Only two losses by the Ducks — which is practically unthinkable — would give Stanford a championship.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Read More

NFLPA Blows Chance to Teach College Players, Agents Life Lesson

October 27, 2010   David Whitley   No comments

Filed under: ,

Reggie Bush

That didn’t take long. One day after the Powers That Be seemed intent on staring down sleazy agents in college football, one of the powers blinked.

It was the players’ union. Try to act shocked.

The NFL Players Association came out against penalizing its members for any misdeeds in college. That after Monday’s announcement that the union, NCAA, NFL and American Football Coaches Association had finally gotten together to address the issue.

There is no silver bullet that will solve this problem. But fining and/or suspending players would be far more effective than the pop-gun approach currently in use. And in a marvelously fair twist, it would actually punish the guilty instead of the innocents they leave behind.

So you knew it was just a matter of nanoseconds until somebody would protest.

As always, look for the union label.

“The NFLPA is opposed to any penalty being imposed on a player in the NFL for conduct relating to the receipt of benefits in violation of NCAA rules,” a union statement said.

That has sent everybody backtracking, with the NCAA now saying it won’t push for NFL rookie suspensions. Consider this a classic example of unions at work.

Before the SEIU sends its thugs over to my house, let me make it clear that I am not against unions. They did a heroic job of protecting workers in the garment industry after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

It’s just that in the ensuing 99 years, unions have been far more concerned about helping themselves than the public. It’s one thing for the UAW to destroy America’s auto industry and the SEIU to turn California into Bolivia. That’s just the real world.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Read More

Newly Humble Lane Kiffin, USC Roll to 48-14 Victory Over Cal

October 16, 2010   Clay Travis   No comments

Filed under: , ,

LOS ANGELES — Maybe all the Southern California Trojans needed was for the nation to stop paying attention to them. After two consecutive final-snap losses in the Pac-10 that sent the Trojans reeling into national obsolescence, USC delivered one of the worst beatings of the year, rushing out to a 42-0 first half lead over Cal and cruising home for a final margin of 48-14. The beating was so bad even USC fans, unaccustomed to the cool weather and absence of sunshine for the 12:30 kickoff here, started to file out at halftime to find something better to do.

USC head coach Lane Kiffin, the only man in America who could receive three top jobs while running up a 16-23 career head coaching record coming into Saturday’s game, desperately needed a win to avoid three consecutive losses going into the bye week before the Oregon game. In the hours leading up to the game, USC fans grumbled about Kiffin, about Monte — his father whose Southern Cal defense hasn’t looked capable of defending air this season — and the continuing impact of probation upon a proud program. What, USC fans wondered, did they have to look forward to? What signs had Kiffin given that he could return the program to the status it enjoyed under Pete Carroll?

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Read More

Nate Whitaker, Stepfan Taylor Get Sweet Redemption in Stanford Win Over USC

October 09, 2010   Michelle Smith   No comments

Filed under: , ,

PALO ALTO, Calif. — The reward for redemption was pretty sweet for Stanford‘s Nate Whitaker and Stepfan Taylor: a massive, breathtaking dogpile of teammates, students, relatives and bandwagon jumpers, who poured from the stands at Stanford Stadium to celebrate the 16th-ranked Cardinal’s 37-35 win over USC Saturday night.

Whitaker sealed the win with a 30-yard field goal at the buzzer, payback to his team for the point-after attempt that he missed earlier in the fourth quarter, a miss that could well have cost the Cardinal dearly in a game that was described by Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh as a “3 1/2-hour arm-wrestling match.”

“I knew I had to make it,” said Whitaker, a fifth-year senior. “It was my chance to redeem myself and give the team what I needed. … On my extra point, I rushed it a little bit, so I knew I had to relax and get through my steps like I usually do.”

Actually, a little slower and more deliberately than he usually does. But the end result — a down-the-middle 30-yarder — was worth every extra second. It was the first game-winning attempt of Whitaker’s career.

“That was the biggest kick I ever had,” Whitaker said.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Read More

Washington Nips USC, Hands Lane Kiffin First Trojan Loss

October 02, 2010   Brian Grummell   No comments

Filed under: , ,

No matter who he faces, whether it’s legendary Pete Carroll or legendarily infamous Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian just seems to have USC‘s number. The second-year Washington coach once again toppled former employer USC with a last-second field goal, this time doing it in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Saturday night for the 32-31 victory.

It was nearly a mirror-image of last year’s victory, with Huskies quarterback Jake Locker working the ball down the field to set up a chip-shot field goal. Even the kicker was the same, with Eric Folk connecting on the 32-yard attempt as time expired.

The Huskies’ victory overshadowed a career performance from fifth-year USC tailback Allen Bradford. He was nearly impossible to bring down, outracing Huskies defenders when he wasn’t flattening them with a stiff-arm or knocking their helmets off in the pile. Bradford would run for a career-high 223 yards as part of a 298-yard night for USC on the ground.

However, Washington ran for 226 yards of its own, paced by Jake Locker’s 111. That was part of a 421-yard outburst for Locker following a particularly poor performance against Nebraska where he completed just four of 20 pass attempts. This time, he was much sharper, completing 24 of 40 for 310 yards. The total could have been much higher if not for a string of drops that haunted his receivers in the second half.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Read More

Pac-10 Report: Stanford Doesn’t Waste Time Getting Into League Play

September 08, 2010   Michelle Smith   No comments

Filed under: , , , , , , , ,

This particular short straw has Stanford‘s name on it. The Cardinal are the opening act of the Pac-10 season. And that’s just the way it is.

There’s no warming up with two or three non-conference games to work out the kinks. It’s into the fire for the Cardinal. Again.

Of the four season openers Stanford has played since Jim Harbaugh arrived on the Farm, three have been Pac-10 games. In fact, Stanford has opened the season with a Pac-10 game every season since 2006. Last week, the Cardinal bucked that trend and debuted against Sacramento State.

But once again, Stanford is first out of the blocks for conference play, taking on UCLA at the Rose Bowl in Week Two.

Asked why it works out that way — Is the Cardinal volunteering for this duty? Is the opportunity to play on TV a factor? – Harbaugh shrugged.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Read More
« Older posts
Powered by WordPress | Designed by: suv | Thanks to toyota suv, infiniti suv and lexus suv