It sounds like Mark Sanchez will get the start for the Trojans against Notre Dame.
But who will start for the Irish? It might be Evan Sharpley instead of Jimmy Clausen, as Sharpley once again looked like the better QB yesterday.
Who would have thought, back in August, that this year’s USC-Notre Dame game could potentially feature Mark Sanchez against Evan Sharpley?
UPDATE: More on Notre Dame’s QB decision here.
Meanwhile, USC fan Jonathan Tu — who is currently in the midst of living the dream, doing a season-long whirlwind college-football odyssey that will see him attend 22 games in 14 weeks, including the one in South Bend next Saturday — riffs on what it feels like to be human again:
[When the final score of the Arizona game was announced,] I didn’t think about mistakes, injuries, what-ifs, polls, ramifications, anything, really, except one thing: how good it feels to win.
It’s been so long since USC’s had a realistic chance of losing to anyone except one of the traditional powerhouses of college football (Oklahoma, Texas, Michigan). This is what it felt like in 2002, but, more specifically, this is what it felt like pre-2002: anything can happen, anything will happen, and, yes, even a 7 point win over a hapless Arizona team is a miracle, a godsend, a blessing, a wonder, something worth celebrating in of itself. This was not the case with some of the wins over the past several years. I was spoiled; we all were.
I’m a fan, so naturally I have ideas about what needs to happen for USC to be in New Orleans. (Hah!). But for the first time in a long time I’m only thinking about the next game and the stated goal: to make sure Notre Dame’s only win is over UCLA, which is thoroughly acceptable to a USC fan. Whether that win’s by 3 or 30, I’ll take it.
October 14th, 2007 at 7:33:04 pm
Absolutely start Sharpley. Claussen can probably learn more on the bench this year observing coverages and standing next to Weis than he can getting his clock cleanned every other series.
October 14th, 2007 at 7:51:32 pm
Why is there any question at this point? I don’t think I even want to watch USC if we’re going to have the same three yard swing passes (which seem to be the only thing that Jimmy Clausen is trusted to throw) that just invite the opposing team to stack the box.
October 14th, 2007 at 9:20:42 pm
btw, tell your cousin to have more respect for his automobiles
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3063480
October 14th, 2007 at 10:43:01 pm
Sanchez did fine yesterday…losing two more offensive linemen, however, sucked. We’ll see soon about Heberer’s shoulder, Ellison’s nose, Baker’s hammie, & Maualuga’s hip. Cushing, Rachal & O’Dowd are supposed to come back against ND. And Stafon Johnson is a maybe…
Injuries have killed this team! I’ve got to wonder about the team’s strength & conditioning coaches…
October 14th, 2007 at 10:44:45 pm
USC’s already-low SOS isn’t going to get much of a boost playing the Irish…
October 14th, 2007 at 11:11:13 pm
True. It will, however, get a boost from the remainder of the Pac-10 schedule, considering the Trojans have so far played all four of the four worst Pac-10 teams, and none of the five best (excluding themselves). So much of the low SOS is artificial due to a back-loaded schedule. But it sucks that Notre Dame turned out to be so awful, and Nebraska so overrated, in a year when USC’s other non-conference opponent was Idaho. Coming into the season, you would have reasonably assumed that the Trojans would have one very good non-conference opponent (Nebraska), one decent-to-good (Notre Dame), and one bad (Idaho). Instead, they have two bad and one mediocre-to-bad.
October 14th, 2007 at 11:14:24 pm
I was thinking the same thing about all the injuries. Someone needs to take some of the money they were paying Reggie Bush’s parents and invest it in the sports med department ;-)
October 14th, 2007 at 11:30:49 pm
LOL
October 15th, 2007 at 2:01:36 pm
Injury problems have plagued SC for the last 3 years running. They were on their 4th string Cornerbacks when they almost lost to Notre Dame 2 seasons ago. This year, though, is even more ridiculous than ever.