They’re underway at Pro Player Stadium. GO TROJANS! BEAT THE SOONERS!

We had to cancel our motel reservation in Joplin and drive up the road to Carthage because a cable war in Joplin has resulted in the local ABC affiliate not being available in town. Call me crazy, but when I made the reservation, it never occurred to me to ask, “Do you get ABC?” Sheesh!

Anyway, all is well now. We’re at the Econo Lodge in Carthage, and not only do they get ABC, but they have free wireless Internet! Woohoo!

Ugh. Oklahoma just took a 7-0 lead.

UPDATE: Touchdown, Leinart to Byrd! 7-7!

WOOHOO!!! Worst. Fumble. Ever. Trojans lead, 14-7!

YEEEAAH!!! Leinart to Jarrett, 54 yards… bee-yoo-tiful! 21-7 USC!!!

“‘SC IS ROLLING”: 28-7!!! This is too easy!

UPDATE: Now 28-10, with 3:10 left in the first half.

WOW: USC certainly picked the right time to play its best half of football this season. Let’s hope they can keep it up in the second half! 35-10… and driving again!

HALFTIME: 38-10. “I don’t think you can play any better than [the way] USC has played.”

A postcard from enemy territory:

:)

We’re 74 miles west of Oklahoma City now… which means we’re 181 miles, or roughly three hours, from Tulsa. I’m not sure if we’ll stop there for the night, or press on to Joplin, Missouri (115 miles further), or perhaps try and find a place to stay somewhere in between the two (a tall order when you need a motel that will allow three cats and a large dog). Whatever we do, you can be sure our paramount goal is to be settled comfortably in front of a TV by 7:00 PM CST. :)

UPDATE, 4:45 PM CST: Joplin it is. I made a reservation at a Motel 6 there, and we look poised to get in around 6:00. So, we won’t be watching the USC-OU game from Oklahoma after all… we’ll be just across the border in Missouri.

Here are today’s photos so far.

Becky and I were just on the radio, responding to a listener survey about the Orange Bowl, on 101.9 FM in Amarillo, Texas. I called in, explained that we’re a pair of USC grads traveling across the country, and predicted a close USC victory. (Becky said “Oklahoma sucks” and predicted a 60-0 win by the Trojans. :)

Here’s a (not entirely high quality, but oh well) audio recording (1.1 MB) of the station’s broadcast of our call.

In addition to invading the airwaves, we also had a little fun with the lego table at Burger King in Portales, New Mexico:

We may have lost our flag, but we’re still making our mark. :)

We’ll be in Oklahoma in a little over an hour. It’ll be the 49th state I’ve been in, tying Becky. It’ll also complete the Lower 48* for me, something Becky hasn’t yet accomplished. (I’ve never been to Alaska; she’s never been to Louisiana.) Woohoo!

*I’ll pre-empt Mike’s inevitable comment by noting that there’s actually nothing “lower” about the Lower 48 — what I really mean is, the 48 continental states. :)

P.S. Interesting weather ahead? Let’s hope that “pink” zone stays north of I-40!

UPDATE: We’re out of the precipitation, for now.

Andrew just text-messaged me that former Iowa State and New Orleans Hornets head coach Tim Floyd will be USC’s new basketball coach. But now Floyd is denying that it’s a done deal — yet. “I appreciate USC’s interest, but I need to discuss this more with my family and I hope to have a decision sometime after Christmas,” he says.

Henry Bibby and Dr. Evil:

Heh.

It’s official: Rick Majerus won’t coach at USC. Apparently, confronted with the possibility of taking his dream job, Majerus forgot that, like, he’s still really fat.

In other college basketball news, Gonzaga, fresh off a very impressive victory over then-#3 Georgia Tech, jumped from #22 to #13 in the new AP poll.

Looks like Rick Majerus won’t be coaching at USC, after all.

The Los Angeles Daily News reports:

USC will introduce former Utah coach Rick Majerus as its next basketball coach Wednesday after reaching a contract agreement, according to sources.

Majerus, 56, would not start coaching the Trojans until after the season, allowing interim coach Jim Saia to finish the season.

Woohoo!

(Hat tip: fellow 1L Charles.)

It looks like USC offensive genius Norm Chow, already snubbed by Stanford, isn’t going to BYU, either! Have the Trojans successfully weathered the annual Norm Chow Head Coaching Sweepstakes again? Knock on wood!

P.S. On the other hand, I hear the Patriots are looking for a new offensive coordinator…

Heh.

Yessss! Stanford picked Walt Harris instead of Norm Chow! My chanting worked! :)

Good news for Troy, right? But wait, there’s more! Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart may be coming back, too! Woohoo!

In other news, the South Bend Tribune is corroborating ESPN’s report that sources close to Notre Dame are saying a Charlie Weis announcement will happen tomorrow. Weis will presumably be in a good mood, his Patriots having just beaten the Bengals (despite Patrick’s prediction to the contrary).

And (as Dave reports above) it looks like Washington will hire Ty Willingham. That’ll make next year’s Sept. 24 game in Seattle awfully interesting!

According to the AP:
                             1st   2nd   3rd  Total 
Matt Leinart, USC            267   211   102  1325
Adrian Peterson, Oklahoma    154   180   175   997 
Jason White, Oklahoma        171   149   146   957 
Alex Smith, Utah              98   112   117   635 
Reggie Bush, USC             118    80    83   597 
Cedric Benson, Texas          12    41    69   187 
Jason Campbell, Auburn        21    24    51   162 
J.J. Arrington, California    10    33    19   115 
Aaron Rodgers, California      8    14    15    67 
Braylon Edwards, Michigan      3    13    27    62

(First-, second- and third-place votes tabulated on a 3-2-1 basis.)

In addition to being the sixth Trojan ever to win the Heisman (all of those wins coming in two- or three-year pairs), BoiFromTroy points out that “Leinart is also the first Blogger to win the Heisman Trophy.”

FIGHT ON!!!!!

The voting:

Matt Leinart 1,325
Adrian Peterson 997
Jason White 957
Alex Smith 635
Reggie Bush 597

Combined OU (Peterson & White) votes: 1,954
Combined USC (Leinart & Bush) votes: 1,922

Teams with the most Heisman Trophy winners in history:

Notre Dame 7
USC 6
Ohio State 6
Oklahoma 4

Reggie Bush ought to move the Trojans into a tie with the Irish next year…

UPDATE: Here’s the AP story. Also, check out the USCTrojans.com homepage.

UPDATE 2: From the AP story, this tidbit is way cool:

Leinart and Bush will compete against Peterson and [2003 Heisman winner] White again on Jan. 4 in the Orange Bowl. The winner of that contest takes home the national title. It’ll be the first time two players with Heisman trophies have played each other in college.

Based on “declared” ballots from 223 of the 923 Heisman voters, HeismanProjection.com is predicting a narrow Matt Leinart victory:

Matt Leinart 24.2%
Adrian Peterson 21.5%
Jason White 15.4%
Reggie Bush 14.4%
Alex Smith 13.9%

I’d say the Leinart-Peterson difference is within the margin for error, but I suppose we can declare Leinart a slight favorite. Anyway, we’ll find out for real in less than two hours. (The ceremony starts at 8:00 PM EST.)

P.S. If nothing else, he’s got O.J.’s vote!

Offensive genius Norm Chow, the Karl Rove of the USC coaching staff, is one of two finalists for the Stanford job. We’ll probably find out this weekend, or Monday at the latest, whether he’s going to the Farm.

Say it with me: “WALT! WALT! WALT!” :)