Aftermath of OSU and USC

Here are all of the different articles from many different websites. Enjoy! Get a new offense Tressel. Grow some knads too!!!!

TOP 25 POLL SEPT. 14, 2009
1. Florida (56) 2-0 1,491 1
2. Texas (1) 2-0 1,404 2
3. Southern Cal (1) 2-0 1,396 3
4. Alabama (2) 2-0 1,328 4
5. Mississippi 1-0 1,145 6
5. Penn St. 2-0 1,145 7
7. BYU 2-0 1,122 9
8. California 2-0 1,058 10
9. LSU 2-0 951 11
10. Boise St. 2-0 945 12
11. Ohio St. 1-1 840 8
12. Oklahoma 1-1 835 13
13. Virginia Tech 1-1 749 14
14. Georgia Tech 2-0 683 15
15. TCU 1-0 609 16
16. Oklahoma St. 1-1 445 5
17. Cincinnati 2-0 407 23
18. Utah 2-0 405 17
19. Nebraska 2-0 365 22
20. Miami 1-0 364 20
21. Houston 2-0 341 —
22. Kansas 2-0 271 24
23. Georgia 1-1 260 21
24. North Carolina 2-0 250 19
25. Michigan


Trojans win, Buckeyes gag yet again
Posted by John Taylor on September 12, 2009 11:36 PM ET
I couldn't agree more with this guys feelings on this game. This is a good way to start the Monday morning off. We need an offensive cordinator!

In a battle of quarterbacks who ain't quite there yet, Southern Cal's Matt Barkley kinda sorta got the best of Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor as the Trojans rumbled into Columbus and came away with an 18-15 win.
The good news for the Trojans is the best is yet to come as Barkley is a true freshman with a very bright future. Especially if he gets to face a defense coached by someone wearing a Sweatervest week-in and week-out with the game on the line.
The bad news for the Buckeyes is they have a 2009 quarterback teamed with a coach who is stuck in 2002. Or 1992. Or 1892. Or some other time in the past when the word "punt" actually, really meant something other than a derisive jab in a blog.
USC didn't so much win this game as OSU's coaching staff lost it.
And by coaching staff I mean Jim Tressel.
From the utterly asinine decision on third and three late in the second quarter to the abysmal decision to not put pressure on a freshman QB in the fourth when it counted, Tressel has proven he can no longer coach against the highest level of 1-A schools. Not now. And not since that crystal he hoisted following the 2002 season.
SoCal is fine, and C-Bus is burning.
There was no excuse for Ohio State to lose this game. None.
Except for the fact that Pete Carroll knows how to manage his QB prodigy, while Tressel still has no clue as to how to use his. Or how to deal with one on the opposing sidelines.
While SoCal is dancing their way back to their buses on their way to the airport following yet another Big Ten conquering, OSU needs to take a step back and figure out where they are going as a program.
Yeah, it's that bad.

Pryor: 'I take the whole blame'
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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In one of the biggest games of his young college career, Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor said it was his fault his team lost.
Pryor threw an early interception that led to a Southern California touchdown. Then he failed to rally an offense that mustered just 265 yards against USC's defense as the Buckeyes again lost a high-profile, national television game, 18-15 on Saturday night.
"We should have beat them by two or three touchdowns. Easy, man," Pryor said. "The ball just went the wrong way, like I keep saying. We needed this win. It just hurts right now, but we've got a long season to go. We're going to fight and we'll be back in it. We've got a good chance."
He said it was all the offense's fault.
"We've got to punch it in offensively," he said. "It just comes down to me. I take the whole blame for it."
Pryor, the nation's top recruit a year ago, completed 11 of 25 passes for 177 yards with the one interception. He also rushed 10 times for 36 yards, with USC's defense pinching in from the ends to prevent him from using his speed to break out of the pocket.
"We didn't think we'd be able to take him out of the game as a runner," USC coach Pete Carroll said. "We thought we could try to control him. ... We were very much in tune with him. We really thought he was the show. He's really a good football player."
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said the Trojans' defense conspired to confine Pryor.
"They were definitely going to bring people off the edge and keep us from getting Terrelle outside," he said.
He preferred to look at how another difficult game -- Ohio State has a history of losing these spotlight games -- might help season the sophomore quarterback.
"Every ballgame adds to your experience and can help your game," he said. "We made some big plays. We made some other ones that we'll work on."
Pryor said the loss wouldn't be the end of the Buckeyes.
"I've been telling you this for the past four weeks -- we have a great team, an excellent team," he said. "I knew we were going to fight them good. Everyone had the heart and believed in it. We knew we could beat USC. But the ball turned the other way. They played a good game. My hat's off to SC. Maybe we'll meet them later on."

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- These fan feedbacks are terrible things. Check those little balloons beside every story on our site. They allow you to "Talk Back." At least our names are on our work. Talk Back gives the, shall we say, great unwashed a chance to vent. Grammar, punctuation and good taste be damned.
For better or worse, a lot of sites have adopted the instant kick-in-the-groin philosophy. It doesn't mean the reader is right, or even awake. It does allow them to exercise their right to free screech. That brings us to one of the more outrageous conclusions reached by a reader of the Cleveland Plain Dealer following Ohio State's 18-15 loss to USC.
Reacting to a story about Terrelle Pryor, some clown self-named "Majortom505" wrote, "Pryor is a loser and the Buckeyes will be losers as long as he's the QB."
Part of me wanted to punch Majortom. Ohio State's quarterback might have simply come along at this unfortunate time in the program's history. Simple as that. Pryor has been a participant in the program's six-game losing streak to top five teams, but he is not exactly the cause of it.
And he's definitely not a loser. The thing is, he's not a winner either. Not a big one. Certainly not the winner the Majortoms of the world expected at this point in his career.
On a day when two true freshman quarterbacks (Tate Forcier and Matt Barkley) each won huge games two games into their careers, Pryor has yet to put a similar stamp on his.
Is it fair to want more out of Terrelle Pryor 15 games into his career? Right now, we're getting good, not great. Given what is happening around the country and in his own stadium, shouldn't spectacular be more of a sometime thing?
After watching Barkley convert a second-and-19 from his own 5 into a game-winning 86-yard touchdown drive Saturday night, a lot of us are convinced that no matter what happens, the 19-year old freshman is going to be better in the future. We're not so sure about the 20-year old sophomore.
That might be a terrible thing to say. It also led Majortom to fire off a response that had a kernel of validity to it. Sure, Pryor is young. But Barkley is younger. Forcier, 33 days older than Barkley, stuck it down the Irish's throats with a game-winning drive that had to stick in Buckeyes' throats too.
True, Pryor doesn't have his signature moment, his big win. But in one sense, these kids don't have time to fail. In this People Magazine world, the young, handsome and hot get the covers. Trends and public opinion change in a second. In another sense, Pryor is behind the curve. Whether stated or not, the goal is to make a quick mark, get to the NFL as soon as possible and cash in.
It almost sounds like a Michael Vick prison sentence: Three years and out.
Pryor is young and handsome too. Hot? More like lukewarm. He has also lost three of his 12 starts. His best win was last season at Wisconsin, then ranked 18th. Barkley just beat No. 8 Ohio State in the Horseshoe. At the same time, he captured L.A., maybe the country. If the NCAA wasn't watching, he would have movie offers waiting the second he stepped off the plane back home.
USC fan Will Ferrell, a guy used to the outlandish, left the field shaking his head.
"He showed composure like he was Matt Leinart at Notre Dame," USC left tackle Butch Lewis said. "The kid was unbelievable."
Pryor was last seen falling on a sword.
"It just comes down to me. I take the whole blame for it. We had them on the ropes," he said.
They're still wondering here when Pryor will have that first "breakout" game. He threw four touchdowns in his first start against Troy. He has nine in 11 games since, and time is growing ... short?
There is actually a history of sophomore Buckeye quarterbacks taking the next step. Troy Smith rallied Ohio State to a win over Michigan in 2004. Two years later, he won the Heisman. Rex Kern did it in 1968, leading the Buckeyes to a national championship. Art Schlichter was the quarterback the 1979 team that went undefeated in the regular season.
There's a big difference, though, between beating Troy and becoming Troy Smith.
For now, Pryor is remembered for he hasn't done. There was that fumble against Penn State that was the difference in going to the Rose Bowl. There was a foolish interception Saturday night that allowed USC to drive all of 2 yards for its first touchdown. The defense would then shut down Barkley and USC for the next 3½ quarters.
Not quite good enough, because the Buckeyes couldn't take control either. Pryor finished 11 of 25 for 117 yards.
"Offensively, we've got to punch it in," Pryor said. "That's on me and the offense. The offensive line played ... a beautiful game. It just came down to me, and I take the whole blame for it."
Pryor's big game hasn't come despite the fact that he is the team's best runner and that the coaching staff has experience with elite dual-threat quarterbacks. Smith won that Heisman in 2006. Still ...
Pryor has surpassed 200 yards passing once in his career.
He's thrown 13 career touchdowns, an average of 11 over a full season, to go along with six interceptions.
In his past two games against ranked teams (Texas, USC), he has misfired on 22 of 38 passes.
Yes, Pryor led the Big Ten pass efficiency as a freshman, but Ohio State doesn't want an efficient passer. It wants a difference maker. Vick led the country in pass efficiency his first season (1999 as a redshirt freshman). He got his team to the national championship game, finishing third in the Heisman voting.
Those are the reasons Vick is Pryor's hero. Accept that and move on. Forget the eye black tribute and Pryor's wacky statement: "Everyone kills people, everyone murder[s] people." Sometimes they're kids. We catch them in the middle of growing up.
It might be unfair to compare anyone to the college Vick. The more accurate comparison might be to Vince Young at Texas. The light didn't go on for V.Y. until midway through 2004. The coaching staff basically told him to quit thinking and just play. Young won the last 21 games of his career.
Pryor has plenty of time, and yet he doesn't. Barkley is going to get better. You know that. I know that. This sounds so Majortomish, but will Pryor?

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- We've seen USC win no shortage of big games during Pete Carroll's tenure, but it's been four years since we saw them do it quite so dramatically.
Back in 2005, the setting was Notre Dame Stadium. This time it was Ohio Stadium.
Against the Irish that October night, the top-ranked Trojans needed a 61-yard pass on fourth and 9 to keep a game-winning drive alive and a do-or-die sneak to win it. Saturday night against No. 8 Ohio State, third-ranked USC found itself facing a second-and-19 from its own 5-yard line, needing to make up five points and 95 yards in the last six minutes of a game-long defensive stalemate.
The difference: Back then the Trojans had a Heisman-winning quarterback (Matt Leinart) and a soon-to-be-Heisman-winning tailback (Reggie Bush) to push their way to victory. Saturday night in front of 106,033 hostile fans, a true freshman quarterback (Matt Barkley) and a previously inconsistent tailback (Joe McKnight) took their turns etching themselves into USC lore.
After being held without a touchdown for nearly 55 minutes, after starting their eventual game-winning drive with a sack and a false-start penalty, Barkley (15-of-31 for 195 yards and an interception) completed consecutive 20-plus yard passes, McKnight powered his way to 32 yards on five carries (he finished with 60 yards on 16 carries) and Stafon Johnson crossed the goal line with just 1:05 remaining to deliver an 18-15 victory over a surprisingly resistant foe.
"Over the years, it seems like either we've blown teams our or lost really close-fought games," said linebacker Chris Galippo, whose first-quarter 51-yard return of a Pryor interception set up USC's only other touchdown. "This was the first game where re really had that game-winning drive, that game-winning stop -- all the things that go into a fairy-tale story."
For about 53 minutes Saturday night, it felt like the fairly tale was playing out on the other sideline.
After all those big-game meltdowns these past few years, the Buckeyes were standing toe-to-toe with the same team that pounded them 35-3 a year earlier. If anything, the game was playing out exactly the way one would expect Jim Tressel to script it. Though Ohio State's offense struggled to find a rhythm, its defense was mostly dominating the Trojans' offense, continually pinning them with poor field position.

When Trojans center Cooper Stephenson's errant snap sailed over punter Billy O'Malley's head and out of the end zone for a safety to put OSU up 12-10 early in the third quarter, the Horseshoe roared with excitement over such an obvious momentum-changer.

But the Buckeyes never could put the Trojans away, blowing countless opportunities. Quarterback Terrelle Pryor (11-of-25 for 177 yards, with 36 rushing yards) never found his rhythm. Twice in the second half OSU drove deep into USC territory only to come away with a field goal and -- in a highly questionable decision by Tressel -- a punt, after a third-down sack of Pryor pushed them back to the USC 36.
All the while, the Trojans ... well, they danced. During breaks in the action, Ohio State's band repeatedly played a catchy riff from the White Stripes' song "Seven Nation Army." The Buckeyes' student section jumped along. On their sideline, USC's players kept jumping right along with them.
Their coach, as befitting his personality, encouraged it.
"I don't know how to convey this, but, we didn't think we were going to lose at any time," said Carroll. "We kept the juice going on the sideline. We needed every single guy jumping like that the entire game to get this done."
Ultimately, USC needed more than some rhythmic jumping to pull off the victory. With 7:05 left, down 15-10, their true freshman -- having compiled just 140 passing yards -- trotted on to the field with the task of engineering a do-or-die 86-yard touchdown drive.
Carroll, his coaches and his players had talked repeatedly about Barkley's uncanny confidence and composure belying his age. Now, he would have to show it. When he walked into the huddle, with the game and, possibly, the Trojans' national-title hopes on the line, "He smiled," marveled receiver Damian Williams. "It showed a lot about his character."
"Our fans had that little section in the end zone. It was basically the 11 of us out there on our own," a smiling Barkley said afterward. "It was fun."
The drive didn't start out so fun for the rookie. On first down, he was sacked by Ohio State's Devon Torrence for a 4-yard loss. USC followed that up with a false-start penalty to create second and 19 at its own 5. With the Trojans desperately in need of a spark, McKnight ran around right tackle for 11 yards to set up third and 8.
That's when assistant head coach Jeremy Bates called for McKnight to run a wheel route. Barkley hit him in stride for a 21-yard gain, then followed that up with a 26-yard dart down the middle to tight end Anthony McCoy.
Despite having gone lifeless for so much of the game, at that point it seemed almost inevitable USC would drive the remaining 37 yards -- and that McKnight would help them do it.
"When we punched it in," said Barkley, "it was good to hear that silence [in the stadium.]"
Most of those Buckeyes fans continued that stunned silence all the way home, a cruelly familiar feeling lately whenever their team faces a highly ranked foe. (Saturday's game marked their sixth straight loss to top-five foes.) Unlike on several previous occasions, however, Ohio State was not outclassed. Its defense played well enough to win.
Unfortunately, the Buckeyes came up one drive short.
"I know this team is just physically drained," said OSU defensive back Kurt Coleman. "We knew the ball was going to be in our court and we had to stop them on that last drive and it's just tough, man. It's tough."
As ugly as they looked at times, the Trojans showed a shade of toughness we haven't often seen of them in recent years. This wasn't a case of Mark Sanchez throwing darts to wide-open receivers against Ohio State's or Penn State's overmatched secondary. Nor did the Trojans unravel when things didn't go as planned like they did last year against Oregon State or in 2007 against Stanford.
With a similar-type "trap" game next week at Washington, perhaps such a rare, tough-earned victory will prevent complacency from befalling them.
"We've already addressed it," said Carroll. "This game can't carry over to next week."
Though he presumably wouldn't mind Barkley and McKnight picking up where they left off.