Thursday, March 13, 2008

Let The Games Begin...

Mark the date.

On September 13, 2008, The Ohio State University Buckeyes will march into the LA Coliseum to battle the USC Trojans.

But six months before the anticipated showdown between the top two teams in the NCAA over the past 6 years, the smack talk has started. Mitch Mustain, the former Arkansas transfer, decided to take the first shot in the Los Angeles Times.

Q:
Who would you like to play if you won the job and led USC to the national championship game?

A: Oh man, that's easy. Florida. I think that there's a lot of other teams and I think everybody's kind of sick to death of hearing about the other teams. We play one of them this year
. . . . Florida, at least the way I've seen it, has been I guess you could say our equivalent, not in the sense they've had our history in the last five or six years, just in the fact that they're the big team. They're the sexy team in the East. On the East Coast they're it. You've got Tim Tebow; they're loaded. They're young like we are. I just think it would be a great matchup for the two of us. Eventually, if not this next year, two or three years down the road would be awesome.

Los Angeles Times


Mitch Mustain, however, appears to be throwing more stones in the paper than he will be footballs during the actual matchup. Right now, he's Pete Carroll's left hand man and backup to Mark Sanchez. The simple fact that he picked and played at Arkansas under Houston Nutt puts his decision making ability in question.

And that's the beauty of the statement. What does he have to lose? USC wins, "I was right". Ohio State wins, "I should have started". Kudos though, for the balls to talk smack in the age of political correctness. My guess would be that USC has a higher ranking and is the favorite at home.

It takes a brave soul to sit on the USC bench and talk about how everyone is "
kind of sick to death of hearing about he other teams" since SoCal is kind of the king of the roost.

What we know for sure is that September 13, 2008 marks the first time that USC will be able to take a shot at knocking off Ohio State. Why not the other way around.
  • It was supposed to be Ohio State v. USC in 2006, before the Trojans fell to UCLA in a West Virginia-esque 13-9 loss (after losing to Oregon State earlier in the season).
  • It was supposed to be Ohio State v. USC in 2007, before the Trojans fell to Stanford at home (the same Stanford team that went on to lose to Notre Dame).
So USC gets free passes for choking away title game appearances? Because that's what has happened. USC could very well have faced Ohio State in 2006 and/or 2007 for the National Championship, but squandered their chances at UCLA and Stanford. But they show up in their bowl games against lesser competition, and I guess that it is all that matters.

Meanwhile, James Laurinaitis could not be reached for comment. However, we assume that he will
be doing his best to get through Sanchez to get to Mustain.

6 comments:

GLL said...

Illinois a lesser opponent? Does that make OSU lesser than lesser?

Anonymous said...

mitch mustain is a little bitch who's mommy and daddy had to talk to houston nutt about why little mitchy wasn't getting the playing time he deserved.

i bet ma and pa mustain will have to book a flight to la to have the same conversation with pete this year.

Evan said...

Watch your mouth Ginger.

Poe McNoe said...

gll,
It must be nice for USC to continually play the second ranked Big 10 team in the Rose Bowl. Pac-10 #1 vs. Big 10 #2? or even #3?

USC and the Pac-10 oddly gets credit for playing the entire conference instead of weak OOC games. Yet 2 of those teams lost to Notre Dame. Which Big 10 team did Notre Dame beat?

Just saying.

Anonymous said...

A plea from the Arkansas Buckeye:

1. no more smack talk on this game until we come home with a win

2. when the game is over, come get me out of my Ozarks cave. I am so tired of taking this SEC crap and if we lose and Mitchie is even dressed, the amount of grief I will get from these slack-jawed, football ignorant Razorback fans will just be to much to bear.

My boys are going to bring us home a win and I can go back to work with a smile.

Did I mention how much I hate the SEC?

Poe McNoe said...

1. I haven't made predictions about this upcoming battle. I think it will be one hell of a game and i'm trying to get there.

2. Luckily, I'm from Northern Ohio. One of these days I'll do a "what the hell happened" about what has already happened the past 2 years.