USC Thoughts

1) Justing Forsett was tremendous. He will be a big loss next year. He is my favorite player this year. I can see him getting 1500 yards on the year, which would be for third place in the Cal record books (ahead of Marshawn).

2) The offensive line had a great day as well. I don't know if it was the rain, but is sure was nice to see us able to run through the USC defense and keep protection. Longshore had plenty of time most of the day.

3) Nate Longshore looked healthier until the middle part of the 4th quarter when he started to limp. My buddy started freaking out then, calling doom and gloom on the Bears. i guess he was right. As far as it goes, 13 for 29 is a very poor showing, and throwing the last pick was heartbreaking. That being said, the guy sounds like he need a year in Tahiti to get back his confidence. You have to feel for the guy. I am sure JT is taking the blame to deflect as much from him as possible and hope that he can get through the season so that he is available for next year. More on that later.

4) The defense looked pretty good as well. I think the Chauncy Washington killed us - we had many opportunities to take him down, and he put three or four Bears on his back and drove down the field another 4 or 5 yards. He had a great game. I am not so sure he does that if the weather is better. Same with Forsett, actually. I think the offensive player has the advantage in the running game in wet weather. But we played well enough on defense to win if we were connecting on a 50% level on offense.

5) Turnovers killed us once again. Clearly, this game was lost by mistakes and once again the interception and fumble by Nate in the 4th quarter left us out in the cold.

6) It was nice to see all those Bear fans in the rain. 6 years ago when SC crushed us in the rain, the final nail in the Holmoecaust was hammered in, and there were about 12 Bear fans left at the end. That was a nighmare. The next time the Trojans came to Memorial, the Bears beat them in triple overtime.

So what happens now? I do not think there is any benefit to Tedford benching Nate at this time. That time was four weeks ago, and that ship has sailed. Now that Nate is healthy, there is no benefit to it. He could have played Riley when Nate was out due to injury, and gone with that. But he seemed to be really pissed off about that move by Riley at the end of the Oregon State game (which to me indicated a player who was too much of a cowboy for Jeff Tedford to put his trust in). It was kind of sad watching Kevin Riley warm up to go in for Nate and then have Nate walk right in front of him to go into the huddle after that timeout. Riley was clearly deflated. But now, JT is going with Nate because there is not a lot of difference in the season at this point in terms of who starts, who wins, etc. And, he does need Nate back next year (I do not think he is going pro, by the way).

I do not think that means that Nate is guaranteed the starting job next year. I think it will be open to all three - Mansion, Riley and Longshore. Nate probably has the advantage because of his experience, but I think there will be a fierce competition and I am not so sure the outlook is settled. I know that Tedford will make his decision based on his criteria, the most important one being game management. So that does give Nate the top slot going in. That is why Riley does not play now - his game management cost us a victory. It is Nate's physical limitation (his inability to hit his receivers) which has caused his downfall, but he has been an efficient game manager. And frankly, that has put us in a position to win every game we have been in this year. So it is not so outrageous to understand why Tedford has continued to support Nate. I do not think it is because he is his father figure, or any of that other stuff. He supports Nate because Nate has the intellectual capability to run this team better than anyone else. And he does have a good arm, and all that other stuff. Tedford is calculating and understands that he needs to have the right cog to run his machine. Nate fits that bill. Riley does not at this point.

The interesting thing would be, when Mansion comes into the picture, if he is better than the rest, what happens? I think Mansion has a great opportunity to get the starting nod, with Riley back at third string. Then, the question comes up, what does Kevin Riley do? That could be difficult for the team. Nate would be stuck with us - not much else he could do. But Riley would still have some time to go somewhere else and play, a la Kyle Reed. But if we had Mansion with Nate backing him up and Riley leaving, we would still be OK, I think. We would have some younger guys coming in, and Mansion would get a year of experience with a strong, experience leader behind him. So for all the Kevin Riley guys out there who are scared he will leave, while I do think that would be bad, it would not be the unmitigated disaster that it seems.

Anyway, it is clear to me that USC is not a great team anymore (although a very good team) and that the mystique is gone. I can see them losing to Arizona State and going to the Holiday Bowl. Or vice versa. In any case, if the Bears can get it together, I see us able to compete with them on a regular basis going forward. Unless Mitch Mustain is really their savior and gets it together for them next year.

Oregon next year will be worse. Arizona State will be better or the same - I think they will be a tough game but we get them at home. It will be interesting to see what happens at UCLA. They could be improved with just a better coach, like Arizona State is. But they will be losing most of the defensive players, who are the core of the team.

The Bears will have probably a better defense and probably a better offense (compared to the last five weeks). So that is good news. We do have a ton of young play-makers. I see Best at Wide Receiver 50% of the time next year, with Montgomery in the backfield and Best running all sorts of play fakes and reverses, and lining up sometimes as a running back. It could be fun.

Not that I am writing off this season....

GO BEARS!!