Showing posts with label Matt Barkley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matt Barkley. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Paciifc Life Holiday Bowl should pursue USC


Bobby Bowden should be commended for his 44 seasons as a college football head coach.

Charlie Weis should be able to find a job as an offensive coordinator in the NFL.

Tiger Woods should be ashamed of his extra-marital affairs.

OK, since that’s out of the way, let’s get on with what the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl should be doing.

The Holiday Bowl gets the No. 2 pick from the Pac 10, but it should not take the loser of Thursday night’s Oregon-Oregon State game.

Why? Because this is the first chance the Holiday Bowl will ever have to secure the USC Trojans for the game.

Oregon has been to the Holiday Bowl for two of the past four years. And while Oregon State has never played in the game, it certainly doesn’t bring the prestige of USC.

After all, an event such as the Holiday Bowl will only get the Trojans in a “down” year (they are 8-3 going into Saturday’s regular-season finale vs. Arizona.)

USC does not have its weapons of the past, but the Trojans are building with younger players who could be in the Holiday Bowl in 2009 … and in the BCS Championship within the next couple of years.

It will be interesting to see how freshman QB Matt Barkley continues to develop under coach Pete Carroll and his staff. Junior running back Joe McKnight is within 21 yards of a 1,000-yard rushing season, and the defense has such rising stars as sophomore linebacker Chris Galippo and junior defensive end Everson Griffen.

As for an opponent, the Holiday Bowl should take Nebraska in a second if it loses to Texas in the Big 12 Championship.

After all, few bowls outside of a BCS game will ever get a USC-Nebraska match-up.