Rivalries promise great weekend of college football

This weekend is just about as good as it gets in college football rivalries with USC vs. Notre Dame and Oklahoma vs. Texas.

Problem is these games just don’t mean as much as they used to.

With USC, it’s a matter of always losing a game early to fall out of the BCS championship picture. With Notre Dame, it’s a matter of too many losses in recent years.

In the case of Oklahoma-Texas, it’s that the winner of this game doesn’t necessarily get bonus points when it counts the most.

Remember when Texas beat Oklahoma last year, only to lose to Texas Tech and later watch Oklahoma lose (again) in the BCS title game?

Or how about USC with its early season loss to Washington this year that has all but eliminated the Trojans from the national title picture?

It’s too bad that USC doesn’t play in the Big 12 or the Southeastern Conference. In those conferences, coach Pete Carroll’s Trojans could redeem themselves by winning out and playing in a conference championship game (which the Pac 10 does not have yet.)

That’s a sure way to get to the BCS championship (see the Big 12 and SEC.)

As for Oklahoma-Texas, this is a year when the Longhorns can actually make a win over Oklahoma matter more than last year. With a win over the Sooners, don’t be surprised to see Texas ride it out all the way to the BCS finals.

Colt McCoy vs. Sam Bradford. Jimmy Clausen vs. USC becoming tailback university … again.

It should make for an interesting weekend of college football.

Predictions:
USC 24, Notre Dame 14
Texas 27, Oklahoma 23

Bad weekend for SoCal's 'elite' football teams

You could see the USC Trojans’ loss coming from a mile away over the weekend.

For the San Diego Chargers, you could see it from more like seven yards away (thanks Ray Lewis.)

The difference between the Chargers losing in the NFL and USC losing in the NCAA is huge: The Chargers could probably lose seven more games and still have a chance at winning the Super Bowl. USC is out of losses for a chance at the national championship.

Why is it that Pete Carroll can always win the big games at USC, yet the little one seems to escape him each year?

It happened with Stanford in 2007, Oregon State in 2008 and last weekend at the University of Washington.

Each year, that one stumble has kept/will keep the Trojans out of the title hunt.

It’s really too bad that the Trojans play on the West Coast because one loss and you’re out. Play in the more publicized Southeastern Conference or Big Ten and one loss keeps you in the hunt.

As for the Chargers, they’re in such a bad division that an 8-8 record likely gets them to the playoffs.

Still, that’s not excuse for the horrible play calling in the end with a fourth-and-2 at the Baltimore Ravens 15.

The Chargers had been averaging 2.5 yards per rush and were getting blown off the line of scrimmage with an injury-depleted offensive line. Yet coach Norv Turner still went with the run on the decisive play when everyone at Qualcomm Stadium (especially Ray Lewis) could see that it was going to be a run by Darren Sproles.

San Diego has still yet to block Lewis on that play.

It was a bad weekend for the Chargers; a horrible one for USC. See you next year, Trojans!

Georgia coach Mark Richt: A true winner!

University of Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford may be the big financial winner in this weekend’s NFL draft, but the true champion is his college coach.

No matter what happens with the Bulldogs, they can always bank on the fact that their coach Mark Richt and his wife, Katharyn, are No. 1 where it really matters … in the game of life.

Their heroic story unfolded a decade ago in the Ukraine, where Katharyn went to adopt a young orphan named Andre.

By the time she arrived, Andre had already been adopted but there was a little girl named Anya there with a severe facial deformity.

The Richts not only adopted Anya; they also adopted a boy named Zach.

Ten years later, the two Ukrainian-born children continue to join the Richts’ two older boys as part of a family of four kids.

Why such a good heart from the Richts? It also goes back to a Bible passage about orphans and widows.

James 1:27: “Pure, unstained religion, according to God our Father, is to take care of orphans and widows when they suffer and to remain uncorrupted by this world.”

The Richts, like thousands of others, are blessed beyond belief to be taking care of those who couldn’t care for themselves.

Their youngest children are now 11 and 12; had they been in the Ukraine they would have been kicked out of their orphanage at age 15.

Only because of a coach and his wife … the ultimate winners in Southeastern Conference football … will they be given a chance to live life to the fullest!