Twelve more days until the College football season starts and I am stoked...because...USC is the favorite to win it all this year. The AP poll came out earlier today and USC received 62 of the 65 first place votes with LSU receiving the other three. On paper this is a potentially great USC team...but...privately I am going to try to remain cautious and am going to refrain from making any bold predictions about another national championship. College football in the last six or seven years is littered with pre-season powerhouses who bit the dust. Note, Ohio State loss to the Gator's last year, USC's loss to Texas, Oklahoma getting annihilated by USC and Ohio State victory over the mighty Hurricane's of Miami....On the bright side...USC has been a juggernaut over the past five years and they have crushed all comers except Texas... and... they should have won that game...All their losses in the past five years have come at the hands of Pac-10 opponents and all those games went down to the wire...To put it another way...no one...has taken SC to the woodshed for a good ole fashion whopping in over five years...The strength of USC is their defense this year. Nine starters back and their front seven are monsters. Their big, fast, and they will knock your socks off. Their linebackers are some of the best in recent college football history....and...their deep...Offense is the only question mark but they are loaded with high school all Americans, especially at tailback....but they are inexperienced...USC's road schedule is brutal which is why they might not make it to the big dance... but... I don't expect them to lose...unless...they become overconfident...sustain an injury to the quarterback...or have an access of turnovers on the road...anything is possible and it's tough to run the table but if you don't come with your A game when playing the "Men of Troy" this year you're going to get trampled by a juggernaut that has been running at peak speed for the past five years...just ask Michigan twice, Arkansas twice, Nebraska, Cal three times running, Oklahoma, Iowa, Notre Dame four times running, and Auburn...Recently the coach of LSU questioned that the toughness of the Pac-10 conference. LSU just better hope they don't have to face USC in the championship because SC has outscored the last 4 SEC opponents by 119 points. That comes out to almost 30 points a game... So much for the SEC...and...don't forget the macho talk of Oklahoma two years ago when the Sooner players and coaches implied that the Pac-10 was a pretty face finesse conference and USC hadn't played the kind of teams in the rugged Big 12 conference...and...last but not least...Michigan was supposed to out muscle the Trojans last year but SC, which was in a rebuilding year crushed the Wolverines in the second half...So much for size and toughness over finesse and quickness, speed... Remember...Speed kills...and...this version of the Trojans is not only fast but they are plenty big to handle anything from the SEC, Big 12, or the Big Ten...so...Men of Troy...go out and fullfill your destiny and make us west coast fans proud!!!!!!!