USC Gets One Final Blow

After yesterday's ruling, this technically never happened in 2004 for USC.

Yesterday afternoon the final blow of the Reggie Bush investigation was landed to the USC Trojans as the BCS took away their 2004 National Championship.

 

Their 55-19 beat down of Oklahoma officially never happened and one of college football’s greatest and most recent dynasties now becomes mentioned with an asterisk.

 

It was an incredibly sad moment in my sports life. I remember falling in love with that team and its young adult star power that captivated college sports and made it even more fun to watch.

 

That USC team should’ve been ranked with the likes of those 40’s Army squads, Barry Switzer’s Oklahoma teams, Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler’s Ohio State and Michigan national champions and Jimmy Johnson’s Miami Hurricanes.

 

We should be telling stories about how Matt Leinart looked like a sure pro prospect as he led USC’s stellar offense up and the field with ease against what looked like feeble opponents. We should look at how Frostee Rucker, Shaun Cody and Lofa Tatupu made life a living hell for offenses and how they shut down future NFL running back Adrian Peterson in the Orange Bowl.

 

Instead this team will not be remembered for any of that. It’ll be just another example of how the outside factors of college football from greedy agents to overly generous boosters to anyone else giving handouts can turn a program from glamour to shame.

 

It happened to SMU in the 80’s with the “Pony Express” and all of the benefits that they received, to the “Fab 5” at Michigan and now it’s happened to USC.

 

To be a football program with such a rich history and watch it go from the elite of all college programs to another school with a bad reputation is hard to swallow. For Reggie Bush has to be even worse.

 

The biggest loser in this whole mess is the same person for whom it all took place.

Look at everything that has happened to Bush ever since this investigation has started and where he stands now; he cost his university a championship, had his Heisman trophy vacated, is now known as a first-round bust because he cant stay healthy and isn’t a regular contributor to the New Orleans Saints and once the NFL lockout ends he’ll likely be out of a job. Not to mention he lost Kim Kardashian.

 

Bush has taken this on the chin harder than the university has. He went from being the next big thing, a revolutionary figure in the NFL and one of college football’s most electrifying players ever to being the man than brought shame to his school and couldn’t cut it in the NFL.

 

Bush’s fall from grace weighs heavier than that of Terrelle Pryor and anyone of the “Tat 5” at Ohio State and their scandal. Pryor had all of the hype coming in and never matched it. Bush built up his hype and just looked like he couldn’t miss. Both brought shame to their schools but Bush cost USC a piece of its legacy. They cant show off one of their 11 national titles, his Heisman wont sit with Matt Leinart’s, Charles White’s or Marcus Allen’s on display at the school. Speaking of Leinart his incredible Orange Bowl performance of 2004 will never talked about because now it technically never happened.

 

Bush cost his school and his teammates a piece of history that they deserved to be apart of and now cant take with them.

 

For USC the investigation and its aftermath finally and mercifully came to and end yesterday but not without one final blow.

 

A legendary team and a legendary performance have been wiped away from the record books and will never be discussed among the greats of their sport. The 2004 USC Trojans never happened and that’s a hard pill for everyone associated with that team to swallow.

 

Especially Reggie Bush.

Whisenhunt Better Be Right About Anderson

Whisenhunt's decision to take Derek Anderson over Matt Leinart is an iffy one.

If you believed for one second that Matt Leinart had any shot at being the Arizona Cardinals quarterback at any point once Ken Whisenhunt walked into the building as the new head coach then you need your head examined.

Leinart had as much of a shot at being the man in Glendale as I do at playing professional football. None.

From the moment he stepped foot in the door Whisenhunt made it clear that Leinart was not his guy and that he wasn’t much for caring where Leinart was placed on his depth chart. To him Leinart was just an expensive leftover from the Dennis Green regime that he was taking over and it was the one part on the field that he couldn’t get rid of… Just put in the back somewhere next to Emmitt Smith’s unfortunate year there and the David Boston era.

Was Whisenhunt’s decision to start Kurt Warner the right one? Absolutely. Warner led the Cardinals to a  near Super Bowl victory over Whisenhunt’s ex-employer the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl 43. However his handling of The Leinart situation has been unfortunate and near-sighted.

It was widely believed that Leinart was to be the man to relieve Warner of his duties once he retired, that’s  why he was drafted in the first place. Yet Whisenhunt after the second preseason game decided he had seen enough of Leinart and made Derek Anderson his number one quarterback.

(that sound you just heard was Cleveland fans laughing under their breath.)

The widespread reasoning was that Anderson was leading the offense better than Leinart. However, here are a few things to consider:

1. Larry Fitzgerald was no where near the football field during the preseason games. So I don’t know maybe that’s why the offense wasn’t running well.

2. The preseason offensive schemes are so vanilla it’s silly.

3. You’re judging a qb off of four offensive series in two games. FOUR!

Once Whisenhunt was hired Leinart never had a chance.

Also while Anderson did put points on the board (3 points against Tennessee. OOOOOHHHH.) Leinart had a better completion percentage and QB rating than Anderson. So in reality Leinart was a better QB.
Unfortunately for Leinart it wasn’t enough to save his job as a starter or with the team. Leinart was released this weekend by the Cardinals and now if Anderson isn’t the guy Whisenhunt thinks he is he’ll have Second year man John Skelton and rookie Max Hall to choose from. No bueno indeed.

Whisenhunt said that Leinart being put in a position to succeed was “up for debate” and that a fresh start was probably a good thing for Leinart and the Cardinals. In other words the one inheritance from that he didn’t want want from the Denny Green era was finally gone and he can run the show his way from top to bottom now.

For Cardinals fans you can only hope that Whisenhunt’s overzealousness to get rid of Leinart was the right move. While Anderson is a very capable quarterback his accuracy is a major concern. Also with Anquan Boldin out of the picture Larry Fitzgerald will see a lot more double and while Steve Breaston is an excellent slot receiver it’s yet to be determined if he is a capable number two receiver.

Whatever happens I hope Whisenhunt is happy with his decision. There are two knowns in the NFL:

1. Good quarterback play leads to good job security.

2. Getting to a Super Bowl only grants you a limited grace period among fans an the organization (ask Lovie Smith and Bill Callahan).

Whisenhunt he has a lot riding on Derek Anderson. If the Cards continue to win it’ll be no big deal. However, if they don’t then then organization will be disappointed that it lost 40 million on a quarterback without ever seeing what he was capable of and it will fall all on Whisenhunt’s head. For his sake, I hope he’s right because if not then he might be looking for a new job after next year.