Condom U, Why We Love to Hate You

That's right Trojans we love to hate you. Always have. Long before living in Southern California. Long before you won the 1980 Rose Bowl by one-point costing the Buckeyes the National Championship.

Maybe not quite as much as Michigan, but almost, and in a different way.

When Michigan RB Mike Hart shoots off his mouth, it may be irritating, but you can excuse it to some degree because of his youth and enthusiasm. But when a coach acts the same way, those excuses go out the window.

Take, for example, the following comments made yesterday by USC coach Pete Carroll.

- "We'll play anybody, anywhere, anytime,"

- "It's pretty clear about our team, nobody would want to play us right now."

Come-on Pete, how egotistical can you get. "We'll play anybody, anywhere, anytime" but "nobody would want to play us right now."? I can think of a bunch of teams that would love to face off against your team, no matter what bowl you happened to be in.

And while we're at it, how about the whining over the loss to 41-point underdog Stanford keeping you out of the BCS Championship game. What was it you said? Oh yeh,

- "Unfortunately, that game is killing us right now," "Without that, we'd be coasting into the national championship game."

Yep, and without Pitt, West Virginia would "be coasting into the national championship game." Without South Carolina, Georgia would "be coasting into the national championship game." Without Boston College (whom they beat in the ACC title game), Virginia Tech "be coasting into the national championship game." And, of course, without Illinois, Ohio State would have finished with an undefeated season and coasted "into the national championship game" a couple of weeks ago.

Face it, you lost to a 41-point underdog. There's no excuse for that. Your out-of-conference victories were against 2007 powerhouses Nebraska (5-7), Idaho (1-11), and Notre Dame (3-9). And you think because you beat UCLA (who lost to Notre Dame) that your team is playing such great football that "nobody would want to play us right now."

Sure you'll note that out of conference schedules are set years ahead and no one could predict down years for Nebraska and Notre Dame. Fine, except that same excuse doesn't seem to hold water for the Buckeyes as far as Washington is concerned. (A team, by the way, that Ohio State beat 33-14, in Seattle, only two weeks prior to your domineering 27-24 victory over the Huskies).

Don't worry though, assuming that Ohio State does end up in the BCS Championship and your team doesn't, you'll still get you chance to play a home game against the Buckeyes on September 13. Till then, you will have to be content with what might have been, and I'll sit here with warm memories of my first Rose Bowl, a 42-21 Ohio State victory over Condom U.