Sports: 8 days to go until U$C vs UCLA

USC is 11-0 (7-0 in Pac-10) and ranked #1 in the country. UCLA is 9-1 (6-1 in Pac-10) and ranked #11.

I'm guessing the odds makers have USC favored to win by 14 or something like that.

UPDATE: USA Today has the odds on the USC vs. UCLA game and says USC is favored by 21.5 points!

UCLA's coaching staff is probably looking at the tapes of the USC vs. Notre Dame and the USC vs. Fresno State games.

Unfortunately, both opponents have serious offensive and defensive lines which UCLA does not have.

One of my friends is a huge USC fan and this was his analysis of the surprising Bulldogs:

Great game plan by the coach of Fresno State. 2 of the 4 interceptions in the 2nd half occurred when the FSU QB strayed away from the short, underneath game and tried a few long passes.

Both FSU's offensive and defensive lines outplayed the Trojans. The USC linebackers are really dinged up and were playing with 2 true freshman and 1 walk-on. The starting middle line backer was just coming off a strained knee and his mobility probably was lacking. A starting weak side linebacker got hurt on the 1st series and was out of the game after that. Both should be okay for the UCLA game.

Not enough pressure on the senior QB of Fresno and he has the experience and composure to do well. No matter how good a pass defense is, it can't cover for +5 seconds or longer. Strange that on some 3rd downs Carroll only rushed 3.

Carroll admitted in the post game interview that he made a number of defensive mistakes in terms of schemes which put his players in an unwinnable situation.

There were some strange short yardage calls by the USC offensive coordinator and a few missed passes on 3 and 1. Why pass? Just push the run.

Also too many times they tried to give the ball to Reggie in the red zone which ended up in stalled drives and a FG instead of a TD.

FSU's coach did a great job in the mental prep for his team.

It was a wake up call for USC and I think they will be OK for UCLA. UCLA's offensive and defensive lines does not match up to what FSU brought. Maybe one quarter, at most a half and then USC will overwhelm them. I think UCLA's coaching is weaker too. Expect to see lots of Lendale up the middle and Reggie on the outside.

Our special teams stink. Will probably see squib kicks or pop flys to Maurice Drew. Punts will go out of bounds. USC got a new special teams coach this year and he is doing awful.

Will be flogging the hype on this blog in the days to come.