Forde is a Friend ... This Week

Every once in a while, we come across a writer we like. This week it’s Pat Forde at espn.com, who’s Forde-yard Dash column takes a few shots at our enemy, while illustrating USC’s dominance (and thus, the perceived weakness) of the rest of the Pac-10. The “Dashette” photos Forde includes in his columns aren’t bad either.

Dear Domers: It Ain't Happening
Notre Dame's spectacular comeback in East Lansing – combined with a Michigan State collapse that could be the beginning of the end for John L. Smith … – will be talked about for years. It will not, however, be remembered as the game that sparked a backdoor national championship run.

The Dash looked it up: since the AP poll cranked up in 1936, no national champion has ever lost by as many as 26 points, as the Fighting Irish did against Michigan Sept. 16. The closest was Miami's first national title team, in 1983, which lost its opener 28-3 to Florida and then ran the table -- capped by that epic Orange Bowl upset of juggernaut Nebraska. (Note, too, that Miami's loss to Florida was on the road. Notre Dame's maize-and-blue beating came at home.)
Not only that, but no team with a 26-point loss has ever finished in the top two in the final regular-season AP poll -- and finishing in the top two is what it's all about these days if you want a shot at the title in the BCS championship game.

So it will take something surpassingly strange for the Irish to play anything other than spoiler to a USC title drive in November. Something like 1990, when Colorado somehow won a share of the national championship with a loss, a tie and the fifth-down bank heist of Missouri all on its permanent record.

Charlie Weis has a better chance of smooching Dashette Alana De La Garza than he has of smooching the crystal football this season.

Also, Forde’s fake script for 30-second ad campaign for USC is excellent:

(Open with ground-up video of Pete Carroll standing tall in L.A. Coliseum.) "The other leagues tried to tell you that USC would take a step back in 2006, and the Pac-10 would backslide with it." (Roll tape of John David Booty throwing a touchdown pass to Dwayne Jarrett.) "They said the Trojans would never be the same after losing Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush." (Roll tape of the USC defense suffocating Arkansas, Nebraska and Arizona.) "They said it was time for someone else to assume the role of the preeminent program in the country." (Roll tape of Traveler, the USC song girls, the USC marching band. Cue stand-up of Will Ferrell.) "This is Will Ferrell, inviting you to check the rankings and see how far USC football has fallen. Fight on."

Fight On, indeed!
east coast bias