Friday, November 03, 2006

USC Football Pre-Game: 1 Down, 5 To Go

I just got back from a short business trip to West Virginia of all places. I was there for the day, which was plenty for me. The hills and bridges were beautiful and the people were generally very nice. No jokes about Deliverance or hillbillies here. Still, all the blue and yellow West Virginia sweatshirts were a little much for me.

I watched the WVU-Louisville game at a hotel sports bar after flying in early Thursday evening. The place was filled with West Virginia fans (all clad in those sweatshirts) eating a lot of meat and fried stuff.

They seemed to be pretty knowledgeable about college football, although none of them could explain why their supposed Heisman Trophy candidate Steve Slaton spent nearly all of the third quarter on the sideline. He was apparently “suffering” from “weakness” in his left arm. From what I could tell, he was actually allowing his team to suffer from his own psychological weakness, after fumbling twice on consecutive plays. Talk about shrinking on a big stage.

Anyway, I’m not complaining because USC fans are happy with the outcome. Now that West Virginia has been exposed, we’ll be hoping that Louisville loses to New Jersey State, which would keep alive our slim chances for a shot at the national title.

If not, we may be looking at Louisville in the national championship game, and that just doesn’t sound right.
east coast bias

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