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Posted on 01/05/2005 8:38:56 AM PST by RedBloodedAmerican
USC No. 1 from start to finish in AP poll
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MIAMI (AP) -- Southern California joined some elite company with its latest AP national title. The Trojans became just the second team to go No. 1 wire-to-wire in The Associated Press Top 25, and the 10th team to repeat as national champs.
Following a resounding 55-19 victory over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, USC received all but three first-place votes early Wednesday to easily outdistance Auburn.
The Trojans (13-0) are the first back-to-back AP champs since Nebraska in 1994-95.
"I know right now I'm in the middle of something special," USC coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday morning after receiving both the AP and Bowl Championship series national title trophies.
"We are now unanimously No. 1," Orange Bowl MVP Matt Leinart said right after the game.
Not quite, but good enough.
USC received 62 first-place votes and 1,622 points. Auburn got the other first-place votes and 1,559 points.
The Sooners (12-1) finished third, ahead of unbeaten Utah (12-0) and Texas (11-1).
Auburn (13-0) finished its perfect season Monday night with a 16-13 victory over Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl.
Tigers coach Tommy Tuberville and his team practically pleaded with poll voters to give his team a championship, but to no avail.
"Anybody who thought that last night was a championship game, I beg to differ," Tuberville said Wednesday morning. "I'm disappointed that with the type of team we had, as balanced as we were, we did not get a chance to play in that game."
The Trojans' 36-point rout was the third-largest margin in a matchup between No. 1 and No. 2 teams.
USC joined Florida State in 1999 as the only teams to be No. 1 from start to finish since the AP started a preseason poll in 1950. The Trojans are also the 10th preseason No. 1 to win the national championship.
The Trojans' fifth AP title tied them with Miami for the fourth most.
Notre Dame leads with eight national titles, followed by Oklahoma with seven and Alabama with six.
And if the Trojans start next season No. 1 - a good possibility even if Leinart skips his senior season for the NFL draft - they will match Miami's record of 19 straight polls as No. 1.
No team has ever won three straight AP titles, but USC could enter next season as the favorite to do just that.
Louisville was No. 6, followed by Georgia, Iowa, California and Virginia Tech.
Miami was 11th, and for the first time since 1982, no team from Florida ended the season ranked among the nation's top five.
Florida State (9-3) finished ranked 15th and Florida (7-5) ended the season unranked.
Boise State's first loss of the season to Louisville in the Liberty Bowl dropped the Broncos two spots to No. 12.
Navy made it into the rankings for the first time since 1979 at No. 24. Fresno State also joined the poll at 22.
Texas Tech dominated California......Texas whupped Michigan...
.....Big 12 teams both!
No need for that comment. We may disagree, but there are many facts to back up my side.
........Cal was not overrated all year,
Yes they were, TTU proved it.
but they became very ineffectual near the end due to loss of their wide receivers and best defensive rover...
They lose three guys and they become "very ineffectual" . Hmmm, makes me think they were not that strong then. USC lost their best receiver for the whole season and still did OK.
They won their games by an average of 24 points
Yes, they had some big games against weak opponents ( Oregon State and Arizona) and did well against fairly strong opponents (AFA, NMS, ASU). But against some tough (and some not so tough) opponents the scores were always close:
Trailed Southern Miss 17-16 in fourth qtr.
Trailed Oregon in the 4th 27-21
and were the only ones that almost beat USC after outplaying them
All season I have said USC was weak in the first half and that because of this, they could get beat. Cal played on hell of a game against USC, but came up short on the points total, because USC's Defense came through when it counted.
Cal had one of their best seasons ever, no doubt about it. But they do not have the depth (as you have admitted) nor the history of being a strong program, thus I remain unconvinced that Cal will repeat as a top ten team next year.
I definitely agree that USC got hosed last year, they should have been playing LSU in the Sugar Bowl instead of Oklahoma.
Yes, but that is a somewhat subjective measure. USC lost a game that year, Auburn went undefeated this season. Auburn went undefeated in the SEC, Beat the ACC champion, and had 4 wins against top ten opponents. If you compare that record to that ridiculously over-hyped Oklahoma team, then the conclusion is that the orange bowl should have been USC vs. Auburn. Sadly, (unlike USC) Auburn's seniors-best players-are leaving and they won't have a chance to fix this injustice next year-maybe ever.
Texas has not beaten the Sooners in 5 previous tries! Football is an imperfect team sport played by 18-20 year olds. Southern Cal played a perfect game last night and the Sooners made early mistakes. SC was not perfect in the Stanford, UCLA, California and Oregon State games which they could have easily lost........last night they were on target. Sports fans err by letting their biases show through in their statements even on Free Republic!
I wouldn't call 2-3 with one huge upset "miserable."
OkSU and A&M clearly weren't ready to play (and I'm an Aggie). OU got the business end of a buzzsaw they couldn't reverse. The turnovers in both the Cotton and Orange bowls gave the final scores a deceptive appearance. I think A&M and OU had a total of 10 turnovers. Show me any two teams that would win (or keep from getting blown out of) their bowl games with 5 TOs each.
The problem I see with prognosticators is that too many swear at the alter of the conference their team plays in. If its the SEC, they blindly say the SEC is the best. Same for Big 12. The truth is that top to bottom, there isn't a great deal of difference in any of the conferences. The Big 12 South distinguished itself this year in the REGULAR season. That's undisputable. But the people picking OU last night because they thought the Big 12 was great and the Pac 10 sucked made absolute idiots of themselves.
I have no conference allegiance. I only have allegiance to my team.
what bias?..It was a funny, yet perfectly true comment of mine..Texas has run smack dab into OU the last five seasons, derailing any championship hopes the Longhorns had. OU has been the far better program..OU had a bad day last night..so bad that had they played Texas last night, Texas would have won..
They're losing their QB to the NFL next season. Arrington alone can't carry the program, no more than Adrian Peterson was able to carry the Sooners last night.
Sprite's premise is incorrect. SC played four teams ranked in the top 20 - Oklahoma, Cal, Virgina Tech, and Arizona State. They also played two other teams that briefly appeared in the top-25 during the season (Notre Dame and Oregon). In all, SC had played seven "bowl teams" during their schedule this year.
You're right! A friend of mine who used to play in the NFL sneers at these antics and says, "They should act like they've been there before!"
You never saw truly greats like Jim Brown, Jerry Rice, etc. act that way.
Me neither. I'm a USC grad and I'd prefer the rest of the Pac-10 to go winless all year. My son is an Aggie, so I hope the same for the rest of the Big 12.
It's not possible, of course, but I just don't see the point in wishing your primary competitors well. Every win they get makes your recruiting job more difficult.
LOL. If I had seen that, obviously I would not have posted my comment.
Has anyone raised the "running up the score" critique of USC when - leading 48-10 with less than ten minutes to go - they went for it (succesfully) on 4th-and-2 from Oklahoma's 12-yard line, instead of kicking a field goal?
I agree with you. 5 of the 6 teams in the division had 7 or more total wins and made it to bowl games. However, many of their wins came at the expense of the Big-12 North.
haha.......that's what i got now but i'm not ashamed of our season cause until the injuries we really were a number 4 team......i din't mean that to sound that snooty but some of the folks here and at ESPN, mainly Big 12 fans have been so surley about the whole thing and when I ask for facts or logic about Cal or the Pac 10, all i get are insults and invective........little substance and clarity.....thought they would like to go to a higher rated school....not meant to offend you per se........
I thought the TV announcers in Cal's bowl game were incredibly biased against Cal.
I'd forgotten about UCLA.
UW doesn't count, USC was on vacation. Probably bought some bad fish at the Public Market, or drank the Renton Water or something.
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