Allen Bradford rushed for a career high 147 yards and 2 touchdowns. Sharing number 21 and being a solid, bruising back, he looked liked LenDale White. Joe McKnight rushed for 65 yards on 11 carries and left the game near the end of the 1st half due to a hand injury; it is unknown what his status for next week is at the moment. With McKnight's speed and explosiveness combined with Bradford's bull-like qualities as a running back, will this tandem be Thunder and Lighting version 2.0?

Here are some of the defense "highlights" against the Beavers. USC struggled defensively against Oregon State last year, so it should have been no surprise this year considering they returned a veteran quarterback in Sean Canfield and the notorious Jacquizz Rodgers, along with brother James. Enjoy the few clips of the defense stopping the Beavers' offense. If any other team expects to beat Oregon State, it must be done with a good offense. No matter how good a defense is, it is hard to prepare for the Beaver offense.

We all saw how great he played against Penn State in the Rose Bowl and he is now showing us that he is a legitimate contender for the Mackey Award and the he could be a great pick-up in the NFL. He is one of the better blocking TE's in the game and his performance on Saturday simply increased his exposure to those who don't folloow USC on a regular basis.

From the LA Times

McCoy looked like the best tight end in college football against the Fighting Irish, catching five passes for 153 yards and setting up two touchdowns and a field goal in the Trojans' 34-27 win at Notre Dame.

After waiting two seasons behind Mackey Award winner Fred Davis, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound McCoy has developed into an upper-round NFL prospect in his second season as a starter.

"He's got the whole package," USC Coach Pete Carroll said. "Few guys are that flashy and effective as receivers that can also block.

"He's going to be a tremendous prospect at the next level."

McCoy enters Saturday's game against Oregon State averaging a team-best 25 yards a reception. He has caught 14 passes, second on the team to wideout Damian Williams, and overcome a few early drops to become a short, mid-range and deep threat.

"He can stretch the field," freshman quarterback Matt Barkley said. "It's been such an advantage to have that. . . . The way he can run vertically and just have a knack for catching the ball and finding that open window is huge."

I still laugh at the scene of McCoy dragging those ND defenders downfield before thy brought him down short of the goal line. That was a sight! McCoy was honored for his performance against ND by being named the Mackey Award player of the week.

He will continue to play an important role as SC goes down the stretch.

- - -

We are about to enter the second half of the season and now the fun begins. SC has the meat of the schedule in front of them. After this weekends game against Oregon St. SC goes on the road against the Duck's in Eugene then on to Tempe to face ASU. It has been an interesting ride so far, SC has not left us bored that is for sure with huge road wins against Ohio St. and Notre Dame. Yes there was the slip up against the Huskies but with what we have seen from them I think it was clear that the loss of Barkley and Mays along with Sarkisian and Holt knowing the strengths and weaknesses of this team backward and forward combined for a perfect storm  for the upset...Hats off to them for the win but lets not get carried away.

The mid-season reviews and award lists are out and SC has some good representation...

Lets start with Ted Miller's Second-half outlook of USC...

Will Washington prove to be the only bump in the road for USC? And if USC rolls to an 11-1 record, will it play its way into the national title game? Or will we see the Trojans matched up again (sigh) with a Big Ten team in the Rose Bowl? It might be more fun if the Trojans lost to Oregon on Oct. 31 and then won out and earned an at-large invitation to another BCS bowl game. It seems like a massive long shot, given the selection procedure, but just picture USC vs. Florida/Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Yummy!

I am not even worrying about the post season, there is way too much football left to play and a couple of tough games still on the schedule...not just Oregon.

If anything the Notre Dame game showed me that we still have some work to do on finishing. The defense took their foot off the gas and let ND back in it, the dumb penalties sooner or later will come back to haunt us and cost us a game and for as great as Matt Barkley played he still is susceptible to making rookie mistakes.

SC needs to tighten a few things up...

Decreasing dumb penalties,3rd down conversions, the running game and the red zone offense still need to improve.

Michael Lev of the OCR has a quick take...

MIDSEASON MVP

MLB Chris Galippo

Taking over at the heart of an almost all-new front seven, the redshirt sophomore from Servite High has become an instant leader and among the top playmakers for the ninth-ranked defense in the nation. Galippo leads USC in tackles (41), is tied for first in pass breakups (four) and also has five tackles for loss, an interception and a forced fumble.

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER

RB Allen Bradford

Even though he didn't play much last season because of injuries, Bradford has made the most tangible gains. The redshirt junior entered this season with 123 career rushing yards and a 2.9-yard average. In six games, he has 228 yards and a 6.3-yard average. Also considered: RB Joe McKnight, TE Anthony McCoy, OT Tyron Smith, DT Jurrell Casey, DE Nick Perry and LB Michael Morgan.

Any one of those players listed above could be seen as most improved. Especially Nick Perry. You have to love what PC is doing with him...he is an absolute beast and he will only get better.

- - -

Here are a few links to some mid-season awards.

Phil Steele's 2009 Mid Season All-Pac-10 team

SN's midseason All-Americans: Offense

SN's midseason All-Americans: Defense

- - -

Here is an interesting take on the BCS from the WSJ...

Quantitatively and qualitatively, USC looks like the top option should any member of the Alabama-Florida-Texas triumverate falter. The Trojans top Boise, Cincinnati and Iowa in total defense. Of that group, they trail only the Bearcats in total offense. With the nation's ninth-rated defense by yards, the Trojans appeared to have one weakness heading into the season: quarterback play. But Matt Barkley continues to disprove that notion, along with the now-foolish idea that Aaron Corp should've started over him to begin the season. Mr. Barkley threw for 380 yards in the victory over Notre Dame.

If Mr. Barkley hadn't missed the Washington game, the Trojans might already occupy one of the top two spots. But with the way Florida and Texas are playing, who knows – maybe they will again.

It is going to get interesting as we go down the stretch.

- - -

Here is Pete Carroll on PMS

All Pac-10 has their USC/OSU preview up.

Ted Miller has a little more in his "What to watch for in the Pac-10"

As expected, Mark Tyler is done for the season, with Stanley Havili expected to be a game time decision because of his shoulder injury.

Here is a good read by the Trojan Empire on the BCS

The Los Angeles times wrote a nice feature on USC tight end Anthony McCoy. Last Saturday vs. Notre Dame, McCoy set a school record for most yards receiving by a tight end. He caught five passes for 153 yards. Many now consider McCoy the best tight end in the country. Here is a portion of the LA Times piece:

After waiting two seasons behind Mackey Award winner Fred Davis, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound McCoy has developed into an upper-round NFL prospect in his second season as a starter. "He's got the whole package," USC Coach Pete Carroll said. "Few guys are that flashy and effective as receivers that can also block. He's going to be a tremendous prospect at the next level."

To read the full article click here.

USC tight end McCoy is proving he is the real deal [LAT]

The McKnight-Bradford duo is working well for the Trojans.

The Trojan defense kept the Notre Dame offense in check. The referees assisted the Irish all the way to the end of the game, but even that wasn't enough. Statistically speaking the Irish offense, led by ostrich Jimmy Clausen, is one of the better ones in college football. The Trojan defense is lights out!

Browse more photos »

I hope everyone really enjoyed their bye week, but now it's time to focus.  Let's get a few particulars out of the way.

Current Weather Forecast for Saturday in beautiful South Bend, Indiana: 48 degrees and partly cloudy (expect this to change about a dozen times before kickoff)

Line: Southern Cal by somewhere between 8 and 11, depending on where you're looking.  I'm going to guess that ticks its way up to around thirteen or so by the end of the week.

Anticipation Level: 16 out of 10

As I wrote last week, this is the game that frames the last five games and the rest of the season.  Is Notre Dame a great team that was just finding its footing and got screw jobbed at Michigan, or is it an average, mediocre team that can't stand up against the elites of college football?  A close loss to Southern Cal isn't the end of the world, but a blowout loss would leave the taste in most Irish fans' mouth that this season is just like every other one after 2005.  A win?  A win and everything is roses and candy and puppies and sunshine for a week (until the inevitable letdown "HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!" loss to BC the next Saturday).  I want that win and that feeling like everything is right in the world.  I want to see everything about the team humbled - from the sunglasses-wearing band to Traveler to Carroll to Barkley. 

Can the Irish pull it off?  We'll get into this in more detail as the week goes on, but over the bye week I watched some of Southern Cal's games on the incredibly useful ESPN360.  A few quick observations from going through a couple of halves without too meticulous of scrutiny:

* Matt Barkley, as he comes across in interviews, is a cool customer.  He's not asked to do a whole lot in that offense yet, but the arm and confidence are there to be a great quarterback for a long time.  In the Ohio State game he was in an incredibly hostile environment but had the benefit of being in a very low scoring game, meaning the Trojans could always rely on their running game, even late in the fourth quarter.  If the Irish can get a lead and the crowd gets cooking..... maybe.  We'll see.  He looks a little like Dick Casablancas from Veronica Mars, so take from that what you will.

* Damian Williams is a beast, in the Mike Williams/Dwayne Jarrett mode of just eating defensive backs alive.  Packing the box and attempting to cover him on an island could result in a very, very long day.  He also is a huge threat on punt returns.

* Taylor Mays is some sort of human-velociraptor hybrid.  Against Cal he picked off a (horrible) Kevin Riley pass in the endzone on the first possession of the game and cut down Jahvid Best on a third and short pitch late in the second quarter.  He's everywhere you do not want him to be.

* Joe McKnight is very fast.  If the Irish don't improve at tackling very quickly - that's what bye weeks are for! - he's going to have a Reggie-in-2005 type day because he has the breakaway speed and shiftiness to go yard every time.  He's not the best back for a consistent pounding attack at this point in his career, which was where Stafon Johnson came in as a great complement to the rushing attack.  Johnson will miss this game as he continues to recover from that very scary weight lifting accident, so expect to mostly see McKnight and Allen Bradford.

* The Irish are going to have a difficult time just lining up and running at the Trojan front.  Look at this listing of tackles for loss, it is absurd.  I was avoiding watching the Washington game because I wasn't sure how much it was worth taking notes on a game where Barkley and Mays didn't play, but I think I'm going to have to to see how the Trojan defense handled the best quarterback on their schedule up until this point.  Kevin Riley played like he had a serious head injury for four quarters and there were tomes written about the poor offensive gameplan of Ohio State, but Locker put a nice little game together.  The Huskies only scored 16 points, but Locker was solid (21-of-35, 237 yards, no TD's, no picks).

* This is not a particularly disciplined Trojan team on offense.  They average eight penalties for seventy yards a game, they are 113th in the country in third down percentage, minus on turnover margin for the year and only average in the red zone.  If Notre Dame were to go into a sort of shell defense and make Southern Cal dink and dunk their way down the field and not score on big plays, I feel like there will be potential for some drive-halting mistakes by the freshman QB.  Possibly not, but there's potential.

* The Southern Cal offensive line is very good, and was blowing Ohio State off the ball by the fourth quarter.  It'll be imperative for the Irish offense to give their defense some time to rest and for the Irish defense to tackle, because if they don't, Barkley can just hang back and hand the ball off for an easy win.

* Despite the lop-sided nature of the final scores the last couple of seasons, the Irish defense has played pretty well.  In 2008 the Trojans really struggled to score until the Notre Dame defense was just too gassed due to offensive failure after offensive failure.  Even in 2007, the season of infinite sorrow, it was only a 7-0 game partway into the second quarter.  The defense has been fine, it's the offense that needs to avenge itself if Notre Dame wants to pull off the home upset.

From PasadenaStarNews.com:

St. Francis High School running back Dietrich Riley took a handoff from quarterback Justin Posthuma. He went 2 yards up the middle into the end zone untouched and when he reached the back of the goal line, he said, "Fight on, baby."

USC head coach Pete Carroll, standing against the goal post, just laughed.

The highly recruited senior, who has not made his collegiate choice, did not have time to say anything to Notre Dame assistant coach Jon Tenuta, who was also on the sidelines.

But he said a lot with his first-half actions.

Riley made some big tackles on defense and rushed for 109 yards and three scores on 13 carries to lead the undefeated Golden Knights to a 42-7 victory over visiting El Rancho on Thursday night.

"It was cool for them to take time out of their schedules to watch me play," Riley said. "It is a lot of pressure. They're here to see what I'm capable of doing, so I have to go out and do what I can do."

Defense highlights:

History repeats itself for the Golden Bears; they enter the season with lots of hype, only to fold like a bad hand in poker. Time for them to enter hibernation!

Cal's Heisman hopeful tailback, Jahvid Bust, was held to a season-low 47 rushing yards against USC. Meanwhile Joe McKnight looked the best out there, rushing for 119 yards and two touchdowns.

Cal's quarterback, Kevin Riley, really outdid himself this time. Just when you thought his passing completion rate of 38.7% against Oregon could not get any worse, he sunk to a new low against the Trojans with a completion rate of 37.5%.