California Dreaming...

Who can resist it? What would it be like if the Irish could pull of the upset this weekend and beat Southern Cal? Impossible. Too crazy to even be imagined. I won't allow myself.

But...

Southern Cal is, of course, ranked #1. The Irish come into the week at #9, benefiting from a couple of losses by Top Ten teams over the bye week.
And the national media seems split. Papers out west like the LA Times seem to be talking up some of the (virtually invisible) weaknesses of the Trojans-- pointing to the weak first-half performances USC has put up in its last three games. Then again, in each of those games, the weak first-half was followed by a dominant second-half performance. So who knows what Trojans team will show up. First half or second?

Likewise for the Irish, who've had some games (especially early on against Pitt and Michigan) in which strong first-half performances were followed-up with underwhelming (at best) second-halves. And how will the Irish Defense really stack up against that vaunted USC O-line. We know the defensive secondary will have to play way over their heads. And finally-- if USC has a weakness, it would appear, similar to the Irish, to be the defense. So the intrigue, as all the pundits are saying now, will be to see how Weis's Offense matches up against Carroll's defense.

Again, I say: Remember the Pats of the mid-90's. Those were the Pete Carroll Pats... can he really be such a genius?

I'll be out of town on Saturday at my college homecoming.. no idea what the internet connectivity situation will be over the weekend, so the blog may go silent.. but I'll have my eye on the game as much as possible. May have to have a pledge come bring me scoring updates every 10 minutes or so.. hehe!