Pete’s on the Hot Seat

Utah finished second in the Associated Press Poll and fourth in the Coaches’ Poll.  I’m not sure which is more of a joke.  I can understand the press succumbing to peer pressure, but the coaches should know better than to rank such an undeserving team so high.

Not that I expected any different, but the SEC continues to be a cannibalized feeding frenzy, mercilessly ravaging each other even early in the season, leaving little hope that one will emerge unscathed.  If only everyone would recognize, like I have, that a two-loss SEC season is better than an undefeated season anywhere else, probably even the NFL.

The SEC is just too talented from the top all the way to the very, very bottom.  How else can you explain the Ole Miss Rebels beating #4 Florida, which was lead by a Heisman-winning quarterback?  It just proves that no team in the SEC is a pushover, no matter how long it’s been since that team has won a game in conference.

While over on this end of the country, the PAC-10 continues to prove its sub-mediocrity.  If the only ranked team from the conference losing to an unranked team from the conference doesn’t prove to you how bad the conference is, I don’t know what will.

Unfortunately for Florida, the road doesn’t get any easier.  There’s no time to heal bruises in the SEC.  Instead, the Gators have to turn right around and play Arkansas on the road.  The same Arkansas team that currently has two rookie NFL running backs running all over the place.

Meanwhile USC gets the equivalent of a bye week while hosting the Oregon Ducks at the Coliseum.  The lowly Ducks are only ranked #23 and have already lost a game as well, despite having such great back-up quarterbacks.

But let’s take a deeper look at last week’s losses.

*Florida lost at home, where the crowd was on their side.  That knowledge lulled them into giving up a 10 point halftime lead.

But USC, playing in a hostile road environment at a venue that had caused them problems two years before, should have known what to expect and been ready for it.

*Florida was a blocked PAT away from sending the game to overtime, where they surely would have found the grit and resolve to put away the team that produced last year’s Super Bowl MVP.

Meanwhile, USC lost by SIX points to an Oregon State team whose most well-known NFL players are on teams that haven’t even won a game this season.  (Unless you count the 1-win Cleveland Browns.  But no one had even HEARD of Derek Anderson until last year.)

*Again, Ole Miss had the element of surprise in their favor, as they hadn’t beaten a ranked team since 2003.  Knowing that Oregon State had accomplished this five times in the same time span, USC should have been better prepared.

It’s clear that one of these losses was much, much worse than the others.

Props to Arizona State.  Sure they lost by 17 points, but only because they had the guts to schedule an SEC team (Georgia), while my Trojans are stuck with their “showcase” game being against an Ohio State team that couldn’t even put up a good fight in its two consecutive National Championship appearances even after losing only one regular season game the past two years.

Meanwhile, Georgia is a team that had an argument for being included in the National Championship game last year but had to settle for pounding Hawaii by THIRTY-ONE points, and they look poised to make it all the way this season if they can get through the relentlessly grueling punishment that is an SEC schedule with only one or two losses.