Can Leinart and USC do it again?

[AggieWill]

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/colleges/11500830.htm

Spring (football) has sprung. It's time to look at a dozen hot topics as we mark time over the next four months awaiting the start of the 2005 season.

Three peat: Southern California will try to make history as the first major college team to win three consecutive national championships since Yale from 1886-88. The Trojans have won 22 consecutive games (averaging 40 points during that streak) and are led by Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Matt Leinart. Replacing offensive coordinator Norm Chow and defensive line coach Ed Orgeron, a favorite among the players, will be challenging.

Second Saturday in October: Once again, the Red River Rivalry on Oct. 8 at the Cotton Bowl will draw national attention. And if the Longhorns hope to make a return trip to the Rose Bowl (the site of this year's national championship game), it's time they beat the Sooners.

Sooners swagger ... or stagger? Losing 21-14 to LSU in the 2003 national title game was bad enough. Then came USC 55, OU 19 in last season's Orange Bowl, a loss that left a football-sized bruise on the Sooners' ego. With an unproven quarterback taking over, the question mark is becoming OU's logo.

[Vlyrock]

I think USC has an advantage in that they play in the Pac 10. No conference championship game, all the teams are still weak, and Cal, the closes competitor just lost a lot of their talent to the Draft.

With Hawaii (Chang-less), Arkansas (Jones-less) and Notre Dame (just sucky) on the non-conference schedule, they'll breeze through their schedule unscathed.

I would expect to see USC playing in the championship.

[AggieWill]

I love the way the Pac-10 schedules some games on the week of the Championship games of the SEC/BigXII to deflect talk of the Pac-10 without their CG.

[CoolaidWade]

I think they could almost win it again about as easy as I can sleep all day. They could win it without Leinhart. That's just like a bonus.

[RNUOVR]

Well, they are the team to beat right now.

[AggieWill]

Without Chow, they won't be shortly

[RNUOVR]

Really? I wouldn't bet on it. Not with that absurd talent level and their consistant and un-rivaled draw of it.

[AggieWill]

I would. Talent means little if the coaching and the system are perfected, imo.

Without Chow, the talent can lose.

[EconAg05]

Although I hope they don't win it again, it seems like they will be the team to beat all year with their light schedule. I'll admit to eating crow because of the MNC game this year. I really thought ou was stronger but man was I wrong. Therefore, im not underestimating usc this time