USC Trojans

The Pac-12 -- again -- produced national title contenders but not a team playing for the crystal football when the final bell rang. Further, for the first time since 2008, the conference didn't provide a Heisman Trophy finalist.

A short summary of the regular season: It was pretty good but could have been better. But it was definitely surprising.

Better? If things had fallen the right way, seven Pac-12 teams could have been ranked in the final regular-season poll. USC began the season as a national title contender only to yield that spot to Oregon. Then Stanford ended the Ducks' hopes on Nov. 17 with a 17-14 overtime win in Autzen Stadium.

So the conference streak without a football national championship extends to eight seasons.

Surprising? UCLA won the South Division over rival USC, and Stanford beat out Oregon in the North by virtue of the aforementioned win in Eugene. Neither was tapped in the preseason as the conference champion by any of the 123 media members who voted.

Surprising? USC quarterback Matt Barkley topped just about every preseason Heisman Trophy list. He didn't even make first- or second-team All-Pac-12.

Surprising? Three of the four new coaches turned in strong seasons. Start with Jim Mora, who led the Bruins to the Pac-12 championship game and a national ranking. And, a year after USC beat UCLA 50-0, the Bruins prevailed, 38-28.

Sorry for bringing that up, USC.

Both Arizona's Rich Rodriguez and Arizona State's Todd Graham finished 7-5, though Graham handed Rodriguez his fifth defeat in the Territorial Cup.

Sorry for bringing that up, Wildcats.

The new coach who was expected to make the most noise -- with both his mouth and his team -- was only 1-for-2, and it wasn't Mike Leach's team doing the talking. His Cougars finished 3-9 and recorded just one conference victory. Of course, that lone Pac-12 win was over Washington.

Sorry for bringing that up, Huskies.

The good news is a record eight bowl teams, including a third consecutive season with two BCS bowl berths, which means an extra $6.1 million for the conference to split up.

The bad news is two more coach firings: Jeff Tedford at California after 11 seasons and Jon Embree at Colorado after just two. That means half the teams in the Pac-12 will have changed coaches over the past two years.

Further, USC's disappointing season lands Lane Kiffin on the 2013 hot seat, the only Pac-12 coach who will be stuck with that designation heading into 2013.

What about some highlights? Well, here you go.

Offensive MVP, Marqise Lee, WR, USC: Not only is he the most dominant wide receiver in the country, he might also be the most dominant player. Heisman voters say otherwise, but we in the Pac-12 know just how dominant he can be. His record-setting season should be more than enough to earn him the Biletnikoff Award for the nation's top receiver. And if he has matching numbers on a nine-win USC team, he's in New York this week.

Defensive MVP, Will Sutton, Arizona State: The numbers alone paint a pretty good picture of just how dominant the speed-rushing defensive tackle was. He led the conference in tackles for a loss per game and averaged almost a sack per game. He was a wrecking ball -- the kind of player offensive coordinators design their game plan around.

Newcomer of the year, Marcus Mariota, Oregon: In a year in which redshirt freshmen quarterbacks became all the rage, Mariota stood out with his efficiency as a passer, his athleticism as a runner and the speed with which he commanded Oregon's offense. His presence assures Oregon will continue to be one of the best offensive teams in the country in the coming years.

Biggest surprise: A school not named USC or Oregon is going to the Rose Bowl. In fact, neither team played in the Pac-12 championship game -- which many thought was as foregone conclusion before a single ball had been hiked. Stanford and UCLA were surprises -- but they also earned it.

Biggest disappointment: USC's once-promising season first got hijacked at Stanford. And from then on the Trojans were swimming in concrete shoes. After starting the season No. 1 in the AP poll, the Trojans became the first such team since 1964 to end the year out of the Top 25. The contrarian opinion Kevin Gemmell offered up back in March came to fruition. And it was a complete disaster. And, yes, even worse than Ted Miller's "Worst Case." And that's pretty bad.

Best game: Depends on where your tastes lie. If you like defense, then it was Stanford's performance at Oregon, where they held the Ducks to fewer than 200 yards rushing and won in overtime. Jordan Williamson's 37-yard kick sent shock waves throughout college football. If you like offense, you have to look to the Nov. 3 shootout between Oregon and USC. The stakes weren't as high as we all thought a few months ago, but some of the league's premier offensive players showed up as the teams combined for 113 points, 68 first downs and 1,145 yards of total offense.

So, that was sort of an exciting Saturday.

• Ka’Deem Carey, RB, Arizona: Posting the ninth-best rushing total in FBS history probably gets you a helmet sticker. Carey rushed for a Pac-12 record 366 yards and five touchdowns in the win over Colorado, averaging 14.6 yards on his 25 carries.
• Curtis McNeal, RB, USC: Rushed 31 times for 163 yards and two touchdowns. He also caught a 22-yard touchdown in USC's win over Arizona State.
• Lamar Dawson, LB, USC: The linebacker helped pace a USC defense that forced four turnovers and limited the Sun Devils to 17 points and 250 total yards. He tallied a team-high 11 tackles and also had an interception.
• Keith Price, QB, Washington: He accounted for three touchdowns in leading the Huskies past visiting Utah. Price, who completed 24 of 33 passes for 277 yards, had a pair of touchdown passes and also ran for a third.
• Marcus Mariota, QB, Oregon: The accolades continue as Mariota matched an Oregon record by throwing six touchdowns. He completed 27 of 34 passes for 377 yards. He also carried six times for 42 yards.
• Anthony Barr, LB, UCLA: To go with his eight tackles (including three for a loss) and 2.5 sacks, he also tallied a safety.
• Stepfan Taylor, RB, Stanford: On 19 carries, Taylor rushed for 114 yards and a touchdown to eclipse the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the third straight season. He also had a 40-yard touchdown reception -- a dump pass that he turned into what head coach David Shaw called one of the finest plays of his career.

Los Angeles -- Notes, quotes and anecdotes from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum after the Trojans (6-3, 4-3 Pac-12) lose to Oregon (9-0, 6-0 Pac-12), 62-51.

USC coach Lane Kiffin comments:
Three’s a crowd: “The game comes down to three offensive possessions. We kicked a field goal early. No points on the interception (in the end zone). And the fumble in the red zone, that makes a big difference.”

On Oregon: “They’re better than we were because of their quarterback (Marcus Mariota) speed. He’s playing really well. We gotta find out how to make a sack and a fumble and make those plays in critical situations.”

On his team’s problem of defending the spread offense: “If you have back-to-back games (Arizona and Oregon) with over 600-yard games, we’ve got to look at what we’re doing, obviously. We’ve played two teams and both have over 600 yards, that’s not real sound and where we want to be.”

Oregon coach Chip Kelly comments:
On the high-scoring victory: “With (Robert) Woods and (Marqise) Lee, how accurate Matt (Barkley) was throwing, you knew it was going to be one of those games. We had to answer offensively. Those three guys are three all-time greats.”

On the Trojans: “You have to give credit to USC. Matt Barkley (35 of 54 for 484 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions) and Andrew Luck are the two best quarterbacks I’ve faced, and Marqise Lee may be the best receiver I’ve had the opportunity to coach against.”

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The Oregon-USC matchup lived up to all of the hype and more. In what will go down as a classic Pac-12 shootout, the No. 4 Ducks survived a motivated and offensively potent USC squad 62-51 in Los Angeles. Here's how it went down:

It was over when: USC failed to convert on a fourth-and-5 deep in its own territory with 3 minutes left in the game. On the ensuing Oregon drive, running back Kenjon Barner went 22 yards for his fifth rushing touchdown of the game.

Oregon game ball goes to: Barner justified his Heisman hype with an explosive performance, rushing for 321 yards and five touchdowns on 38 carries. It was an Oregon single-game rushing record.

USC game ball goes to: There should no longer be a question of who is the best wide receiver in the Pac-12 -- or the country for that matter. It’s Marqise Lee, who had 157 yards on 12 catches with two touchdowns and 408 all-purpose yards.

Stat of the game: 1,345. Total offensive yards combined between the teams.

Stat of the game II: 2. The total number of punts.

Unsung hero: After missing time with a bad wrist, Oregon linebacker Kiko Alonso had nine tackles (two for a loss) and an interception.

What it means for Oregon: For starters, legitimacy. For all those waiting to see if Oregon could do it against a quality opponent on the road, those questions were answered. The defense gave up a lot of yards and points -- not exactly surprising, though, considering the opponent. But the offense ran up 730 yards of offense -- the most ever by a USC opponent. And I think we can put all the talk about Marcus Mariota being young and overwhelmed by the moment behind us. He was 20-of-23 for 304 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions.

What it means for USC: With a third conference loss, the Trojans aren't out of the Pac-12 South hunt yet, but they are at the mercy of Arizona -- at least for now -- which holds the tiebreaker over them following last week's 39-36 Wildcats victory. Should USC win the South, it'll probably get another crack at the Ducks for a chance to go to the Rose Bowl. This might also be the dagger in Matt Barkley's Heisman hopes.

LOS ANGELES -- It was a first half full of offensive frenzy and turnovers, but Oregon and USC head into the locker room with the Trojans within striking distance, trailing 34-24.

USC gets the ball to start the third in a game where you can't waste too many possessions because the defenses are struggling.

The Trojans had three first-half turnovers, including a pair of Matt Barkley interceptions, but Barkley also threw three touchdown passes, including strikes of 75 and 76 yards. He completed 17 of 26 passes for 303 yards.

At 27-10 Oregon early in the second quarter, it looked as if the Ducks might run away with it. They still might. But not yet.

Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota completed 14 of 16 passes for 213 yards with three touchdowns, but he had a fumble late in the second quarter at the USC 15-yard line after he seemed to get shaken up on the preceding play.

Oregon running back Kenjon Barner is headed toward a big night. He has 169 yards and two scores on 16 carries.

It figures that turnovers and precious defensive stops will be the key in the second half.

LOS ANGELES -- In August, the thought was USC-Oregon and LSU-Alabama would give the college football nation an epic Nov. 3 weekend featuring a simultaneous matchup of four unbeaten, top-five teams in college football's two best conferences. It didn't quite work out like that.

Alabama and Oregon held serve, and LSU is fifth in the BCS rankings, the top-ranked one-loss team. But USC has flopped, losing a pair of games and often playing sloppy and inconsistent football.

USC is last in the nation in penalties, and it gave away five turnovers in a loss at Arizona last weekend. That's not what anyone expected from a team that welcomed back 19 starters from a 10-2 team.

"Everybody is really disappointed in Saturday," USC quarterback Matt Barkley said this week. "There were so many times when we could win the game, and we really screwed up time and time again."

And yet, Barkley adds, there is still plenty for the Trojans to play for. While the national title is no longer in play, the Pac-12 title and the Rose Bowl are respectable consolation prizes.

Barkley and the Trojans, if they play smart, efficient football, have the talent to beat the Ducks. Heck, they have the talent to beat anyone.

The question is whether it all comes together this evening.

On the other side of the football, is Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, a redshirt freshman. He's passed every test this season with flying colors, mostly because no team has really tested the Ducks, who have yet to play a game with any second-half intrigue. It's fair to wonder how he might react in front of 94,000 fans in the fourth quarter of a tight game.

After playing a soft early schedule, Oregon hopes to announce itself as a full-on national title contender, the best team to play Alabama or the eventual SEC champion. USC, which dumped the Ducks' national title hopes a year ago, is playing the role of spoiler, trying to position itself for the South Division title.

That would mean a spot in the Pac-12 title game, and perhaps in a rematch against Oregon, with the Rose Bowl on the line.

While this game no longer lusters, it certainly will be revealing. Or unmasking.

Appearing to have moved past last weekend’s loss to Arizona, and focused on the task at hand -- the Oregon Ducks -- the Trojans hit Brian Kennedy/Howard Jones Field on Wednesday in full pads for an energetic practice that USC coach Lane Kiffin seemed pleased with.

“I thought it was a really good practice,” Kiffin said. “I thought guys were very spirited, very up-tempo. We came back from yesterday’s practice, came back this morning, and I thought they prepared really well and had a good day.”

With a couple of days of work under his team’s belt this week, Kiffin is well aware of the daunting challenge the Trojans are presented with in going up against the No. 4-ranked Ducks, but he believes his team is up to the task.

“This is the best team in the country coming in -- one that has really blown everybody out by halftime,” Kiffin said. “So we have to be ready, and I think our players are.”

USC defense to be tested
Averaging 540.1 total yards per game and a nation's-best 53.4 points per game, Oregon has rolled through its competition in 2012 thanks to the team’s highly efficient no-huddle, spread offense.

No team has been able to slow the Ducks’ prolific attack, but the Trojans did have some luck last year – at least for a portion of the game – and ultimately held on to a 38-35 victory. In order for that to happen again, Kiffin will need a repeat performance out of his defense.

“You’re going to have to make those tackles in space,” Kiffin said. “We did a really good job through three quarters last year of doing that. We saw a lot of plays get outside on our perimeter, and then our outside ‘backers and our DBs made a lot of really good tackles.”

One other key will be the play of the Trojans’ front seven, and specifically, whether or not it can apply pressure to Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. But that’s easier said than done. The Ducks have only given up 10 sacks on the season, primarily due to the fact the offense doesn’t call for Mariota to hold on to the ball for very long.

“They try to get rid of the ball really quick, not a lot of play action, balls [are] out on the perimeter, and so it is hard to sack [him],” Kiffin said. “But even if you’re not sacking [him], you have to get there to create errant throws.”

Oregon defense no slouch
The Oregon offense usually steals all of the headlines, and for good reason, but as Kiffin noted, the Ducks’ defensive unit deserves its fair share of credit. Often overshadowed by the gaudy numbers the offense puts up, the defense has quietly allowed its opponents to compile an average of just 4.6 yards per play -- a crucial statistic in Kiffin’s mind.

“I think it gets lost in the numbers,” Kiffin said of Oregon’s defense. “I think the most important -- when you look at stats – is average per play, because some defenses get put out there a lot more than others, and theirs does because they score so fast. You start looking at average per play, and they’re one of the better ones in the country, and if they had a slower tempo offense you’d see a lot better stats.”

Pride penalties
On Tuesday, USC wide receiver Robert Woods said that many of the personal-foul penalties the team has been racking up have been due to temporary mental lapses caused by too much “pride.” It’s something the USC coaching staff has addressed.

“We’ve spent a lot of time on it,” Kiffin said on Wednesday. “It’s not a street fight, it’s a game -- there are rules within it. A lot of them have the mentality where they’re trying to protect their brother and, unfortunately, that’s cost us in a lot of these situations -- where we get retaliation off of something that happened to somebody else. And like what usually happens in football, the second person gets caught.”

Tall task at left tackle
Kiffin didn’t reveal who would get the starting nod at left tackle between Max Tuerk and Aundrey Walker against the Ducks, but he did say that whoever it is, he's going to have a stiff challenge on his hands going up against a talented pair of defensive ends in Dion Jordan and Taylor Hart.

“We feel really confident with both guys,” Kiffin said. “As we talked about, Max played really well last week. This would be much more of a test this week with their ability to rush with their two ends, especially with [Dion] Jordan on third downs. So whoever is out there is going to be tested a lot more than they have been the last two weeks.”

Oregon's average margin of victory this season is 34 points. Its closest game was a 17-point win over Fresno State. Its closest Pac-12 game was a 22-point win over Arizona State.

But that doesn't even fully tell the story of the Ducks' dominance this year.

They've led six of eight foes by at least 28 points at halftime. The other two? They led Arizona by 13. They outscored the Wildcats 15-0 in the third. They led Washington State by only four. They outscored the Cougars 21-0 in the third.

Not only have the Ducks not played a close game this season, they haven't played a team that posed even a remote threat in the fourth quarter, when Oregon starters are eating orange slices and waving to their mommies and girlfriends.

So, if we were using a magnifying glass to look for any potential chinks in Oregon's decidedly spiffy and seemingly impenetrable armor when it visits USC on Saturday, the lack of experience in close games and high-pressure circumstances in the fourth quarter might be one.

What if the score is tied 28-28 with two minutes left? Who has the advantage? USC playing at home with a four-year starter at quarterback, or Oregon with redshirt freshman Marcus Mariota running the show?

The conventional wisdom would say the Trojans.

"There is a concern about whether you've had to play a complete game or not, but they have so many returning guys that have played a lot of football," Trojans coach Lane Kiffin said. "I'm sure that's not a big concern of Chip's."

He's right. Oregon coach Chip Kelly isn't a guy who projects an image of worry, and that is the completely unsurprising case here.

"All the game situations that could occur in a game, we hit in practice during the week," he said.

That means the two-minute drill, end-of-half and end-of-game scenarios, the four-minute offense, slowing things down and bleeding the clock when you have a lead, etc.

As for Kelly, if you want to understand his end-of-game meticulousness in action, go back and review the fourth quarter of the 2009 Civil War, when the Ducks ran out the final six minutes of a 37-33 victory, converting a pair of clutch fourth downs in the process.

Of course, Kelly had Jeremiah Masoli at quarterback, a second-year starter and a notoriously cool customer. Mariota has a reputation for demonstrating grace under pressure, but it has yet to be showcased under the klieg lights. You never know until you do. Or don't.

On the other side of the ball, there's Matt Barkley. As a four-year starter, he's seen a little bit of everything. In 2009, as a true freshman, he led a thrilling, 14-play, 86-yard game-winning drive in the waning moments at Ohio State. At the time, it was widely viewed as the coronation of a budding superstar.

But it hasn't always been magic for Barkley in close games. He's 10-6 in his career in games decided by a touchdown or less and, notably, 0-2 this season. The final possession in the 21-14 loss to Stanford -- starting at the USC 11-yard line with 2:44 left -- was pretty much an unmitigated disaster.

So, just as Barkley turned in some of his best work as a freshman, there's no reason to believe Mariota can't handle a high-pressure fourth quarter with aplomb.

Further, there's the matter of USC making that scenario play out. In the preseason, this game projected as a potential nail-biter. Now more than a few folks expect Oregon to win going away.

Said Kiffin, "Obviously they've done a great job of blowing everybody out. As a coach you like that. You don't have to worry about [the fourth quarter]."

LOS ANGELES -- The Trojans were back at work on Tuesday morning in full pads as they began their prep work for No. 4 Oregon. And while USC head coach Lane Kiffin admitted that this past weekend’s 39-36 loss to Arizona is still likely sitting in the back of many of the players’ minds, it’s important that the team moves forward and maintains focus on the task at hand.

“You’ve got to get over it,” Kiffin said. “I think it would be naïve to think that the game is completely out of sight, out of mind. For those really competitive players, there’s still a play in there where they’re going to think about it for a long time. That should be natural, but we have no time to look back. We have the best team in the country coming in here Saturday.”

The best?
Kiffin has referred to Oregon as the best team in the nation on more than a few occasions this season, and as he explained on Tuesday, a big reason why has been the standout play of freshman quarterback Marcus Mariota.

“I think when you look at them, they’re the best they’ve ever been themselves, as well as in all of the years we’ve been here,” Kiffin said. “And I think the quarterback’s the difference. Two things really, the quarterback’s speed -- [he’s] faster than the other two guys who’ve been there -- and then the defense is playing so well.”

Mariota, who has passed for 1,483 yards and rushed for 378 more on the ground, is a true dual-threat playmaker who presents a unique challenge to the Trojans. Just as capable of hurting a defense through the air as he is with his feet, there’s simply no easy way to defend him.

“When he gets in the open field he just runs away from people, so you’ve got to do a good job with the first guy tackling him, keeping him in front of you and not giving him those big lanes where he can really make the big plays happen,” Kiffin said. “And then, you know, people then obviously at some point commit so much to the run and to the play-action that it opens up the guys downfield, and he can make those throws too.”

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USC Trojans (6-2 overall, 4-2 Pac-12 South) vs Oregon Ducks (8-0 overall, 5-0 Pac-12 North)

Date: Saturday, Nov. 3

Location: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Time: 4:00 p.m. PT

TV: FOX

Radio: ESPNLA710 (pre-game show starts at 10:30 a.m. PT)

Scouting Oregon: Three-time defending Pac-12 champion Oregon, under fourth-year head coach Chip Kelly, continues to steamroll through its schedule, including a 70-14 home win over Colorado last Saturday to up its winning streak to 11. UO has won 12 straight road games.

The Ducks’ high-octane offense, which has scored 30-plus points in 21 consecutive games (and 42-plus in the past 11 games), leads the nation in scoring offense (53.4, first in Pac-12) and is third in rushing offense (330.6, first in Pac-12), seventh in total offense (540.1, second in Pac-12) and 24th in passing efficiency (150.4, third in Pac-12).

Redshirt freshman QB Marcus Mariota (133-of-194, 68.6%, 1,483 yds, 18 TD, 5 int, plus 57 carries, 378 yds, 6.6 yards per carry, 3 TD and 1 rec, 2 yds, 2.0 avg, 1 TD), who is 17th nationally in passing efficiency (158.2, third in Pac-12), superbly directs the UO offense. Senior RB Kenjon Barner (141 carries, 974 yds, 6.9 avg, 14 TD, plus 13 rec, 158 yds, 12.2 avg, 1 TD rec), the nation’s No. 10 rusher (121.8, second in Pac-12) and scorer (11.3 points per game, first in Pac-12) who is approaching the 1,000-yard rushing barrier this season, and multi-purpose sophomore RB De'Anthony Thomas (58 carries, 499 yds, 8.6 avg, 7 TD, plus 24 rec, 218 yds, 9.1 avg, 3 TD and 12 PR, 220 yds, 18.3 avg, 1 TD and 6 KOR, 88 yds, 14.7 avg) -- who is third nationally in punt returns (18.3, first in Pac-12) -- are dangerous whenever they touch the ball. Top pass catchers include freshman WR Bralon Addison (19 rec, 226 yds, 11.9 avg, 3 TD, plus 3 KOR, 46 yds, 15.3 avg), junior WR Daryle Hawkins (16 rec, 134 yds, 8.4 avg, 2 TD), soph WR Keanon Lowe (13 rec, 133 yds, 10.2 avg) and soph TE Colt Lyerla (12 rec, 189 yds, 15.8 avg, 4 TD).

The Ducks defense is 13th nationally in pass efficiency defense (104.2, second in Pac-12), tied for 15th in tackles for loss (7.4, third in Pac-12), 16th in sacks (2.9, fifth in Pac-12), 23rd in turnover margin (+0.8, third in Pac-12) and 24th in scoring defense (19.4, third in Pac-12). Top tacklers are senior LBs Michael Clay (43 tackles, 6.5 for loss, 2 sack, 1 dfl, 1 FR, 1 FF) and Kiko Alonso (42 tackles, 8 for loss, 1 sack, 2 int, 2 dfl, 1 FR, 1 FF), junior SS Avery Patterson (35 tackles, 1.5 for loss, 3 int, 2 dfl, 1 FR) and Brian Jackson (32 tackles, 1 for loss, 1 sack, 5 dfl, 2 FR) and senior DE Dion Jordan (33 tackles, 7.5 for loss, 5 sack, 1 dfl, 2 FF), who made the 2011 All-Pac-12 first team.

– courtesy USC Sports Information

Is Oregon-USC about a passing of the guard?

The one absolute history teaches us is there will be change. Nothing lasts forever. Empires fall. In ancient times, no one could conceive a world without Roman domination. Look at Italy now.

USC has 11 national championships. Oregon has none. And it wasn't too long ago that USC under Pete Carroll made a dynastic run that terrorized college football. From 2002 to 2008, USC was college football's pre-eminent power, the lone program that made the SEC quake in fear.

But there is a distinct sense that Chip Kelly and the Oregon Ducks are headed to the Coliseum on Saturday to grab the Pac-12 sword from Tommy Trojan and take it back to Eugene.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. In the preseason, the overwhelming consensus was USC was ready to reclaim its place atop college football. The Trojans, emerging from a two-year postseason ban courtesy of the NCAA, welcomed back 19 starters from a team that went 10-2 and won at Oregon. They looked like a potentially all-time great team on offense, with a talented defense playing a strong supporting role.

Meanwhile, Oregon was replacing six offensive starters, including a two-year starter at quarterback in Darron Thomas and its all-time leading rusher, LaMichael James. The defense looked stout, but there were plenty of questions. It seemed premature, despite three consecutive Pac-12 titles, to call the Ducks a "reload, not rebuild" outfit.

Au contraire.

Oregon has been a well-oiled machine. It has rolled over everyone like an army of steamrollers and sat its starters for large portions of the second half. Sure, the schedule hasn't featured any A-list foes. But Arizona, Arizona State and Washington are a combined 14-10 with wins over Oklahoma State, Stanford, Oregon State and USC, and the Ducks beat them by a combined count of 144-42.

USC has flashed brilliance at times on both sides of the ball this season, but that only serves to provide a stark contrast for the moments of inexplicable mediocrity and sloppiness. The Trojans are 120th -- last! -- in the nation in penalties and penalty yards per game. And last by a fairly wide margin.

Quarterback Matt Barkley has thrown eight interceptions. He threw seven all of last year.

And to cut to the chase, USC already has two losses, to Stanford and Arizona, that have thrown a blanket of "Neh" over what was supposed to be not only the Pac-12 game of the year, but also perhaps the national game of the year.

So it's fair to ask what it might mean -- big picture -- if Oregon prevails and then goes on to win a fourth consecutive Pac-12 title: Are the Ducks poised to displace USC atop the conference for the long term?

USC fans would rightly counter, "Well, how about the Ducks win a national title first?" That's fair.

Oregon fans probably would admit there's a reasonable -- and nagging -- qualifier here also: "As long as coach Chip Kelly stays in Eugene."

While Oregon probably wouldn't tumble into mediocrity if Kelly bolted for the NFL -- the program is too rich and too Nike'd -- this run of dominance feels like its foundation is built on Kelly's cult of "Win the Day" personality.

But the Pac-12 blog, just like Kelly quashing an interesting question, won't deal in hypotheticals.

So then, if the Ducks roll over the Trojans on Saturday by multiple touchdowns -- an unthinkable idea in the preseason -- and go on to win a fourth consecutive Pac-12 title, that feels like it could be a resonating statement.

Further, USC has two more years of scholarship sanctions. It can sign no more than 15 players for the next two recruiting classes (though there's some backwards-looking wiggle room coach Lane Kiffin has skillfully exploited) and can't exceed more than 75 players on scholarship, instead of the standard 85. All along, the point has been repeatedly made that USC will be most taxed by sanctions over the next two to three years.

Meanwhile, a glance at Oregon's roster, led by redshirt freshman QB Marcus Mariota, and sophomore fancypants De'Anthony Thomas, suggests the Ducks aren't going anywhere. This is almost certainly a preseason top-five team in 2013.

It seems like a potential old-school to new-school transition is at hand. From a program with iconic uniforms and pageantry that is immediately recognizable to college football fans across the country, to a program that changes uniforms every week and isn't afraid to wear lime-green socks.

Of course, the reality is USC won't go easily into the night. It has too much tradition. And let's not forget this: Location, location, location. USC's presence in Southern California's recruiting hotbed means the potential for program greatness is built-in.

And maybe USC pulls the shocker on Saturday and gets to smirk back at all the doubters.

Yet if Oregon takes care of business as most now expect, something might very well change. When someone asks, "Tell me about the Pac-12?" The new response will be, "Well, of course, there's Oregon first. You know about them, right?"