James Johnson, Johri Fogerson, and Cort Dennison are all on-track to return for the USC game. Of the three, Dennison is probably the most important; simply, Cort makes the players around him better, and the loss of his talents were clearly felt during the Nebraska game.
Sark insisted on during his radio show and press conference that USC is--talent wise--the best team from top to bottom in the conference. He didn't discount Oregon, Stanford and Arizona but he feels the Trojans have the most overall depth.
Both Sark and Kiffin are trying to focus the attention on the players, rather than their first confrontation as head coaches. It will be interesting to see how Kiffin behaves if USC loses the game and how that impacts their friendship.
Sark believes his team will play better and faster this week because they are going up against a system they see in practice every day, and his team will bounce back strong from the Nebraska debacle.
Washington and Arizona State will play at 7:00 PM on October 9th in a game to be televised on FSN. Most of us had this game circled as a probable win when the season started, but the Sun Devils could have beaten Oregon last Saturday if they had eliminated the penalties and turnovers.
Stanford at Oregon is the Pac 10 game of the week. The Ducks looked mortal last week against ASU, while the Cardinal steamrolled Notre Dame in South Bend. This is a classic confrontation between "razzle dazzle" and "smash mouth" philosophies. Do the Cardinal have enough speed to keep up with the Ducks?
Georgia canceled a home and away series with Oregon later in this decade. The new Georgia AD mentioned travel times as being the main consideration. I think it may have been the mauling the Ducks gave Tennessee in Knoxville that may have been the deciding factor. How much you want to bet that the Bulldogs replace Oregon with an FCS opponent?