WSU, UW looking for victory in LA

What a weird scheduling quirk that both Washington schools play in Los Angeles on the same weekend. While both teams are in LA, the story lines for their opponents are opposite: USC is good, UCLA is hurt.

While some college football fans located below the Mason-Dixon line think LSU and Florida are better than USC, I have to disagree. They have a fast and aggressive defense with the best linebacker corps in the country, a literal mini-van full of blue-chip running backs, and a Heisman trophy candidate at QB for like the 5th year in a row. The Cougar secondary is bad (8th in the conference at 403 ypg.) so the only way they can stay in this game is if the offense plays lights out. USC’s biggest weakness is its secondary and players like Alex Brink and Michael Bumpus need to step it up. Bumpus shouldn’t have been able to sleep last night knowing this is his last chance to go up against the school that recruited him, they asked him to wait to enroll so they could sign another player.

UCLA is hurting. Starting QB, guard, receiver, DT, DE and LB all out for today's game. Add on to that the embarrassing loss to Utah last week and this looks like a UW victory. As Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast my friend." Rumor has it that UCLA responds better with backup Patrick Cowan as its leader and Coach Dorrell has said they've put last week behind them. Looks like it could be a very close game decided by home-field advantage and the mistakes of a freshman QB starting his first real intense road game.

We’ll see later tonight whether a state or a city is celebrating victories. I got a feeling it could be a late night for the boys from California.

SEC not what its cracked up to be this year [TC Palm]
"Bump" brings all as USC looms large [Seattle Times]
Bob Condotta's Huskies Blog [Seattle Times]
Bruins can't look back [LA Times]