Cardinal deliver beatdown at the Coliseum

I have had a permanent grin tattooed on my face since Saturday afternoon.

Fresh off a big home upset over #8 Oregon, Stanford rolled into Southern California looking for more.

It's tough living in SoCal with the one-sided dominance of the South over the North this decade. In a July post titled "The Freeway Series from Hell" about the possibility of an Angels-Dodgers World Series I highlighted this problem with one caveat: "At least Stanford 24, USC 23 happened."

On Saturday, Stanford 55, USC 21 happened.

Both were startling. Back in October of 2007 Stanford was 41-point underdogs and that win was dubbed the "Biggest. Upset. Ever."

It was a remarkable victory for a team that won just one game the year before and had been mired in one of its worst periods of ineptitude in school history.

But without Saturday's dominance that game would simply be a historical footnote - a magical fall day where the unthinkable happened - not the full-fledged revival Palo Alto is undertaking.

Stanford won three more games that year - Coach Jim Harbaugh's first on the farm.

They won five in 2008, again falling short of that elusive bowl bid (they haven't played in one since 2001.) They lost three straight after starting 5-4 including a 45-23 home loss to the Trojans.

It was an up-and-down start to 2009 that included blowing big leads on the road to Wake Forest and Arizona and three weeks ago they looked once again headed for mediocrity and facing a really difficult final stretch to try and get the six wins necessary to keep playing into December.

Now they could play in January.

****

I was reading a Scouts, Inc. ESPN Insider position-by-position breakdown before the game and there was a startling revelation. Stanford was better at each of the offensive skill positions.

Stanford had better athletes than USC?

This sure seemed at odds with the "it's hard to recruit guys that have a 4.4 (GPA) and run a 4.4 (40-second dash)" comment I always make.

But the Cardinal do, and with USC WR Damian Williams sidelined, the edge was even greater and it was evident from the opening kick-off.

After the game Carroll was asked about this exact point and he didn't shy away from drinking the Cardinal Kool-Aid.

"Doesn't USC have the better athletes? 'That's obviously not the case,' Carroll says. Are you saying Stanford has better athletes than USC? 'It sure looked like it today.'" (T.J. Simers - LA Times)

****

I've been saying for weeks that Toby Gerhart belongs in the Heisman conversation and with 401 yards and SIX touchdowns in back-to-back 50-point outbursts by the Cardinal offense he is finally getting the national recognition he deserves.

It's hard to imagine him unseating the Tebow/Ingram/McCoy trio that all plays for currently undefeated teams but he should at least garner enough support to be in New York.

Tucker Talks for the Daily 49er

While I try to keep fresh material flowing here I also want to point out my weekly column with the school newspaper at Long Beach State.

It's my last semester at the Beach and it is quite a busy one but I'm trying this out with them and I think it's going pretty well so far.

I started with them in the Spring of 2008 covering Dirtbag baseball and in addition to doing that, was the beat writer for the men's basketball team last season and have written features, columns, taken photos, blogged and penned countless game stories.

We have been able to try new things and really have a strong group that's working hard and making things happen. So check out the link on the left, for new stuff through them as well.

Here's the link to today's column about the possibility of Chase Utley winning World Series MVP even if the Phillies lose.

(Props to Adam Fuller for the premise of this piece.)

Ducks trounce Trojans and what it means for Boise State

On September 3rd, the Boise State Broncos held the Oregon Ducks in check en route to a 19-8 victory in the season opener.

All the headlines from that game centered around Oregon RB LeGarrette Blount's postgame punch and the rest of his antics.

But Kellen Moore and the Broncos took care of business on the blue turf and that win looked even more impressive late Saturday night.

That's because those same Ducks - playing without Blount who was suspended for the year for his actions - manhandled 5th-ranked USC 47-20 in Eugene and have the inside track to the Pac-10 championship and a Rose Bowl berth.

It would take a lot to vault the one-loss Ducks into the national title game but what about undefeated BSU?

The Broncos have already proven they can win against the BCS conferences on the big stage and now they have a real quality win in 2009 to add to their resume.

They held the Ducks to a meager eight points. Saturday night against the vaunted USC defense Oregon racked up more than 600 yards. If that doesn't speak well for Boise State, then nothing will undo the rest of their schedule featuring teams like San Jose State.

How big was Oregon's win? Huge. USC hadn't lost by more than seven points since Pete Carrol's first year in 2001.

It was their worst loss in 12 years. Say what you want about the Trojans but that is pretty impressive.

Then again, we have seen them struggle against small, shifty running backs and versatile quarterback's before. It has been the recipe to overcome their stifling defense and they did nothing to debunk that notion Saturday night.

LBSU Basketball: Schedule looks even tougher

The ESPN/USA Today preseason Top 25 men's college basketball poll was released today.

Kansas received 27 of the 31 first place votes and sits atop it.

Next is Michigan State. The Spartans knocked out the Jayhawks in the Sweet Sixteen before falling to UNC in the championship game.

Then it starts to read like the Long Beach State schedule.

(3) Texas, (5) Kentucky, (8) Duke, (9) West Virginia. All four are in the Top-9, and the 49ers play all of them before the ball drops for 2010. None of them come to the Pyramid only West Virginia will be on a familiar court, at the 76 Classic in the Anaheim Convention Center.

That tournament also features 10th-ranked Butler, 18th-ranked Minnesota, 24th-ranked Clemson and UCLA and Texas A&M who received votes in the Coaches Poll.

In fact, the only team other than LBSU not to receive votes from that eight team field was Portland.

Two other teams receiving votes on The Beach's schedule are Notre Dame and Utah State. The 'Niners play in South Bend the third game of the season and in the only home game out of the bunch Utah state comes to the 'Myd on December 18.

Phillies-Yanks set to go for Wednesday night

How's this for a Game 1 match-up?

The last two AL Cy Young award winners in Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia.

Two teams with good starting pitching and potent line-ups.

Edge to the Yankees. They have the better bullpen and the home field advantage.

The Yanks are 36-8 at home since the All-Star break including 5-0 in the playoffs.

That kind of mark is unheard of in pro sports and especially in baseball.

The old Yankee Stadium sure had a lot of mystique but the pinstripers are getting mighty comfortable in their new digs.

Quick Pick: Yanks in 6

****

Tough loss for the Niners but there were some serious glimpses in the second half.

Alex Smith found Vernon Davis three times for touchdowns and Michael Crabtree looked ready to step right into the NFL game.

That sentence looks weird in print since Crabtree has been a Niner less than 20 days and the San Fran brass has been waiting for the Smith-Davis connection to materialize for years since both were first round selections, but as they say, better late than never right?

But more on Crabtree.

He finished with 5 catches for 56 yards and had another 25-yarder wiped away on a penalty.

He ran crisp routes, was strong on the ball and opened up some lanes for Josh Morgan.

Which brings me to this.

How many games did it take Crabtree to out-produce the Raiders Darius Heyward-Bey who went three picks higher in the draft?

Just one.

Crabtree has five catches, Heyward-Bey has four in seven games.

Dodger demons extend further in Philly

With the Phillies ousting the Dodgers from the NLCS for the second consecutive year, it seems obvious LA has some glaring holes in their starting rotation.

Just last week I called their rotation laughable when I correctly picked Philadelphia to make quick-work of the blue crew in 5 games.

The cautionary tale for LA extends past Citizens Bank Park and the Phillies though.

Look no further than the city limits to the city of brotherly love's beloved Eagles.

****

The Dodgers have a great young nucleus of talent, mostly on offense, but need a frontline starting pitcher if they don't want to be their league's runner-up year after year like the Eagles of the 2000's.

It takes a ton of talent to get that far so often but no one wants to be a footmark to history time and time again.

The Eagles four championship game and one super bowl appearance this past decade:

2009-8 (NFC Champ Game) L ARI 32-25

2005-4 (Super Bowl XXXIX) L NWE 24-21

2004-3 (NFC Champ Game) L CAR 13-3

2003-2 (NFC Champ Game) L TAM 27-10

2002-1 (NFC Champ Game) L STL 29-24

The Joe Torre led Dodgers are only 0-2 in the precursor to the Fall Classic but if they want to make the jump to the World Series and win one - lest they be the Eagles of MLB for the next ten years - they still have a ways to go.

A few things...

Nailed the Phillies in 5 pick.

Angels in 6 won't be happening but they could still take it in 7. One out of two exact games and the winner aint bad.

MNF prediction: Eagles 31, Redskins 13. Tuesday morning: The bye week pink slip for Mr. Zorn.

Working on a column about the rash of bad officiating from the baseball playoffs to college football. Instant replay, full time football officials, and where we go from here. Should be done in the next day or two, basically when I can find time to actually write it. That will be up on daily49er.com. Check the "Daily 49er - Tucker Talks link on the left for that.

More on the Eagles with a comparison to a baseball team in a new blog post that should be up in the next few days.

That is all for now.

To be or not to be an NFL head coach

There are a lot of bad NFL teams and there are a lot of bad NFL head coaches.

The biggest problem for the guy running the show is whether or not he should be doing so.

There is a wide gap between successful coach or coordinator and first-rate head coach.

The coordinator can focus on one side of the ball, work with a smaller group of players and duck accountability if other facets of the game struggle.

The head coach? He has a lot more on his plate and is ultimately responsible for everything.

****

The Mike Nolan era in San Francisco was atrocious. The 49ers went 18-37 in his 3+ seasons at the helm and lacked consistency and a winning attitude.

Nolan took a job this offseason as the defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos and they are 5-0 with the top defense in the league after being the third worst unit in the NFL a year ago.

Rod Marinelli became the first head coach to suffer an 0-16 season as the man in charge for the Detroit Lions last year.

Now he is the defensive line coach in Chicago and the Bears are a top-10 team against the run. He is also assistant head coach and his team is 3-1.

Mike Martz was a tremendous offensive coordinator in St. Louis. Behind his offensive schemes the Rams won the Super Bowl in 1999. He took over as head coach following that season and got the Rams back to the big game two years later where they were upset by the Patriots.

The problem with Martz was that he still wanted to devote all his attention to the offense and the defense and special teams paid the price.

These are a few examples but there are many more. Cam Cameron, Norv Turner and Wade Phillips come to mind as other recent examples.

The difference between being a specialized coach that can focus on one aspect and thrive there and being the guy who has to pull all the strings for the whole organization is a big gap.

****

All of this comes to mind when the subject of Jim Zorn comes up. The much-maligned Washington Redskins shot-caller made a huge leap to get where he is now.

And while his team, especially on offense, has really struggled, it is the huge divide in his coaching pedigree and track record that is responsible for a large part of the criticism.

Zorn was an offensive coordinator at the college level and a QB coach with the Seahawks. He has has never been a head coach at any level.

There is so much more to manage especially at the NFL level so as Zorn struggles and a city loses his patience, former players stop hunting to shoot YouTube videos and player's call for a decision one way or the other Zorn's lack of experience is a glaring issue.

If the Redskins fall to the Chiefs today the Z man may be out of a job, but for everyone including Zorn himself, it may be a blessing.

Like so many men before him, some head coaches are better off with lesser jobs in new cities where they can focus on a more specific task and thrive in that department.