Many of the Husker faithful, including yours truly, held out hope that this was the game that would signal the re-birth of the Huskers dominance. For about a quarter and a half it had the makings of just such an occurrence. Then, at the 6:50 mark of the second quarter, reality hit and hit HARD. Just a mere 2 minutes earlier Husker place kicker Alex Henery put NU up 10-7 on a 37-yard field goal with 9:04 left in the first half. Then it happened.

On the ensuing kickoff, USC benefited from a fortuitous bounce, when Husker special team player Rickey Thenarse stripped USC return man Vincent Joseph of the football in front of the USC sideline and the ball flew more than 10 yards toward the middle of the field. Trojan Malcolm Smith scooped up the ball and raced 31 yards down the Nebraska sideline before being upended at the NU 45. Joseph, who injured his larynx on the play, which resulted in an extended delay that seems to re-energize the Trojans and put the Huskers into a "Rip Van Winkle" sleep, as 5 straight running plays lead to a Trojan score and a 14-10 lead that the Trojans never relinquished.

On the Huskers very next series, which was a soon-to-be common occurrence 3 and out, The Trojans again marched 70 plus yard, most of it on the ground and with a little more than 1 minute left in the half scored again to extend the lead to 21-10 at the half. Things did not get better in the second half. The Huskers took the kickoff and the Trojans intercepted a tipped pass that led to a John David Booty two-yard touchdown pass to Anthony McCoy and put the Trojans up 28-10 with 11:29 remaining in the third. The game was basically over at this point, but of course it got worse. Two plays later defensive end Kyle Moore intercepted a Keller pas and ran it down to the 1 yard line, where the Trojans punched it in for a 35 to 10 led with more than 9 minutes left in the quarter. 4 minutes later Chauncey Washington scored again to make it 42 - 10 going into the 4^th quarter.

If this game showed us anything, it is that we still have a long way to go to "play with the big boys" on a national level. Against USC, the Husker offense showed no ability at all, for the second consecutive game to be able to establish anything resembling a running game, gaining only 26 total yards on 19 carries. The Blackshirt defense should give back those Blackshirts, as USC ripped us for 313 yards on 38 carries, which is an 8.2 per carry average, the highest average ever allowed by a Nebraska team. Anyone who was having second thoughts on whether USC deserved to be ranked Number 1 should have had those thoughts vaporized from their brain after this display in Lincoln.

This game also did nothing to ease my thoughts as to whether Sam Keller has the ability to lead this offense. It was like something happened to him after the break early in the second quarter, that he could not make a good decision after that point and that he was trying to force the action, or more-so that he was trying to invent a 10 point scoring play.

I also have to question Bill Callahan and his play calling, to the point as to whether he does, what so many coaches do now-a-days, and script out the first 12-14 plays of the game. If he does script the plays, then I really don't understand the difficulty we seem to have in getting the play relayed into Keller in time to call it in the huddle, and get the ball snapped without running the play clock all the way down and getting delay of game penalties or having to call a time out to avoid the penalty. By scripting the plays, Keller should already know the next play to be called. If they don't script the plays, then Keller should have a SIMPLE number assignment for the plays listed on his wrist band. Then Callahan can simply flash the number of the play he wants ran, which would simplify the play calling process.

If he doe not script out the beginning plays, I believe that he should as it will not only eliminate the rush to get the play called and into action, but it would also, I believe calm Keller down, as he would know what to call without having to run to the sidelines after every play. More direct in relationship to Callahan's play calling is the fact that in the first half the wide receiver screen and the middle screen, that were very effective in the first quarter. However those plays were completely abandoned in the second half. Callahan also seemed to be overly suborned in regards to calling running plays, so that our offense became an automatic "3 and out" through-out the 3^rd quarter.

Bottom line is that we as fans, and more so, the players themselves have to put this game completely out of their mind and get ready for next Saturday's game against Ball State, which is our last non-conference game prior to the opening of the Big 12 season. This was only one game, and it was one, at the beginning of the season, that I had predicted we would lose, even if I didn't pick it that way earlier this past week. Stay tuned for my preview of the Ball State game next Saturday, who gained more than 500 yards in their victory over Navy, GBR folks.

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