Get your attention, SC Fan? Good, cuz someone clearly needs to deliver a little clarity … and I’m just the guy to do it.  And before you start the f-bomb emails, I’m an SC fan, too – but I’m also a realist, and this is time for a little reality

Normally, this would be a multi-topic sports posting, but with the Slipup in Seattle fresh in the minds of TrojanNation, I thought it best to dedicate this space to a little group therapy.  But before we begin working out the grief steps, let’s start with the facts:

Pete Carroll’s USC Trojans, #3 in the country, travelled to Seattle to play the Washington Huskies, coached by former SC assistant Steve Sarkesian.  The Huskies, which last season became the first Pac-10 team in history to compile a no-win season, beat the Trojans 16-13 on a last-second field goal.

Simple enough, right?  Let me first say I’m going to try hard to resist the temptation to say “toldya so,” since I called this shot a week ago.  Instead, however, let’s just look a little deeper at how USC went from participant to bystander in the national title chase.

A lot of people are calling this a huge upset, but they’re wrong.  Upset yes, in the sense that USC was ranked higher than UW, but not in the sense that it was a surprise.  In retrospect, it seems so obvious that this was a classic trap game – Carroll even warned his team about it in the locker room after their defeat of Ohio State a week earlier.  But apparently, some lessons can’t be taught and must be experienced.

The first flaw?  USC was a legitimate national title contender.  I don’t think so – not when their entire starting linebacker corps from a year ago is now starting in the NFL on Sundays … not to mention the guy penciled in to lead the offense this year.  It’s easy to see why Carroll was so irritated when Marc Sanchez jumped from the cardinal and gold to the green and white – he knew the Trojans were screwed.  The finely-crafted chain of quarterbacks was suddenly broken, and Carroll had three different but equally distasteful choices – Aaron Corp, who continually served as the also-ran in the yearly QB competition, Mitch Mustain, who blew up the Arkansas football program before landing at SC and realizing what a mistake he’d made, and true freshman Matt Barkley – talented but as young and raw as they come.

Carroll opted for Barkley, and against OSU he showed moments of brilliance.  But he also showed the inexperience of youth, and made matters worse by getting hurt on a sack late in the game.  When he couldn’t throw on Saturday morning, the game belonged to Corp – and the Huskies.

Any other school facing what USC had coming into this season would simply declare it a rebuilding  year and concentrate on next season.  But with all the money behind the Trojans, that’s just not an option.  So they did what they could, and got punched in the teeth.  Get used to it, SC Fan – it’s not the last loss you’ll taste this season.

Flaw #2 – Pete Carroll is some kind of untouchable football genius.  There’s no denying the success of the SC football program, and much of the credit deservedly goes to Carroll.  But the success that led to a pair of national titles earlier in the decade was a team effort – and much of that team is now elsewhere.  Like the NFL’s Patriots, other programs looking to tap into the Trojan mystique have tapped members of the staff to lead their football squads.  Offensive coordinator Norm Chow left for the Tennessee Titans before landing across town with UCLA; his replacement, Lane Kiffin, did the same with the Raiders before signing on this year as head coach at the University of Tennessee.  Defensive coordinator Ed Orgeron – a key USC recruiter – left to lead the Old Miss program and is now on the staff of Kiffin.  And last year’s two lead coordinators – Sarkesian on the offense and Nick Holt on the defense – were both on the Washington sideline during their defeat of the Trojans.

This kind of talent drain inevitably leads to dilution, and puts more pressure than ever on Carroll and his “legendary” skill as someone who can replan at halftime and execute in the second half.  The truth is, as this game and last season’s embarassment by Stanford shows, Carroll is in dire need of fresh talent on the staff.  Much as the squad is in a rebuilding year, so too is the coaching team.

Flaw #3 – The Huskies are not the team that went winless in 2008.  I’m no UW expert, but I know that their star quarterback Jake Locker missed much of last season, and coach Ty Willingham was just going through the motions after realizing this job wouldn’t make people forget Notre Dame.  USC played like they were playing the 2008 Huskies, and it showed.

Flaw #4 – Injuries were too much to overcome.  Matt Barkley might only have two games as a starter, but he’s Brett freaking Favre compared to Corp the Carp.  On the other side, the leader of the defense Taylor Hays was out as well.  You can’t just plug new guys into the two most important spots on the field and just assume everything will be fine.

Final Flaw – Sark wanted it more.  Admittedly, Sarkesian and the Huskies had nothing to lose – hey, just avoiding a blowout would have been seen as a victory.  But Sark and Holt were better positioned than anyone to expose flaws in the Trojan game plan, and did so to perfection.  While Carroll and the SC staff had basically the week between OSU and UW to prepare for the game, Sarkesian has been doing so from the moment he was introduced as the Huskies new coach.  You know damned well he had this game circled on his calendar, just as Charlie Weis and Rick Neuheisel do.  He had the time to plan it right, and his team executed his plan well.  Carroll was dealing with a team flat after a big emotional win.

Used properly, this could actually be a good thing for the Trojans.  Common wisdom is that an early season loss is easier to overcome, and USC could still run the table in the Pac-10 and do a BCS bowl.  But there’s no guarantee whatsoever that they can do that, and there’s still the two rivalry games to contend – and you know that they both sense weakness.  Even if the record doesn’t end up what Trojan Fan is used to seeing, this season can be valuable if it is used to grow Barkley as a leader.  A true sophmore QB isn’t often a contender for the Heisman Trophy, but he could easily be come next fall – if cooler heads prevail.