USC / Texas

Maybe the greatest championship college football game ever played. My hats off to the Longhorns and Vince Young. However, I do want to bring up a point that I doubt you'll see mentioned anywhere else.

Keep in mind that the final score was 41-38. USC lost by 3 points. In the first quarter (at the 6:30 mark) USC had a fourth and one from Texas' 17-yard line. It was reported that Pete Carroll wanted USC to line-up and try to draw Texas offsides. When that didn't work - Carroll wanted to call timeout to bring on the field goal team. Instead Matt Leinart decided to go for it but was stopped for no gain. That unilateral decision by Leinart probably cost USC 3 points.

Let me remind you that USC lost by 3 points.

Let me also remind you of something I wrote after the USC / Notre Dame game:

On that final play some writers are giving Carroll credit for going for the win instead of a tie. The fact is Carroll was going for a tie. He wanted Leinart to spike the ball so the kicking team could come on. Leinart and Reggie Bush decided they knew better and instead went for the TD. This play is going to come back to haunt Pete Carroll.

Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush are extremely talented (Bush more so than Leinart in my opinion but I’ll get to that in a moment). What they did on that final play was an act of insubordination – an act of mutiny if you will. They decided that they knew better than their superior officer / captain (Coach Carroll) and flagrantly disobeyed him. Luckily for them – they were successful and they provided a legendary ending to a legendary game.

What about the Leinart and Bush wannabe’s though? Leinart and Bush are legendary now for what they did at the end of this game and USC thrives as a program because they get players who want to be legends. The ego on these players will make them think that they are bigger than the program and certainly bigger than Coach Carroll. I’m predicting that you will start to see more open insubordination in the USC program now that Leinart and Bush have shown they can get away with it and be rewarded (none of the Leinart / Bush wannabe’s will allow the thought of failure to enter their mind – they will just see the glory in their minds an won’t see the ramifications of their inevitable failure). The dam has been cracked.

I didn't think this would come back to bite USC in the ass so quickly but it has. If USC kicked that field goal in the first quarter - then the score is 10-0 and we have a toltally different game and maybe a much different outcome.