Pac-10 Notebook

Pac-10 Notebook

By Jeff Zell
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

Pete Carroll got his team to respond.

After an Oct. 28 loss to Oregon State, USC has won four straight and has outscored its opponents 144-33, including a 44-24 win over No. 6 Notre Dame on Saturday. USC jumped Michigan in the BCS standings, and speculators believe with a win over rival UCLA on Saturday, the Trojans will remain No. 2.

"I think it was kind of good for us in a way, it was kind of a wake-up call," star WR Dwayne Jarrett said of the Oregon State loss. "We're so used to winning. It was a reality check for us, just to get our act together."

"I think we're a pretty good team right now," Carroll told the Associated Press. "We'll play anybody, anywhere."

USC didn’t need any last-second heroics this year to beat Notre Dame. John David Booty threw a trio of touchdown passes to Jarrett, and ran one in himself to hand Brady Quinn his second loss of the season. Notre Dame has loss five straight to USC.

Michigan hopes for a UCLA upset, but that hasn’t happened in seven years.

As Unexplainable As The NFL: I’m talking about rivalry games. Arizona going into its game with Arizona State had won three in a row over three quality opponents (WSU, Cal, Oregon), while the Sun Devils came off a 24-12 loss to UCLA at home. That all meant nothing as Rudy Carpenter threw three first-quarter touchdown passes and the ASU defense shut out the Wildcats in the second half to win 28-14. The win over rival Arizona wasn’t enough for head coach Dirk Koetter to keep his job.

Civil War Game: In the 110th edition of the Civil War Game, it was special teams that boosted the Oregon State to a 30-28 win over Oregon. Alexis Serna hit a 40-yard field goal in the pouring rain, while Oregon State blocked Oregon’s attempt just under a minute later to seal the victory. The home team has won this rivalry game the past 10 seasons.

Looking Ahead: In the final week of Pac-10 play, we have more rivalry games on the schedule. USC and UCLA meet to determine if the Trojans are going to the BCS National Championship Game (WagerWeb.com line: USC -13). ... Cal and Stanford meet with much less at stake (WagerWeb.com line: Cal -29). ... Oregon State gets a warm vacation when it heads to Hawaii for its final regular season game (WagerWeb.com line: Hawaii -7.5).

http://www.sport-betting-links.com
http://www.nfl-sports-betting.net