The truth about USC

Thank you, Vince Young.
I finally have some ammo to quantify this feeling I've had for some time that the USC Trojans are overrated.
A great team? Yeah, I guess. One of the all-time best? Ehhh ... I'm going to say no.
I wanted to say no before Young rallied Texas to their first national title in 36 years Wednesday night in the Rose Bowl. But the din of USC supporters (patron saint: Will Ferrell) from Los Angeles made it hard to be heard.
Two straight national titles? Who's kicking Louisiana when they're down now?
Last time I checked, LSU got the crystal football after the 2003 season. USC finished first in both the media and coaches' polls, but not in the BCS. There are problems with the BCS ratings system, yes, but any USC national title from 2003 is strictly inferred and not won. You don't win a national title by bellyaching the loudest. You win it on the football field.
Same goes for Miami fans still moaning about a scrap of yellow cloth on the field against Ohio State. Go polish your 2001 trophy. But I digress.
USC won a title last year. They were going for two straight, no matter what the appeasement-minded ABC broadcast crews said last night.
And last night, one ofthe supposed titans in the history of college football lost because they didn't have the best player on the field. Don't teams like USC usually trump supposed one-trick ponies like Texas?
USC's 39th-ranked defense gave up 41 points in regulation time last night. My suspicions about not really being challenged in the defensively-soft Pac 10 have been confirmed.
Notre Dame was probably the toughest defense USC faced all year. It took a Reggie Bush pile-driver of Matt Leinart into the end zone for the Trojans to escape from South Bend with a win.
Aren't all-time teams like USC supposed to own the fourth quarter and thrive on pressure? USC coughed up a 38-26 fourth quarter lead last night.
Pete Carroll allowed his USC defense to sink into a Marty Schottenheimer-esque marshmallow-soft prevent coverage late in the game, attempting to sit on the 12-point lead. But giving 20 yards to Vince Young was like giving a starving German shepherd a steak. Young took off at will, scrambling underneath for 10 yards at a time. Once Young gets up a head of steam, one defender isn't going to bring him down. USC found that out the hard way.
Bush and Leinart have the Heismans, but Young was the top dog last night. Playing in far-off Austin, Texas, Young had little to combat the bright lights and glamour of the USC program. But I saw a pressure-cooker performance from Young last night that I hadn't seen in quite some time. He might wind up being better than Leinart or Bush in the NFL.
The best part is, we might have to wait to find out. Young reportedly said he is leaning toward coming back for another year at Texas, trying to do what USC only thinks it did: win two straight national titles.