ESPN's Pat Forde Believes USC Will Be Victorious Saturday

TUESDAY
In his weekly Forde-First Yard column, ESPN Columnist Pat Forde states his prediction for Saturday's game between Oregon and SC. Here it is in all of its glory:

Oregon (9) will lose at USC. This is a tougher call. There is little reason to doubt the Ducks other than the lack of a legitimate road test. But the Trojans looked as though they put it together against California and have had a week off to scheme for the Blur Offense. USC quarterback Matt Barkley (10) has been on fire the past two games and hasn't thrown an interception in three straight games, a key stat against Oregon's opportunistic secondary. The "GameDay" trap dynamic is at play here as well for a fourth straight week after taking down Alabama, Ohio State and Oklahoma.

Bruce Feldman's Take on the Pac-10

MONDAY
Came across this article today from Bruce Feldman, ESPN's Senior Writer, on the Pac-10's big weekend.

I am a huge Bruce Feldman fan. His writing always makes sense and is well thought out. I have been reading his stuff forever. He is one of the very few at ESPN that really knows what is going on in the Pac-10. The guy lives in Los Angeles and is very well connected.

Here are a couple excerpts re. Stanford I believe you will enjoy . . . . .

"I expected Oregon to be good this year. I didn't expect the Wildcats or the Cardinal to look like legit top-15 teams, but they do.

In the offseason, I spoke to one of the Pac-10's head coaches, who predicted the Cardinal would flop this season. He told me Stanford had lost too much of its identity when bruising RB Toby Gerhart left for the NFL. The coach praised QB Andrew Luck but didn't have much more to say about the Cardinal.

Luck is great. As I wrote earlier this week, I think he's the best bet to be an NFL star QB of anyone playing in college football now. Harbaugh has been gushing about his QB for years, and for all of Harbaugh's big talk, the guy really backs it up. But this team is a lot more than just a big-time quarterback.

At a time when many schools are running spread offenses, Harbaugh has focused on fielding a bruising, physical team. It seems he loads up on tight ends and fullbacks in the way other teams get misty-eyed over 5-foot-9, 160-pound scat backs these days. Harbaugh's mentality is blunt and often brutal. Up 68-24 in the game's final minutes, Harbaugh challenged a ruling on the field about a fumble. Stanford at that point had already scored more against Wake Forest than the Cardinal hoops team did in 15 games last season."

ESPN College Football Live Pac-10 Predictions

FRIDAY
When was the last time the Pac-10 was so wide open?
Well, that would be the first year of Pete Carrol's coaching career at SC.

On College Football Live, when asked who they were picking to win the conference, they answered this way...
Robert Smith: OSU
Coach Holtz: USC
Herbie: Stanford
Ted Miller, maybe the most knowledgable of all writers (he covers the Pac-10 for ESPN) picked USC.

The Pac-10 Media, as a collective likes Oregon.