USC Football: Trojans Fall One Spot to No. 2 In AP Poll
By Trenise Ferreira
Sep 1, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Southern California Trojans quarterback Matt Barkley (7) throws a pass against the Hawaii Warriors at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE
The Associated Press released its college football rankings for week two on Monday, and Alabama has replaced the Trojans as the No. 1 Team. USC received 11 first-place votes, but the Crimson Tide pulled in 45.
The AP Top 5 now ranks: No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 USC, No. 3 LSU, NO. 4 Oregon, and No. 5 Oklahoma.
USC rolled Hawaii in their season opener, besting the Warriors 49-10, but Alabama easily had the more impressive win over the weekend. The Tide dismantled the Michigan Wolverines, stifling them entirely at the line of scrimmage for a 41-14 win.
Here is the entire AP Top 25:
RKTEAM RECORDPTS1Alabama (45)1-014812USC (11)1-014353LSU (4) 1-0 13824Oregon 1-012955Oklahoma1-011706Florida State1-011357Georgia 1-010838Arkansas1-09929South Carolina1-09809West Virginia1-098011Michigan State1-091512Clemson 1-078813Wisconsin1-066414Ohio State1-063415Virginia Tech1-060416Nebraska1-060317Texas 1-058418Oklahoma State1-055819Michigan0-144620TCU 0-035521Kansas State1-033922Notre Dame1-019823Louisville1-019024Florida 1-014525Stanford1-0131
The Oregon Ducks had an impressive win this weekend (albiet over Sun-Beat team Arkansas State), winning 57-34. Though the score does not indicate a blowout, the Ducks left the field at halftime with a 50-3 score and none of the starters returned for the second half. ASU also won big, defeating Northern Arizona 63-6. Utah shut out Northern Colorado 41-0 in their season opener as well.
Aside from USC, Oregon, Arizona State and Utah the rest of the Pac-12 struggled this weekend.
UCLA beat Rice 49-24, completely falling apart in the second quarter but then rallying for the commanding win, Stanford barely pulled out a 20-17 win over San Jose State, Arizona also stumbled against Toledo to win 24-17 in overtime, Washington beat San Diego State 21-12, Mike Leach and Washington State got crushed by BYU 30-6, Colorado dropped their opener to Colorado State, 22-17, and Cal absolutely dropped the ball against Nevada, losing 31-24 to Nevada.
Oregon State did not play this weekend, as its game against Nicholls State has been postponed.
The Pac-12 could’ve easily gone 11-0 this weekend, but walked away with a still respectable 8-3 weekend instead.
The Trojans resume practice on Tuesday as they prepare to take on the Syracuse Orange on Saturday in New York.