Content provided in partnership with

Trojan epoch? Not so fast: USC might look unstoppable, but sustaining a college football dynasty is next to impossible these days

Sporting News, The, Jan 21, 2005 by Matt Hayes

He's hopped up all right, juiced from this magical, mercurial ride that just gets better with each season. Here is Pete Carroll, walking briskly through the bowels of Pro Player Stadium in South Florida--wait, make that be-boppin' and scattin' all over this joint--singing a little James Brown and mixing in a few words about how his Southern California Trojans have seized control of the college football world and have amateur analysts from Tacoma to Tallahassee using the dreaded "D" word.

"We're in the middle of something special," Carroll says. "We can see it; it's very clear."

Most Popular Articles in Sports: The first family: Archie, Peyton and Eli are incredibly famous, immensely ...; The growing gap: driving distances are skyrocketing on the PGA Tour. So why ...; Which pistol caliber for self defense? Four different people come to four ...; Drag racing - National Hot Rod Association; The world's most popular .22: the Marlin Model 60 just keeps on ticking; More »

So let's throw it out already: dynasty. The most overused, oversimplified word in sports this side of great. Just exactly where are we with these Trojans, who not so long ago probably were the third- or fourth-best team in their own state, behind some university named Fresno State?

In three years, the Trojans have produced two Heisman Trophy winners and won three BCS games and two national titles, the last coming after a 55-19 demolition of Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. They arguably have had the best team in college football in each of those three years. In 2003, USC split the national championship with LSU, and in 2002, after destroying a powerhouse Iowa team in the Orange Bowl, the Trojans were playing better than anyone at the end of the season. The Trojans also had top-ranked recruiting classes the past two seasons (trust us, they're just as important as the big wins) and have made football meaningful again in Los Angeles.

So, yeah, why not talk dynasty? Well, that's a question that can be answered only with more questions. How much will the departure of key players and coaches hurt? How can success be sustained in a sport that is set up to showcase fresh faces every few years?

"It's just about impossible to do," says former LSU coach Nick Saban, who left the Tigers earlier this month for more green with the NFUs Miami Dolphins--and because, well, he couldn't top what he already had accomplished. Getting to the top in college football is hard enough. Staying there--with all of the anxiety and uncertainty of recruiting, of maintaining a cohesive coaching staff, of baby-sitting 17-, 18- and 19-year-olds--is something few have mastered.

Florida State had it going for a while in the late 1980s and '90s, and now the Seminoles have lost 15 games over the past four seasons and aren't even the best team in their own conference. Before USC's twopeat, Nebraska was the last team to win back-to-back Associated Press national titles (1994 and '95), but the Huskers haven't been the same since Colorado hung 62 points on them in the 2001 regular-season finale.

Just look at the previous five national champions to see that maintaining success--building that dynasty--isn't so easy after all.

* FSU won the national title in 1999, played for another in 2000 and hasn't sniffed the top spot since. Those 15 losses over the past four seasons? FSU lost 15 games from 1990 through 2000.

* Oklahoma won it all in 2000, and although it has stayed among the top 10 teams in the nation, it now has lost back-to-back national title games and three of its past four games with championships on the line.

* Miami assembled some of the best talent in the history of the game at the beginning of the millennium, yet it has one national title to show for it. After getting jobbed by the BCS system and left out of the 2000 championship game, the Canes won it all in 2001 and lost in the title game in 2002.

* Ohio State won the national title in 2002, won a BCS game in 2003 and lost four games this season. With the NCAA looming in Columbus, don't expect the Buckeyes to be back in this spot any time soon.

* LSU won a share of the national title last year and followed that up with a three-loss season, including a gut-wrenching, last-second loss against Iowa in the Capital One Bowl. With Saban gone, it could be a while before the Tigers play for another national title.

All of this leads us to the Trojans, who, if you're reading depth charts and listening to jabberjaws on sports talk radio, are as money as they get in the temperamental and tedious world of defending your title--or as we now can call it, threepeating. Almost everyone is coming back: dynamic tailback Reggie Bush, bruising tailback LenDale White, a group of speedy, athletic receivers, the entire offensive line and a chunk of one of the nation's best defenses.

Even the possibility of losing Heisman Trophy quarterback Matt Leinart isn't as dire as it seems, not with high school phenom John David Booty waiting to take his turn.

"It's a machine, man," White says. "We're all interchangeable parts. One goes down, another goes in, and the engine just keeps running."

Don't bet on it. It's human nature to be skeptical, and with this much recent history strengthening the possibility of an inevitable step back for the Trojans, why disregard it? At the very least, the Trojans can look at their similarities to recent champions and learn from them.

Trojan epoch? Not so fast: USC might look unstoppable, but sustaining a college football dynasty is next to impossible these days

Sporting News, The, Jan 21, 2005 by Matt Hayes

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Arts

Most Popular Articles in Sports

Most Popular Publications in Sports