BOSTON COLLEGE GETS ITS SHOT AT STRUGGLING POWERHOUSE USC IN THIS YEAR’S EMERALD BOWL-By William Queen for Football Reporters Online

(photo: © BrokenSphere / Wikimedia Commons) 
Where has the season gone? Looking at this bowl game, I feel like I’m stuck in a college football nightmare. It wasn’t long ago that USC seemed like they owned the Rose Bowl and Pete Carroll said that every year’s team was his “best ever”. The Emerald Bowl doesn’t exactly cut it. It’s really just a lame attempt of making it sound like it’s a relevant bowl, so you can bet that Trojan nation is not too happy about this one.
 
Yet, what a great opportunity for Boston College. For what has been a powerhouse of a football team, USC finally falls down to a December bowl game and the Eagles are faced with a chance at history.
 
Current Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez fled to the NFL following his junior season at USC and after some media attention between him and Pete Carroll, top high school prospect Matt Barkley was the one lining up under center. Despite all the hype, Barkley is still a freshman and led the Pac-10 with 12 interceptions. And though the Trojans 23rd in the nation defensively, the main problem has been consistency. Two of their four losses consisted of their opponent scoring 47+ points; not the defense we’re used too.
 
Boston College, on the other hand, has a forceful 18th ranked defense and looks to keep Barkley’s struggles at a high. And because of a 14th ranked rushing defense, I expect the Eagles to force the game out of the hands of USC’s talented backs and into Matt Barkley’s, a tough challenge for the freshman’s first bowl game. When it comes to defending the pass though, that’s where the Eagles fall through the cracks. Allowing 2,568 passing yards this season, this may be USC’s best shot at moving the ball. If they can do that, Boston College is in trouble.
 
Not exactly the most reliable offense, Boston College doesn’t have a consistent quarterback in Dave Shinskie and will have to rely heavily on running back Montel Harris to carry them through this game. With 13 touchdowns this season, Harris is most defiantly their best shot at outscoring Barkley and the USC offense. However, Harris can’t do it alone. As I mentioned earlier, Dave Shinskie is a concern and he’s going to have to step up it up through the air if they want to have a realistic shot at pulling off the upset.
 
History shows that since 2001, both teams win 82% of the time when scoring 20+ points and tend to struggle when it’s a low-scoring game. So expect this one to be a battle of field position; whoever can take advantage of end-of-half field goals and turnovers will have a definite edge. 
 
For a prediction, I think that Boston College will hang tough most the game, but will slip away as it gets late in the game. Barkley will have a solid performance with 3 touchdowns and an interception, two being to tight end Anthony McCoy and the other to receiver Damian Williams, and back Joe McKnight will score one on the ground, all leading to a 31-17 Trojan victory.

Could Taylor Mays Be Picked Number One in the 2010 Draft?-By Will Osgood For Football Reporters Online

“Thud… Whack… Bam…Ouch!” That is an edited version of what you will hear when on the field at a USC practice or game when Taylor Mays is playing safety. Mays is the hardest hitting safety to play for the Trojans since Steelers’ All Pro Safety Troy Polamalu wore Cardinal and Gold at the beginning of Pete Carroll’s magical run atop the College Football world.
Some wonder if Mays is actually a better version of Polamalu. Right now, I will tell you flat out… NO!
But, almost as interesting, is he better than Tennessee’s Eric Berry? And are either capable of being the number one pick in 2010’s NFL Draft?

Rare is the day when two safeties dominate so much of the talk involved in the NFL Draft. To think that it’s even worth mentioning either as a potential number one pick is really mind-boggling. 2006 is the first year in which two safeties have been drafted in the top-10. They were Michael Huff, drafted by the Raiders out of Texas, and Donte Whitner, from Ohio State drafted by Buffalo. Neither of those two players had nearly the fan fare or anticipated stock heading into their final years in college as Mays and Berry.
To be real honest, though, the better comparison, at least stylistically is Polamalu and Ed Reed. Mays compares to the former Trojan, while Berry compares favorably to the current Baltimore Raven, Reed.
Berry is always making plays on the ball and is dangerous with the ball in his hands. It is not to say he won’t hit someone, but he’s not as well known for that as Mays.
Mays even compares to Rodney Harrison a bit, in that he’ll hit you so hard, and sometimes illegally, that he’ll literally knock you out. He nearly did that to his teammate Kevin Thomas in the Rose Bowl game against Penn State this past season. Of course, Jordan Norwood of Penn State was down for quite awhile as well.
And that is exactly what Mays does, he makes you fall over as you see just how much talent God blessed him with. The guy is 6 foot 3 inches tall and 230 pounds, yet he runs like a cornerback. If the guy was playing running back, no one would want to tackle him. If he were playing receiver he’d be like Terrell Owens. He has a recorded 4.47 40-yard dash. A lot of corners and running backs don’t even run that fast. Here’s a linebacker-type doing that. The guy is absolutely ridiculous.
When you add in Mays’ football intelligence, you have a guy who automatically projects to being an elite safety at the NFL level. Why you ask? He’s always in good position. He keeps the ball in front of him at all times. He takes good angles to the football, both versus the run and the pass. He reads plays and breaks on them very quickly, most of the time he gets to the ball just in time to knock it away from the receiver.
He may not always be around the football, but remember he played with eight guys on that defense who are now in the National Football League. They were making plays, and that’s also partially because offenses tried to keep the ball away from Taylor Mays. They knew what would happen if they attacked him too often; they’d have an injured player or two.
So why would Taylor Mays not be a top-five pick if he has so much talent and is so intelligent? Well, unlike Berry, he hasn’t shown an ability to make plays with the ball in his hands. That is what makes a great safety in today’s NFL. That’s why in my books, Berry is slightly ahead of Mays at this point. Mays has more talent, but Berry has produced more. If Mays can produce equally, he will go ahead of Berry next April because of his size and ferocity. He plays the game with an attitude and defensive coaches love that. Mr. Mays could be the number one pick next year if he can just turn all that ability into production. “Thud…Bam…Whack…Ouch” needs to be accompanied by “Mays picks that ball off and takes it 50 yards to pay dirt for a pick-six”.