Trojan Memo: Beware the Feisty Beaver

This is an open letter to all of the USC players, coaches, and team personnel that I know frequent the FanHouse:

As you prepare to make the trip to Corvallis, Oregon to face Mike Riley's Oregon State Beavers -- a game in which you're currently favored by 13 points -- I'm going to channel the ghost of Howard Jones and issue one piece of advice:

Do not take the Beavers for granted.

The Trojans vaunted former head coach, the man responsible for bringing USC its first four National Championships with the Thundering Herd, tied the Beavers in Corvallis in 1934 (6-6), and suffered one of his rare losses at home to them in 1935 (13-7).

This weekend, my fellow Trojans, you will face an Oregon State team that's 4-3, with losses to Cal (#10), Boise State (#15), and Washington State (who just knocked off Oregon and is far more for real than almost anyone is giving them credit for). In other words, they're another of the Pac-10's underrated, yet fully capable teams -- just like those Washington, Washington State and ASU teams that made things very interesting for you over the past few weeks.

With Oregon, Cal, and Notre Dame (in 3 successive weeks) on the horizon, I know the potential to look past this game is there, but as I'm sure Coach Carroll and his staff have been reinforcing all last week and this -- toy not with the Beaver, or you may very well get bit. I don't think I need to remind you about the last time we played in Corvallis, and needed a career game from Dominique Byrd to avoid having a perfect season derailed in the fog.

Please don't mistake this caution for pessimism -- I have the utmost confidence in this Trojan team, especially with a much-needed week to recover from an injury-strewn first half. The A side of the 2006 season is done, and while it might not have featured any breakout chart-topping hits, it was still a flawless tracks 1 through 6. But we all know this album will be judged on the B side that's about to start spinning. Let's just make sure we don't overlook track 7 (and 8, for that matter, even though it is lowly Stanford) on our way to the rock anthems that will be tracks 9-12 and the big encore/finale of track 13.