Trojans 2002: Return to Glory

Rating:
Summary: WHOA NELLIE...HERE COME THE TROJANS!
Review: All indications are that Pete Carroll and his University of Southern California Trojans are poised to become the greatest collegiate team of all time.

The defending co-National Champions have a dynasty on their hands. They could very possibly win two or three National Championships in a row.

USC's last two recruiting classes were ranked number one in America, and the 2004 crop is thought to be the best in history. Not since the 1983 Nebraska Cornhuskers has a team entered the season with so many highlights. Therein lies the problem.

USC is the hottest ticket in America's hottest town, the toast of Hollywood, the biggest thing in a media hothouse. They set the all-time USC attendance record in 2003 and will likely break that in 2004.

Based upon history, one is increasingly impressed with USC. Five years ago, a Top 25 listing of the Greatest College Football Programs of All-Time would have shown USC to have slipped. However, in light of their National Championship last year and favored status to repeat this year, Troy is now back to its second place status, poised to assault Notre Dame for the top spot in the next 10 to 15 years.

Long dynasties are hard to come by in college football, but SC has a long history of doing just that. It is for this reason, combined with the glow of being Notre Dame's biggest rival, its great inter-city tradition with UCLA, and a history that goes back farther than almost any program (Michigan and Notre Dame are the only schools that go back as far and are still powers) that Southern California is not just second all-time in football but first among all athletic programs (and first by a wide margin in baseball).

The Greatest College Football Team in history is generally considered to be John McKay's 1972 Trojans. In addition, SC claims the best single-season team in the 1920s (1928) and '30s (1931). They are considered the best team of the decade of the 1930s, 1960s, 1970s, and now the 2000s.

Further proof of SC's ability to maintain a tradition is their consistency. The top dynasty period in history was the John McKay/John Robinson era lasting from the early 1960s until the 1980s. The Howard Jones "Thundering Herd" teams of the 1920s and '30s also ranks highly. Among the best three-year periods ever, none is better than SC's run from 1972-74. Among 5/6-year periods, consider three of Troy's eras (1967-72, the best of anybody, followed by 1974-79 and 1928-32).

The best 10/15-year period? USC from 1967 to 1979, but that is not all. Also ranked is the period 1962-72 and 1928-39. Among great long-term dynasties (20/25 years), nobody beats Southern California from 1962-81, when they won five National Championships and four Heisman Trophies. The Trojans easily have the most professionals, the most first round draft picks, the most Hall of Famers, the most Pro Bowlers and the most All-Americans. They are, undisputably, a football factory. The empirical evidence cannot be argued against.

On top of all this, USC counts the most Major League baseball players, the most baseball Hall of Famers, the most All-Stars and various dominant players. Despite not being known for basketball, a disproportianate number of Trojans from the 1940s and '50s are considered hoops pioneers. The "triangle offense" was invented at SC, and such stalwarts as Bill Sharman, Alex Hannum and Tex Winter played together before induction in Springfield. USC also boasts the most Olympians, the most Olympic champions, and if they had been a country in 1976, they would have placed third in total medals at the Montreal Games.