Michelle Richarson on the NCAA

by Michelle Richardson

 

 

Stanford 20 USC 17: I’ll be honest with you this game really surprised me, in the end you would think Stanford would eek out the win after losing in the last 25 seconds of the game on a field goal by USC kicker Andre Heidari who hit a 47 yarder. It’s never easy this is a tough loss for Stanford and they played at USC which is a tough school to play at. Stanford looked like they had that extra push that would put them over the top but it got late and the Trojans got in range to get three points at the end of the game.

 

Southern Cal basically played bowl crasher and their the first team this year to play bowl crasher this year in knocking down Stanford in their bid to the Rose Bowl. USC beat Oregon State back on November 1st and beat Stanford last Saturday with that being said Stanford had three turnovers but everything else was pretty much even.

 

You can’t turn over the ball and expect to win and that’s been pretty much the story of the game, turnovers you can not have them they had two interceptions and one fumble. You can not turn over the ball especially against a highly effective team like SC and to expect to come out with a victory.

 

Alabama 20 Mississippi State 7: Alabama kind of got ahead of themselves that happened after they beat LSU last week 38-17, and the Crimson Tide thought all they had to do was go on cruise control, it’s one of those teams their about to change the tide in the SCC. Their no longer whipping boys they’ve proved they can play with the best in the SCC they can beat them or play them very close.

 

For Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron this was not his best work he threw for 187 yards, went 18-32, with two touchdowns, and two interceptions, which means there was a mistake in the secondary and Mississippi St was ball hawking and they were on it. MS was on McCarron and the Tide knew it and they knew how he played. Alabama not only threw for two interceptions they had two fumbles on top of that.

 

Alabama gave up four turnovers in the game for 41 yards, you can not make stupid penalties and give up the ball if you expect to win the game. The Crimson Tide were lucky in this one and strangely enough they came back and won this game. Alabama head coach Nick Saban I’m sure talked to his players during half time to get them to shake some of these turnovers and other mistakes off as the Tide held on.

 

Charleston Classic coming November 21st: I love all the tournaments that are playing at the end of the year and we can get an idea how they play before they get into the conference and none of the teams going into this classic are slouches. A lot of these teams are doing well that’s in there, Nebraska, UMass, UAB, New Mexico, Georgia, Davidson, Temple and Clemson.

 

The smaller schools like UAB and Davidson the other big schools can not take these teams lightly, this is going to be very interesting, there’s some great talent scheduled for this tournament and there is going to be some great basketball and I can’t wait to see it.

 

Michelle Richardson will be covering the Charleston Classic Tournament for Sportstalk Radio

Late field goal helps Trojans stun No. 5 Stanford

By Daniel Dullum

Andre Heidari’s 47-yard field goal with 19 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter vaulted Southern California past Stanford 20-17 Saturday night in a Pac-12 football thriller at the L.A. Coliseum.

The upset defeat, Stanford’s second of the season, all but squelched the No. 5-ranked Cardinal’s shot at a national championship and put their possible berth for the Pac-12 championship game at risk as well.

It was the fifth win in six games for USC under Coach Ed Orgeron, who replaced the fired Lane Kiffin in late September after a 3-2 start. Trojans quarterback Cody Kessler passed for 288 yards, completing 25 of 37 passes for one TD and no picks. Nelson Agholor, Kessler’s primary target, snared eight passes for 104 yards.

Stanford (8-2 overall, 6-2 Pac-12) tied the game with 9:03 left in the third quarter on an 18-yard touchdown run by Tyler Gaffney. That completed the scoring until Heidari – who missed an extra point kick on the Trojans’ first touchdown – booted his dramatic game-winning field goal.

Gaffney scored both Cardinal touchdowns while gaining 154 yards on 24 attempts. Cardinal quarterback Kevin Hogan completed 14 of 25 passes for 127 yards, but was also picked off twice as Stanford’s offense stalled in key situations most of the night.

USC (8-3 overall, 5-2 Pac-12) took a 14-7 first quarter lead, scoring first on a 1-yard TD pass from Cody Kessler to Soma Vainuku, and a 1-yard run by Javorius Allen. In between, a 35-yard touchdown run by Gaffney put Stanford on the board.

The two teams swapped field goals in the second qauarter. Heidari hit one from 23 yards out, and Stanford’s Conrad Ukropina kicked a 26-yarder 25 seconds before halftime.

Next Saturday, Stanford faces a must-win situation in The Big Game, when the Cardinal host California. Game time is yet to be determined, pending the wants of the television networks.