USC still leader of the Pac-10

Ten takes taken from Thursday's Pacific 10 Conference media day, which has basically become USC media day surrounded by nine other tables:

1. Trojans rise too

USC getting picked to win the conference has to rank up there with the sun getting picked to rise.

It would have taken a brain cramp to pick anyone else other than USC, which received 38 out of 39 first-place votes. One voter in the media poll, though, gave California a first-place nod.

The same Cal that closed last year by losing six of its final eight games. The same Cal that is 1-5 against USC in the Jeff Tedford era. The same Cal whose coach, Tedford, said of last year's collapse: "I'm not sure we'll ever know exactly what happened."

And this just in from Shock Central: Trojans Coach Pete Carroll is excited about the approach of training camp.

"I've never been more pumped about a season starting," Carroll said.

Why not? He has the best players.

2. Quote, unquote

For notes fodder, we liked first-year Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh better than the second-year Harbaugh. Last year, Harbaugh created a modest dust-up by saying 2007 was going to be Carroll's last year at USC.

Wrong (unless Carroll takes an NFL job between now and Labor Day).

Harbaugh also said at last year's media day he considered USC to be one of the greatest college football teams ever assembled.

Wrong again. USC lost to, um, Stanford, and Oregon, and finished seventh in the final Bowl Championship Series standings before winning the Rose Bowl.

Harbaugh had nothing spicy to say Thursday. He did reflect on last year's epic upset against USC with a quote from the coaching cliché handbook: "That's water under the bridge."

Who is this impostor?

"I didn't know I was a bulletin-board guy," Harbaugh said.

3. Devil of a hump

Arizona State faces another one of those seminal moments. The devil horns have been notorious for inching close to greatness and then falling on their pitchforks.

"As soon as we start getting to the top, we lose that game we have to win," senior quarterback Rudy Carpenter acknowledged.

Last year, for example, Arizona State started 8-0 before losing to Oregon and then, two games later, to USC.