USC, Oklahoma Can Set Miami Reservations Now

In sizing up this year’s powerhouse teams, there appears to be USC, Oklahoma and take a number, please.

Anything can happen between now and January’s Orange Bowl, site of this season’s bowl championship series title game, but here’s guessing that it won’t.

From where we pontificate, USC and Oklahoma, like a couple of booster rockets, have separated themselves from the mother ship and will go this BCS journey alone.

Oh, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out.

In the late-night afterglow of USC’s 42-10 win against Brigham Young, star tailback-receiver-kick returner Reggie Bush complained the Trojans “weren’t perfect.”

We likened this to Halle Berry complaining of a “bad hair day.”

It is saying something that USC could take its sweet time in getting started against BYU -- no points scored in the first quarter -- and end up winning by 32.

Imagine what happens when the Trojans work the kinks out?

Oklahoma has problems too. The Sooners only defeated Oregon, 31-7, and will have to deal with the weekend news that star defensive lineman Dusty Dvoracek has been kicked off the team for disciplinary reasons.

Yet, we’re going to be surprised if USC or Oklahoma loses a game.

Both teams are complete packages.

You can’t top the men at top, coaches Pete Carroll and Bob Stoops.

Jason White, Oklahoma’s quarterback, won the Heisman Trophy last year.

Matt Leinart, USC’s quarterback, may win it this year.

Both schools are balanced on offense and play in-your-face defense.

As off-the-charts good as people were saying Oklahoma was last year before fading when it counted, the Sooners actually lacked a dominant running back who could take over a game in the fourth quarter.

Oklahoma appears to have one now in Adrian Peterson, who has reeled off three consecutive 100-yard games and is the most talked about freshman tailback in Norman since Marcus Dupree.

Besides, when you get past USC and Oklahoma, here’s what we are left with:

* Georgia. Coming off a (yawn) 13-3 win against Marshall. It was the fewest points Georgia has scored in a win since 1996.

* Miami. To believe in the Hurricanes, you have to believe in quarterback Brock Berlin. Anyone ready to do that?

* Texas. Perpetually plagued by the jungle fever known as Oklahoma-itis.

* Ohio State. No contender in the country is more dependent on the well-being of its field-goal kicker.

* West Virginia. Notched a defining win against Maryland, but how are the Mountaineers going to score any more beauty points playing in a watered-down Big East?

* Virginia. Interesting team. Too bad the Cavaliers still have to play Florida State and Miami.

* California. The Golden Bears’ season is riding on an Oct. 9 visit to Los Angeles.

* Auburn. OK, any 3-0 team in the Southeastern Conference is a factor, although nothing gets us less excited than 10-9 home wins.

Weekend Wrap

Just wondering: Is there any chance Louisiana State can pull Matt Mauck out of dental school? It is incredible to think that Mauck, the 25-year-old quarterback who led LSU to last year’s share of the national title, traded one more year of first and 10 for rinse and spit. A lot of Tiger fans figured any combination of the replacement quarterbacks, Marcus Randall or JaMarcus Russell, could ably fill in for Mauck. To the contrary, LSU has a 2-1 record that would have been 1-2 if not for a miracle win against Oregon State.

Stock down: Big Ten Conference. Penn State had six turnovers in a sloppy win at Pittsburgh, Michigan State had six turnovers in a loss to Notre Dame and watching cows being milked was more exciting than watching Wisconsin win, 9-7, at Arizona. Illinois squeaked out a three-point win over directional school (Western Illinois), Indiana lost by 19 at Kentucky, Iowa got whacked at Arizona State, 44-7, and Michigan struggled at home to defeat San Diego State. Minnesota looked good against Colorado State, but who doesn’t?

The best performance by a Big Ten school may have been delivered by Purdue, which had a week off.

Strangest score of the weekend: Maine 9, Mississippi State 7. What to read into this: The honeymoon may be over for Sylvester Croom, Mississippi State’s first-year coach.

Strangest score of the weekend II: Texas Tech 70, Texas Christian 35.

TCU, incredibly, led, 21-0, before Texas Tech scored 56 consecutive points. The game was eerily similar to the 1974 game between USC and Notre Dame, in which USC trailed, 24-0, at one point before the Trojans scored 55 consecutive points in a runaway win.

Comings and goings: Navy is 3-0 for the first time since 1979 and Oregon is 0-2 for the first time since 1992.

It appears pundits were only a year late on the predicted resurgence at Arizona State, which is 3-0 and coming off one of its most important victories in recent years, the 37-point win at home against No. 16 Iowa.

Suddenly, in what has emerged as a circle-your-calendar game, Arizona State plays at USC on Oct. 16.

Never thought we’d see the day that: Notre Dame would defeat Michigan and Michigan State on consecutive weeks and still not be ranked in either poll.

Non-BCS schools ranking watch: Utah remained at No. 14 in the coaches’ poll and moved up one spot, to No. 14, in the writers’. Fresno State moved up to 17th in both polls and Boise State jumped two positions, to No. 21, in both the Associated Press and coaches’ polls.