USC Star Tailback Stafon Johnson Survives Freak Accident

Late Monday afternoon during a routing workout at USC’s weightlifting facilities, star tailback Stafon Johnson had a suffered serious injuries while bench pressing. Even though he was being spotted by an assistant strength trainer, the bar carrying over 275 pounds slipped from his hand and crashed down on Johnson’s throat. He was immediately rushed to the hospital, where four surgeons spent 7 hours performing reconstructive surgery, which was ultimately successful. Johnson is now in critical, but stable condition according to the latest reports.

According to Dr. Gudata Hinika, trauma director at California Hospital Medical Center, the injuries sustained by Stafon were so forceful that they were similar to being thrown through a windshield of a car. Apparently Johnson’s neck was so strong that he was able to keep his breathing passage open, ultimately saving his life. "Had that been any one of us, meaning me, I would not have survived," Hinika went on to say in his press conference today. "His neck was so solid and so muscular, that actually helped maintain his airway." His experience as a top level athlete helped to keep him calm and maintain his composure in a stressful environment that attributed to the success of the surgery and treatment. Hinika says that USC’s 2nd leading rusher and best touchdown producer probably won’t play again this season. The fact is that he’s lucky to be alive.

Now that Johnson is ok, what does this mean for USC football? Certainly a distraction like this tragedy is never welcome, and among many things all those who know, watch, and love Stafon Johnson hope that he will not only make a full recovery, but will be able to continue the game which he loves and has brought him so far. Coming off of a so-so “redemption” victory over the PAC-10 weakest Washington State Cougars, does USC have what it takes to go the distance? They’ll certainly get one of their biggest tests this Saturday.

The California Golden Bears are coming off of an absolutely embarrassing 42-3 thumping by Oregon. Usually after a serious upset, most teams will come back stronger than ever (except for USC against Washington State last week), and if Cal loses this week, they’re season is pretty much over. They’ve got a lot to lose. On the other hand, so does USC. Matt Barkley and stud Safety Taylor Mays are beginning to close in on 100% health, which will certainly help. Stafon Johnson is USC’s current top touchdown producer, and he will be seriously missed by this slightly underachieving offense. Will this be the week the deepest team in College Football turns the corner? Or will they wait to flip the switch until it’s too late like they did against Washington two weeks ago? Whatever the Trojans do, they’d better do it quickly, because short of their bowl game, this will probably be their biggest challenge of the season, all things considered.

Week 4 Pick-em Results. Even more shame.

Another crazy week in college football is in the history books. I’m not necessarily sure what history books those might be, but they might be titled “Why College Football is the Most Exciting Time of Year.” So far, a major top 5 upset has happened each week. Oklahoma in Week 1, Oklahoma State in Week 2, USC in Week 3, and now Penn State in Week 4. Who’s the next loss on the list? Well, it’ll either be LSU or Florida because they play each other in week 6 in what will be one of the biggest college games of the year. Assuming LSU can make it past current No. 18 Georgia (not a given), it will be the first top 5 matchup of the year, it will also be Florida’s first REAL test, considering they’ve only been playing High School teams up to this point. Florida has a bye this week, giving a recovering Tebow a chance to shake off a concussion, so I’m guessing that LSU will probably not have much of a chance. But as my 14-8 record shows this week, you never really know.

It looks like we’re going to have another playoff controversy this year as it seems that Boise State has a pretty good chance to run the table. Considering they’ve only faced and will only face one ranked team this year, there’s a pretty good shot that they’ll make it through. All of the little guys will have more fodder to feel like they should be a part of the big game and that a playoff system is the only real solution. I personally don’t like the idea of a playoff, which I can expand upon later, (quickly though, I feel it would devalue the regular season that we all love so much), but what a playoff would do would obviously put teams like 2008 Utah and Boise State against the big boys. On those regards I’m all for the playoff. It would get the “this isn’t fair” whining monkey off of our back and I don’t think it’d really affect who would wind up in the BCS National Championship game anyway (unless Ohio State is slotted to go to the big dance, even the little guys could beat up on them). If Utah and Boise State have to go through the likes of USC, Texas, Florida, and Alabama just to get to the Championship game, there’s no way we see blue and orange broncos dancing around in the End Zone anyway.

My season-to-date total is now 66-20, putting my winning percentage at a solid C (.77). Although for the record 3 of my 8 losses were losses that every analyst was surprised by. Who knew we’d have three top ten teams fall in one week? It still doesn’t excuse my 5 other bad picks. Shame, terrible shame falls on me like a dark cloud of self doubt.

Hatchline’s Week Four College Pick-em Picks

Winners in BOLD. Picks are for winners only, not to cover point spread.

No. 1 Florida @ Kentucky (6:00 PM ET on ESPN2/360)
UTEP @ No. 2 Texas
Arkansas @ No. 3 Alabama (3:30 PM ET on CBS)
No. 4 Mississippi @ South Carolina
Iowa @ No. 5 Penn State (8:00 PM ET on ABC)
No. 6 California @ Oregon (3:30 PM ET on ABC/ ESPN 360)

No. 7 LSU @ Mississippi State (12:00 PM ET on ESPN 360)
No. 8 Boise State @ Bowling Green (7:00 PM ET on ESPN 360)
No. 9 Miami (FL) @ No. 11 Virginia Tech (3:30 PM ET on ABC/ESPN 360)
Washington State @ No. 12 USC
Illinois @ No. 13 Ohio State (3:30 PM ET on ABC)
Fresno State @ No. 14 Cincinnati (12:00 PM ET on ESPN 360)
No. 15 TCU @ Clemson (3:30 PM ET on ESPN 360)
Grambling State @ No. 16 Oklahoma State
Texas Tech @ No. 17 Houston (9:15 PM ET on ESPN2/360)
South Florida @ No. 18 Florida State (12:00 PM ET on ESPNU)
Colorado State @ No. 19 BYU
Southern Miss @ No. 20 Kansas
Arizona State @ No. 21 Georgia (7:00 PM ET on ESPNU)
No. 22 North Carolina @ Georgia Tech (12:00 PM ET on ESPN 360)
Indiana @ No. 23 Michigan (12:00 PM ET on ESPN2/360)
No. 24 Washington @ Stanford
Louisiana-Lafayette @ No. 25 Nebraska

Check back next week for my victory. Or check back next week for my shame.

Week 3 Pick-em Results. Shame.

Well, I’m astounded at how poorly I picked last week. The upsets that I picked didn’t happen and the surprises that did happened surprised me more than anyone. After a not-so-respectable week, I declare shame on myself for only going 15-7. I didn’t post my first two weeks, but here is my honest record from the first two weeks so we can get caught up: Week 1: 17-3; Week 2: 20-2. Making my grand total a much more respectable 52-12.

The biggest story of the week of course is USC going down at the hands of a much underrated University of Washington. Or was the USC offense just really OVERrated? It certainly didn’t help that they’re starting QB and best defensive player were sidelined with injuries. Matt Barkley and Taylor Mays certainly count for more than 3 points, but this game was not decided from the QB standpoint or a lack of defense (even though Jake Locker may be the best all-around QB in the nation). The Trojans stayed away from the pass like it was the Ebola virus even after picking up 20 quick yards in the air on the first two plays of the game. USC never threw deeper than about 15 yards.

USC isn’t out of the national championship picture quite yet, after BYU went down, it doesn’t seem like anyone is going to run the table this year, but I still think that USC has one more loss left in them. For the fourth straight year USC goes down on a “gimme” game. In the last seven years, 5 out of 6 USC losses have come against unranked PAC-10 opponents. With a true freshman QB and a new coaching staff, the PAC-10 Championship may be up for grabs more than it has ever been in the 7-year Pete Carroll domination era. USC’s frequent unexpected losses states that either Pete Carroll can’t make it through without a hiccup, or that the PAC-10 deserves more respect that it gets. One things for sure, no conference schedules tougher out-of-conference games than the PAC-10, and that has got to count for something.