Perspective Piece: USC-Arkansas

Darren McFadden, why? That's what Arkansas fans are asking, but it's also what college football fans are complaining about as well.

This USC-Arkansas game was shaping up to be a tantalizing, tricky and tense affair for the Trojan Empire of College Football, but with the Hogs' home-run hitter out of the lineup with an injury suffered at a Little Rock nightclub (geez, why not someplace more hip and edgy?), this game has lost some of the mustard on its Fayetteville fastball.

Still, this rates as one of the matchups to keep an eye on in week one of the 2006 college football season. From the Arkansas side of things, there are numerous storylines to monitor in this contest:

* Houston Nutt begins life on the hottest hot seat in the sport. His first few seasons in Fayetteville were sensational, and in 2002, Nutt guided the Razorbacks to the first SEC West title since the Danny Ford days of the mid-1990s. But now, the noose tightens, as the locals--rightly--won't put up with many more sad-sack seasons littered with crushed hopes and dashed dreams. It's time for Arkansas football to fulfill its potential, and everyone around the program--from Frank Broyles to the littlest kid yelling "Woo Pig Sooey!"--would agree.

* The Hogs look to erase the memory of a 53-point loss in L.A. last September. Being on the short end of a 70-17 score is humiliating for any program, especially one with Arkansas' heritage and tradition. It's important to be competitive against Troy not just because the Hogs want to enter SEC play with confidence; the Hogs have a score to settle against USC, and it will be very personal for the Hogs when they face Pete Carroll, Arkansas' secondary coach for the 1977 squad that stunned Barry Switzer and Oklahoma in the 1978 Orange Bowl. Revenge will fill the home team with some boiling blood in this one, and that always makes for good theater.

* This contest will be the first big test for Arkansas' vertical passing game under new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn. Nutt tapped Malzahn as offensive coordinator to bring along Mitch Mustain, the recruit who is being hyped as Arkansas' quarterback of the future. The connection? Malzahn was Mustain's high school coach, and the promise of playing for his mentor helped Mustain choose the home-state Hogs over several other prominent schools. The opening night quarterback will be Robert Johnson, not Mustain or teammate Casey Dick. But regardless of who starts under center, the real story will be how Malzahn is able to X-and-O against USC defensive coordinator Nick Holt, the new defensive play caller in Troy under the watchful eye of a more delegating and overseeing Carroll.

As you can see, Arkansas still brings some big stories to the table in this game. The Hogs offer a national television audience a lot to study in this season opener under the lights.

But as much as the home team will carry to the dance, this football spectacle will be decided--and dominated in terms of news coverage and overall scrutiny--by one topic and one topic alone: the USC quarterback, with John David Booty starting and Mark Sanchez waiting in the wings.

You might recall that three years ago, after Carson Palmer took his Heisman Trophy to the NFL, the college football world wondered if USC was going to stay afloat with this little-known and lanky lefty named Matt Leinart. Most experts thought the surfer dude would get smacked around in a ballyhooed season opener in another intimidating SEC venue, Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium. But after a calm and poised performance in a 23-0 win, Leinart showed America that he was made of special stuff. The rest, as they say, is history.

Now the Trojans enter another raucous SEC lair for a season opener, and once again, the intrigue around the quarterback position in Troy is suffocatingly thick. Surely, Booty will be helped in this game by Darren McFadden's absence, which will severely limit Arkansas' ability to score. Felix Jones is a talented back who gives the Hogs needed depth at the position, but he's nothing close to the breakaway threat McFadden is. Jones alone is not likely to keep USC's defense honest enough to set up the vertical passing game for Arkansas' quarterbacks. This means, then, that Booty (or Sanchez, if called in to provide relief) merely has to manage the game and avoid huge turnovers for the Trojans to leave Fayetteville with a victory. But with all that having been said, it's not an automatic that USC's offense will avoid a big implosion. The history of this sport is replete with season-opening games that turned into unexpected nightmares for countless teams who figured to make a big splash. If USC--and especially its quarterback--isn't careful, this game--six turnovers later--could become the ambush the Hogs are hoping for with all their might.

USC and Arkansas. It's no longer a five-star affair with the absence of the underdog's biggest and baddest bucking bronco in the backfield. But it could still be an ambush if the Trojans let down their guard... and find out that Matt Leinart doesn't yet have a worthy successor in Tinseltown.