The conventional wisdom in recent years has been that USC has trouble defending spread offenses and mobile quarterbacks, like Illinois’ Juice Williams.

I’m not sure that’s true. They’ve had trouble defending some mobile quarterbacks — Vince Young, Dennis Dixon — but so has every other team in the country.

We took it to a real personal nature because we wanted to figure the spread-thing out, defend it really well and take the mystery out of it. We practiced so beautifully that it had to work out well. That’s a big deal. A really big deal.

— Pete Carroll

A total systematic beatdown.

FIGHT ON!

USC coach Pete Carroll and UCLA assistant Eric Scott were both at Thursday’s Crenshaw game.

— Scott Wolf inside USC

Interesting . . . I would have thought Eric Scott would be out robbing the houses of people attending the Crenshaw game . . .

FIGHT ON!

Before BYU’s 38-8 pasting of Oregon in last night’s Las Vegas Bowl, ESPN ran a feature on how the Oregon players and coaches work with Nike to design those gawd-awful uniforms.

Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ on a moped, how fruity is that?! Why not change the team name from the Ducks to the Battling Halstons? Then they go out and get waxed by a Mountain West team — that’s got be great for recruiting!

Hey boys, if you want to be fashion designers, sashay on up to Eugene, Oregon!

I’m a proud USC alum, but if I ever hear Pete Carroll talking about threads per inch, I swear to god I’m going to renounce my allegiance . . .

I heard the UCLA scout team uses God to simulate Pete Carroll in game preparations.

— csufmatt