USC began this season overrated, just as it began the past six seasons overrated. The effect of the NCAA scholarship penalties handed down in 2010 is just now ending. And yet we continue to fall for the hype.
It has everything to do with Trojan tradition and how much all of us bought into what Pete Carroll sold so well for nine seasons. But he has been gone for seven years, and the two decades before he arrived weren't so hot, either.
We spend a lot more time talking about the Trojans than their play has warranted.