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Originally Posted by Defensewins
The thing that worries me about Williams is USC is in the PAC 10. Not traditionally the mecca of great defenses. You are only as good as the competition you play against. College defenses and d-backs are already noticeably weaker than in the NFL, add to that the Pac 10 factor. If USC played the Miami's, Florida State's and top SEC teams every year than I would feel like you do about Williams.
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Oh man... i thought i would have only seen this logic in the national championship argument. But just like that argument, it doesn't hold water when it comes to the individual player. SC has never had a weak out of conference schedule b/c of the perception of the Pac-10... in fact, SC had the toughest rated schedule in the land during Mike's first year, so you can't say he didn't face top-notch college defenders. He faced the likes of Carlos Rogers, Marlin Jackson, Terence Newman, Marcus Trufant, and Ricky Manning Jr. to name a few. If you're only as good as the competition you face, I guess BMW is pretty damn good.
You can say all you want about bad Pac-10 defenses (look at the SEC, who only plays itself- they rarely ever schedule worth out-of-conference games away b/c they lose when they do... the only argument the SEC has is the "we should be able to schedule Div. 2AA Sisters of the Poor U because everyone in our own conference is so much better than the entire country). Regardless of how the Pac's doing, SC plays a tough schedule every year due to the OOC and bowl games.
Michigan, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Auburn (twice) all had fans who questioned the legitimacy of SC b/c of "weak" Pac-10 play before playing the Trojans the past few seasons. The only fans who respected us were VA-Tech's. I don't mean to sound arrogant (Lord knows college ball is cyclical and we're not going to be on top forever... just ask Canesfan hehehe- j/k bro), but I just get irked when the legitimacy of our program or players is questioned due to being a part of the Pac-10.