Trojans on stride without their standout receiver

Mike Williams was quickly forgotten after the University of Southern California Trojans took… Mike Williams was quickly forgotten after the University of Southern California Trojans took care of the Virginia Tech Hokies on national television to open the college football season, which makes one wonder: What was Virginia Tech thinking when it decided to open the season with USC? And forget about Tiger Woods. Let’s talk about Wade Juracek and his amazing score of 1,983 strokes, which helped cut a big check. Speaking of cutting checks, Athens better get the pens ready, because citizens are going to be paying bills for a long while.

Mike Williams who?

A T-shirt hung from the stands, reading, “Take no prisoners: Free Mike Williams.”

It seemed like a great T-shirt idea at the start of Saturday night’s matchup between USC and Virginia Tech, but sophomore Reggie Bush made a strong campaign to get his own T-shirt printed. Perhaps, “President for Heisman.”

Bush, nicknamed “the President,” lit up the Hokies’ defense for 111 yards on five catches, with an impressive three touchdowns, including a 35-yard scamper into the end zone on a screen pass. He showed that he’s perfectly capable of filling the 6-foot-5, 230-pound hole left by Williams.

And Bush is only 6 feet tall.

In Saturday’s 24-13 win, Bush displayed great speed and agility, which led to all three touchdowns. He made the Hokies’ secondary look silly.

DeAngelo Hall, where are you?

Overall, the Trojans struggled early in the game, and quarterback Matt Leinart seemed to have trouble with an aggressive Hokie defense, but the team came together and showed why they are ranked No. 1.

And as if things weren’t hard enough when Virginia Tech made the move to the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Hokies had to go on and add No. 1-ranked USC to their schedule to open the season.

It would have looked great if they won, but the fact is, they did not, and in college football, one loss generally ends any hopes of a national championship run.

And the Hokies’ schedule does not get any easier with games against No. 5 Miami, No. 11 West Virginia, No. 19 Virginia and No. 20 Maryland.

It’s too bad Virginia Tech left the Big East.

Fore more times.

I’m a pretty bad golfer, and my average score is much better than the final score Wade Juracek walked into the clubhouse with on Aug. 14 at Gregory Golf Course in South Dakota. But I must say, he is still much better at golf than I am.

Why?

Because Juracek teed off at noon — the day before.

He played an astonishing 411 holes, averaging 17 holes an hour. He played the nine-hole course at least 45 times, finishing with 1,983 strokes. It sounds bad at first, but it actually figures out to be an average of 4.82 strokes per hole.

Forget the score. The greatest thing about it all is that it was for charity.

In a time where NFL rookies are holding out for insane multi-million dollar contracts and NHL players won’t stand for a salary cap, it is wonderful to see one man do something great with the thing that plays a major role in all of our lives — sports.

Thank you, Juracek.

Don’t call AmeriDebt for this one.

It is estimated that Greece’s debt will run into the billions after this summer’s Olympics.

Was it worth it, Athens?

If Athens likes its citizens’ taxes shooting through the roof, it was.

The Olympics boggle my mind. There is so much money thrown into two and a half weeks of controversy and dull storylines in sports that draw less of an audience than a Montreal Expos game.

Alright, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. But besides watching the men’s basketball team lose and women’s beach volleyball team celebrate its gold medal in a fashion only expected to be seen on Comedy Central’s “The Man Show,” the Olympics were a waste of my of time.

There needs to be reformation in the way the Olympics are run, and it needs to be done soon. There should be a few select locations around the world that hold the Olympics. This format of picking a new city every two years is having extreme effects on the economies of the countries the Olympics are in.

Just think. New York City wants to host an Olympics in the near future. The amount of money it would take to build the facilities needed to host the Olympics would surely run the city into serious debt. And much of the relief would come out of the wallets of Americans.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to pay. And I’m sure many Athenians are feeling the same way, now that it’s over.

Jimmy Johnson is the assistant sports editor of The Pitt News and the only Olympic sport he watched on NBC was women’s beach volleyball — for the obvious reasons. He can be reached at Jimmysjargon@yahoo.com.