CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- I'm here in the Commonwealth with Uncle PeteUncle Pete, and right from the start it's obvious this isn't going to be a fair fight.
Everyone says the grounds here are so pretty, so historic, and while I haven't set my eyes yet on the Wahoos, I've seen Katie Couric's bedroom, a blind Homer with his naked student guide and T. J.'s rotunda, and USC can trump it all with one stop to Heritage Hall.
USC has the Duke in bronze, and nobody beats John Wayne.
There's nothing like four hours on the road before a USC kickoff these days, the oddsmakers and most everyone else knowing the opposition doesn't have a chance, so what else is there to see?
They have a bunch of buildings here surrounding the Lawn, which looks more like an unkempt fairway at a public golf course.
Ran into USC fan Gary Capata, the mayor of the city of Laguna Niguel, and he suggested ripping up the Lawn and putting down synthetic grass like they've done in Laguna Niguel. Just what we need, another civil war.
Couric got her start here living on the edge of the Lawn -- in Room 26, a 6-by-6 cell, which probably explains why she's still trying to break free as a news anchor. Edgar Allan Poe also lived here, and for all we know someone is locked in his room and still trying to break free.
Thomas Jefferson, the original T.J., founded this place and was also a writer known to irritate folks. He initiated the "Academical Village," leaving someone else to come up with the "training table," which tells you how little they think about football here.
USC rallies around Tommy Trojan; the Virginia Wahoos, or Hoos as they like to call themselves, have a statue of a naked teenager with harp in hand sitting at the feet of Homer. That might do wonders for the Virginia harp team, but not sure about the football team.
And the football team had high hopes too, but after weeks of practice was left splattered across the field before more than 60,000 orange-clad fans.
Uncle Pete will do that to you. In the last six years, he's ruined the start of the season for six schools, winning by an average of 25 points a game.
He's also not opposed to making a mockery of your football school in the second game -- note to Ohio State -- winning all six by an average of 32 points a game.
