RB Respect Month Vol. 2, Day Three: Jacquizz Rodgers and Oregon State take down USC (2008)

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Welcome to day three of Running Back Respect Month™! Yesterday, Willis McGahee made his Heisman case against Virginia Tech in 2002. Here's where we're at today, and how the rest of the month looks:

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Today: Jacquizz Rodgers vs. USC (2008)

Heading into the last week of September 2008, USC-Oregon State was somehow the only game people could talk about - despite the disparity between the two teams.

USC's swagger was probably at the highest it'd been since before they played Texas in the 2005 national championship. Just 12 days earlier, they demolished Ohio State in The Coliseum to such a degree that you either felt scared for the Buckeyes' safety by second quarter, or in my 18-year old case, drank so much that you don't even remember anything that happened after Chimdi Chekwa's interception in the endzone. Either way, USC looked like they had a bloodlust in coming for the throne they hadn't held since 2004.

Meanwhile, Oregon State really wasn't a talking point. Sure, they'd beaten Hawaii 12 days earlier, but back-to-back losses to Stanford and Penn State to open the season immediately dropped them from garnering any national buzz. But even with the two different places each program was in, the college football world was still buzzing about their upcoming Thursday night game in Corvallis.

USC had a spotty history in Corvallis, and their recent visits only added fuel to the fire. The Trojans had lost two of their last three trips, including the previous matchup in 2006. The Beavers snapped No. 3 USC's 27-game Pac-10 winning streak, playing an instrumental role in costing them a shot at the national title when they were arguably the best team in the country. In 2004, their No. 1 team narrowly escaped a fog-covered day with a 28-20 win - thanks to a miraculous Reggie Bush punt return touchdown. Even all the way back in 1967, the top-ranked Trojans fell to the Beavers, earning that squad the designation of "Giant Killers."

All everyone talked about leading up to that Thursday night in 2008 was whether the Beavers could chop down another mighty USC squad. By the end of the night, all everyone talked about was Oregon State's true freshman running back Jacquizz Rodgers: