Mr. Gude,
We are THAT good on offense. The ND offense is able to get involved in a shoot out with anyone. Why did ND play USC so closely? A couple reasons: 1) USC-ND is the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football and Coach Weis pumped his players up to play in this year's installment like none other (rivalry games bring out the best in teams), 2) The ability of the ND offense to return fire against the USC offense after it scored (preventing USC from gaining confidence and ND from losing it), and 3) Matt Leinhart did not have a good day (but he has such talent and presence of mind that he can turn it on quickly to do some amazing things). That was why ND played USC closely.
I do not see a coaching problem in USC...Pete Carrol really is one of the best (though his style of coaching really angers me). Even though there is a new offensive coordinator, USC actually went up this year in yardage. And Otter, I disagree about Carrol wanting to showcase the balance of his offense. Against UCLA, USC came out running Bush just about every play because UCLA is awful against the run. Carrol will do whatever he needs to in order to win.
Now USC does have weaknesses, especially on defense. But, I do not see Texas being able to take advantage of that because quite frankly their offense just does not impress me much. I am not sold on Vince Young and I definitely have no confidence in Mack Brown. USC may be held to a lower offensive putout than normal because Texas does have a solid defense, but that still means close to 30 points and 450 yards. The teams that give USC troubles are ones with high-powered offenses, and since Texas does not have that, I don't think that they are going to compete very well. I still hold to my idea that USC will win by more than two touchdowns.
(About the ND game...it was so amazing to go to all of our games this year; I feel truly lucky to have that opportunity for four years. If you ever get the opportunity to go to an ND football game at ND Stadium, do not, do not pass it up. It is the greatest experience in sport. The ND-USC game was just plain amazing and when the Irish came out in those green jerseys you could hear the spirits of Rockne, Leahy, the Gipp, Bertelli, and the rest of them...just nothing has ever been like it).