USC football players have plenty of things to worry about it. Staying on top of their assignments on the field, keeping their grades up, and maintaining good behavior off the field - these are things that a Trojan football star will tell you are his priorities. Taking care of his measly mouth guard after football games - this will likely not be on the list.
Ramon Roges is a dentist. In his 10 years as the dentist for USC athletes, one of the greatest challenges Roges has faced is getting the football players to hang onto said mouth guards. Therefore, in an attempt to psychologically increase each player's personal connection with his own mouth guard, Roges began customizing them. For example, Roges replicated the Mexican national flag when designing quarterback Mark Sanchez's red, white, and green mouth guard, even including an eagle with a snake in its grasp. Sanchez thought "it was looking sweet," and wore the mouth guard in his second official start against Notre Dame in October 2007.
After throwing for four touchdowns en route to a 38-0 victory, the Trojan quarterback would march off the field in South Bend, bathing in chants of "San-CHEZ! San-CHEZ!" Unfortunately, the post-game reception was not nearly as supportive. A good portion of the media, especially the online portion, somehow interpreted Sanchez's cultural mouth guard as an endorsement for illegal immigration. USC's football office was immediately flooded with angry letters, phone calls, and emails.
Because of this incident, Sanchez has since stopped wearing the colorful mouth guard on a regular basis. On Saturday, USC played arguably one of the worst teams in Division I college football, Washington State University. And like he has all year, Sanchez would play without the mouth guard. Sanchez was taken out of the game in the third quarter as his Trojans had built a laughable 41-0 lead at halftime. In the 30 minutes of action he did see, Sanchez missed just five passes while completing 15 for 253 yards and 5 touchdowns (keep in mind, this was all in the first half, so mathematically, that's a touchdown every three and a half minutes he was on the field). Only once during the game did Sanchez throw two consecutive incomplete passes.
What other statistics can I regurgitate to properly portray how lopsided this game was? USC accumulated 625 yards of total offense (263 yards passing, 363 yards rushing) compared to Washington State's 116 (28 yards passing, 88 yards rushing). This stat could have easily been more skewed if Pete Carroll hadn't been uncharacteristically merciful, and kept Sanchez in the game. USC had 28 first downs compared to WSU's 4. The Trojans were 8-12 on third-down conversions while the Cougars were 1-13. This was a game between the varsity and the junior varsity. No, not even junior varsity. This was a game between the varsity and the frosh-soph team. True, the red, white, and green mouth guard was not there this time. The dominance Sanchez demonstrated in South Bend, however, was.
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