Canning the Orange Crush

USC does not have to worry about getting overwhelmed by the “Orange Crush” next season.

That “Orange Crush” portion of the schedule – so named because of the school colors (roughly in two cases) of Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida and Clemson – will be interrupted by a visit from Troy to Williams-Brice Stadium the week before the Clemson game.

Moving the Troy game and placing the open date earlier (the fifth week) in 2010 were part of the changes that came about after North Carolina pulled out of next year’s game at USC in order to play LSU in the kickoff game at the Georgia Dome.

The lineup for USC’s homestretch next year will look similar to 2006, when the Gamecocks pummeled Middle Tennessee 52-7 a week before traveling to Clemson. That year also was the only time in four tries that Steve Spurrier has beaten Clemson.

Coincidence?

Maybe not.

“Three years ago we actually had Middle Tennessee as one of our next-to-last games. They’re a good team, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not an SEC team,” Spurrier said Wednesday during the SEC teleconference.

“We were fortunate enough to beat them and then beat Clemson the next week, the only year we beat Clemson. So I think there is some advantage to having an out-of-conference game late in the year.”

Nine of the SEC’s 12 schools have November games this season against a team from a non-BCS conference. The only ones that don’t: USC, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State.

Seems like smart scheduling that USC should continue to push for after the ’10 season.

Hit this link to see the entire ’10 schedule.