Sin City Shazam

 They say there are some killer floor shows in Las Vegas, but, ladies and gents, they ain't seen nothin' like this. Ain't seen nothin' like a football team with decades of lore hanging off it sitting just inside midfield with 18 seconds to play, overtime looming large, maybe we should just run out the clock and get to it ...

Those were your 23rd-ranked USC Trojans last night.

Cut to your LSU Tigers, ranked 13th, and what they might have been saying over there on Brian Kelly's sideline.

Ha! We got 'em now. Not even Jan Garo Tom Dempsey Stenerud could nail the field goal from there.

Eighteen more seconds, boys, and we beat 'em in OT.

Couple more snaps, D, couple more snaps. Just stay semi-conscious and we'll be fine.

And then ...

And then, this: What th-?

Because here was USC quarterback Pat Haden, er, Miller Moss rearing back and chucking the ball down the sideline toward, Lynn Swann, er, Kyron Hudson.

And here was Hudson making a juggling, one-handed circus catch between two LSU defenders for a 20-yard gain.

And here was one of the two defenders getting dinged for targeting, tacking on another 15 yards to the play.

And suddenly USC is at the 8-yard line and all they need is a chippy field goal to win it, but first, let's give the ball to Woody Marks and see if he can get it a couple yards clos-

Wait, what?

Woody is through the crush at the line. He's blowing past one, two, three non-reactive LSU defenders. He's ... in the end zone.

Touchdown, USC. 27-20, USC. And it took all of ten seconds.

Add some lore to USC's overstuffed collection. Call it, I don't know, the Vegas Voila! Or the Sin City Shazam!

Whatever. Any label you hang on it, it was a hell of a finish to the Modelo Vegas Kickoff Classic, even if LSU likely didn't think so. Matter of fact, Kelly was some kind of pissed about it in the postgame, banging his fist on the table and doing his usual Brian Kelly thing, throwing his players under the bus while trying to make it sound like he wasn't throwing his players under the bus.

"We had some guys play their butts off tonight and we're sitting here again, sitting here again talking about the same things!" Kelly griped. "About not finishing when you have an opponent in a position to put them away ... I'm so angry about that I've got do something about it."

By which he meant, he's got to coach 'em up again -- again! -- and better. By which he might or might not have meant: Because they're a bunch of lint-brains who haven't gotten the message even though I, Brian Kelly, have done MY job by telling them over and over about this. 

Maybe that's an unfair read. But it's a read you surely can make.

In any event, Kelly and LSU go back home 0-1, and Lincoln Riley and USC go back home 1-0. And we all got yet another example of why college football is a gazillion kinds of wonderful.

As if we needed any reminders.