Trojans, Fight On!

I haven't done much blogging on the USC Trojans football team this year. I'm still pissed off by the sanctions handed down by the NCAA, but that's to be expected since I'm somewhat biased. I knew this would be a difficult year, but the team looks like it'll be okay. With just 3 games left, the team has a shot at ending up 10-3.

I'll take 10-3, as I was expecting 8-5 or 9-4. For a program that's been hit with sanctions, a ton of transfers, limited scholarships and a 2-year bowl ban, that would be a nice FUCK OFF to the NCAA and all the haters of Trojan Nation.

Anyways, I saw this magnificent quote from linebacker Michael Morgan who was asked about the Trojans being the underdogs against the 18th ranked Arizona Wildcats.

I've never felt like an underdog my whole career. Even if we're down I always feel like we can win. We're 'SC.

I love that spirit from the team! You can't sanction the endzone. Fuck the NCAA.

FIGHT ON!

ucla Has a Football Team?

If you're a Trojan, this is classic. If you're a bRuin, not so much.

Enjoy!



12/15/2009 Update: The one bRuin player I will call out is Brian Price. He is a beast and will be playing on Sundays in the near future.

Fight On!

Disappointing USC Football Season Comes to an End

Sigh...the end of a very disappointing regular season came and went. I'm sure I'm not the only person who was not surprised by the Trojans' loss to Arizona.

I can't comment much other than that as personal obligations prevented me from attending the game. However, I do have a few comments to sum up the season:

• We now see why true freshmen QB's are typically asked to redshirt. They just aren't ready to play and perform at a consistent level for the entire season. This was what we saw with Matt Barkley....and in fact, I would say that he regressed over the course of the season as opposing teams got tape on what Barkley is capable of and schemed accordingly.
• The SC offense had no identity this year. You would think that with a true freshmen QB starting, the coaching staff would rely on the running game to take pressure off of Barkley. Unfortunately, the SC coaching staff had other ideas. At this point, I'm still wondering what those ideas were. It just didn't work as everything seemed to change/vary from game to game. What should have happened is that the coaches should have given Allen Bradford the ball and run it. And can we finally admit that Joe McKnight is NOT Reggie Bush?!?! Let's stop pretending.
• The SC defense was clearly in a rebuilding mode. Losing the entire starting linebacking corps from last season along with a starting defensive end WAS a major issue for this team. We just couldn't stop anyone when it mattered the most.
• While I did see some improvement from the SC special teams as the year progressed, it's still mediocre. We really need a better placekicker who can kick and make field goals beyond 40 yards. We needed to score this year and could not count on a sure 3 points from the field goal unit when the offense sputtered. The punting got better which is nice, but kickoff coverage still bite us every other time and kickoff/punt returns are inconsistent.
• Coach Carroll needs experienced coordinators. While coaching staff turnover is expected (especially when USC has had as much success as it had in the prior 7 seasons), USC is not the place for on-the-job training for inexperienced defensive and offensive coordinators. USC is big boy college football. We expect to contend for Pac-10 and the BCS Title....it's not the place for these coordinators to get their feet wet and learn on the job. Coach Carroll can't do everything and he needs to understand that.
• HEART...where was the "Always Compete" nature of this team? It too often looked like this team just thought it could show up and win. Even if we lose, I want the team to play hard...ALL the time! As we've seen, every game counts and letting up for even a single play can cost you the game and a chance at the BCS Title.
  

We now have approximately 3 weeks to prepare for the Emerald Bowl. Let's hope the team can psych itself up to play and win....and set the stage for next season.

The only silver lining from this year was that SC beat the Irish and the bRuins!

Fight On!

Beat the bRuins!

If it wasn't for the controversy produced by the UCLA timeout and the subsequent USC touchdown in the final minute of the game, this game would have been considered mediocre at best. Much ink has already been spilled on the controversy and I'm not about to add any more.

What I will say is that the SC team is still playing at a very mediocre level.

• The play calling still puzzles me. For example, it's 1st and 35 (yes, 35 yards needed for a 1st down) and we decide to call a run play? Are you kidding me?
• Matt Barkley is a TOM - turnover machine. That pass he threw for an interception was absurd...regardless of what Coach Carroll says about Damian Williams not running the route correctly. (Hmmm, maybe this explains why the coaches called a run play on 1st and 35?!?!)
• USC receivers were open all night long and Barkley only threw to them a few times the entire game. We, the fans in the stands, saw the open receivers, but MB never checked down to them. Instead he forced more than a handful of passes into coverage.
• The SC defense still has problems with running quarterbacks. Can we finally do something about that? This has been a problem since 2005 (remember Vince Young?) and we still have not solved it!?!?!
• The SC kicker can't make any field goals beyond 40 yards. Can we stop attempting these long field goals already? Granted it was at the end of the first half, but let's stop kidding ourselves.
  

We have one game left against Arizona and I'm not sure how we're going to do against them. Does SC come out and play with heart/passion? Or does the TO/TD controversy this week distract the team in its preparation?

A win will probably put SC in a higher tier bowl game. With that comes an additional month's practice time which this team sorely needs....and a good headstart to next season!

Fight On!

Bonus - A pic from the near "brawl" at the end of the game.

No Heart!

After the game against ASU, I was calling this year's USC team a mediocre team. I didn't get a chance to blog about it, but articulated these thoughts to my Trojan buddies. My prediction that USC would lose 3 games was coming closer to reality. Clearly, this USC team isn't the same type of team we've seen the previous 8 years. After the thrashing Stanford gave us on Saturday, I'm here to say something much worse - This year's team has "no heart".

I hate to say it, but I have to call it as I see it. SC gave up after Barkley's pick 6. There was no fight left in the team...and after the game, a good part of the team ran off the field without shaking hands with the Stanford team. For a team that is supposed to live by the mottoes of "Always Compete" and "Fight On", this was embarrassing.

I personally have been on losing teams. When I played Frosh basketball during high school, my team went winless for the season. Yes, you read that right - WINLESS. But through it all, we always played hard and we played to the best of our abilities. And after the game ended, we always shook hands with our opponents. Being a Trojan and someone who values good sportsmanship, I am ashamed of those players who quit and just ran off the field.

I'm not going to belabor what is wrong with this year's team. There's enough people doing that as the SC blogosphere has been going apeshit since Saturday afternoon. We have 2 weeks to lick our wounds, get somewhat healthy, and prepare for our final 2 games - against UCLA and Arizona. We'll see what this team is made of as neither game is going to be easy given how the entire team has played the last 4 weeks.

Fight On!

SC's Party is Over

I should have stayed on vacation! If I had known SC would be dominated in such a manner, I would have spent an extra day or two in Hong Kong or Guangzhou.

My hat is off to the Oregon Ducks! They came to play and did what SC did when SC was winning national titles. SC's run as the Pac-10 champs and consecutive BCS bowl appearances are over. Granted, there are still games to be played, but I don't see Oregon losing 3 conference games from their remaining schedule to allow SC to sneak into the Rose Bowl. Hell, the way the SC defense was manhandled yesterday, SC is primed to lose another game.

The only positive from yesterday's thrashing was Matt Barkley's play. Yes, he was rattled at times, but that's what happens when you play from behind and you are forced to pass the ball. He did not have the deer in the headlights look and can only grow from this loss.

Now....on to the negatives:

• What happened to the defense? I wasn't able to watch the Notre Dame and Oregon State games while on vacation, but from what I read, the defense was getting progressively worse. The front 4 did what they could, but the linebackers and secondary have to make plays. Again, I ask why is SC playing this soft zone when the secondary is the most experienced group on this team? Would playing some man-to-man defense and trying to stuff the receivers at the line of scrimmage have been so bad? We know that linebackers are young and somewhat inexperienced, but the poor tackling, missed assignments, and over pursuit is inexcusable. This was just BAD!
  
• The running game was okay early on, but then disappeared. I was rather surprised by this. Knowing the Ducks have a high power offense, I thought SC would try more of a ball control offense to eat up the clock and keep the Ducks offense off the field. But that didn't happen, especially when the SC offensive line kept committing all those false start penalties and the Ducks scored almost at will to force SC into pass only mode.
• Big plays given up by both the SC special teams and defense were huge. Again, poor tackling, missed assignments, and over pursuit put us in a hole that we could not recover from.
• Lack of adjustments. I hate to do this, but one has to call out Coach Carroll and the entire coaching staff for this embarrassment. Were any adjustments made at half time? I'd be hard pressed to identify any adjustments SC made from the 1st half to the 2nd half.
  

This truly is a rebuilding year for the SC Trojans. Before the season started, I thought SC had the potential to lose 3 games this season - we lost a ton of players from the defense to the pros, all the tough games were on the road, and we were going to have a 1st year starter at QB - but I still believed we would be competitive. Now it looks like my gut feel was right. That initial loss to Washington hurts even more now.

Beating Up the Cal 'Gummy' Bears

The way this game played out was entirely unexpected....as evidenced by the score!



I was sure that Cal would be looking to bounce back from their game against Oregon. SC was in town and looking vulnerable. The loser of this game would more than likely be out of the Rose Bowl/Pac-10 Championship race. At best, the loser of this game would be looking at a second tier bowl game. Surely, Cal would be ready to play and would take it to the Trojans.

This appeared to be the case as Cal took the opening drive of the game and drove down the field to the SC 5 yard line. Then suddenly, the game changed when Taylor Mays intercepted a Cal pass in the end zone to deny Cal from scoring first. SC then turned that turnover into 7 points and Cal was never the same. The Cal Golden Bears suddenly turned into the 'Gummy' Bears as Cal's next 3 possessions in the SC red zone only netted a single field goal.

My take on the game:

• The SC defense continues to play solid football. We stacked the box to stop Jahvid Best and dared Kevin Riley to beat us. We were able to stop Best and Riley wasn't able to play his best to beat us. (Interesting that this is the same game plan that the Huskies used to beat us!) The defense is clearly the strength of this SC team.
• This is the best the SC offense has looked this year. There was a nice balance (35 pass attempts and 42 rushes) that helped keep the Cal defense off balance. Matt Barkley is looking more comfortable as the starting QB and I'm hoping he gets the coaches' confidence whereby the playbook gets opened up more each week. Joe McKnight gained 119 yards on 20 carries and most importantly, he didn't fumble.
  
• The SC special teams actually looked competent this week...maybe we're finally starting to see some ROI from having a special teams coach! 3 for 3 on field goals, a punt return for a TD and decent coverage on our 3 punts.
• SC only had 5 penalties. It's still a few too much for me...particularly that personal foul penalty on Taylor Mays; however, it's much better than the week before.
  
• With all the positives above, we still left a ton of points on the table when we couldn't punch it in for TDs on multiple trips into the Cal red zone. Our 3rd down efficiency is still low and we still have issues on short yardage situations (we were turned away twice on 4th and short situations).

But a win is a win and this certainly helps as SC has 2 weeks to prepare for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Hopefully, the team can get a few players back from injury (such as Ronald Johnson) and the offense can gel a little bit more. We're going to need to score as many points as possible as ND has a potent offense.

Fight On!

Has Bandwagon Fan Left the Coliseum?

That was fast....USC loses one game and bandwagon fan has abandoned ship. This was the scene at last night's game against the Washington State Cougars.

You probably can't see it all that well, but the Coliseum was not at capacity. Walking into the Coliseum, one could tell that there were less people than usual. As my wife and I got to our seats, there were entire sections that were empty, not to also mention the numerous empty seats where SC fan could typically be found. While it could be that SC fan wasn't all that excited about playing WSU, I couldn't help but think that the team needed our support after a bad loss and we all needed to be there to cheer the team on.

If these no shows were indeed bandwagon fan, I'm glad they're not there any longer. I enjoyed the extra elbow room! :-) Here's hoping they continue to stay away.

Anyways, here's my take on the WSU game:

• The SC offense looked good in the first quarter as they put up 20 points on the board with Matt Barkley back as the starting QB. A few deep Barkley passes for TDs were a sight to behold. As one will undoubtedly ask, where was this type of play and play calling the week before against UW? (And to add insult to injury, Stanford takes down UW by keeping the UW defense honest with the passing game which let Toby Gerhart run all over the UW defense.) Sigh...
  
• Unfortunately, the offense did nothing after the first quarter. The conservative play calling returned and for the final 3 quarters, SC outscored WSU by a single point, 7 - 6.
• The "special" teams play continues to be pathetic. Let's see: a botched extra point attempt, a missed field goal, etc. If this is what a dedicated special teams coach gets us, I'd rather take my chances of not having a special teams coach. At least then, the team would have an excuse for poor special teams play.
• Penalties, penalties, penalties. This was a penalty filled game and there's no excuse for that. Where is the discipline? Coach Carroll better get this cleaned up as we've got Cal, ND, OR coming up on the road and we cannot afford to kill drives with our stupid penalties.
• Dropped passes were a problem here. The team has been too dependent on Damian Williams and Ronald Johnson. With Rojo being injured, no other receiver has stepped up to help. The tight ends haven't stepped up either. The dropped TD pass by Ellison in the endzone on 4th down sums it all up.
  
• The SC defense played a solid (if not stellar) game. It's clear that the defense will have to carry the team this year. The offense still has not shown me it can score consistently where we will be able to win comfortably...especially on the road. The only thing that gets me is that Coach Carroll continues to call for that soft zone on 3rd and long plays.....and it continually gives the opposition big chunks of yards (if not the 1st down).
  
• I hate to say it, but Aaron Corp's playing days at SC are numbered. I was hoping that with the solid 20-point lead going into the second half, Coach Carroll would put Corp into the game to rebuild his confidence and let him lead the offense. Not to also mention that Barkley took a few hard hits in the first half and one would like to keep Barkley out of harms way with Cal coming up next. Unfortunately, we didn't see Corp until the 4th quarter; and on his first pass play, Corp fumbled the ball which WSU recovered and turned into their lone scoring drive. The fans boo'd Corp and I felt bad for him. As an SC fan, I want Corp to succeed...I want him to be able to step in and step up should we need him. This definitely does not help the team as we now have to hope and pray that Barkley can make it through the rest of the season without getting injured. I just don't know if we can count on Corp to step up and lead the team.
  

Well, that's it for now. It's on to Cal...which should be a really tough game as Oregon absolutely embarrassed Cal (42 - 3) and Cal will be looking to bounce back at home against SC.

Fight On!

USC Continues a Disturbing Pattern

First off, congrats to WA - in particular to Sark and Holt - for upsetting Pete Carroll and the USC Trojans!

Here is my breakdown of the game:

• Having seen Aaron Corp up close and personal for 2 years prior to taking over the WA Huskies, Sark and Holt came up with the perfect gameplan to upset the USC Trojans. They stuffed the box and dared the Trojans to beat them with the passing game. SC just couldn't do it.
• The playcalling by SC left me scratching my head. I could be wrong, but the team didn't run a single "play action pass" play the entire game. Seeing that WA was stuffing the box to stop the SC running game, why wouldn't you call a play action pass? Get the WA secondary to bite on a fake running play to allow your receivers to steal a step for a big pass play. Also, I don't understand why SC did not try to move the pocket or run some bootlegs (playing to Corp's strength, his mobility) to give him time to find open receivers or to run the ball himself?
  (Note: I am a big Norm Chow fan. I don't find it coincidental that SC has not won a BCS Championship since he left. I'm just saying...)
  
• Turnovers: USC 3, WA 0. To make matters worse, all 3 turnovers were in the red zone for the Trojans. Just one of those turned into a score would have been the difference.
• Time mismanagement: not getting off the field goal at the end of the 1st half was horrendous. This was the direct result of running a running play on 3rd down when the team had no timeouts remaining. SC doesn't get the first down to stop the clock and time runs out before they can attempt the field goal. Again, questionable playing calling that took 3 points off the board for SC.
  
• SC could not convert on 3rd down situations (see point above), while WA could. Prolonging possessions gave WA more opportunities to control the game and the game clock.
  
• Aaron Corp looked like he hasn't played in a long long time. Or maybe he just isn't that good? This may explain why Coach Carroll didn't want to name Corp the starter during the week and was hoping that Barkley could play this game. Aaron just did not look like a leader as he did not instill any confidence in the offense.
  
• As I said last week, the SC offense not being able to score would be a big problem. Little did I know that it would cost SC the game against WA. Imagine what the score will be when SC plays Cal or the D'oh-mers.
• Punting is still a major problem for the Trojans. If the offense can't move the ball, SC is going to need better production from the punting game as you can't average only ~35 yards per punt. WA was getting good to excellent field position from almost every SC punt.
  

It'll be interesting to see how far the USC Trojans drop in the Top 25 standings. If the drop is like Oklahoma State, the Trojans will be in the teens. The only saving grace is that WA played LSU tough as well. If not for that, the Trojans may be dropping into the twenties next week.

Well, just like the last few years, SC loses a game it had no business losing. The disturbing pattern continues...and the toughest games are yet to come. It may be a long season, SC fans.

USC vs Ohio State - What a Game!

Wow wow wow...



It was the game I expected and it was the game I didn't expect.

First off, the things I expected:

• The Buckeyes played one hell of a game! I had a feeling they would...given 1) the score from last year's game and 2) OSU wanted to shut their critics up. My hat is off to the Buckeyes...there is nothing to be ashamed about from this loss. They left it all on the field. No one can ever say that OSU can't play with the top ranked teams.
  
  
• The SC defense came to play and thank goodness for that!
  

The things I didn't expect:

• The SC offense was dreadful (other than the final game-winning drive). Of course, this had a lot to do with the way the Buckeye defense played as the Buckeyes pushed the SC O-line and pressured Matt Barkley all night long. However, this was supposed to be the strength of the team, so this was very disconcerting. Only scoring 18 points is not going to cut it against Cal or Notre Dame.
  
  
• The SC special teams was even more dreadful than the offense (poor punting, missed tackles on returns, screwing up a punt for a safety, etc.). Is this what we can expect with the special teams even though we have a Special Teams coach this year? Not a very good return on investment on the coach's salary (if you ask me)!
  
  
• Matt Barkley was calm and poised tonight. That game-winning drive will go down in SC Football lore just like Matt Leinart's drive against Notre Dame in 2005 (you know, the Bush Push).
  

The team gets to enjoy the victory tonight and then immediately starts to prepare for the Washington game next Saturday. I have a feeling it'll be a tough game against the Sark offensive playbook and the Holt defensive schemes. It's basically a battle between the teacher (Coach Carroll) vs his pupils (Sark and Holt).

Fight On!

Update 9/13/09:

The Barkley drive and Leinart drive for your viewing pleasure:

College Football Has Started! Go USC!!!

I'm a big college football fan. It's not hard to be when:

1. Los Angeles has no NFL team
2. The college game is just so much more fun

If you couldn't tell from my "About Me" avatar, I'm a USC Trojan fan! I went to SC when the football program was down in the dumps (meaning the team was in a losing streak to both the UCLA bRuins and Notre Dame Fighting Irish). As you can imagine, I'm thoroughly enjoying the "success" that the team is having under Coach Pete Carroll and became season ticket holders a few years back. Nothing lasts forever, so I'm enjoying the ride and hoping for one more BCS Championship within the next year or two.

Here are a few photos from the San Jose State game that I wanted to share:


(Trojans about to kickoff to the Spartans.)


(Trojans about to score.)


(Part of the USC Marching Band making its way around the Coliseum)

FIGHT ON!!!