Difference Of Opinion

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An interesting aspect of Monday’s night’s public statements is that Lane Kiffin and T.J. McDonald disagreed on McDonald’s suspension.
Here’s Kiffin: “We respectfully disagree with the suspension imposed on T.J. McDonald.”
Here’s McDonald: “I accept my penalty and I apologize to my teammates, to our Trojan fans and to the Stanford team.”
Even if you think Larry Scott should be fired for this penalty, McDonald comes off as the adult in this room.

25 thoughts on “Difference Of Opinion”

  1. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was by design. I really feel that Kiffin is facing this situation with sound logic and reason. This guy might have committed some mishaps in the past, but he’s pretty smart in what he does. I just can’t help but think the Pac 12 officials worked their rear ends off to make Stanford win to keep the hopes of putting the team in the Championship game. Obviously, a USC win would have doomed that rosy scenario, and why in the world would they try to be fair to USC when the Conference knows full well that the team is ineligible for any bowl games due to the sanctions? It’s time for USC to go independent. If Notre Dame could do it, USC certainly could, too. But then, there still should be ‘other’ kinds of dirty politics. Oh, well…

  3. Has anybody else noticed that Wolf’s blog has been taken over by about 5 or 6 of the same ‘usual suspects’ bickering with each other? Trying to get any useful SC football information here is like working your way down through an artichoke’s chaff to get to the heart.

    An anti-SC conspiracy put together by the Pac-12 and the referees?– Is that like believing the devil comes out on Halloween and Santa owns Christmas?

  4. I don’t disagree with a single thing that Kiffin said, including his statement yesterday. Kiffin is standing up for his team, and the Pac-12’s actions will serve to unite USC in an “us against the world” mentality.

    And if the Pac-12 is really concerned about actions “that create doubts about the credibility of the Conference’s officiating program”, fining coaches isn’t the answer. The Pac-12 has an illustrious history of officiating incompetence that perpetuates itself as those who speak against it are silenced.

  5. It sounds to me that both statements were adult and responsible. Kiffen stands up for his players, and McDonald accepts what is given him. I appreciate both statements.

  6. At least Kiffin has some balls and stands up for what he believes. Not like you wolf – you pathetic suck ass. $10K big deal. There were bad calls made and he talked about them. This is not like the powder blue pansies getting the shit kicked out of them by a 1-5 team and then starting a fight at mid field. That was hilarious, right CerritosLob? Lob, who didn’t attend any school of note, is on this blog 18 hours a day. Ours is bigger than yours Lob. Come on now, draw us some of your third grade pictures.

  7. ’70 is 100% correct. It’s sort of like Garrett. What he said was RIGHT. He just shouldn’t have kept repeating it. Same with Kiff. He’s right, now shut up and move on. It won’t change anything.

  8. Yeah realtrojan, it’s a conspiracy, the evil PAC 12 wants Stanford to win, just watch what the refs do to Oregon when they play at the farm. Oh brother, put your tin foil hat back on and go watch for black helicopters, geeeeeez.

    What Kiffin said was fine, what TJ said was even better, move on.

  9. HAWR-HAWR!! you know the Apocalypse is nigh when Chief Justice LJ is the only trOXan making sense!!

    WEB, i TOLD you things would pick up around here!!!

    i feel SO ALIVE!!! i am sleeping like a baby, my blood pressure is down to George Bush levels, and if the Preferred Plus gals are to be believed, my libido is more impressive than ever!!!

    thanks trXOans, your three year slide into the abyss is the best thing that’s happened to me since…since…it’s the best thing thats EVER happened to me!!!

  10. Kiffin is standing up for his player. I get it.
    TJ’s statement was perfect…too bad he didn’t write it. Thank you Tessalone.
    Don’t disregard a notion of the Pac 12 conspiring to keep their golden child upright. This idiot Scott is going to make sure the conference is marketable no matter what. He does not care about the games, only about what he can sell. He can’t sell an 11-1 team that lost when their Heisman guy throws a pick 6 to lose it. And he definitely can’t sell a conference championship where the best team isn’t playing in the title game because of sanctions.

  11. If Kiffin is out of line, it’s up to Haden to reel him in, and we’ve seen Haden do that before. I think the whole department is tired of Larry Scott pretending he’s David Stern, or aiming to replace David Stern, or whatever Larry Scott is trying to do.

    Fight On CLK. Beat the Pac-12.

  12. Kiffin took it too far, and I do suspect that he was courting the fine, for his own reasons, like a MLB manager who kicks dirt on the ump. We saw this kind of behavior when he turned on the loudmouth act at Tennessee to bring some attention to the football program there. Maybe it fires up the team and the crowd to see the head coach out there standing up for his player and fighting for the victory. I don’t agree with the tactic. Taking undefeated #4 and their Heisman all-but-winner to triple OT does the job nicely.

    As a fan I can’t argue with the calls that night. We missed a couple of obvious holding penalties that even I could see, and if you just look at the calls vs USC and compare to the calls vs Stanford one could actually make a pretty good conspiracy theory in the other direction, or at least chalk it up to the home field advantage. I do think that we had a couple of head hunting penalties in which the play was obviously over, and if the player could have showed a little restraint the Stanford drive could have stalled and we could have won the game.

    Nevertheless, the Trojans are playing exciting USC football again, and I can’t wait to see this team over the next season and a half. Fight on!

  14. @realtrojan, I couldn’t agree with you more, I’ve always felt the Pac-12 is corrupt. I know you probably won’t agree with me but, in the 2004 UCLA USC game in which USC won 29-24 a screen pass was thrown to Reggie Bush, he caught it and ran with it 3 steps, was hit and fumbled, Spencer Havener recovered it and was running to the end zone with nobody within 15 yards of him, and the refs blew a very late whistle calling the pass incomplete. The big screen at the Rose Bowl clearly showed Bush had full possession of the ball when he fumbled, it was clear to me the next day that it was “by design” that USC was to win the game and advance to the 2005 Orange Bowl, which meant a big pay day for the conference. Granted, this was a different situarion in which USC had the same equal opportunity to win the game in OT.

    USC must face another PAC-12 “protected” opponent in Oregon, in which the Pac-12 wants and needs to win in order to increase it’s chances of a big pay-day, don’t be surprised if there are some head-scratching calls or non-calls made in that game as well.

    F**k the Pac-12 officials!!

    @condom70, I had no idea you loved my drawings so much you freak, if you get off my drawings so much, maybe I should start charging you for them, you little fruitcake…maybe you can have th real thing, and NOBS can let you suck his d!ck – if you can find it – that is, you WeHoSlut.

  15. Both Kiffin and McDonald’s statements were dignified, correct and appropriate. Wolf’s continued bashing and “dissing” of Kiffin has long since been tiresome and revealed that he has no objectivity. That’s OK for those of us dumb enough to play in this sandbox but for one who thinks of himself as a journalist it clearly reflects that he flunked Journalism 101. Give up your day j Wolf so that we might look for some professionalism in that spot and stick to this bs and the occasional crumb that Petros and those fools throw you.

  16. Cheers to Lawyer John! That proctor in admiralty is making sense!

    There has got to be a middle ground between this becoming a boring site with no energy and the puerile taunts of a few in the comments section. I know this will earn me some of their put-downs, but I would hope there’s some opportunity for an elevated back-and-forth.

    For example: BruinRob makes an absolutely justified point about the Bush fumble and the hard feelings of Bruin fans because of it. It was a close call and we got it. If the situation was reversed, we would feel the same way. So I guess he is capable of something other than telling people off.

    I simply do not believe the Pac-12 officials are capable of pulling off a conspiracy like the one described above.

  17. DT-89, in 2004 we didn’t have replay to reverse the calls, that came into play the following season. That was one of the most painful and devastiing losses during the streak in which we lost 7 straight.

  18. Rob – that was a bad call and very fortunate for SC. The Pac 10 likes to look after it’s bell cows, as evidenced by visiting teams getting screwed by refs at Pauley Pavilion the last 40 years.

  19. I suppose replay is better than no replay, but it seems inarguable that it has resulted in other unforeseen complications. Is an HD image magnified 720X of someone’s toe near or on a line really why the rule was instituted?

    I hate it, but the Robert Woods play was way too close for us to term it a major blown call. What Kiffin seems to be saying has more to do with what he was told, rather than what the officials called on the field. I think there’s a distinction, but this has gone far enough.

    And we have to face the fact that replay has affected on-field officials as well. They almost never whistle plays dead anymore for the simple reason that it’s one of the only ways a play CANNOT be reviewed.

    Finally, just like the Bruins, I can recall a lot of questionable calls that contributed to devastating losses … and it used to make me miserable. But what’s the point?

  21. Brother Bucket, the only thing “sliding into the abyss” is UCLA’s hope for a good football recruiting class.

    So far, this season is turning out more or less as expected for USC, over all, as compared with last year. Substitute the loss to ASU for the loss to Notre Dame. Most of us expect the team to lose to Oregon; hopefully they beat Washington and put an end to that odd streak of losses to Sarkisian.

    At this point, only a loss to Colorado or UCLA would really freak people out.

  22. I wondered how Kiffin was getting away with badmouthing the officials. I thought maybe Larry Scott didn’t care because he was too busy courting Big 12 schools.

  24. Clearly it never occurred to you that TJ’s public statement was just that “public”. Surely you don’t think or believe that he agrees with this ridiculous suspension in private….. or do you? He doesn’t agree with it any more than Kiffin or any other ration person does. Please……..

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