Steve Sarkisian Quote Of The Day

“There were some glaring errors in the ball game. We just have to recognize them sooner.”

— USC coach Steve Sarkisian on Monday

43 thoughts on “Steve Sarkisian Quote Of The Day

  1. Food for SUCC thought – J. Rosen signed LOI and will early enroll Jan. 2015, at UCLA.

    • Really? That’s funny, because he can’t sign a LOI at the moment. While it’s safe to say he will most likely attend ucla, what he signed was a letter of grant and aide document, which does not bind him to ucla.

      Reading comprehension, dumb-dumb.

        • And you believed it. Stinky B, one huge gullible SUCC LOSER!

          Stinky B’s motto: Fairy tales come true.

          • Get angry much? Here’s a project for you, moron. Maybe it’ll calm you down stupid Spanky.

            Does LOI mean Loss of Intellect, Liars on Internet or Letter of Intent? Elaborate.

          • Is hundley still the heisman favorite? I warned you that if your team continues to give up the most sacks in the country that he’d get injured!

          • Whoa fotv, you’re real stale Chinese fortune cookie. Didn’t you also predict that if one falls into water, one gets wet.

            Tell us Oracle ‘o’ SUCC where will the sun rise. Oh, and fotv, don’t lose to the bye.

        • haha looks like you can’t stay relevant to a topic that you brought up. You reaffirm everyone’s opinion on your intellect with every post. We all know USC played like garbage against BC. Now we have a bye week where Sark better get things turned around.

          Keep puffing your chest about squeaking by a lowly texas squad who was greatly out-talented and their original 1st string qb out!

          Good luck in Tempe! I hear their qb is out as well so you may stand a chance, dumb-dumb!

        • I will love watching your lame team get beaten by ASU. Barely beating three inferior teams makes UCLA the fourth worst team in college football. I hope your Heisman QB can play, it will make the beating that much sweeter. Here come the UCLA loses, 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6.

      • BC 37 – SUCC/Sark 31. SUCC gained 20 net yards rushing or 5 rushing yards per Qtr. Whoa fotv, that is some new offense.

        That’s why UCLA owns LA Football. Don’t lose the bye week fotv.

    • But here’s the thing, Jack. I DO give him credit for stealing from Chip Kelly. He came out of USC, he saw that what he knew would be hopeless with UW talent. He switched to HUNH, holding the cards up on the sidelines, fast practices, and more.

      Scott has a way of zeroing in on the quotes that make Sark sound clueless.

      But I don’t think he’s really clueless. He’s not a Kelly or a Belichick. He’s not as organized as Saban. He’s too insecure to say he blew it big time. But he’s not clueless, and my guess is that he feels very foolish right now.

      He knows that these freshmen OLs can’t really cut it, and he’s going to start passing to set up the run, rolling out more, using screen passes, throwing to the backs, etc. TEs won’t run routes often, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he regularly plays an OT at TE, and runs a lot of 1-back 3-WR sets. If Kessler had time to make his reads, someone would be single-covered, and you cannot single-cover Agholor, Farmer, or Smith. Rogers is too big and strong if you throw back shoulder. Jackson, Harris, and Blackwell are all shifty. You can’t let Allen catch a pass with space around him. Or Davis. Kessler just needs a little time.

      I think Wilcox knows that his unit has been really hampered by injuries, that his defensive schemes are too complicated for this group of mostly newbies, and that the assignments have to be simpler, and drilled in and re-drilled in. Very likely, he sees that he’s been too ambitious.

      If you ask me how these two didn’t see all this last week, I couldn’t tell you. But my bet is that reality has set in. They are not going to stand pat. Wilcox wants HC. Sark wants this job.

      Major improvement is quite likely. Championships no.

      • Yeah but what in Sark’s past makes you think there is going to be major improvement Ben. His Washington teams were consistently mediocre. With SC’s athletes that could mean an improvement of 1-2 games a season. 9-3 and 8-4 seasons are not what Haden should have had in mind when he went looking for an HC. Other than his attitude, how is he much different from Kiffin? People say he took a 0 win team to 7 wins in the PAC. But it’s not that hard to win 7 games, when 2 of 3 non-conference games are usually gimmes. To win the remaining 5 of 9 games in the PAC is not a big deal at all. And his teams stagnated and never improved. There is nothing in Sark’s past to suggest major improvement to our team. We may improve enough not to lose to BC again but I doubt we beat the good teams consistently. If Taylor Kelly plays for AZ St., I wouldn’t be surprised if our defense gets mauled once again. We just don’t know how to stop mobile quarterbacks. With the athletes on our team, we should beat Az St., Arizona, ND and UCLA this year. I would be pleasantly surprised if we go 2-2 in those games.

        • I’m not sure I agree about beating all those teams. Too many injuries already, and more will come. Too many inexperienced players.

          It was an unfavorable sign that he didn’t draw more inferences from the Stanford game. But not a conclusive sign.

          What you don’t know about a person is how ambitious he really is. There
          is a lot of learning to do in any profession, and many people just
          aren’t that ambitious.

          Could Sark turn out to be a guy who just passes through for three years? Sure.

          It will depend on him. Just how hard is he willing to work? How willing is he to adapt? How much will pride and/or complacency impede his growth? We’ll see.

          Tell me, whom would you have hired?

          • Jack, Haden was interested. Sumlin wanted to be hired without an interview, unless it all occurred after the end of the season. Haden didn’t want to hire without the interview. Sumlin extended with TX A&M just as the season ended.

            I wasn’t thrilled with the way Haden handled Ed O. or with the way he handled the interviews. I thought he should have told Ed O. to make a formal presentation on X date, and before that date, told Ed all of USC’s and his concerns, wants, needs, etc. Ed was owed that, even if Haden was 90% sure that Ed was not the guy. I thought Haden should have interviewed more guys, even if he strongly believed Sark was the call.

            However, Haden hired a search firm, and I’m sure the firm contacted the agents of
            all the likely suspects. A lot of fans believe USC can get the pick of
            the litter, on USC’s own terms. I’m not so sure. Between the big-city location, the omnipresent media (who don’t even have an NFL team to obsess over), the more sophisticated So. Cal players (different from Smyrna, GA, or Lubbock, TX), and the unforgiving fan base, the USC job is not for everyone. I don’t know the real Chris Peterson story, but from casual reportage, he would probably be miserable at USC.

            Haden put the 2014 recruiting class at the top of his considerations. If it were I, I would have taken my time, and blown off the 2014 class. DOESN’T MEAN I WOULD HAVE BEEN RIGHT.

          • Fair enough Ben, but those qualities that you mention are generally required to succeed at any position. My hope when we knew no A grade college coaches were willing to come to SC was to take a shot with some co-ordinators like Narduzzi or Greg Roman or Kirby Smart etc. I would have much rather dealt with an unknown whose ceiling might be a Rose Bowl compared to Sark who is going to produce good natured ho-hum seasons. Hiring those unknowns would have at least shown an intent to shoot for the stars.

            Let’s say Sark works really hard and grows into a championship level coach in 10 years, then in 10 years is when we should have hired him. The past 5 years at Washington have told us enough to predict what kind of coach he would be at SC. For all we know Kiffin might be more ambitious and hardworking compared to Sark. So should we have retained him then? I needed to see an imagination and some risk taking from the AD when we knew we weren’t getting the top coaches. This mindless fascination with the Carroll coaching tree needed to stop.

          • See my answer to Jack B below.

            Haden’s learning on the job, which is kind of too bad. I have my specific complaints.

            Every now and then, Haden tells it straight and smart: “I won’t know if I made the right decision for three years.”

            And that’s the truth. Fans way underestimate the impact of 45 incoming players over three years. It will take 2-3 more years to be even up with FSU and Alabama. It’s not enough to have 85 players, of whom 50 are freshmen or sophomores.

            If you doubt me, look at the OL right now. Mama was top top. Toa and V. Tal were not far behind. I just checked. Stanford starts zero freshmen OLs. Kyle Murphy now starts at RT as a junior. USC really wanted him, and he would probably have started at LT (or RT) at USC AS A FRESHMAN–because of need, not because he was NFL ready. FSU starts all seniors. Alabama starts one freshman LT, the first EVER in Saban’s ENTIRE career. Pro Bowler and top 5 pick Matt Kalil redshirted at USC.

            You don’t want young guys on the OL or DL. They’re lighter, they’re weaker, their muscle/fat balance is not ideal, they make mistakes. (Sure, Clowney was great, and is a generational talent.) Martin? Outlier–was to start for 49ers until hurt. Tuerk? One former pro scout said he was USC’s #1 recruit that year. Let’s watch his draft spot next April.

            You don’t want a redshirt freshman with zero starts playing the first half at Mike LB on the road. He has to call the defense.

            A lot of fans just blow these facts off. A lot of fans live in a fantasy world. IMHO, it doesn’t help that Sark is deathly afraid of any excuses. Because of that, he panders to and reinforces this fantasy view of things. He could very reasonably say: If we have 1-in-100 luck on player development AND 1-in-100 luck on injuries, we could be Pac12 champions.

            I wish Haden would just say it, because it IS reality.

            On the other hand, Sark and Wilcox coached crappy last week. 🙂

          • Perfectly reasonable arguments when it comes to losing the PAC 12 or losing to Alabama or FSU. But losing to BC? Giving up 430 yards rushing? Against a QB that cant throw? I’m sorry Ben, got to disagree with you on that one.

            I still believe we have enough talent on our roster currently to beat the ASU and AZ’s of the world. But what do I know.

  2. Sarkiffin, be careful at the airport making quotes like that! At Socal, that gets you fired on the spot!

    Washington fans must laughing at the Clown college now!

  3. Of all the stupid things. Sark didn’t notice the plays weren’t working? I have never coached a down of football and I shouting stop running the ball loud enough for Sark to hear me 3000 miles away.

  4. For me, it’s an interesting puzzle, regarding a subject I know very little about. Maybe someone who really knows football could explain process to me.

    (1) Just read an article by a guy named Travers that highlighted how the USC defense played some of the BC rushing plays. Then I watched the video of those plays. The writer suggested that the USC players didn’t stick to the “normal” assignments against these kinds of offenses and plays.

    Which makes me curious regarding what the players understood about their assignments?

    I’m going to assume that Wilcox and his staff explained the assignment to the players.

    Then, how do defensive coaches know if players understand what their assignments are on various kinds of plays?

    Do they give them a quiz?

    Do the coaches just assume that the players have listened and absorbed it?

    Do they then have the scout team run the offensive plays, and then correct the defensive players the next morning?

    How does that work?

    (2) Then there is Sark’s comment about recognizing glaring errors earlier.

    Wilcox is on the sidelines. That is not a great vantage point. Who is upstairs looking carefully for errors, and telling Wilcox what to correct?

    If someone is doing that, did they not see the errors?

    Or does it fall on Wilcox to do that from the sidelines, without another pair of eyes on high?

    If that’s it, did Wilcox not see the errors?

    If some coach saw the errors, then why weren’t corrections made?

    Did the defensive players just not understand, going back to some of my questions in #1?

    Or were the defensive players not listening to Wilcox, and not making the corrections he requested?

    Please, I’d be grateful if someone who knows about this stuff would help me better understand what is supposed to happen, and what may not have happened?

    Am I just foolish to think that a head coach would want to be intimately involved with the details of these sorts of processes, on defense and on offense. If it’s Sark’s basic offensive strategy, what’s the marginal utility of Sark actually calling each play, vs. Helton doing it? Said marginal utility would seem to be much lower than that of being 100% on top of these teaching and correcting processes, both to prepare for games, and during games. It seems like those processes would be at the core of how you win or lose?

    Am I totally wrong? Or partly wrong?

  5. Like if the box is full, throw OVER it. Defenders STAY HOME. If the pocket is colapsing, start rolling out. Play action passes will work well when the box is full of 11 defenders. Keep one spy out for the running qb.
    Wilcox needs his butt reamed.

  6. We??? Does he still not see the fact that the real problem is himself? That game could have been won had this weirdo decided to give up the stupid running game and chose to pass a few more times. I really wish I knew what makes this guy tick now that I’ve seen one of the most unfathomable offensive play calling ever!!! FIRE SARK RIGHT NOW!!!

  7. There’s some darn good stuff about USC football in this thread, if you avoid the rants of the Trolls who are emotionally disabled addicts in search of a high and who lack sufficient knowledge to participate in a meaningful manner. I like this new Firefox Add-On that blocks the comments of the Trolls.

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