USC Is Still USC

Anu Solomon

Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said this week he was reluctant to throw downfield a lot against USC.

“A lot of it was, they’re pretty good up front. I didn’t know how long we could block ‘em to get it downfield,” Rodriguez.

This is where some (USC coaches, fans) mystify me. They tell me the talent is even or that depth makes things even. USC’s front seven is the most talented in the Pac-12. The secondary can feature Su’a Cravens and when healthy, Adoree Jackson.

How many of Arizona’s defensive players would start at USC? In the Tucson pressbox before the game, people were making jokes about how slow Arizona’s defense is. And that was before the game.

Bottom line: USC should not be losing to Boston College or Arizona State.

29 thoughts on “USC Is Still USC

  1. Pay attention as the Wolfman schools you guys again. Arizona is terrible, and therefour USC shouldn’t be losing to Boston U. or Arizona State.

    Incontestable#

  2. **Bottom line: USC should not be losing to Boston College or Arizona State.**

    How insightful!
    Would you be so kind as to hold onto that thought and repeat it periodically? It takes time to chisel it into stone and affix it to your bod prior to unceremoniously being tastefully placed at the bottom of the Chicago river.

  3. I agree not to Boston College. However ASU are not the defending PAC 12 regular champs for nothing. Teams like that fight till the end and find ways to win. Thats a learning process for us

  4. Wolfman should introduce a new video segment called “The Wolf’s Den,” in which one of you young guys visits Wolf at his house, and Wolf teaches you all about the latest USC topic, or any other topic you might be curious about.

    • Here’s a “sweet scoop” for Bucket … probably only if you were in school or worked on campus at the same time you might know that “Wolf’s Den” was the name of Scott’s weekly column when he was Sports Editor of the Daily Trojan. In those days, Mr. Jenkins spent a lot of time in Traditions.

  5. The loss to Arizona State was, largely, the result of a failure of nerve on Sark’s part. In the last couple of weeks, he has, wisely, asked his secondary to start playing with more “confidence.” I’d like to see some of the same in Sark’s late 4th quarter play calling. Aggressive plays that worked in the 1st, 2nd , 3rd and beginning of the 4th quarters will work, even with USC leading by less than a touchdown, late in the 4th quarter —it’s a matter of having the confidence to ignore that little voice saying, “But what if something goes wrong?” Yes, it’s smart not do anything precipitous when you’re leading by only one score, but you’re tempting fate when you try to get through the final minutes by holding your breath, waiting for the whistle. Coach with confidence.

  6. Talent notwithstanding, football is still an ultimate team sport– the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

    And although I heard on the radio the Arizona coach saying his players had a chip on their shoulders because none of them had been recruited by SC, this was still a game that could have gone either way, which seems to be the norm these days in the Pac-12.

    • It’s pretty naive to accept Rodriguez’s statements at face value. He’s not exactly a disinterested observer. Scott wouldn’t disagree (I hope). The roster is small, the rotations are limited, each injury is more critical, many young players are on the field, practices are less effective, etc.

      Plus, there is a history of programs losing a lot of scholarships before USC lost them, and those programs have suffered a lot. What’s the evidence that USC should be sailing? Rich Rodriguez? Be serious!

      Still, it is equally naive to think that Sarkisian and Wilcox have done a bang-up job. Neither is adapting well to USC’s problems above, nor to what opposing teams do during a game, nor to synching USC’s offensive and defensive strategies. And Sark’s game management has been poor to average.

      It’s very poor judgment for Sark not to experiment in the next couple of games with letting Helton call plays and work out the details of strategy. Maybe it won’t work, maybe it will. But why not experiment? IMHO, that is letting stubbornness, inflexibility, and insecurity prevail over sound judgment and experimentation to find best methods.

      Here’s the bad news for Sark. Leaders without sound judgment don’t usually succeed, unless they have some extraordinary gift, or extraordinary luck. As best I can see, Sark does not have any great gift, so he’s banking on luck. Risky strategy, that.

  7. Suddenly, Wolf sounds like a fan. USC should win every game, every season, or at least until they come up against the latest SEC favorite of Wolf.

  8. “USC’s front seven is the most talented in the Pac-12.” I love these statements the Wolfman makes–which are based completely on fantasy. Cases in point: SC ranks #5 in the P12 in rushing D, #59 in the nation; #5 in P12 in passing yards allowed, and #91 in the nation; #9 in team sacks in the P12, and #81 in the nation; #4 in total D, and #74 in the nation. With all that “talent,” you’d think the gutty little trogs might have given up something less than 452 yards on the ground to a terrible BC team.

  9. They are bad losses. It’s a sign of the state of the program. There is no way to sugar-coat it–USC lost to two teams they should have beaten. I am pretty certain when the post-mortem is written on this season, those will be two true low points of the season.

    The other is when Suckee finally learns what innuendo means.

  10. HOW FAST does the defense have to be when all you do is run between the tackles…things worked when there was a little variety…remember??? I do…

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