Game Management 101

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"USC v Utah"

I already mentioned the use of timeouts but I think it deserves another mention considering USC has lost three games already. Remember the defense was confused right before the Arizona State Hail Mary play? USC burned its final timeout on the previous possession right before Cody Kessler’s 16-yard punt.

Against Utah, USC had third-and-2 at the 28 but never ran the ball to make the Utes use their final timeout. That allowed Utah to discuss what to do before the game-winning TD.

63 thoughts on “Game Management 101”

  1. Most salient point anyone has made on this, Scott. If Sark wants to call plays, he has to have someone in his headset whose job is to have situational awareness.

  2. Perhaps Wolf should read Chris Dufresne’s L.A. Times column from today. I believe he is talking about Wolf

    And the short pass was a good call, but Kessler’s hand slipped on the throw. Get a first down there and game over. So Wolf would have called a run to keep the clock running, whereas running was not SC’s strong suit in this game.

    Besides, Utah moved the ball down field so quickly an extra first down was not important to the Utes.

    Monday morning quarterbacks (or in college it is Sunday morning).

    • “Those clamoring that USC should have hired Chris Petersen should note that Washington is 1-3 in the Pac-12 North and USC is 4-2 in the South. And that Washington has its full allotment of NCAA scholarships.” Add Kevin Sumlin, 2-3 in the SEC, 6th place in the West. Add James Franklin, 1-3 in the Big-10, 4th place in the East. Add Mike Riley, 1-3 in the Pac-12, 5th place in the North. Scott Wolf has to be the worst college football beat writer in America.

      • Yep, these are all Scottie’s choices to replace Kiffin. Petersen is living off the talent that Sark recruited at UW. In 2-3 years that won’t be true and we shall see UW fall even further. UW had a period under James when they were successful, but that was due to UCLA and USC having a down period at the same time and James was able to recruit talent from California – not true now.

        • Actually, they were all of Haden’s “finalists.” which is more of an indictment of Haden’s coaching search than showing that Sark was the right or wrong man. All Dufrense is doing to showing how incompetent Pat Haden is.

        • I think James was a pretty darn good coach and I give him more credit than you do. Speed always killed on James’ teams. He mentored a lot of people who went on to be successful after their time with him.

          • I think they are all good coaches, but I’m not convinced any of them would excel at coaching and recruiting at USC.

          • I’m pretty sure Sark can recruit well at USC. Most coaches can: Trojans, Hollywood, beaches, tradition, prestige, beautiful girls, Calif and L.A. talent, great rivalries, awesome campus, 24-9 Rose Bowl, huge following, NFL pipeline, most college AAs, et al.

            Based on results and what the team has really looked like on the field, the big question is whether Sark can prove to be better than the mediocre coach he always was at UW.

            In his extremely short tenure, USC had had three of the worst Trojan defeats ever, literally.

            And please don’t compare Sark to Carroll and his slow start. Kiffin, his playcaller bro, is much more likely. Carroll was a superb defensive mastermind at USC. It’s very obvious that Sark’s DC, Wilcox, hasn’t masterminded much of anything so far.

        • James was successful for almost twenty years and took UW to the Rose Bowl in 1978 while we were at our peak under John Robinson.

        • I don’t know if you’re being facetious or not. If so, funny joke. If not, then Coach of the Year means something I never thought it did.

      • Udub has lost to Oregon, Stanford , and ASU. SUCK couldnt beat those team at USC ( Shaw lost that game SUCK didnt beat him )Petersen has crap to work with . Lazy Suckisian didn’t recruit anything put punk WR’s that cannot catch and qb’s that are horrible. Who cleans up the mess SUCK leaves at SC after he is canned KIffin style

      • But USC has much better Athletes then Penn State, Washington, Oregon State and Texas A&M. And is a matter of fact, Justin Wilcox said after USC hired him, that the Trojans defense have more talent then any other teams he has coached. So James Franklin and Chris Petersen are right where there suppose to be, based on the talent level that they have.

    • That was a weak article. Just another legacy print writer screaming “OH MY GOD SOCIAL MEDIA” nonsense.

      Here is the point. If you run on third and 2, and don’t make it, you force Utah to use its last timeout. You still have the option to throw on 4th down because if you don’t make it, the clock stops with the change of possession.

      Football 101.

    • The short pass was a bad call because if incomplete it would stop the clock and Utah only had one time out left. The incomplete gave Utah another 40 seconds for their comeback. Two runs would have left Utah without time for their comeback. Utah was first and goal with 17 seconds left.

    • Dufresne may have also been talking about Wolf, then again, that’s speculation. But after reading that article, Dufresne is most definitely talking about entitled fans that expect way too much from this team with a new coaching staff—and he makes no bones about it.

      But this last loss in on the players and not just the coaches, if we are to believe Sark. On that last play, Sark said, “We were totally prepared for it…we knew exactly what play was coming. It’s unfortunate we didn’t stop it.”

  3. BWWAHHHH! Look at Diva Wolf trying to give football pointers like he ever put on a helmet before..
    Both of the calls Sark called were excellent, but poorly executed by the players.. One Kessler lost grip on the ball, second Agholor stepped out of bounce, both great plans, but those are not the reason USC Lost this game

    • The Pinner pass wasn’t a bad call, thought I think that should have been the 4th down call.

      I didn’t like the Agholor call since they had never run Agholor from the backfield yet this season and he doesn’t have RB moves and experience running from the backfield. It did have the element of surprise, but to me it was the same kind of play when with 2 yards for a 1st down in the ASU game, after pounding the ball on an exhausted ASU defense, Sark gets cute and calls a bubble screen. Agholor then loses yards.

      • Agholor was a 5 start recruit coming out of high school ….He played running back, wide receiver and defensive back…..I love Nelson, but he made several key mistakes during the game, with the last one (stepping out of bounds) being the final nail in our coffin….but I agree, the Pinner pass should not have been the 3rd down call to ice the game….

        • bleauz loves Nelson and agrees K’s third and two bounce pass was the his hands fault. Thanks bleauz, your analysis makes SUCC loss incredibility limpid. Thanks so much.

      • great calls by SUCK or Charlie Weis jr since he is just as fat and as bad a coach … pass to a 3rd team fb , who probably would have dropped it … running play to a WR who runs right out of bounds
        Anyway you look at it SUCK is an ugly 5-3 with more losses coming

      • Agholor played RB in high school, and it was a call that the defense was not expecting. I didnt mind either call by Sark.. the players just failed to execute.

      • Remember when they recruited Agholor, he was a running back and receiver. A 4 or 5 star at that.

    • Excellent calls? That’s comedy. The Utah DB was waiting to splatter the receiver Pinner on the 3rd and 2 pass if he did catch it. Blaming the players instead of the coach? That’s sad.

      • Pinner catches that ball and its a guaranteed first down if Kessler throws it correctly.
        Players need to take ownership, not just coaching

  4. BWWAHHHH! Look at Diva Wolf trying to give football pointers like he ever put on a helmet before..
    Both of the calls Sark called were excellent, but poorly executed by the players.. One Kessler lost grip on the ball, second Agholor stepped out of bounce, both great plans, but those are not the reason USC Lost this game

  5. You clearly should be a football coach with this hindsight. Why are we not STILL discussing Reggie Bush’s lateral, Vince Young’s knee was down, or the 4th and 2 play? I know these have been mentioned, but I think it deserves another mention considering USC lost. Oh, because USC fans live life in the windshield. Degenerate beat writers that never laced them up live life in the rearview mirror.

  6. boy, was Chris Dufense RIGHT: “No one weeps for Steve Sarkisian because he makes a fortune, yet the
    first-year coach does have the misfortune of presiding over a WHINY, ENTITLED franchise…”

    “WAH!! DADDY!! I WANT SIETE FIRED RIGHT NOW!!!! WAH!!!”

    OH!! how he KNOWS the Dummies all too WELL!!!

    #DeluxeCrotchKick

  7. boy, was Chris Dufense RIGHT: “No one weeps for Steve Sarkisian because he makes a fortune, yet the
    first-year coach does have the misfortune of presiding over a WHINY, ENTITLED franchise…”

    “WAH!! DADDY!! I WANT SIETE FIRED RIGHT NOW!!!! WAH!!!”

    OH!! how he KNOWS the Dummies all too WELL!!!

    #DeluxeCrotchKick

  8. Football advice from Scotty should be printed on toilet paper. The only thing Scotty has talent in is flaming honks and scaring cheerleaders.

  9. Game management went south in the second and third quarters. I cannot figure out when we had the ball with a minute and a half left in the first half we didn’t go for some points. 3 and out. I hate seeing that.

  10. If you can’t make 3rd down plays in the 4th quarter, the defense is on the field too many times and eventually the other team either gets lucky or finds a hole in the defense. The offense & defense has yet to put it all together for a full game. But better game management would help.

  12. this last usc loss means, most likely, that if the Ducks win out, they will probably play Az in the conf champ game – and not usc

  13. Sark knew he would have been booted this year with the loss of his star running back and quarterback .Haden was dumb enough to take him.

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