USC Morning Buzz: Since When Is UCLA The More Physical Team?

Why was USC the finesse team and UCLA the physical team Saturday night? And why did Trojans wide receiver Nelson Agholor disappear against tight coverage? I address that in my story here.

Above, tight end Randall Telfer talks about “communication”’ problems that caused the offensive line to struggle.

57 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Since When Is UCLA The More Physical Team?

  1. Been a long time since I played a sport,being 71…but we practiced exactly as we were to play;that is where the old adage comes from..you will play as you practice;holding back on blocking and tackling in practice translates to the game…these guys are young,I bet their high schools worked them harder;SC has this fear partially due to the numbers…they have admitted to it and the ncaa got its way;it will correct ,and SC COACHES WILL GET WITH IT OR BE GONE.

    • Yes, there’s no doubt about it. We will not stop until we win again. Because we always have in the past. We won’t be down for long. We’ve got just too rich tradition and history to let the current state destroy us.

      • You have a tradition of being irrelevant. You’ve NEVER won anything on the field…only in the ballot box. Your recent tradition is to finish UN….ranked.
        fite UN SO SO Cal

        • And you’ve got the tradition of having losing seasons and not winning any championships, correct?

          • 1954 is 60 years ago Jersey. UCLA takes credit for being “SELECTED” by whatever FB poll that VOTED UCLA a non-competitive 1/2 FB NC. That’s it and no more.

        • One phantom win and continuous losing seasons without winning any meaningful championships doth not a FB make. True? Yep, absolutely true. LMAO!!!

    • How come holding back didn’t seem to hurt SC’s performance against Stanford or Arizona?

      • Stanford emptied a full .45 clip in its foot in the red zone. The winning Stanford TD was called back for a ticky-tack chop block call. SUCC didn’t win the Stanford game, Stanford loss it.

      • Holding back in practice has a cumulative affect,if you played a sport you would know it;this is why SC has more losses in addition to the coaching lapses of not adjusting to what works vs current foe during the games;SC at this point in the season usually was stronger than opponents;over the last several years,not as much nor as often;WHAT WOULD YOU CREDIT THE REASON FOR BEING PUSHED ALL OVER THE FIELD ALL GAME LONG.

  2. Agholor “disappeared” because the USC offensive line could not prevent UCLA penetration into the offensive backfield the result of which was that UCLA defensive backs could play USC’s ends and wide receivers very tight. Kessler had no time to throw and UCLA was swatting his balls down at the line of scrimmage. That is where the game was lost. USC had to switch from a shotgun to hiking the ball up under the center so the offensive linemen could form a tighter formation to try and hold back UCLA defensive penetration, but even that didn’t work. And then there were those UCLA bubble screens for 10 yards at a clip that were perfected at will because UCLA blockers were taking out USC’s linebackers and defensive backs easily. USC tried to adjust but it was too late. USC tried to play catch up but it didn’t work. How Buck Allen got 100 yards in such a paltry effort is remarkable. Mora out coached USC once again.

    • I’ve got no intention whatsoever of defending Sark, but with dozens less scholarship players on the roster compared to other teams we need a truly outstanding coach to lift the team and make players overachieve. But it’s that kind of coach we don’t have, so we’re both undermanned and outcoached by others at the moment. While the “undermanned” part will be resolved in the next few years, the “outcoached’ part, I’m afraid, has the possibility of lingering a bit longer.

      • for the last time, you don’t have “dozens less” – you started the year with 73 scholarship players on the roster.

        • I know these things for facts. SC has 10 more national championships and 5 more Heiman Trophy winners as well as dozens more All Americans and hundreds more in the NFL, past and present combined, than SUCLA. Are you happy now? LOL!!!

      • Explain to me why that is. Maybe USC should go back and read the NCAA sanctions they imposed. I recall it saying they were limited to 75 scholarships. Anything below that number seems to be something USC has manipulated and managed themselves, doesn’t it?

        As Thoreau famously said, “truth and roses have thorns in them.” And this is exactly the problem every USC fan lacking self-awareness is suffering from. I suggest to start admitting your team’s faults and weaknesses, shuck the excuses, show contrition, and get control of your evaluations. The whole scholarship reduction thing is tired and misguided and makes all of you guys look like scrawny dumb crybabies.

        • Well? Since you’re a fan of a football team that considers winning against USC the only and ultimate goal, I do understand your dire effort of giving the maximum meaning and value to those precious wins that happen rather scarcely. LOL!!!

      • With all due respect, RT, SC does not have ‘dozens less’ scholle players than pre-sanction years. They are allotted 75 rather than 85, and the USC football website cited 67 scholarship players available to play as of 11/21. There’s no doubt in my mind that SC’s sanctions have helped UCLA make it a real rivalry again, but I also think the physicality and discipline displayed by the Bruins is a result of better all-around coaching and better maximization of player talent.

        • what’s really interesting here is that SC has several scholarship players that Sark just won’t play. I’d actually buy a bit of the sanctions thing if SC was playing every player it could, but they’ve literally got guys who should be in the rotation just sitting on the sidelines.

        • EB, I’m not so sure if the info you’ve gathered is still current. SC is supposed to have “48” scholarship players on the roster, according to Mack Brown, the former Texas coach and now an ESPN analyst. I’m pretty certain he did not make up that number all by himself, given his credentials, and I’ve clearly heard him state it during the half time show on Saturday. So if it’s indeed true SC has only that many scholarship players, they do have “dozens” less than the teams that are not under sanctions. And the numbers you threw at me do not really add up, if you consider the fact that they have been capped at 15 scholarships, instead of 25, for the last three years, which means they couldn’t bring in 30 scholarship players in that time frame. And of course they had to lose upper classmen to the NFL and graduation at the same time. All of those unprecedented NCAA sanctions were overlooked by the poster child of NCAA hypocricy, named Paul Dee. Instead of me telling you all the details, I’d like to invite you to google his name and read about what kind of crooked individual he really was, and decide for yourself if the sanctions levied upon SC were the appropriate ones.

      • But SUCC does have a 100 yard practice field. That should count for something – a larger water bill.

      • Yet Coach O beat #4 Stanford with a similarly depleted squad last November. According to the Sunshine Pumpers we are undermanned yet we were leading the Pac 12 South coming into the f ucla game Saturday. I guess that means the Pac 12 really sucks.

  3. Also: UCLA knew exactly who to exploit in USC’s defensive backfield – Leon McQuay. Iman Marshall, Marvel Tell, Ykili Ross are you listening?

    • You have 2 excellent safeties on your roster, Su’a Cravens and JuJu Smith. The question is, do your coaches have them in the position that helps your team the most? Particularly with Smith. Our best RB is Myles Jack, who is playing linebacker. He is the guy that was covering Agholor most of the game.

      And as good as Adoree Jackson is in coverage he is quite small and was regularly pushed back several yards on the bubble screens. UCLA’s coaching staff had the game scouted very well.

      • Great point about player placement. Watching Myles Jack run the football is a thing of beauty. But he is needed most at LB. That’s good coaching–Mora knows his chess pieces and places them strategically on the board.

  4. This is not the John McKay or Pete Carroll era. Because of t.v. money all the Pac-12 schools have plenty of dough to throw around, which means hiring the coaches and assistant coaches they want at the price the coaches demand.

    Couple that with the competition for California athletes, meaning every school recruits some studs, it will be more and more difficult to win football games in the Pac-12, as if winning a football game is not already a very tough task.

    • Sorry to say, but that sounds a lot like what Paul Hackett used to say towards the end of tenure at USC. But Carroll replaced him, and we know the rest of the story. As tough as it’d be hard to be on top of college football, certain teams will rise above the rest and dominate for a period of time as always. And I’d like to see us do it again soon.

    • You know, as infamous and ill-timed as Smith’s statement was in 1992 about “parity,” etc., ironically, he was correct in some respects. However, it’s one thing for a fan to say that college football has changed, and it’s harder now to win an NC year in and year out. But when you are the coach at USC? No. I think I know what Sark means, but he fumbled his delivery. He needs to stop talking so much to the media, and focus on beating ND.

  5. If there was a beat stick with a knotted end in the middle of the room will Sc grab it and make use of it?

    Good luck this Sat. Both teams need this win to salvage a disappointing season.

  6. Fewer players means softer practices? Iron sharpens iron if the practices are soft the players will get hurt in the games. Knowing the team was weaker (by his own admission) Sark should have revamped his strategies not his excuses. Sark was a fair assistant coach but he is not now nor was he ever head coach material. Head coaches manage the entire program Sark manages the offense ( and poorly at that. )
    Although I will not admit this to my Ucla friends, the Bruins were the much better team this year. Coaching philosophy has a lot to do with it.

    • Of all the potentially self-damning things a coach should not say to the press (and for players and alumni to hear), claiming softer practices as a precaution to injury is near the top of the list.

  7. I wouldn’t say UCLA is that more physical… but I would say when the O-line misses their assignments and lets D-linemen run free to Kessler, it makes it appear the bruins are World-beaters! You would think this late in the season, the coaching staff would have eliminated those type mistakes. But then… Sark could have helped Kessler by having him roll out of the pocket to either side in giving him more time to throw the ball. The more I see this team each week, the more I feel this coaching staff has a lot to be desired…

    • These players, freshmen or not, are too talented to be regressing in execution this late in the season. Where has the Trojan team grown in execution since the start of the season? Have they given up?

      • I remember last year when UCLA’s freshman Caleb Benenoch punched out a Trogan. Even the Bruins frosh players are more physical than the trogies.

        • I am not sure where Caleb comes from, but I will tell in all honesty I hear countless times of players from other teams say they have a grudge against the Trojans due to they were not recruited by them. I have never heard a Trojan say that about another team. Have you?

          • no, they might say that if they play at Fresno State, San Diego State or even Boise State, but not UCLA. UCLA and USC just hate each other, but the UCLA players just have more balls, and are more blunt and to the point, not afraid to express themselves about how they really feel.

        • i dont condone violence, but as punches go, that was a pugilistic classic. who wouldda thunk we’d see the Sweeet Science practiced with such elan at a football game???

          Tavai dropped like a giraffe turd!!

    • When the line surges on both offense and defense favored the f uclans I would say they were more physical at least last Saturday. What is weird is that Utah out-muscled them.

  8. you know, out of sympathy and because we are so Classy, the Cadre has not piled on too much following our Three-Peat, but..
    Geez LOUISE!!! if the AP had a Poll for making excuses, Southern Cal would be the UNDISPUTED #1!!!

    it’s the sanctions, its the coaching, the Thurs games, the practices, the line, the AD, Shaw, Brown, Walker, etc etc etc…for crying out loud i saw some you Dummies even trying to blame the WOLFMAN for the latest loss!!!

    time for Yesterday U to RECOGNIZE what everyone ELSE does: your Crystal-less “Dynasty” is LONG OVER.

    just do what second tier teams do: play for pride and try to have some fun. well you ain’t having any fun, and making excuses 24/7 is not showing any pride!!!

    #Help’EmWolfman

  9. It’s all based on the attitude of the head coach, Pete Carroll wanted to have physical teams at USC but Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh would out physical him.You can never go wrong when you line them up and control that line of scrimmage and play TOUGH defense, but Coaches like Ted Tollner, Paul Hackett and Steve Sarkisian thought and think otherwise. So as long as Jim Mora is running things over at UCLA while Sarkisian is in place, don’t look for the results to be any different .

Comments are closed.