A Uniform Should Be Uniform

PRACTICE.JERSEYS

Photo/John McGillen

When Steve Sarkisian said USC will not take the field in “13 different uniforms,” he might need to enforce that policy at practices. For some reason, USC’s practice jerseys are not even matching this week. Look at the No. 19 jersey in the center. It’s a different size, style and color than the No. 99 on the left. And it’s an iron-on number, not sewn on like it should be.

Now, some of you will of course say, `who cares?’ it’s only a practice jersey. But I’ll ask this: Is USC supposed to be the premier football program in the nation? Does it have a fancy new practice field? Does it shower recruits with as many amenities as the NCAA will allow? So shouldn’t the practice jerseys be uniform? Would it happen at Ohio State? Or Oregon?

70 thoughts on “A Uniform Should Be Uniform

    • “Now, some of you will of course say, `who cares?’” – Wow… Scott predicted that this would happen…..

    • Exactly – not a worthy topic of discussion. Are there really NO other news items you think this group would be interested in?

  1. I think I saw a blade of grass that was taller than the others – how can USC practice under these conditions?

  2. Is 99 D Mama?!? what happened to all the “weight loss” that they were talking about? It looks like they had to stitch together 2 jersey to make it fit him!

  3. It does matter. It is what Peterson referred to when he griped that Washington players didn’t even know how to file into the locker and proceed to meet position coaches, etc.

    People complain that Sark’s weakness is play calling, strategy. Perhaps, but if you have great players, in college strategy can be overcome. What can’t be minimized is practice and field discipline. College kids have enough to think about, so if practice and field discipline become routine and rote, you can focus more on playing.

    To me, it shows the loosey goosey sloppiness that affected USC last year. The ASU Hail Mary play? A break down in field discipline.

    • So would you call the Pete Carroll days “loosey goosey sloppiness” as well? Yet all those teams was win.

      • Carroll teams were very disciplined. The routine that they displayed with his approach to practicing, etc., allowed them to be free on the field. They did everything the same exact way, from how they filed into the locker room, to the same exact pregame preparation for home games, planned down to the minute. Scott back in the day used to make fun of it.

        • Sorry, I can’t agree with you. So throwing LenDale White off the building was disciplined? OK, so Carroll was ahead of his time by throwing that bum off the building. Pete used to break things up to keep the team loose, not make them into repetitive robots. Do you really think Pete would care if one jersey had an iron-on number and another a sew-on number? This is classic Scottie trying to create a story where none exist.

          • You Just remind me how good of a coach and motivator Carroll is…Took a couple years, Once Pete established his coaching identity at USC…it took off..

          • One of the great myths of the Pete Carroll era was that somehow he was this loosey-gooesy let it all hang out coach. Pete Carroll does not subscribe to the no fun view of football, subscribed to at its extreme by Nick Saban and his valet, Lane Kiffin.

            Being disciplined, does not mean an being authoritarian, killjoy fascist. It means have a steady, detailed and consistent approach. Your view of discipline is far too narrow.

            Carroll was indeed very disciplined.

            Back in the day, Scott posted, on this blog, how OCD Carroll was about practice, routine. He once timed to distance from the hotel to the stadium at Cal, and every time USC played at Cal, he made sure that the team arrived at the hotel at the same time, left the hotel at a prescribed time, and took the extact same route. He believed the OT loss in 2003 was due to taking too long to get to the stadium. He blamed his only loss to ND to the fact that the team flew into Chicago first.

            If you ever attended Carroll practices, players did the same drill at the same time, always, so if at 4:00 pm on Tuesdays he scheduled turnover drills, the team practiced turnovers every Tuesday at 4:00 pm come hell or high water.

            My point is that Carroll was actually a stickler for little details and routine because he believed it freed up the players. He left nothing to chance. He would have never allowed multi-colored practice uniforms at practice unless the same players wore that uniform at every practice.

            The Halloween prank was planned weeks in advance. It doesn’t show that Carroll was not disciplined.

            My concern about Sark is that he doesn’t appreciate the importance of the very little, seemingly trivial things. But on a team, things like uniform colors at practice are important because they help develop cohesion and unity.

        • Goerge, are you telling us there has been yet another misdiagnosis by The Dr. Rachel Maddow of Inside USC?

  4. Nobody but a Trogan still thinks SC is the premier program in college football. Just ask Mique Juarez! #yesterdayU

  5. OK SW, we trust you are on this, and in a matter of minutes you will go INSIDE USC to tell us why this is so.”..We gots ta know”

  6. So Scottie, would you expect a Premier Newspaper writer to continually make spelling and grammatical mistakes?

    • The standards of journalism have forever been compromised to the lowest allowable level in order to accommodate bloggers of Scott’s ilk….

  7. This is becoming a clown blog. Dumb post about the shades of red on the jersey numbers. Then that leads to guys connecting that to 2 losses last season.

    I give up. This is silly season.

  8. If you LOOK sloppy, you’re gonna PRACTICE sloppy. If you practice sloppy, you’re gonna PLAY sloppy. any Pee Wee football coach knows that….

    #GoodEyeWolfman

    • Scott always looks sloppy..so what do you make of THAT?… does he even own a shirt with buttons and a collar?

      #ScottAndTheCadreAreFashionistas

      • That’s called a “trademark look”, like the Fonz’ leather jacket or Liberace and his capes. Further, just ONE of wolfman’s high end jerseys are worth more than 20 of those poly-leisure suits you buy at Zodys.

        #PhatWolfman

        • Zody’s rules…….so does Naugles, for satisfying the midnight munchies…..

          #JennyCraigDropOut

          • Naugles…..mmmmmm

            they tried to revive Naugles, but apparently Del Taco has rights to their name, menu items and recipes….don’t know what’s stopping someone from just copying them, but the LAT went on and on about how the revival by old proprietors was a no-go.

          • The legal rights to the name has apparently been resolved….A couple of weeks ago, they had a soft opening at a “pop up” style restaurant in Fountain Valley..it’s now open from 10am to 5pm, on weekends only……the person who is trying to revive the brand, Christian Ziebarth, desperately needs investors in order to properly relaunch the company….

      • Last mug shot video SW posted was extremely scary.. Face for radio and voice for TV mute button.

  9. We’ll never know if this happens at other universities because no serious journalist will ever report on it.

    • Don’t be so sure….. In fact, I think that Outside the Lines on ESPN is running a special story next Sunday on this very subject! …LOL

      • Actually, I think “60 Minutes” got the story first. Either way I’m sure it will be an explosive story when it hits the air.

  10. I think SC or Wolf should simply go with WWCJW. What would Caitlyn Jenner wear?

    That’s how relevant this post is.

  11. Look at the photo of practice from an earlier post. Everyone is wearing the style jersey #19 is wearing in this photo. Maybe, just maybe, this guy wore the wrong practice jersey today.

  12. If only your reporting skills were as consistent as the uniforms, Scott….

  13. We’re talking PRACTICE uniforms!!! PRACTICE uniforms!!

    Woods (99) is a senior wearing a PRACTICE uniform from several years ago (common PRACTICE). Hutchins (19) is a red shirt sophomore wearing a newer version.

    PRACTICE uniforms!!

    • The uniforms should be uniform…honestly….what’s next?….. will Scott insist that the players goose step in unison as they march off the playing field?

  14. Hey Scott… practice jerseys are throw-a-ways and might not even last a week of practices especially in 2-a-days. If that is the case Scott, why don’t you show the coaches how nicely you dress for those practice sessions. What no collared shirt & tie? What would happen at Oregon or Oregon St. ?

  15. TJ SImmers long lost illegitimate child strikes again! Whats next, lets compare USC to a European soccer program. Stop wearing stupid soccer jerseys to the Coliseum. You’re still a geek Wolfe.

    • When was the last time Scott wore a shirt with buttons, or a collar?……does he even own a button down shirt????

  16. For the love of God Wolfe, please take the buy out, the next time it’s offered to you. We all know you were a geek who couldn’t play sports so you take it out on athletes by pretending to be a journalist.

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