USC Morning Buzz: A Review Of ESPN’s 30 For 30 `Trojan War’

CARROLL.LEINARTI feel like I just went into a time machine and visited the Pete Carroll era again after watching “Trojan War,” the ESPN 30 for 30 film on the USC dynasty. I believe USC fans will love this movie mostly because of its action footage of memorable games. The best part is devoted to the USC-Texas game and makes it feel like the game was yesterday.
An interesting quote from Carroll comes on the famous fourth-and-1 play, where Reggie Bush is conspicuously absent.
“He was never on the field in those situations,” Carroll said.
What the film does not mention is Texas safety Michael Huff saying he was allowed to move up to the line of scrimmage and tackle White because Bush was not in the game.
The news is former USC assistant coach Todd McNair being interviewed throughout the film, although never discussing NCAA sanctions or his role with Bush. It’s a coup for filmmaker Aaron Rashaan Thomas. It is also apparent USC cooperated greatly with the film. A lot of the behind-the-scenes team meetings and locker room scenes came from USC.
Now for the disappointing aspects: Although Carroll is interviewed, what he did to create the dynasty is overshadowed by the desire to focus on the Hollywood aspect of the program. We still don’t get enough of Carroll or what made him magical.
LenDale White emerges as a star of the film and former players (Matt Leinart, Dominique Byrd, Brandon Hancock) do a good job. But some of the non-players interviewed come off as a list of usual suspects who add little.
Do we really need “quarterback coach” Steve Clarkson telling us about the Notre Dame game and Bush Push instead of actual players? Or his thoughts on the Texas game?
Even more puzzling is the use of “actor/producer” Josh Richman, who was actually known to the players as a club promoter and Leinart’s confidante. Richman was the only non-family member I recall seeing accompany Leinart to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in 2005 and the film could certainly have asked him some tougher questions.
My problems come as someone who was there the entire Carroll era, so I don’t have the same view as a fan.
Near the end, White gives another one of his classic quotes on Carroll leaving for the Seattle Seahawks.
“He bailed as fast as he possibly could,” White said. “Some guys may not get up here and say that but I feel that he just left on the university.”
Bush reportedly turned down 40 requests to be interviewed for the film, which airs Oct. 13 at 6 p.m. (PT) on ESPN.

112 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: A Review Of ESPN’s 30 For 30 `Trojan War’

  1. Pretty fair review Scott and yeah have to concur with White per PC – as great as Pete was in resurrecting the program he did book fast as soon as he could.

    • KU, up 12 points with 10 minutes to go, and then, and then , along came Young.

      • Are you referring to the non existent touchdown ? The one where the quarterback was down before the pitch.

        • If you get a chance to watch the game from its entirety, there is also a real bad Helmut to Helmut that was never called. It seemed like with so many of the obvious non calls there might have been some bias!

          • That was before they implemented the rule that you can’t hit guys really hard. They called it on Taylor Mays quite a bit but it wasn’t in the rule book yet.

          • Negative Globehead! I’m a retired referee and illegal helmet contact was around way before then!

          • You’re right. It’s “targeting” or as I call it “hitting a guy really hard” that’s fairly new.

          • Hitting a player really hard is ok as long as you do not lead with the head. The only way a head to head is ok is when the ball carrier drops his head to crash into the opponents head who is trying to tackle you, then you have nothing.

          • That may be what the rule book says but that’s not how it’s applied. These days if you hit someone really hard, regardless if helmets are involved or not, the refs will overreact and you will get flagged.

          • I think the referees do overreact concerning roughing the passer. Hard hits can be called if the hit is away from the play. It’s called a personal foul. Late hits in or outside the field of play also.

          • Here’s a rules question for you. If the game clock is running and the offense commits a false start, once the 5 yards is marked off and the ball is set does the game clock restart? If so, in theory couldn’t a team run off the balance of a quarter by purposely false starting over & over?

          • In theory yes but a good white hat knows that if they are trying to run out the clock, the white hat won’t wind the clock but chop the clock in and it would start on the snap. Especially when the end of the game is near a white hat needs to be cognizant of that. Great question!

          • I hope refs don’t really have the authority to decide whether or not to start the game clock. I would hope the rules dictate it.

          • You are correct sir. NCAA football rules have a section called “Unfair Clock Tactics” that gives refs the ability to stop the game clock in the event some wise@ss like me figures out an otherwise legal way to waste time.

          • Spearing is using the crown of the helmet to punish a runner. Helmet to helmet is different. Targeting is a judgement call by the officials when they believe a player is targeting the head of a player which they believe is not accidental. It could be accidental but unfortunately it’s the rule. Stay away from the head. Helmet to helmet is 15 yd penalty and if it is deemed targeting, ejection from the game.

          • Globehead, I think what you are talking about is “targeting ” which came about a few years back. Targeting is not only helmet to helmet but if it is thought to be intentional, then the player is ejected.

        • I don’t think so. What I remember is KU is up 12 points with 10 minutes to go. Then Choka, choka, choka.

          • Clear you see things through rose bowl colored glasses. The refs admitted they cost us the game. I really don’t Cate what you think

      • By the way the Texas-SC game they refer to in the 30 for 30 was the Rose Bowl and the National Championship game. As a UCLA fan these concepts are likely confusing for you.

        • The one thing that’s never confusing: the Toejams lost – choka, choka, choka.

          • Can’t the stand winos and large rodents at the crumbling mausoleum can you Decon.

          • Again to clarify – Raycon is referring to the bowl game they hold at the Rose Bowl stadium each January. Not the regular season games you guys play there. UCLA actually won it back in ’86. I think that was the last year they wore leather helmets.

          • I bet you weren’t aware that football can actually be played in the Rose Bowl past December. I won’t knock UCLA for losing in 3 straight Final Fours when SC hasn’t even sniffed one. So it’s equally foolish to knock SC for losing in a BCS championship game. Your clowning is far stronger when you clown us for having Sark. There’s no retort there.

    • That would have changed the rating of the show to “Viewer Discretion is Advised”…..

    • No kidding. Can’t wait to see the 5 For 5 movie on Scott. BTW, 4:30 will be commercials.

  2. After USC won their first championship under Pete Carroll, several nfl owners had their eye on him, so I don’t understand the bitterness towards him because he eventually left. There is never a right time for a college football coach to leave his program. It was a well known fact that Carroll had the desire to return to pro football, so he not only returned, but he also won a Super Bowl. I know what Reggie Bush did to bring down the program, but what exactly did Carroll do ?

    • You’re right Fred, nobody should have been surprised, Pete let it be known he wanted an NFL gig. He obviously found the right one. Reggie and his step dad are the real villains in this.

      • Indeed, they are the villains in this, but the fans, the school and the players were the ones who paid the price….

      • Reggie walked off with a boat load of money, always a huge grin, and left the Trojan players and fans in the dust, paying for years for his mistake. He was a great player but turned out to be way too good to be true. Hope the Bush’s are happy.

    • Agreed, 100% – Pete got the opportunity of a lifetime, and he has capitalized.

      Fight On Fred – I expect a big Win tonight – Earned by Sark & Co for assembling this great, young team

    • Easy to “fight” the NCAA if you’re going to leave town when the hammer drops. Kind of like mouthing off and then letting your friend take the whooping while you leave with the hot girl.

    • Reggie Bush didn’t bring down the program. How many 100 of millions of dollars did this school make off this man. Like modern day slavery is real

  3. Those who can, do… those who can’t, criticize other people’s work….I can’t wait to see YOUR documentary, Scott……

    • … and don’t forget “The Book” that is coming along any time. I wonder if Bucket would buy 8 copies for each of his faux troll accounts.

      • “The Book” had better have plenty of pictures in it for the trolls, if you know what I mean……..

      • What happened to Bucket? Haven’t heard from him since ASU – Ucla is in shambles, but I hardly feel bad for them

  4. What is lost in the Texas game is how weakened the defense was with injuries as the season wore on. Carroll did an amazing job coaching a defense that was held together by duct tape.

    Reggie was an amazing college player to watch but his actions off the field are pretty disappointing. He has no love for SC, never did, never will.

  5. Exactly. WTH is Steve Clarkson doing in this? He is nothing but a flesh peddler shopping his QBs to certain high schools. His whole schtick is that these QBs he gets couldn’t break a pane of glass with a football, then he turns them into elite college prospects. And these dumb parents/coaches buy into his BS. I heard one story that a couple of his “friends” confronted Petros Papadakis about comments he made on his radio show. What they didn’t realize is that Papadakis is a pretty big guy and he basically shut them down. Typical Clarkson, have someone else do his dirty work.

  6. Serious question for the USC fans on the board: would PC have gone to the NFL if there weren’t sanctions coming?

    • Personally, I would say yes…..with his ego, he always wanted to compete at the highest level and change people’s perception of him when he coached the Jets and the Patriots…..and I don’t think that even he knew how severe the sanctions from the NCAA would be…..

    • The bigger reason why PC jumped to the NFL when he did was that he was being schematically exposed in his last season at SC. It started in the second half of the ND game and was on full display against Oregon. I think PC would have stuck around a little bit longer and waited for a better opportunity (remember Seatle wasn’t what it is now when PC got hired) had his schemes still been working. However, PC was severely humbled in his last year at SC. This is something that has been lost by a lot of rah rahs in their revisionist history.

      • Was there a problem with schemes in the ’09 ND game or was it that the refs started flagging SC on every other play to try to make it interesting for NBC?

        • There were a lot of friendly ND flags that game, but I don’t think that refutes that amount of yardage ND was able to compile throwing under the coverage.

    • No. He’d have passed up doubling his salary and becoming 1 of 32 coaches on earth in the NFL.

  7. I’ve always thought the “Reggie should’ve been on the field” argument was BS. We did use Lendale in those situations all year and it worked all year. As great as Reggie was he was a terrible short yardage option. He probably had the most negative carries of any back in the country. Sometimes coaches make the right decision and it just doesn’t work out.
    The blame for that loss was all Sarkiffin. Their atrocious play calling in the first half left about 17 points on the table.

    • Nothing wrong with going to Lendale, but to not have Reggie in as at least a decoy was inconceivable to me.
      As Rah Rah says, “the blind pitch to a walk on” was not Phi Beta Kappa either, but to have Bush cooling his heels on the sideline, to me, was insane.
      Of course, the Texas QB might have had something to do with it also.

      • So you think they should have used a formation they hadn’t used or practiced all season?

    • How did Mr. Huff know that Leinart would not keep it and sweep like he did many times before? One play did not decide this game.

  8. Pete Carroll made several bone-headed decisions during His tenure at USC !

    Of course the 4th down in the 2005 National Championship game (Which at the time the only comparable choke that I could recall was the California Angels 1986, that team “should” have been World Series Champions!) !

    But throughout that game (USC vs Texas) I kept saying “Why didn’t we recruit a Place Kicker, 1 fr××kin Kicker and the out come is totally different” !!

    And Reggie Bush’s bone-headed pitch/fumble practically alone on the Texas 5 yard line was incomprehensible, talk about “choking” !!!

    And then Super Bowl 2015, now that beat the others (Including Angels 1986), what a “stupid” play called, words can’t describe that play, stupid falls way to short !

    Season’s 2003 and 2004 help ease the pain, but still Pete Carroll is definitely human…

    FightOn

    • I’m tempted to call out everything weird or inaccurate with this post but I’m afraid I’d get carpal tunnel.
      I do however like that you used “His” with a capital H to refer to Coach Carroll. It suggests divine status.

  9. I didn’t see it, but did they show the part where guys were getting Range Rovers?

  10. “Somebody” PLEASE Anybody Please take Cody Kessler OUT !

    Kessler is as week as they come !

    He has “no” chances of making a Pro Quarterback !

    Max Browne, do what needs to done !!!

    CODY KESSLER IS WEEK !

    How “MANY” games are to be lost ???

    CODY DOESN’T HAVE IT !!!

    Fire Sarkisian because “He” doesn’t see it ?

    17 point favorite, at home ?

    Kessler SUCKS !!!

    Lose more,,,

    LoseOn

  11. There was no “Dynasty” under Cheatey Petey. In the end, U$C had no BCS Championships under his shady leadership.

  12. Scott, you referred to USC as a dynasty twice… did you not realize you could only find one photo of them with the crystal ball? The delusion of most Trojan supporters in rewriting the history of those years is nuts to me. What am I missing?

  13. I Felt this was decent, and at least a nice trip down memory lane. Shame there not a single reference to how great those Carroll SC defenses were.. The only weak defense in the Carroll era was that injury depleted team that lost to Texas (evidenced by giving up 40 to Fresno State in the seasons last game of the year). Too much focus on Bush/White/Leinart. Not enough on how loose they were and how they just crushed teams in almost every big game. Didn’t just win, crushed them. Those were good times…

  14. Also agree with Fred. Seahawks were the first NFL offer to Carroll where he had complete control over player personnel. That, Ballmers’ personal commitment to spend money on the team and a $35M 5 year deal did it.

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