USC’s won four straight games but a loss made the biggest impact since Steve Sarkisian was fired last month.
“I think we grew up against Notre Dame,” linebacker Su’a Cravens said, referring to the Trojans’ first game post-Sarkisian. “We didn’t panic (falling behind Colorado). We knew we just needed to keep our composure and play our game.”
ANOTHER excerpt from the article:
Safety John Plattenburg said USC could survive another sluggish start against Oregon on Saturday at Autzen Stadium.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I hope we don’t (do it again).”
Could someone please proofread this stuff?
It’s almost like he’s had no formal training what so ever.
Or he’s hanging with Sark too much at Petros’ family bar or whatever they own.
Scottie is practicing the journalism of the future, Rah Rah— wherein he covers the inner dialogue players have with themselves. In this piece, Scottie is bringing us inside Plattenburg’s internal conflict over whether or not we could bounce back from a 14 point deficit against Oregon. Apparently half of Plattenburg says yes, while his other half says no.
He’s an SC grad, Mikie.
Oops!
Watch the middle of the field.. Wilcox defense the middle of the field is ALWAYS open to runs and pass plays..
Obviously it was when a coach with actual head coach potential had to take over…he started a few days before ND to turn this program 180 degrees around…it takes months to bring it up to complete potential,but there should also be immediate progress along the way,there has been some…football is about inflicting one teams will on another,it starts on the line…ND loss just a part of the season,not enough time to make needed changes,just like oregon game or ucla won’t either probably be enough time…this team believes,that is good…coaches best have different game plans than last 3 years ucla debacles…defense stunk,not the players,the plan. SC secondary seems weak,defense front 7 better dominate both games. ‘O’ line better dominate more than vs Colorado,which they did not,hope it happens,
Smart stuff, Yale. For what little it’s worth, I’m hearing that our players are really looking forward to the UCLA game —meaning they believe they’re ready to out-physical UCLA.
Whether they can or not remains to be seen, but this is a marked improvement in mentality from the last three years.
hope they are ready
We will be. Whether we win or not is tough to call. But we won’t be embarrassed.
This time it’s going to be a real, old fashioned knock down, drag out fight.
There was no turning point, they were just playing lesser teams. The Pac 12 has not lived up to their billing , and is slowly turning into a finess confrence .So now everybody is jumping up and down because USC defeated Cal, Arizona, and Colorado ? Really? How low has SC football fallen ? And as long as the conference continues to hire non physical coaches , they will never produce a national championship.
100% correct. For this recruiting class, and every recruiting class thereafter, there needs to be at least four quality offensive/defensive lineman brought in. That’s where championships are won. Secondly, there needs to be a quality punter and placekicker brought in. There are some local high schools who have a better kicking game than USC, which is embarrassing.
Good analysis on the lines. Petersens biggest complaint at Washington was Sarks last two years of recruiting and the fact he put too much emphasis on skilled positions and not the offensive and defensive lines in recruiting. Probably going to take UW til next yearr or following to get the roster where Petersen wants it on depth and the off and def lines. Sark carried that over to USC. In addition, the SEC is so much more physical in the trenches than any Pac 12 team .
The Pac 12 has always been a finesse conference, with a few teams/years being the exception. Only USC and the Stanford teams of the last few years have been “tough” teams. The reality is that the Pac 12 is only as strong and will only go as far as USC. USC has been down the past few years so the conference has been emulating Oregon. We all know that will only get you so far. Hopefully, USC makes the right choice in their next coaching hire. A tough, physical SC will be good for SC and good for the conference’s ability to compete consistently on a national scale.
Though I loath UCLA to the bone, it’s clear that Mora is trying to instill toughness into that program (and has been successful in doing so to a certain degree). For whatever reason, UCLA can’t seem to ever get over that hump. One has think that Mora will eventually figure it out and take the torch of the Pac 12 in doing so. Hopefully, SC avoids that scenario with the correct coaching hire.
You are 110% correct, Saul.
Toughness? You mean the nonsense Mora insisted on when they were out at CSU-San Bernardino? There is true strength and then there is idiocy called toughness which is why UCLA has ranked in the top 10 for the past two years in penalties incurred.
McKay was livid about any personal fouls committed by his squads “…make them commit the foul not you!’
There is tough and then there is clown thuggishness – cheap late hits – that is what programs that have no depth resort to.
I disagree with you, but explaining why/how would force me to really defend UCLA. I’d rather not do that, so I won’t.
could of, should of, may be, we have to play better from start to end if we want to win out
I am not sure we have excelled in the games since Notre Dame. We have won them but other than Utah we have not looked all that great and barle beat some teams that should have been dominated.
If Helton were coach all of spring,fall,and season I would agree;colorado had ucla on the ropes at the end; Arizona is a good team just had a great win, Cal is ,well Cal… were not prepared under sark,so we are not Alabama,Ohio St or even Clemson…we have the best athletes, they need COACHING for more than 4 weeks.