Sum Up USC In One Word

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Here’s the word I would use: Unprepared.

USC looked like a high school team headed to play in Cowboys Stadium for the first time against a perennial state champion. What was going on the past four weeks to prepare the team for this game? After the offense sputtered early, it was like there was no game plan.

And it is coaching malpractice to get JuJu Smith-Schuster one touch. I don’t care how many people defend him. You get him the ball.

106 thoughts on “Sum Up USC In One Word”

  1. Man, could Wolf be more giddy today? The program humiliated on opening day….like a dream come true for Wolfie.

    • SW is in his glory, but he’s on solid ground today. USC stunk. Flopped big-time.

      As others have said, this is gonna take a long time to repair. Not sure Helton’s up to it but he obviously wasn’t ready for last night. Too bad. He looks a lot like bait right now. Not exactly a good recruiting angle.

      • You can tell that even SW is a little worried amid all his joy. The more irrelevant USC FB becomes, the more likely SW is reassigned to cover city council meetings in La Habra.

      • Cheer up, Jack. Maybe this is the best thing that could happen to SC. When the fans, alumni, boosters and donors get sick of seeing SC’s football team look more like ballet dancers than football players, maybe they’ll demand a change. Until then, HELLO MEDiOCRITY.

      • How did anyone not see this coming? We’ve been crap for 7 years & they’re an on-going dynasty.

    • Yup – it is a tribute to that one common denominator here – Pat Haden – a cerebral individual whose career has been ‘partner’ with the former mayor of Los Angeles, a board member of a number of for profit corporations and non-profit foundations…..a Rhodes Scholar… a former NFL quarterback and a former announcer for ‘The Princess’ tv football broadcasts why he even was on the college selection committee….former USC athletic director paid a princely sum of $2.5 million per year

      what hasn’t our man Pat ‘Zelig’ Haden not accomplished?
      Well for one thing being a competent athletic director huh?

      Hey Pat any news when you’re going to pay back the Mayr Foundation?

      • Why don’t they suspend Pat Haden from all contact with USC for his charity scandal? One standard for players, another for administrators.

        • That is EXACTLY right – Bush was justifiably pilloried for doing what he would have gotten a mere 8 mos. after the discovery. Haden plundered a charitable foundation acting as the Director to benefit his sister-in-law and daughter but the most egregious move was for HIMSELF!

          No follow-up from the LA Times and worst of all no shame attached publicly by the university at Haden – nothing.

          Nothing to see here – Pat is out saint – go investigate something more impacting – global warming or some such…we take care of who we choose to take care of here at USC. Not in the league of Joe Pa but we’re proud of Pat and so should you!

      • There was one comment Haden made during his first year as A.D. that had me questioning his commitment to USC football. “Notre Dame is the gold standard of college football.” What A.D. in their right mind would say that? Could you imagine what would happen if the A.D. of Ohio State made the same comment about Michigan? This is why I feel that there needs to be a complete housecleaning of the football program, and last night may have sped that up.

        • Haden got star struck at the homage given him all that time he was color announcing ‘The Princess’ games to the point he actually bought into their con game.

          Haden thinks he’s the reason for all his success – he and he alone and since, until this documented grab of money from Mayr, nothing had ever transpired to deny his ‘genius’ well what ever this egomanical clown thinks must be true.

          Dig deep and you’ll hear Haden musing that he should have played for ‘The Princess’ rather than USC – believe me he does think that – the moron.

          • His hypocrisy about preaching about USC “winning right” when he was siphoning off funds from a charity is just astounding.

          • The saddest thing for someone of Haden’s position and age is that it is darn near impossible to regain the respect previously held – his days are slowly slipping away as they are for anyone >60 years of age.

            Perhaps he is making amends for the personal misuse of that foundation’s funds – bully for him – he should still be gone from USC now regardless – he has no right whatsoever to be in any position of honor and power none.

          • O come on Alvarado, give the guy a break! He’s just a good business man…….a proud graduate of the Hillary Clinton ‘get rich quick’ school of business

          • You know Jim if anyone wants to see a textbook scam of deceit and lies it’s those two ‘the Klintonskas and you’re right – Haden’s probably been studying them.

          • Yeah….aren’t we all so lucky. We got rid of one ‘Klintonska’ protege as our AD. The problem is that we’re about to get the real ‘Klintonska'(code name Hillary) as our president.

      • His career had some minor setbacks. But overall, wasn’t he great? Look at the big strides he made with our football program. He took us from the “thrill of victory to the agony of defeat”. And, oh yes, we won womens beach volleyball.

        • Still waiting to see Donnie’s Tax returns.

          Hillary has never gone Bankrupt and pays mega taxes.

          • Tell the corrupt Obama IRS to stop auditting him.

            Gravytrainer Hillary has never accomplished a thing on her own or run a business and takes big write offs by donating to herself.

          • 22, Donnie lives in bankruptcy court. Care to venture a total # of Trump employees hosed by Donnie selfish Corp business practices.

            Let’s see what Donnie’s tax returns reveal.

          • We already know what Hillary’s Clinton Foundation reveals. Their finances are so messy that the nation’s most influential charity watchdog, Charity Navigator, put it on its “watch list” of problematic nonprofits.

            The Clinton family’s mega-charity took in more than $140 million in grants and pledges in 2013 but spent just $9 million on direct aid. Gee that’s 6% of donations spent on the poor and unfortunate and 94% on themselves and their cronies.

            The group spent the bulk of its windfall on administration, travel, and salaries and bonuses, with the fattest payouts going to family friends.

            Where can we all sign up to work for this gig?

    • You read the words right of my mouth. This is all on pat Haden’s 2 atrocious hires! I’m sure lane is laughing hard right now!

    • I know he was the highest paid AD in the country but after all, one of his hires won the womens beach volleyball championship. Just think of all those womens libbers that he made happy.

        • If she’s a women volleyball fan, she’s probably thrilled. Who knows maybe PH will get hired as her co-host.

  6. ” What was going on the past four weeks to prepare the team for this game?”

    You’re the one supposed to be supplying the answer to that question.

    I, too, have some questions left unanswered by the local sports media. For instance, who (really) made the decision to hire Pat Haden? Probably the same idiot who hired Lynn Swann. Who is this genius?

    If only there was someone who’s job it was to supply us with important information related to the USC football program.

    • Nikias hired Haden – he (Nikias) publicly stated the first thing he intended to do when Sample left was sack Garrett and he did.

      • Is there any truth to the rumor that 9 f uuclans were suspended before the A&M game including your running back Starks and Mossi Johnson?

        • Possibly true, don’t know for sure.

          Starks wasn’t in Tixas.

          The silence is deafening and all information is still locked behind the Mora Curtain.

          • I heard rumors Starks was suspended midweek. You could have used his blocking to protect Rosen.

        • True Walnut, thanks for pointing out the obvious.

          Thing is UCLA didn’t lose by 46 points or fail to score a TD like bozo u. The Rah-Rah’s bragged that bozo u belonged in the same class and on the same field as Alabama and they also predicted a bozo u mega upset.

          But in the interest of fair play, once again UCLA played Mora FB and lost.

        • Not so sure about that – TX already controls the levers of power per their network. ‘Maybe’ they’re out voted by the other 6 non-Texas teams ‘but’ the risk in bringing is the Texas bloc of schools increases their control of the conference to the detriment of the rest esp. OK.

          Time will tell – smart move would be Cincinnati and BYU – gives WV a rival in the east and is able to gain on a national following out of Provo-UT.

          • Texas is a non factor in this. The Big 12 would be stupid not to take advantage of the Houston market. They also need to get Nebraska back. That would give them six in the north and south.

          • If TX were a non-factor NE would have never bolted for the Big 10. They (TX) were then and they’re even a bigger factor now.

        • He went to Cal Lutheran before MIT (hope I got that right). I think SC would definitely catch is eye.

        • If he’d done what Myers did there >10 years go, in the recent past – a strong yes. He didn’t – right now we’re stuck with Helton through 2017 and if this is the start of more of the same then it gives Swann a lot of time to make a smart move instead of a reactive one.

          • I just hope that Swann is not another ‘yes man’ like PH. I hope he’ll be willing to rock the boat.

          • Got news for you Lynn looks a lot like a ‘yes man’ just hope he has the stones to listen to some good advice and acts on it.

  14. bel-air tech has always had good announcers and now has a good announcer in Josh Lewin – why is the clown Arbogast still in control of USC broadcasts>

  15. As much as I hate to agree with Wolf, he is 100% correct in his analysis of the game. I was at the Debacle in Dallas last night and it was embarrassing to watch a USC football team display a complete lack of effort for two and a half quarters. Alabama played hard from the opening whistle to the end. The simple truth is that USC has some serious character issues on this team that have been festering for three or four years now. Ninety percent of this team is all talk and no action. If you look after just about ever play someone from USC is running their mouth. How about shutting up and playing the game. USC has some young players who need to figure out real quick this is not high school where you can show up and give a half effort and play well. Two players who immediately come to mind that are this mindset are Biggie Marshall, who has shown me nothing to this point and Mr. Heisman Trophy candidate, Jack Jones, who was non existent last night. Again, character. If you look at the great teams, they are all business with one objective in mind, kick your tail all over the field.
    Lastly, this all goes back to leadership and coaching. If Helton has any stones this is what should’ve happened after the game. Go back to the hotel, 6 A.M. wakeup, 6:30 breakfast, 7 A.M. bus to the airport, 11 A.M. full practice with the premise that no job is safe. You want playing time you practice with full effort or get off the field.

    • Wolfie is on a roll with his spot on comments. I couldn’t agree any more with your commentary. When Marshall gave up on the receiver that lead to the fist TD, why didn’t Helton / Pendergast do something like bench him for a series, quarter, half. There are no half measures – it’s 60 minutes of play – period.

      • Actually, I do think that this defense is good. They stopped Bama in the first quarter. They are thin and inexperienced on the D-Line. Then the defense lost 3 players to suspension. Then Noah Jefferson goes down and then Jabbari Ruffins gets himself thrown out of the game. On top of all that, the offense is going 3 and out on every series. Against a monster smashmouth football offense like Bama’s, you have to give that defense some rest. If you don’t they will wear down. That’s exactly what happened. The problem is the offense, not the defense. They have a lot of talented players on that offense. I would question whether Tee Martin is the guy to call the plays.

        • Marshall’s miscue was early in the game. I think he had plenty of gas in the tank as Bama was also doing 3 and outs at that time. But I do agree that the offense is way behind the defense at this point. Which is surprising given all the reports that we had from spring & summer camps where the O-line was legit.

          • I really don’t think that you really know what kind of a team that you have until the 4th or 5th game, depending upon how good your competition was leading up to that point.

          • You mean all the rah rah sites that the Dr. Rachel Maddow of Inside USC and the other brainless rah rahs tell us are so great were really spewing propaganda?

    • How many of this current batch of USC Trojan players would have possessed the tenacity and character to have finished Alabama’s gut busting summer conditioning program? Maybe half? Maybe less?

      • You’re correct. But who is the one who hires the strength and conditioning coach? The head coach? If the head coach is soft so will the strength and conditioning coach, along with the players. The result? What you saw last night. I remember reading where Gerry Faust was at N.D. and he had a ballet coach come in to teach his players proper balance.

        • Saban’s teams have won FIVE national championships. Helton and his staff were shell – shocked students in the ”master’s” thrash and burn “this is how its done, city slickers!” smash mouth football clinic in Arlington last night. Helton’s O.J.T. as a head coach will be at a very high cost.

  16. Inexcusable..
    That’s the cleanest word I could think of. Don’t get me wrong I swear a lot but when I do it’s because of Inexcusable behavior

  18. WTF?

    As in WHAT THE F was that ridiculous and embarrassing entrance onto the field with players on the ground crawling around and acting like animals?

    Seriously… Is that what our program has become and the kind of players we recruit? USC should NEVER enter the field like that EVER!

    • This all goes back to character issues of this team and the lack of leadership I stated in my earlier post. What coach in their right mind would allow a team to take the field in that fashion. Also, wear the uniform the way it is supposed to be worn. No more half shirts, etc. They need to bring a United States Marine in to set them straight as to what a uniform means.

    • That’s what happens when you have a “players coach”. Can you imagine Alabama’s players even considering doing that for one second under Saban?

      • Yes, I think there is just a little bit of a difference between the personalities of CH and Nick Saban. Watch the post game interview with Adoree Jackson. While CH is talking, Jackson is smiling and making funny faces and waving at his friends in the crowd. If he played for Saban and he was doing that after such an embarrasing loss, I think Saban would have taken him behind closed dorrs and chewed him out from head to foot for a half hour.

    • But, hey, at least we’re not using Will Farrell or Snoop to lead them on the field anymore!

  19. Unprepared. I agree.

    PS. Start up negotiations with Tom Herman and/or Chris Peterson. Or….Give Jack Del Rio $10 Million a year.

    • I think that it’s too late for that. But you’ll never convince me that they couldn’t have gotten Peterson. If a guy decides to make an 850 mile trip to interview for your head coaching job(twice not once) then any AD who is worth his weight in salt should have been able to hire him. They should have at least talked to Herman. I don’t know if he would come but he is a SoCal guy and so is his wife. They have their family out here. If they were going to pass up all these guys and hire an assistant, they should have hired Ogerin.

      • Yep. Haden only went through the motions with Peterson. From what I heard he wanted the job. Haden as we know had Sark on his mind the whole time. Orgeron left a bad taste in my mouth by losing to Notre Dame and get whipped by UCLA, but I would rather have him than Sark and if an assistant were to be hired I think he should’ve been the guy.

    • Unfortunately, I believe they missed their chance with Herman and Petersen thanks to our clueless former AD.

  22. Hiring – USC should always have one of the top ten coach in the nation at it’s helm. College football is much better when USC is the dominate program in the west. But the hiring since Carrol left has been atrocious. Presently, the only things you hear about Helton is he an “adult”, and a “nice guy.” Calling all his timeout in the first quarter revealed how unprepared they were. A prepared team would have know what to do in that situation. It isn’t to late but there are definetly cracks in the foundation.

    • You could feel the ABC announcers trying to will USC into playing better. They loved the Pete Carroll days when USC was the marquee game on every Saturday night at 5PM.

  23. I think that the O-line played terrible. In the post game interview, Saban said he was surprised that he didn’t have to load up the defensive front to stop the run. He said that he felt that with that USC O-line, he would have to go to 8 man fronts to stop the run. He said that the fact that they could stop the run with a regular front is why they had so much success covering the receivers.

    • The ABC announcers noted that Alabama was pressuring Max Browne with just 4 down linemen, always a bad sign.

      • Some of the football mags had SC’s O-line rated as the number one O-line in the country. If that’s true, then that Bama D-line is the number one D-line in history because they manhandled that SC O-line.

  25. Disgusting!! We need to move on, Helton isn’t going anywhere soon. He was a Nikias hire and the last thing Nikias wants is to look bad. We can bitch all we want but nothing is going to happen. The USC brand would be totally finished if they fired him this soon. Nobody would ever want the job, except another Helton.

  26. If anyone thinks there are any changes coming, or that Lynn Swann has any idea whatsover as to how a progam like USC, let alone how an entire athletic department should be run, you’re in for quite a ride…He’s in way over his head and from what people say he’s not even attemptimg to learn the gig.

    This has Haden Part 2 written all over it. Bad hire after bad hire…It all stinks from the top down. Swann is a stuffed shirt at best and a possible fundraising ploy, but nothing more. As somone with a bit of knowledge form the inside it’s only gonna get worse.

    It’s a shame. Bad hires from leadership to AD to coaching…

    Last night was a debacle, but one eveyone should have seen coming for months.

    I can only imagine how pleased Kiff would have been to have HADEN still involved to take that lump on the chin…

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