Is Discipline An Issue?

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I mentioned in today’s paper that Clay Helton’s hiring brought an adult in the room persona following the hi-jinx of the Kiffin-Sarkisian era. But two players were ejected the past two games. It’s great to be a “mad” team but you also need to play smart. That’s what the elite teams do.

USC cannot afford to have any more lapses of judgment when it goes to Stanford. This is Helton’s team now and it would be a shame to see it develop a reputation of lacking class.

48 thoughts on “Is Discipline An Issue?”

  1. Helton may be an adult but is he willing to bust their chops? And the playes may love him but do the players respect him?

  2. There is no respect for Gomer and his high school level staff. Like Bill Walsh said ‘ there are coaches and there are gym teachers ‘ Gomer is a substitute gym teacher , Suck was the always absent gym teacher with personal problems, Kiffin the creepy custodian.

  3. If I didn’t know better, Chuma must have taken “stupid” pills before game time ?

    Now obviously the Trojans didn’t really need him to beat Utah State, but yes, back-to-back ejections says enough itself, these aren’t rookies and both (Chuma and Jabari Ruffin) have shown lack of brain cells to play at this level !!

    Maybe bring in a Psychiatrist for a session to discuss adolescent issues ?

    CLEAN IT UP !!!!!

    That said, would someone please sit “Little” Iman down, his brain fade seems beyond help, this guy consistently makes “bone-headed” mistakes !

    Marshall is responsible for “both” Alabama’s first score (On scale of 1 – 10, this bone-headed mistake was an “11”) and Utah State’s “only” score !!!!!!

    Iman doesn’t “improve”, Iman “disproves”, his abilities that is ? ! ?

    Trivia Time: Which Trojan will give up the first score against Stanford next week ????????????

    • The player who really took the “stupid pill” yesterday was the Heisman Trophy candidate Jack-Jack Jones. If you caught his act in the 4th quarter it was despicable. First, he gets beat on a deep pass down the sideline and complains to the side judge about it. On the next play he get pancaked not once, but twice by the receiver who just beat him deep, and he complains to the side judge about that. After the next play he gets blocked again and gets in the same receivers face and fakes like he got head butted and falls to the turf like in soccer. Helton should’ve said, “Young man this is not Long Beach Poly, go sit down, and we’ll let you know when you’re needed.”

  4. It seems that Clay Helton is a good and honorable man, but I think he is in over his skis when it comes to this job. There is a reason that he has never been a head coach before and USC is not a job for on the job training. But this is not his fault. How many people would say, “No, I’m not taking the USC job because I’m not qualified?” As we’ve all stated, this goes back to Pat Haden and his administrative malfeasance. What needs to happen is a total housecleaning of everyone on the staff that has a connection to Kiffin, Sark, and Haden. I know that this approach is Machiavellian, but this is what needs to happen for USC to rid itself of the dark cloud that is Pat Haden.

    • What? He just coached the team against a solid Utah State team. The team is overrated in certain positions. Give hin time.

    • Grad ?

      No one has a right to comment on a Coach who is leading his “1st” full season as “Head Coach” at least until His “1st” Season has completed !

      You need to look back and “research” the USC Trojans “Greatest” and “Wining [est]” Head Coach to ever take the field and how when He was hired everyone was talking smack on that decision and how His first year when’t, a .500 Season !!

      He was an Assistant Coach, with “no” Head Coaching experience and how “His” Trojans had just come out of “sanctions” with less than a full Team !!!

      What do you think His name is/was ???

      Within “2” seasons, USC National Championship !

      What is happening now is virtually a mirror of what happened before, give or take 56 years…

      • Please tell me you are not comparing the regime of one Clay Helton to John McKay. If you are, then you are embarrassing yourself.
        To begin with, do you think John McKay would not use all of this practice days leading up to a bowl game the way Helton did?
        Do you think that John McKay would tolerate a player who committed an egregious personal foul penalty and only sit him for a half of a game?
        Do you think that John McKay would tolerate a player who walked off the practice field in the middle of practice and not throw his butt out and not play him on Saturday?
        Do you think John McKay would have a grab bag offense that is basically ten pounds of crap in a five pound bag?
        Lastly, do you think John McKay would surround himself with a coaching staff that is basically a glorified high school staff?
        If you say yes to any of these questions then you are as delusional as Patrick Capper Haden.

      • And you never got out of Cerritos little league and still working an hourly job at the Cerritos McDonald’s… that’s why you can’t afford tickets to watch ucla.

        • I think even Just Owns is embarrassed by last night. For him to be on a USC blog while the UCLA game was on and offer no explanation Slas to why he was not at the home opener shows he knows he blew it. At least the other UCLA fans like Bucket were at the game supporting their team. My guess that Just Owns will not make that mistake again!

          • Ha that’s good. If that was true that would at least be a legitimate reason that he was not at the game. Think about it, he would rather be on this site than his teams home opener!

          • To begin with, Just Owns real screen name is Bruin Rob, and he only uses it on rare occasions. Second, you have to have a conscience to be embarrassed and he has shown over the years he has none. Here is a little 411 on this clown. After the 2011 50-0 beat down of the gutty little bruins, Bruin Rob claimed that he and his sons were physically and verbally harassed before, during, and after the game. So that claim means he was at the game. When UCLA was at the Foster Farms Bowl in San Francisco, Bruin Rob claimed that he and a “honey” were driving up to the game in a convertible; meaning he was single and ready to mingle. Three weeks after that incident, a 12 year old somehow found Bruin Rob’s dating profile on a site titled, Date Me LA. The link was posted and it revealed a lot of interesting info. It was filled with UCLA pictures and anti USC pictures. His dating profile stated that he was from Cerritos and single with no kids. He also measured in at svelte 5’7″ 235 lbs. Needles to say he lives on this blog and he is one of the loyal gaggle of trolls Wolf panders to. In short, he is more concerned with what goes on at USC than he is at UCLA.

          • Your last sentence clearly explains my concern that I raised. Now I understand he really does not care about the Bruins that much. Thank you for the clarity.

          • At the time he was debating UNLV being a better opponent than Utah State yet he chose to not attend the game despite this being the first home game for the Bruins since November.

  5. CH forget to tell his players not to kick opponents in the nuts and to never slap away a ref who’s wrestling with you.

    In the meantime, former USC miscreant Josh Shaw had a big pick to save the Bengals’ victory over the Jets.

    And Trojan choir boy turned Viking Everson Griffin pulled a long pick six on Titan Mariota – who doesn’t look good by the way.

  6. Meanwhile JDR just showed big time stones going for 2 and winning at NewOrleans .. Completely turned around that mess in Oakland that Kiffin added to
    Up north Petersen cleaned up Sucks mess and Udub is good again
    Thanks HH hope u enjoyed the 40k at the opener u will be getting 25k before long

      • Yeah but you know EA has a very easy opening three games all at home – Rutgers, ID and Portland St. WA’s problems arrive 30th Sept at home against Stanford and then the next 3 – @ OR, OR St. and @ UT.

        Know a lot more at the end of October

  9. As far as discipline goes I thought the team played very disciplined yesterday. The defense was extremely assignment sound throughout the day. Since the blogger chooses to ignore the actual game and focus on a single play I can address that as well. Edoga was pushed late, after the play backwards over a pile. Anyone who is an athlete knows this is a cheap and dirty play that generally leads to significant knee or ankle injuries. The rest of you non athletes need to stop commenting. Unsurprisingly no flag was thrown as collegiate officiating is embarrassing at best. Then the official pulls on his jersey, and here’s the important part, from behind. First rule of officiating is never pull or tug on a player in an aggressive way. 2nd rule of officiating is never pull or tug on a player from behind or even the side…they don’t know it’s an official. Sure you all think players can stop on a dime and turn the switch on and off. You’re typically the same people who criticize the players for not playing hard enough. Throw a flag on Edoga if you want, but the ejection was way over the top and the official should be suspended for the way he handled it.

    • fortunately i am an athlete of some renown, so I CAN comment: it is amusing how you Southern Cal fans will go to any lengths to make excuses for the trOXans!

      here one actually creates new “Rules of Officiating” (rules #1 & 2 no less) that require the Ref to approach the players as though they were cornered beasts!! What are Rules 3 & 4$?? “no sudden moves”, and “speak calmly in a soft voice”??

      you are also forgetting Athletes Rule #1: Never push the Referee. oh wait, they don’t have to teach that one, it’s common sense!

      #CrazyRationalizations

    • Thank you for some much needed logic and knowledge on this blog. Edoga should have been smart enough to not do what he did, but he was also responding twice to events both Utah State and the Refs should not have been doing. He needs to understand being right is not always the best outcome.

      The Blogger will always be the Blogger and whine about something. The trolls will respond like little Wolfkins and life will go on.

  10. What bothers me about SC is that I’m not convinced that CH has skills in preparing a team emotionally. That is a skill. Maybe he’ll have it someday but I’m not convinced that he has it now. But that’s what happens when you hire someone who has limited experience. He’s learning on the job. Pete Carroll was a master at preparing his teams emotionally for the big games. He rarely ever lost big games. The games they lost under PC were games that they should have won, games in which SC was a heavy favorite. But the big games, SC was always ready for emotionally. They looked scared against Bama and they looked like they lacked confidence that they could win the game. You could see it with all the gyrating in the end zone before the game and all the trash talking during the game. Confident teams don’t do that. They just go out there and let their play do the talking.

  11. The discipline issue has been around for a long time. Some games they looked good, others they made a lot of stupid mistakes. Good coaching is partly creating the will to win, to do what is necessary and beneficial for the team. That is a discipline in itself.

  12. Clay Helton is like that 16yr old who just got his Drivers License and Mom and Dad got him that expensive sports car. Oh, and the car is a stick and he’s learning on the fly.

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