USC Morning Buzz: Sam Darnold Makes Coaches Look Good

darnold-asuHere is my analysis from USC’s rout of Arizona State.

Excerpt: If players make coaches look good, then USC quarterback Sam Darnold might deserve a statue outside Heritage Hall by the end of the season.

When you get the stars the ball, good things happen and it will always be a mystery why Clay Helton did not believe this the first three games. The nation’s pundits generally believed USC was a top 15 team. But when you rob that team of two significant players (Sam Darnold, JuJu Smith-Schuster), such success would never materialize.

As good as Darnold looked Saturday, he is not Superman. Mainly because he does not wear headsets. He cannot overrule Helton on fourth down.

Full story here

64 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Sam Darnold Makes Coaches Look Good

  1. Point 1, in August who would have thought the O line would play so soft. Point 2, without pass blocking Max Browne has no time and he’s slow to make decisions anyway. Now SC has a QB in Darnold that works well with Martin’s offensive play calling and is quick to make decisions. SC may have finally found it’s identity on offense, spread/read option. Looking a lot like Oregon used to be. The O line will still give SC one or two losses, maybe even a third. We’ll see how good Colorado really is soon enough. Washington and Ruins the only other tough games left.

    • Darnold thrives without an offensive line. That’s the difference. Browne and most conventional quarterbacks would be dead ducks. Darnold creates time to throw and makes the defense respect his scrambling which opens up the running game and the passing game.

  2. Who woulda thunk it? Gomer might have a savior in Darnold! Can he really survive the season, though?

    • USC won’t pull the trigger on Clay Helton before the season ends, no matter how bad they play. The longer Lynn Swann keeps Helton on display, the more he reminds the fans, and administration how horrible Pat Haden was..lol

      • I don’t think so, Fred. Both the Offense, thanks be to Sam Darnold and a few others, and Pendergast’s Defense, with everyone contributing, played LIGHTS OUT yesterday. If the Trojans will be allowed to hear our signals, we win out. Our only obstacle are the pot-deranged UW screaming idiots. This LIGHTS OUT Trojan season has arrived. FIGHT ON, TROJANS !!!

  3. Sam Darnold is the better quarterback between the two, but Alabama, and Stanford would have still beaten USC, because Darnold’s can’t block or play on the defensive line. And the Trojans didn’t lose to Utah because of quarterback issues, they lost because the coaching staff didn’t recognize their own offensive line were blowing holes open for Justin Davis. SC has enough talent to win 10 games in the very weak Pac 12, but their coaching staff is absolutely horrible.

      • Even with USC winning .. They still have a lot of work to do. From the O, D and coaching.. Its all about staying consistent. The coaching and game management is the weakest link of the team. They will be tested against Co. At least we play at home.. The fans may help in keeping us in the game.. We shall see.. They are a work in progress in game #6!.

        • I think that SC beats Stanford with Darnold and that defensive game plan that they had in play yesterday. I hear you though, Freddy.

    • We will never know now. Darnold is growing in ability with leaps and bounds. He is special.

    • I don’t agree – good quarterbacks make their line improve quickly because the line realizes it’s not all on them.

      With Darnold at the helm we have Stanford as a win

  4. So, someone is calling the plays and now I guess that has no influence in the game where it did before if it was bad play calling. Someone came up with defensive schemes that had ASU dazed and confused all night, there again if it was a bad defense it was coaching I am sure. ASU overrated? Yes. USC has changed, yes Darnold has lit a spark, but the team overall has new attitude. We can sit here and rag on the coaching staff, but I think I will enjoy the win and the good stuff I saw for a few days. Tired of looking at wins as losses. USC is not ready for greatness yet, but just enjoying the high points along the way.

    • You’ve clearly never read this blog before; the Blogger is not happy unless he’s miserable

      • A USC fail is a happy SW .. He may have been cut from the team as a walk on … Scotty wanted to be the ND’s version of Rudy!

      • Yes, you are so right, I have never read this blog before, just found out USC plays football too. I am sure I can get a game on my AM radio in my car. With such informative people as yourself I am sure i will be up to speed real soon. Thanks for your input.

    • Darnold bailed out the O-line at least 5 times, probably more. It is hard to judge play calling. And I won’t judge play calling in just about any circumstance for the most part. But, the bone-headed 4th down call in the 1st with no established running game on our side of the field was asinine. A great INT bailed SC out. It could have been a close game at the half if not for that. SC’s lead let the D open it up and knock ASU’s QB out. ASU was finished when its QB went down and was bad regardless.

      Let’s see how we do against the Buffs (I can’t believe I just wrote that).

      • I wonder if that was Helton’s big F U to the critics? Like, “See here’s what you wanted…” The blow out win was vindication for him.

        • That’s what worries me. Is Helton really listening to any of these jokers? They will second guess every call that doesn’t work.

  5. Darnold/Helton = Palmer/Hackett

    History is repeating itself! We all know the ending of this story!

    Give Darnold and the team a REAL coach in Tom Herman and USC will return to NATIONAL POWER!!!

  6. So all they had to do was bench Banner. Lendale was right.

    In all seriousness though, All of these losses were on the road (Bama in Dallas is basically a road game). Even UW struggled in their only road test against Zona and SC should’ve beat Utah in SLC. Heck, even everyone’s golden boy Christian Mac has never scored a TD on the road.
    Point is, these are 18, 19,20 and 21 yr olds who have not matured. The coach isn’t great and hasn’t provided the great leadership that a team needs to win on the road. Can Helton learn fast enough? Do we as fans (it is all I am) want him to succeed or hire a proven winner? What a conundrum.

    #Ihopeitisntanotherhacketera

  7. Two things can be equally true. The Trojans showed improvement in last nights game AND they still have a long way to go.

  8. Positives from the ASU game
    Darnold

    Negatives from the ASU game
    OL
    Tackling
    Coaching Staff

  9. Here’s a breakdown of the PAC 12

    1. Washington is the cream of the crop and that ain’t saying much
    2-12. Does it matter ? None of the rest is very good.

  10. Agree with previous posters that this is one to enjoy, particularly the
    best team effort of the season, and Darnold appears to have the
    potential to be a truly special player. One key statistic – USC total offense was around 500 yards, ASU had only 300 yards. Next game vs. Colorado will tell
    us more about where the team is. Hope that they can continue to come together.

    • Gardena High School could get 500 yards of offense against that mess of a defense.

      ASU’s coach is as bad as Gomer

      The OL is still awful.

      ASU isn’t that good, Colorado will be a far better test.

  11. So Gomer gets it through his head after three games that Darnold is better than Browne, duh. Gomer was afraid that Browne would transfer if he didn’t start him, that shows you what Gomer’s made of, jello.

    Anyone remember who the BIG QB recruit was in Darnold’s class that USC signed ??? Hint, he had a weak arm, slow feet and was overrated like Browne. His last name also rhymed with Browne.

    So much for these so called ” recruiting experts “.

    • Carroll had the guts to start Leinhart in Auburn on the road and the rest is history. Darnold should have been playing from game 1 and maybe we have 4 wins.

    • Lamar Jackson was a 3 star, Deshaun Watson was a 4 star, Browne was a 5 star, big difference. Darnold was a 4 star. Ratings are only a guidline and players should be scouted and interviewed.

  12. Maybe Sam can fix the entrance gates. We showed up with our clear bag (the one we had last game) and got sent to the check bag station because it was too big. They decided to play a new tune at this joke of security.
    The people at check bags were reluctant to take it but finally did. By the time we get back to the gate it’s crunch time and they are letting everyone in. This is the improvement Pat Haden made? Don’t get started on the seats I saw a guy put his foot through one stepping on it to get down faster. How good is Sam fixing seats?

  13. Per JK McKay, not many people were interested in the USC job last time. They’ll be tripping over each other this time to get a chance to coach Darnold the next 2-3 years.

    • Yes they will especially if of the remaining games we incur no more than 2 additional losses (WA and UCLA).

      ‘OR’ looks like the old OR – lost bad to WA St. last night @ home as they did to NE and CO beat them on the road.Next loss will be @ WA for them.

  14. Even with the poor hiring of Helton, one bright star is this kid. I am glad he is having success. I feel awful for Browne who waited several years to play.

  15. Even with Darnold’s success, I guarantee they will have a losing season secondary to poor coaching. This is the easy stretch for SC, the meat of the schedule with produce guaranteed losses. USC in the long run will win due to a change in HC. I just hope they bring in the right guy that matches our pro style system.

    • Well if you mean the next 4 games you’re right – CO, AZ Cal and OR are in a bad shape regardless of CO’s sudden turnaround – I see losses to ucla and WA that;s it – The Princess is not playing tough opponents this year

  16. Seniority alone is not earning ones starting position. Some saw who the ‘real’ starter should be,I didn’t … and it is now the case. Even Max Browne would have to concede ,if he was honest. Darnold has proven ,he is the man.

      • I wanted an experienced QB in against Bama, I felt more comfortable with a kid who’s been in the program 4 years. That turned into a nightmare, but I always thought Darnold was the future. Tee Martin has wanted Darnold in from the get go. At least he was right on that.

  17. The best thing about Darnhold is that Helton’s time here is shortened i.e. he didn’t have the stones to do what his gut told him was what he needed to do – pick Darnhold. Darnhold’s continuing success only makes the planning by Helton even more telling about how poorly qualified he is in terms of assembling his staff and planning for games.

  18. You guys, I don’t want to be the part stopper, but how does Nwosu get 3 sacks all of a sudden? How does Juju all of a sudden get 3 TD’S and look like Megatron doing it? How does Lockett get 5 tackles, 1 INT, pass break up after the horrible game he played in Utah?

    Answer……We played a JV team.

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