USC Picture Of The Day

sark-petersen

The popular line right now is USC should have hired Chris Petersen. But let’s look at it another way: Did USC do Washington the greatest favor in its history? USC took Steve Sarkisian off Washington’s hands and created the coaching vacancy for Petersen. That’s a two-fer. It didn’t even have to pay off Sarkisian. Today, it is USC instead of Washington that is locked in an arbitration battle with Sarkisian over money.

63 thoughts on “USC Picture Of The Day

  1. Wolf – while hindsight is your forte how about pointing out the two Boise coaches prior to Peterson (Dirk Koetter & Dan Hawkins) failed miserably in the Pac 12, so Peterson wasn’t exactly a no brainer.

    • It’s not only hindsight, the Blogger is assuming that just because Petersen is winning with UW he would also have won the games this year with USC. Purely hypothetical.

      • But you know you would take Petersen at USC right now, right? It’s easier to build at USC than at UW, at least it always has been. We shouldn’t even be comparing ourselves with UW. We should be comparing ourselves with ALA, OHIO ST, MICH and CLEM. Obviously, those days are long gone.

        The same can be said for TEXAS. Misery loves company.

        • I don’t believe Petersen’s personality fits a USC and Southern California culture and a union would never last. I’d rather give Helton a chance to grow rather than see Petersen leave after a year or two and we start all over again. Ask me again after Helton has been at USC the same amount of time as Petersen at UW.

          • With all due respect, what is it you like about Gomer’s personality? Is a nice guy who’s always optimistic enough, even when he gets beat up horribly? Personally, I don’t think he’s got the brains Petersen does. I’d rather have smart and aggressive than nice and learning on the job. And why did Gomer let fully mediocre STAN push him around like he’s in full worship mode?

            I think the problem with Gomer is as you point out, he still needs a “chance to grow.” At USC, we seem committed to growing our FB coaches on the job. Many of us are sick of that weakness. At least UW got someone who was a proven commodity in the game. Petersen’s record is unassailable. Gomer’s is flat out bad, unless 50/50 is your standard.

          • And about 40-12 in about 2 years , u would have to be as dumb as Snark to not see what CP is doing up there.

          • The Dr. Rachel Maddow of Inside USC still refuses to admit she was completely wrong about Chris Petersen.

          • He inhered a mess at UDUB, he said it took him two years to clean up the culture that was there before he got there, and USC hired the moron who created that culture.

          • Peterson took two years to clean up the culture left by Sark. Maybe we should give Helton two years to clean up Sark’s mess at SC.

          • Maybe we should have given a man who wasn’t a coach-in-training two years to clean up the Drunk’s mess. Had we hired an experienced, proven HC, with our talent we would have probably beaten both STAN and UTAH and sitting here with one bad loss instead of three. That’s the problem. We didn’t need to hire a newbie asst who had to be told to start Darnold when the season was already upside down.

          • From Wikipedia: “In his first two seasons as head coach, McKay’s teams enjoyed little success, going 4–6 in 1960, and 4–5–1 in 1961. The Trojans had been on probation and had difficulty recruiting; McKay stated that these two teams were the slowest he had ever been around.” Patience JB.

          • I can’t believe you actually brought up John McKay’s name. I’ll just leave it at that because I’m speechless. Now I’ve heard it all.

          • Alum’s wanted McKay fired, but he was showing progress. Is having 11 men on the field for a PAT instead of 8 progress ? Is caving to media and fan pressure to go for it what you want in a coach ? Helton has no identity, he wants to be a power run guy but they run the spread. He couldn’t even get his hot back a carry in the 4th quarter of the Utah game.

          • And if he doesn’t, does USC do what it normally does and hire an ex USC football player or assistant ?

          • CP threw 18 Sarky recruits off his team … Gomer is trying to coach Sark recruits lol … u are seeing how this is working

          • What was Peterson quote when he got to UW, “the team didn’t know how to walk out of the tunnel to start a game” or “could huddle up”. Sark left a mess and Peterson made hard choices and cleaned it up his way.

          • Lol … funny stuff would Gomer had won 90 games and 2 BCS bowls at Boise lmao
            It’s doubtful Petersen would even want Gomer on his staff

      • One of those clowns was 53-11 at Boise. Nobody doubts that Sark was a terrible hire & Haden was a terrible AD. Just saying Peterson wasn’t a slam dunk hire, despite how good he looks now.

        • It’s all relative. Compared to the Drunk, Petersen was definitely a no brainer. Be serious. Compared to Del Rio, I can see waffling and choosing JDR. At least that’s a contest. Petersen vs Sark the Drunk was a mauling.

          I admit though, I’m biased. I didn’t have any reservations about Petersen. I always liked the way he handled himself, on and off the field. Quiet and serious off of it, a creative killer on it.

  2. To continue today’s second guessing theme: Did Pete Carroll do UCLA the greatest favor is history by both leaving USC and replacing Jim Mora in Seattle, freeing him up for 405 South University ?

  3. Sark did USC a huge favor and got drunk at USC events and practices. We didn’t have to waste much time on him. The money is irrelevant. USC is doing very well in that dept.

    As long as we don’t give Gomer too much leash and demand he start performing at a very high level by mid-2017, we’ll end up okay. The next hire, if necessary, has to be a big gun. No questions asked.

    Petersen would have been great, but he may have always wanted UW more anyway. Think about it. If he knew Haden didn’t really want him and Sark was his fave, then he knew the Husky job would be opening and he could jump – which he was finally ready to do.

    It’s a real possibility that Petersen played USC like a fiddle. The dude’s very smart. Think about it. He facilitates the Drunk’s move to SC by balking at the end, and inmed thereafter, he accepts the Husky job – the one he wanted all along more than USC. Haden and USC got played by Petersen. The rest is history.

  4. As far as UW is concerned; there was USC’s hiring of Sark, and then there was the Lusianna Purchase.

  5. USA Today sinks Mora and ucla:

    “These days, though, Mora’s program is exactly what his critics feared from the very beginning. Not only is UCLA foundering and badly underachieving in Mora’s fifth season, he has sullied the program’s reputation by retaining assistant Adrian Klemm, whose blatant cheating was caught red-handed by the NCAA.

    “It’s no secret why Klemm, whose reputation as an offensive line coach routinely draws laughter within the profession, remains at UCLA making a massive salary $750,000-per-year salary despite the NCAA uncovering how he arranged for recruits to receive private training and housing at a facility in Arizona. Klemm gets players, plain and simple, and never mind the two-year show cause penalty he received last month that should have embarrassed UCLA into firing him, you’re not going to win in the Pac-12 without players.

    “But these days, Mora isn’t winning with them, either.”

      • Mora will resign .. His time at UCLA was built on hope.. Hope we can be better than USC . .. Bruin Revolution ! Lol #weownLA. Haaa Haaaa

        • Resign? No….asked to leave is more probable based on the ascent of: CO, WA St., and UT since the money has arrived from the tv deal.

          Mora ain’t gonna’ quit

          • Guerrero will never ask Mora to leave. Not that much is expected of ucla football. Mora will never sink to Radio or Slick Rick standards, when ucla was weak and downright noncompetitive. Mora’s good enough to keep ucla satisfied, but not good enough to threaten superiority on any national level. I could see Mora bolting for a rebuilding job elsewhere. He’s good at the beginning for a jumpstart. He’ll be divorced and his girl will be out of SC. He should have bolted when Hundley left, but Rosen kept him intrigued.

    • When asked about Klemm, Mora Jr. was heard to reply “Payoffs? Are you talking about Payoffs? Payoffs?”

    • I pointed this out several months ago, prior to the season. I said Mora was done at UCLA, he may get fired or leave on his own.. The trolls attacked m with the your FOS comments

  6. You’re all forgetting that Petersen didn’t want to move to LA, for the usual reasons. So this game of “wish WE had have…” is folly.

    • Why did he interview for a job he never wanted? Just to practice interviewing? He was obviously interested and could have been shown the advantages of L.A. he probably still has no idea of to this day. Haden refused to sell him because of his arrogance and laziness.

      You think ALA, OHIO ST or MICH didn’t go ALL out to get their man? Of course they did. No stone unturned.

      USC didn’t and if USC uses that same approach trying to beat out ORE, TEXAS, LSU and others, we’ll lose those battles too. But that’s USC’s style now. We like to train our coaches before we quickly fire ’em.

      • Train for what … Kiffin is just Saban’s B , he can’t get a HC gig. Snark is finished , just a GA now.Will never get a Udub type job ever Gomer will disappear where he always been

  7. Cravath, Ex USC football player
    Hill, Ex USC football player
    Clark, EX USC football player & assistant
    McKay, Current USC assistant
    Robo, Ex USC assistant
    Tollner, Current USC assistant
    Hackett, Ex USC assistant
    Kiffin, Ex USC assistant
    Sark, Ex USC assistant
    Helton, Current USC assistant

    From 1942 to 2016, only TWO coaches were hired with no previous USC connection, that’s why they miss the hot coach, they don’t look for them.

  8. I couldn’t agree more with Wolfie on this one. Passing on a great coach like Petersen was a crazy decision. If you’re going to make a crazy decsion like that, at least don’t open another position for him to take in your conference so now you have to face him for the next 15 years. That is, in deed, crazy.

  9. Pat Haden did everybody a favor in the Pac 12, not just Washington. Because if he followed the normal protocol when hiring a football coach, then USC would have dominated the conference.

  10. I read something today about a possible Sark to Oregon deal if our AD fires Helfrich after he is reevaluated after this season. I’m thinking this might actually work at Oregon. Here’s why:

    1) Sark is clean. Do you think Saban would’ve hired him if he was still a drunk? No chance. Now imagine how good he could coach if he were sober.
    2) Facilities. Ours our #1 and imagine how easy sell it would be for the king of sales with our facilities.
    3) NW recruiter. He’d pluck recruits from the fuskies backyard cause he’s been there, knows the region. Granted, he might have some relationships to restore, but now that he’s sober, people are very forgiving.
    5) hates the fuskies. He knows their weaknesses. We could dominate the series with the Huskies once again

  11. No question that it turned out best for Udub. Sark took the probram as far as he was capable . Petersen will tame it to the next level

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