USC Quick Thought

If USC has the best special teams coach in the country why are punt returns such an adventure?

56 thoughts on “USC Quick Thought

  1. cuz they dont got john rosen that is best qb ever, writer got no foot ball knoledge, smdh!

  2. In the first six games of the season USC had only returned six punts. Adore is shaking his head

  3. Apparently, A. Harris is being coached not to fair catch balls unless they are landing inside the 10 yard line. IDK WTF is going on with punt return and I can sign on to this gripe. PR is hurting us more than it’s helping us and I’d like to see someone else back there. PR should be a weapon for us with all the weapons we have on the team. Maybe J Jones is ready to make a contribution there at this point. You have Harris back there because you want someone solid, but he’s not even doing the solid stuff. He’s already muffed one, doesn’t make good decisions or plays to help the field position and he isn’t a legitimate threat as a return man. Give someone else a shot.

      • He seems to have a lot of excess energy too. I just worry about him trying to do too much instead of just getting upfield and exploiting gaps.

    • Not happening, have you learned nothing about Gomer ? He goes with the guy who has been there longer, doesn’t matter if the older player is worse than the young one

      • Like benching Darnold, won’t happen no matter how much he hurts the team. Hopefully a QB battle in the spring whether Darnold is here or not.

    • Not only is it dead, but boring…. So much great Trojan talk going on – just sniveling b.s. here.

  4. I’ve been watching USC field punts for over 40 years. And I can’t remember a worse punt returner than Harris.
    #1. Harris stands too far back, and that is why most punts take a bounce before he gets to them.
    #2. Harris is extremely slow at judging how far a punt is. His reaction time is slow. By the time he realizes a punt is short, he can’t get to it, and it rolls another 15 yards.
    #3. Most punt returners do an acting job when a punt is close to the end zone. Harris doesn’t do this because he hasn’t a clue where he is on the field.
    #4. Harris tries to return punts that should be fair caught. And he fair catches punts that should be returned.
    #5. Everyone can tell that Harris lacks confidence when it comes to punt returning.
    #6. Wolf is right (for once). Harris turns every punt into an adventure.

  5. A better question, if SC has the best QB in the country, why is it such an adventure when he runs with the ball in one hand and his arm fully extended? This isn’t basketball. A QB that consistently puts his team in a hole with turnovers, and is consistently inconsistent with his throws. That was an easy win last night without Darnold’s screw ups.

  6. Nobody is really talking about it and it would be antithetical for Wolf, but Sam is throwing some really bad passes out there. Setting aside the fumbles, you’re telling me it takes 50 attempts to get what we need in the passing game? Even passes he’s completing are laying receivers out to dry as if the team needs more injuries. We talk about Sam keeping his eyes downfield as a virtue, but is it possible for a virtue to become a fault, a blessing to become a curse? Dump the ball off in the flat and let your athletes go one on one in the open field instead of forcing one into traffic. Sam is making things harder than they need to be.

      • I can’t blame a coach when my QB isn’t simply able to throw a good ball from here to there.

    • Glad to see I’m not the only one to see this. On balance, is Darnold helping or hurting? Helton would never bench him unless SC starts losing.

      • Benching shouldn’t even be in anyone’s mind at all. I don’t know what the issue is, but he has been incredibly inaccurate and erratic with his throws. Every throw is a cannon and I’m seeing little evidence of touch or finesse in his throws. IDK what’s happening but he’s making easy throws look hard.

          • Curious to me is how he almost looks more confused with less pressure or more time, on most of his quick hitters, he seems smooth and on target, but sitting in the pocket and he doesn’t want to pull the trigger?

        • If they get past ND, try sitting him in the 3rd quarter of ASU game if he keeps this up.

          • You’re not gonna sit Sam because you need him to bring you back from the hole you’re in now.

          • The one he dug! True he has to start but if he makes the ND game harder than it has to be and heaven forbid he loses it, continues to be sloppy with ASU, bench him. Would send a big message to the team.

          • Perhaps so, but to sit him is crazy talk. I knew it would be coming after Fink’s run. I knew it…

    • Wolf has a serious man crush on Sam. I was fearing for those receivers lives out there last night. A lot of courage on their part.

    • Also, I asked earlier in the season if we had a traditional option look in the playbook and I’ve seen it a couple times now, including last night. We ran it last night and ONE guy defended it by himself. The option should be hard to stop with 2 or 3 guys and impossible with just one. If we want to get some speed on the edge, the option is a great way to do it, but you gotta run it with some conviction. There has to be a legitimate ball fake on the pitch for the keeper or a legitimate keeper fake before the pitch. The QB has to make that end commit to something. Although I’ve seen it run, it doesn’t look like we’ve really drilled down on the theory and execution of traditional option concepts. It’s just a little something in the playbook rather than a real part of our offense. It could be a really nice, effective package for us, but not in the half-a** way we’re runnng it. We could avoid throwing so much and running up the middle if we were better on the edge.

    • The best place to throw is down the field. Throwing to the sideline is a 50/50 bet every time. His passes in the first half were pathetic but the 2nd half he threw like he should. It was 50 attempts because USC could not run, because Sam was not passing well. All of a sudden he starts to throw off his heels off balance and he connects. If you want bubble screens all day go watch Kiffens team. As soon as he started to connect, safeties and linebackers backed out of the box and the run game worked. You don’t open the field throwing laterally.

      • It’s not the best place to throw when you’re throwing picks. I’m not saying change the offense, I’m saying take what’s there when it’s there instead of forcing the ball into traffic.

  7. Special teams have been a disappointment this year, especially punt return. #spoiledmuchlastyear?

    • It seems the place kicker is doing well. AJ is gone, and people think USC has another clone in the locker room.

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