Memo To Baxter

USC ranks 118th in kickoff return defense. Maybe that is something for special teams coach John Baxter to work on this week.

38 thoughts on “Memo To Baxter

    • Ya, you must be sad about your little gutty Rosen. He’s looking really bad and is already officially out of the Heisman race. is it him, or is it the fact he’s simply a bruin? Whatever the case, Honker Rosen isn’t bailing out anybody these days.

      That was a Sun Devil that just ran over you. I see it left a big mark. So cool.

      • Nothing ever does, not McKay, Robinson, nor Carroll. None of ’em.

        Both McKay and Robinson left for pastures that were definitely not greener and regretted it. Carroll left the program in disarray and under the biggest NCAA mushroom cloud since the SMU atomic bomb.

        Helton’s not great. Just enjoy him until he gets canned. In the meantime, he’s won and he’s on a 14-1 streak. There’s a lot of guys who could never do that with Darnold. A lot.

        • Good point —-one that never even occurred to me before. Most coaches couldn’t beat Washington and Penn State and Stanford WITH Darnold.
          #CreditWhereCreditIsDue

          • Helton’s beat some really good coaches and he flat-out outcoached Franklin in the Rose Bowl and Petersen in Seattle. He just hammered Shaw as well as anyone has and has now put down Whittingham.

          • It’s easy to forget that Helton has done pretty darn well with the hand he’s been dealt. Like I say, you have to give credit where credit is due. [But both of us reserve the right to go ape s*it if we play bad football in South Bend —-which, by the way, I DON’T think is gonna happen].

          • I don’t have any idea who will win in South Bend. Depends on which Darnold shows up and if we can run the ball. All we can do is hope we play well. I have no doubt we’ll be plenty ready.

            But for a game like this, that doesn’t always mean you win. Big man on big man as Goux always said. He was the Noblest Trojan of them all and is still on the Notre Dame All-Opponent Team, so he should know.

          • Good Old Marv— great that you got to hear him spin his magic before the Big Game. You might try standing in front of the television and repeating his speech verbatim and out loud right before Saturday’s kick off.

          • Yes, definitely, Jack —except for the mouthpiece. I want every word to be clear as a bell. The game may depend on it.
            #We’llAllKnowFromFinalScoreWhetherYouDid

        • Yeah, I’ll bet we’re not 6-1 next Saturday night. That’s my bold prediction and I’m sticking by it!

  1. Maybe it’s time for John to stop resting on his laurels, knock off the philosopher/king act and get serious about being a coach. Outside of stellar performances by our walk on kicker and our blind snapper, everybody on Special Teams is under-performing.

  2. Baxter needs to work in his diet … him Gomer and T are really getting fat on Darnold

  3. I really see this as a problem. You know the returner will raise his hands up when the ball sails over his head. Why aren’t the coached to jump twelve feet into the air to catch the ball?
    With a leap like this the returner should be able jump over the tacklers.
    Honestly as exciting as Adoree Jackson was, he frequently made horrible mistakes on returns. Yes it was exciting to see, but also frustrating to see him run backwards to gain advantage and get tackled. People tend to forget the ground lost on such occasions because he was fun to watch.

  4. In related news, the Los Angeles Daily news currently ranks 87th in the nation in newspaper circulation. It is one slot ahead of the Washington Times and one below the Toledo Blade.

    #85 by the way is La Opinion.

    • The newspaper business is a dinosaur. Those who can’t adapt to the internet age are going to disappear very soon.

  5. We are top 20 in
    3rd down conversions
    Sacks

    We are middling at
    3rd down D
    4th down D
    # of penalties/game (Surprise!)
    Penalty yards/game (Barely! #92)
    Kickoff returns
    Net punting (#29)
    Punt return D
    Punt returns (Barely: #94)
    Sacks allowed (#31)
    Scoring D
    Scoring O
    TFL
    TOP

    We are bottom 20 in
    4th down conversions

    • Good stuff.
      Now, the question is : In how many of those categories does Notre Dame beat us?
      #I’mBettingWe’rePrettyEven

  6. Memo to Clay Helton and Clancy Pendergast: Pull out all the stops, empty the barrel chamber, make Notre Dame beat you with the pass so crowd the LOS with Dlinemen. This is gonna be like playing Stanford- playing in a phone booth.

  7. I wonder if this stat is misleading as most kicks are touchbacks or out of bounds. Does that = a 35 yd return ? And yes kick offs out of bounds are unacceptable.

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