Tee Martin Thinks USC Is Improving . . . Really

I asked offensive coordinator Tee Martin why USC is not getting better?

“I don’t think that’s the case,” Martin said. “We’re getting better every week.”

179 thoughts on “Tee Martin Thinks USC Is Improving . . . Really

  1. Uh huh! What Tee Martin said is equivalent to what Richard Madcow reports as “news!”

  2. I was starting to wonder about Tee’s credibility. This answer really helps resolve things.

  3. If we keep up this kind of imrpovement, we’ll be able to successfully lose 50-0 in the Sun Bowl.

  4. Someone once said this team was like ones under Hackett, and I thought it’d be even worse without Darnold performing like Superman. Now I know I was right.

    • Darnold can’t keep turning the ball over. He could be Payton Manning or Aaron Rodgers, but if he keeps giving it up 3 or 4 times a game, he’ll never win on any level. Love the kid, but he’d be a fool to leave. And I would think he’d need to compete for the job again next year.

      • Come on now. it’s not just Darnold. It’s the whole mess created by Helton and company. Don’t even try protecting CH by putting players and assistants down. It’s the same old tiring tune that’s no longer valid.

        • Hey, it’s the full team loss, but when your QB can’t keep the ball – tough to win. Pretty simple.

          • True, but the problem doesn’t lie with just this game and miscues in it. The team hasn’t been playing well to justify the record, and they’re finally exposed clearly last night.

          • The errant snaps weren’t him. Fink got hit by one too. And the QB /RB exchange, that’s some coaching issues too. Darnold threw one pick. Come on, this is a football team that’s badly coached.

  5. Two memorable post game quotes from our coaching brain trust:
    Clay Helton: (Replying to question about what needs to be done to get better) “We’ll look at the tape and fix our corrections.”
    Tee Martin: (Replying to question about why and how we got beat) “They did a good job just being good.”

    • I think I heard him saying those things at least a dozen times each during his 6 minute post game pressor. Is he turning into a human tape recorder now?

      • Seriously, RT —-we’re seeing a real bad side of Helton now. He’s sandbagging instead of thinking. Very Bad sign. He may not have any arrows left in his quiver, pardner.

        • Yes, his luck might have run out. Last year, he looked brilliant with the spark provided by Darnold, but even he became like Darnold Duck turning the ball over and running for his dear life looking confused this season, which has to be attributed to poor coaching and the lack thereof as well. How many blue chip recruits have been wasted by this coaching staff, MG? It’s totally ridiculous!

  6. Spoken like a true car salesman. No wonder he’s a good recruiter but could recruit his own son to SC.

  7. Speaking of Paul Hackett, he did recruit some nice players and gave Peter something to work with.

  8. Tee is legally insane. And he’s USC’s play caller. I see. Things are becoming very clear now. Go Tee! Please go far, far away. Tennessee – come get Tee. He’s your man. I promise.

  9. Too much pressure on USC making this team suceesful despite the talent we recruit. Helton doesnt know how to use the talent we have.

  10. There should be a goal of not redshirting any player and of making every position a position of battle.

      • Even QB? I don’t know, MG, being bold and innovative seems a tad too complex for CH. Remember how Ohio St. had hired Luke Fickel as their HC right before hiring Urban Meyer. The job was too big for him. That seems like Clay right now.

        • Definitely too big for CH. He never had a track record of success at anything close to this. 3 years as OC for lousy Memphis teams, then 3 years of OC for the Kiffin-Sark debacle. Then Haden expects him to just waltz in with only interim HC experience to lead the Trojans. What was he thinking…

          • Had sentimental hire written all over it. This is the University of Southern California for crying out loud!!

          • Exactly – this is USC – one of the top 10 HC jobs in the country. After 2 attempts with coaches with no track record of success with Kiffin and Sark, they went down the same road again with CH.

          • I would say Top 5, maybe Top 3 depending on the individual. Weather, facilities, location, history, resources, recruiting area, it is all here.

        • Yep. It’s sad, but true. He’s worked as hard as a guy can work. But he doesn’t have any coaching magic and it’s showing.

  11. Tee’s statement is Hackettesque. I’m telling you, Tee needs a mental health assessment to say something like that. Not just a check-up. A full blown Scripps Institute exam, including a brain biopsy.

    • And guess who hired him proclaiming him as “THE NEXT BIG THING IN COACHING FOOTBALL”?

  12. Do you know why you lose gap control? It’s because the other guy is more physical and better coached. This coaching staff is doing a disservice to the players. It doesn’t matter what the numbers are. You have to practices hard to give yourself a chance to win. Look at Arizona St. It doesn’t matter if they have good talent or not. They are always physical. Have to say it , but this coaching staff has been dishonest with the players and the fans. They always give you the same answers. “ Well, we have to look at the film. We have to tweak some things”. What a bunch of H.S. If they don’t practice and play this physical this Saturday Arizona St. Will clean their clock….Fight On!

  13. Upon a few hours reflection:
    Sam is a phenomenal athlete but he doesn’t have a leadership bone in his body. His idea of pumping up the team on the sidelines is to acknowledge them with a half raised eyebrow.
    Helton is a decent and good man but he couldn’t motivate Joe Montana to take a snap in a Super Bowl Game.
    Clancy is the most reticent individual to ever put on a coach’s cap.
    Put them all together, and you have a team with ZERO spark.
    Personally, I think —whatever the team says in interviews—-they’re sick of seeing Darnold day dream games away and they’re sick of seeing rival coaches badly outcoach their guys. They’d like to be in on the fun, too.

    • These are a bunch of 18-22 year olds who need to know that the HC and the coaching staff will bring out the best in them individually, demand excellence and discipline, and organize them as a unit to be completely prepared each week. CH just isnt this guy.

    • That is saying a lot, MG. Sam might not be the vocal leader that maybe a QB should be. The rest is pretty accurate, my friend.

      • I guess I’m just frustrated with Sam standing on the sidelines by himself drinking gatorade outta a paper cup, Arturo. He seems disassociated from the team.

        • Yeah, that isn’t a good sign. Wonder if there is any animosity toward him for getting too much credit for their turnaround last year and all the preseason hype he’s received this year. It’s the coaches who should stay on top of something like this.

          • Sam’s massive preseason attention rubbed a lot of players the wrong way—I think that’s exactly it, Arturo. [And I think some of the new guys are mistaking Sam’s introverted personality for aloofness—-and Helton is too dumb to pick up on the divisions that are forming].

    • I have not seen sam light a fire under anyone’s a**. Better yet, someone needs to light a fire under his a**. Sometimes tough love is the only love

    • MG, how many players have regressed? I remember watching Iman Marshall play in the spring scrimmage his first year and thinking that he would be an incredible cover guy. Now, he seems to get turned around on every route he covers.

      • And, worse yet, he doesn’t look like he even wants to be out there. A lot of the players seem to be in the same boat with him. What is it about USC football recently that causes it to completely self destruct when it gets preseason attention? It’s absolutely weird. Are we in for another of those “unfinished business” seasons? The kind that end with our quarterback getting hurt because the line doesn’t want to play rough? The kind that end with a loss to the terrible bruins?

          • Clay may be in one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations at this point. He’s a nice man and I feel sorry for him.
            We need a new crew, though. And the faster we pull off the Band-Aid, the less it’s gonna hurt anybody.

    • Best analysis so far except I don’t believe Darnold is a phenomenal athlete. Note that he is slow footed for one thing.

      • Sam isn’t the first USC player to melt under the spotlight. But —unlike the others —-he seems to have had a bit of help from the frauds who coached him over the summer and through the fall.
        #He’sLostHisConfidenceToBoot

  14. You can be a true Trojan fan, and want to find the best in your team (and mine); but we have to face facts. This team has not gotten better since the first game of the season. It could be argued that it has been a steady regression from day one. This staff needs teachers and task masters. If you watch FB all day Saturday you see that many better performing teams don’t have that much better talent. What they do have is better developed talent. ND revamped its coaching staff and the SF Giants did the same today. SC needs to do the same. This staff isn’t getting it done. Time to identify who ishould be part of the future and who shouldn’t.

    • Here’s the problem, USC isn’t the great job it used to be. Times have changed, but money talks

      • Maybe so, but it’s far greater than to be keep promoting unprepared assistants to HCs.

          • I would offer Chip Kelly a fat contract and take a chance on him. Load it with performance incentives

          • Well, I’m sure Kelly will do at least better than Helton for our team, but what are you going to do with Helton? My gut feeling tells me that he won’t be out of the job anytime soon unless the team loses most of the remaining games. But I think the way the team might lose will be a big factor as well, which means there will be greater pressure for a coaching change if the team keeps playing the way they did tonight.

          • But Pat Haden said that he didn’t “FIT” at USC. How did this ‘genius’ become the highest paid AD in the country. I could have hired Petersen. They should have called me. I would have worked for free.

      • Gabby, it may sound crazy. But this jib is more attractive today than it was 3 years ago. CH has brought a level of calm, stability & maturity to the program. The record shows there is talent and winning consistently is not only possible, but should be doable. I suspect there are a lot of coaches who look at the talent on the roster, the recruiting base and the resources available & see an opportunity ripe for the taking.

          • Not sure it is a matter of low football IQ, but considering the results I won’t argue the point . SC does have the $$resources—

    • T5, absolutely – other programs get so much more out of the talent that they have. For example, take Wisconsin. I am pretty sure that they have never had a recruiting class inside the top 30, and probably closer to 40th ranked, yet they have an identity, they stick with a vision that works for them, and they are winning roughly 75 percent of their games over the last few years. Not to say we should aspire to be Wisconsin, but they are winning with 3 star kids.

      • I mostly agree. There are several recruiting hotbeds around the country, but the most prominent year in and year out are the Miami-Dade area, the Dallas metro area, and Southern California. Major college programs that have the most success in these areas don’t always do so well. We re talking teams like The U, Texas, FSU and even Westwood Tech. It just seems to me that some teams that just are loaded with talent, always underachieve.

      • I think SC has an identity, however, Clay Helton doesn’t seem to have one, or at least neither his offense nor his defense does.

    • I was actually at the hot fest called the USC vs the W MICH game and we were horrible. Sure, we won fairly wide in the end and our blind snapper got some major pub.

      But we looked bad. Though not nearly as bad as tonight.

      Tonight I felt pity for USC football for the first time in 55 years. The weakling Trojans. Inept. Lost. Unprepared. Lambs to the slaughter. Even slow.

      USC needs an honest and unmerciful look at itself. Got to begin there and if Helton and his staff won’t do it, I hope Swann will. All the cracks were exposed tonight. Good for us. No more pretending now. At least we’ve got that. Throw the BS aside. Overhaul USC football, or watch the slide continue.

      Tonight was historical. Just glad I didn’t waste plane fare to Chicago. What a bust!

      • A loss in Tempe next weekend – which I expect – will probably put wheels in motion. A loss to UGLY should seal Helton’s fate. It’s conceivable that we lose all of the decent starters we have now to the draft. As a result, the “rebuilding” for 2018 will be a slow-motion train wreck.

        • Unfortunately, ucla is so bad IMO that we’ll still wax them in the Coliseum and use that as an excuse to pretend things are okay.

          I have no idea about the ASU game. They’re on the upswing and we should be dropped out of the top 25 IMO. USC just isn’t developing our players and that was so evident tonight. And if Clancy Pendergast is actually teaching the defense what we saw tonight, he needs to be dumped pronto. What a colossal cluster.

          And why would Darnold ever want to stay for another year behind the invisible Trojan OL? It’s downright dangerous out there for Darnold.

          Not sure how Helton will get a wink of sleep in the next 5 days and if I hear him say one more time that USC “controls” its own destiny, I’ll just gag. So weak! Helton needs to get a grip. He’s losing it with his weak-minded approach to leading this team.

          • Jackie, I like your predictions…like how you predicted that usc would beat up on Notre Dame. LMAO. So keep on predicting that usc will “wax” Ucla, because you’ve proven time and again that you know little about college football.
            Guess who predicted that ND would cream and humiliate Usc? That’s right, good ol’ grave soul did.

            Stick to what you know, like playing giant scrabble, bridge, bingo, and lawn bowling.

          • I’ll be fun laughing at you in November gutty boy. USC’s gonna hammer ucla. You think you bruins could handle ND in South Bend? You’re about ready to start a big losing streak of your own.

            ND was favored to beat USC by a comfortable margin. And now you claim to be a genius for going along with the odds. What a putz.

            ucla still doesn’t have one single vote in either poll while USC is still ranked #21 after the huge beatdown from ND. Get ready for your arse-whipping from USC on Nov 18. Even the mediocre Trojans are guaranteed winners over you pitiful bruins.

          • After watching that debacle last night, UCLA really couldn’t do any worse. Usc plays with no heart at all. Sad.

            Yet, several Usc fans predicted a big win in South Bend, including you, Jackie!

            That’s why I love your prediction about the UCLA game…you really don’t know much about college football at all.

      • Jack, if there is any sliver of hope it is this: Kelly was getting killed by the ND faithful with many of the same complaints now being leveled against CH. Whether it was out of self preservation, honest evaluation or direction from his AD, big changes were made. Can or will CH have the strength to make the hard & uncomfortable changes that need to be made? Let’s hope so. Our 4 & 5 star players weren’t just recruited by SC, they were pursued & offered by the top programs in the country. All of them weren’t wrong. These kids have ability. IE Iman Marshall—he has all the measurables and has shown glimpses of what he could be. But far too often he breaks wrong, misses a tackle or gets out of position. Do you it would happen at AL for 3 years? I don’t think so. I think that CH brings a much needed maturity to the program and the players Like and respect him. But he is not Saban or Peterson, so he needs strong assistants to complement his strengths & shore up his weaknesses. This program is in better shape than it was 3 years ago. But it is not where it needs to be to move to the next level.

        • Clay has to go. What top coordinators would join this team with Helton at the helm. The answer is none.

        • Bro, we’re losing a few more. Get ready for them. But hopefully not to the little gutties. Oh, no!

          • I think the team could win out…or they could implode and lose several more. Costly turnovers will demoralize this team. Looking back, what could Helton have told the team for them not to match ND’s intensity. It is almost as if he told them to not worry about this game and that they controllled their destiny with the PAC12 title, regardless of tonight’s outcome. No intensity.

          • Realistically, it’s a real stretch to think we’re winning out for the rest of the season. In fact, I don’t think it’ll be an easy task to beat Arizona St next week with the way the team is playing at the moment. It looks as though this team is in a disarray internally with issues which are not disclosed to the public, and it’s all on Helton and company’s lack of leadership and coaching ability. We now can officially draw the conclusion that this Helton experiement is a failure. The sooner he departs, the better the team’s future.

          • Internal team issues would explain their lackluster performance tonight. I don’t think ASU is the most consistent team- at least not historically. What is scary, is the thought of someone like Khalil Tate doing to the Trojans what Josh Adams did tonight. Hope Swann has his hand on the pulse of the team and recognizes any issues.

          • My guess is he does. However, I’m not so sure if he would pull the trigger on a coaching change before seeing the team totally implode. So suffering from mediocrity may continue for a while for the team. Again, like I said many times in the past, Helton’s not going to take us to the top of college football.

          • I don’t think we should get too optimistic about either Swann or Helton getting a hand on the pulse of this team, “Something’s happening here and they don’t know what it is”, to paraphrase Bob Dylan.

          • I can see it’ll take some time for Usc fans to realize that Swann is part of the problem too. Remember, this humiliating loss to ND happened on Swannie’s watch and he’s gotten directly involved with the team and overseen some of their hires.

          • But don’t you think it’s at least a little bit cute that folks are looking to Max’s little hood ornament to fix things when the Trojan limo needs a whole new engine?

          • My guess is he has a guaranteed contract until next year, but I don’t think it’s been extended yet.

          • Hope you’re wrong. I’m hoping that both U-dub and Utah have taken some of the sting out of the Sun Devils. It is tough for a team to rise three weeks in a row. If they do, my hat’s off to them.

  15. Now what are all those “Gomer Defenders” bark to prolong his tenure at his million dollar job? Probably put down assistants and players. And injuries. LOL!

  16. The only thing I’m drawing any solace from is that Scott didn’t foresee the missed field goal —-he thought we’d come in at 17, not 14.

  17. I wonder if Helton will keep this offensive coaching staff after the season or make some changes. That offense is loaded with talent and it hasn’t played well. The O-line has been underwhelming all year long. It took far too long to finally find that 3rd receiver. And the play calling has been a joke most of the year. One thing that I like about Brian Kelly is that in his 8 year stint at ND, he has made changes in his assistants a number of times. If he doesn’t get the results that he wants he tries somebody else until he finally comes up with a coaching staff that works. If you want to win championships, you have to run the ball on offense and stop the run on defense. That means dominating at the line of scrimmage. It means playing smash mouth football like they did in the John McKay and John Robinson days. They’ve been talking about doing that since Kiffin was here. Kiffin used to say that his goal was to copy what Harbaugh did at Stanford. It meant changing the whole culture at SC from a finise team to a physical team. SC is SC. They shouldn’t have the problem of recruiting the players they need to do that. So why has it still not happened? With all the great O-line people they have right now, I can’t help asking “why can’t they run the ball”?

  18. AND , there you have it…these coaches actually believe they are …no further comment needed.

  19. Helton will never be a big time coach – not in his DNA, But I now must admit that Sam Darnold does have a problem too. Fumbling first snap from center set a bad tone.

  20. Totally possible that USC finishes season 6-6….

    Nice work Clay…but the “kids” like him

    Please resign now.

    MUGA…Make USC Great Again!

  21. This team could just as well win out and still be just as crap as it is now in the Piss12. The amount of USC talent vs the utter lack of P12 talent in the rest of the conference can get us through. We did that for decades, never in the NC picture.

    Next year we can lose to any good OOC opponent and give up a few in conference and still be in the conference champion mix. Gomer will be a fixture adored by the mediocrity embracing fan base. The good old days will be a distant memory. #CurseOfNormChow

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