Is The Sky Falling?

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I’m seeing some of the alibi-makers are treating the loss of Christian Rector as devastating news. Maybe. Maybe Jordan Iosefa will have a good game. Pete Carroll never let an injury get him down. It’s also worth noting Rector struggled in last week’s game against Notre Dame.

UPDATED: In 2004, USC went to its season-opener vs. Virginia Tech without left tackle Winston Justin and had star receiver Mike Williams pulled off the bus before leaving for the airport. That team won the national title.

But, but, but . . . this USC team is different. Why? It was picked to go to the College Football Playoff.

73 thoughts on “Is The Sky Falling?”

  1. We get Fatu and Edoga back, full time, and if Steven Mitchell Jr can do his thing, the Trojans will defeat the ASU offense and defense. FIGHT ON !!!

  2. Show me videos and proof of PC never mentioning injuries. I was younger then (‘04 alum). Never saw them even if they were coming out which I don’t think they were available. I didn’t say show me PC making excuses about injuries either. Just so that’s clear.

    • He may never have showed it, but the loss of Barkley and having to play Corp at Washington was devastating to Carroll. The loss of Sanchez, though it was not an injury, also devastated him.

      • When Sanchez filled in for an injured JDB, the offense was extremely vanilla. Sanchez struggled and looked lost at times. I’m sure Pete was on edge with the situation

        Wolf throws s**t out there hoping it sticks. Another example of low football IQ

  3. Not the end the world. I am surprised he isn’t wearing a cast and playing. It’s not like it’s a junk of plaster. Oh well time for the next guy to step up.

    • Yes, Next guy up. Wait Rector was already next guy up.

      10/26/17 DL Christian Rector Hand is “?” Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/26/17 LS Damon Johnson Concussion is upgraded to probable Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/26/17 RB Stephen Carr Foot is downgraded to doubtful Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/26/17 WR Steven Mitchell Shoulder is upgraded to probable Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/26/17 TE Josh Falo Foot is “?” Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/25/17 CB Iman Marshall Knee left last game, is downgraded to doubtful Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/23/17 T Andrew Vorhees Back is “?” Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/23/17 T Chuma Edoga Ankle is “?” Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/23/17 QB Sam Darnold Ankle is probable Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/22/17 LB Hunter Echols Hip is “?” Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/22/17 DT Josh Fatu Concussion is “?” Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/22/17 T Nathan Smith Knee is “?” Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/22/17 DL Jacob Lichtenstein Back is “?” Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/22/17 DL Jay Tufele Back is “?” Saturday vs. Arizona State

      10/18/17 DT Kenny Bigelow Personal is out for season

      10/10/17 DT Marlon Tuipulotu Back out for season

      10/06/17 CB Greg Johnson Shoulder out for season

      10/06/17 S Isaiah Pola-Mao Shoulder out for season

      10/04/17 G Viane Talamaivao Pectoral out for season

      10/04/17 CB Keyshawn Young Hamstring out for season

      09/18/17 DE Porter Gustin Bicep out indefinitely

      09/16/17 LB Tayler Katoa Knee out for season

      09/12/17 PK Michael Brown Knee out for season

      08/19/17 CB Jonathan Lockett Hip out for season

      • Is it possible Clay isn’t living right? Or, in the alternative, that he used up ALL his luck last year?

        • It’s very simple, MG. Last season, the sudden burst of spark provided by Darnold catapulted the team and masked the coaching delinquencies of Helton and his staff. But other teams adjusted to our offense and they played their defenses so they’d let Darnold beat them by blitzing, loading up the box and shut down our run game in this season. And now all of Helton’s shortcomings and Inabilities, including the lack of leadership, are stunningly on display!

          • Gabby thinks that Clay is tricking people by only pretending to be a lack luster leader …
            #If that’sTheCase— He’sGotEverybodyWhereHeWantsThem
            P.S
            On the serious side—I’ve always noticed that Helton is at his best when he feels his back is against the wall and he drops the nice guy routine. I actually like the Helton that’s shown up for the last two post practice interviews —he’s no bulls**t. [I don’t know if it’s due to exhaustion or design —-but I’m hoping the latter].

          • Hmm…I’m not so sure about him tricking anybody, MG. He hasn’t fooled that many defenses this season, after all. I really don’t see his team pleasantly surprising us with remaining games unless Darnold plays like Superman to bail him out like last season.

          • That’s what I’m hoping for, RT. In fact, this whole season reminds me of my favorite early television episode of Superman. It seems Superman lost his powers after saving earth from a meteor (actually, I think Superman lost his powers twice over the 10 year run of the show doing this). But, when he realized Jimmy and Lois were in danger, he willed himself back into being Superman.
            #ThinkOfTheTrojanFansAsJimmy&Lois

          • MG, I think the only single individual in the team that can save this season is Darnold. Not Helton. Not Mr Tee. Or anyone else. Oh I know he’ll need some help with the OL, receivers, backs and defense, but he’ll have to play the role of a lighter to lighter fluid for the team to have any chance because the entire team’s psyche is tanked right now.

          • He didn’t look to nice to the referees Saturday night. I thought he was going to have a heart attack.

        • If a team ever needed a bye to heal, it was this team.

          BINGO!

          But we would get an extra week before the PAC12 CCG, IF we make it that far

          • I think that’s the point, Gabby——this schedule was designed to ensure that we DON’T get that far…..

  4. Oregon St. taking it to Stanford right now. It looks to me that Utah is mediocre. Maybe Stanford isn’t that good. I know Love not playing but Oregon not worried about Stanford’s passing game and content with stopping the run. If that plays out about Stanford and Utah, has SC beaten anyone good? I don’t think CH has a big buyout package. Probably no buyout at all? Makes it easier to make a change after the season.

    • No doubt Swann can dump CH without much expense. I’ve heard the assts aren’t set up too well either.

          • Nothing would really matter if the team loses this Saturday, JB. Oh yes, the sky will be falling on Helton and company, and if we lose a few more, even to the little gutties? Oh, ho, ho!!! FUGETABOUTIT!!! Oh, btw, JB, watch out, the dreaded ghost of Helen is back in here. As both male and female tonight! LOL!

          • Agree. We just have to sit tight until after the season. Over on USC Football dot com it’s the same. Just guessing, but I’d say about 30% say let the whole staff go now. Maybe 50% saying change Tee and let Tyson be the OC. The others say let this play out because of injuries. Give him through 2018. I’m in the 50%. Or even bring in someone that’s good at recognizing defenses like maybe Art Briles or Chip Kelly. Don’t rhink they would consult Briles. I’m just throwing things out there.

  5. I hear there is talk of Harbaugh at Michigan getting a ride out of town at season’s end.

    Thank goodness the SC fan base is not as callous as the Michigan fans.

    And since fans’ sentiments blow in the direction of a win or a loss, I would imagine coaches and players simply tune out negative fans’ opinions.

    • John I would agree that the outrage wouldn’t be warranted save that the Big 10 is much better than the Pac-12.

      USC is the best team in the conference but they were clearly unprepared to play the Irish as noted in , save stanford, all the games played previously. USC is not much compared to other top 25 teams right now.

      This is Harbaugh’s 3rd season and, unlike Helton, he garnered a huge salary to coach the Wolverines. he also took the 49ers’ to a Super Bowl.

      Helton fell into this gig because Haden screwed it up by hiring Sarkisian. Helton is a nice guy he;s also out of his league to be coaching ANY upper 5 program esp. USC.

    • Hardball is a d**K. Very dry sense of humor, which rubs people the wrong way.

      Collin did an interview with him, he was a total pr*ck throughout the conversation.

      When he was with the Niners, the locker room turned on him. Which led to a quick firing

    • Please say that again, “the SC fan base is not as callous as Michigan”—are you drunk or just smoking something???

  6. Bad enough we got whipped by the Irish – consider – OR St. is taking it to stanford 4th qtr. OR St. 14 stanford 9

  7. I’ll await Flow’s post of Furd throwing to the corner like 17 times on their attempted conversions. Nothing was changed! NOTHING!

  8. Everything that happens gameday usually happened during the week at practice. So how many fumbles, dropped passes & picks, poor or non-existent blocking does Lynn Swann see during the week? Or has his stomach taken enough abuse and doesn’t watch anymore?

    • Might be Arturo, since the seahawks are now is some trouble with some recent flag burning. the coach might go instead of the burners???

      • Pete is too busy organizing the protests. No thanks, I have had my fill of Pete Carroll. I didn’t like how he was boinking the grad student while he was posing as the savior of inner-city LA. I also didn’t like it when he bailed on USC in late spring (after all the decent coaches in the USA had made their future plans for the upcoming season) leaving us with Kiffin. we don’t need a Pete Carroll II…..

        • Pete wasn’t/isn’t a saint and he never claimed to be. However, did he bolt as much as find the right offer to go back NFL? Remember he was being offered for some 2/3 years until he got what he wanted. Yeah the timing sucked, but Seattle’s offer gave him total control of coaching & drafting/trading and not many NFL owners will give that to a coach. And come on, everyone knew PC was going to go back to the NFL eventually. That was no secret unless one’s head was in the sand. USC is now too cheap to bring in a really good coach.

          • It worked out nice for Pete getting his Super Bowl win. It was a disaster for us getting a coaching carousel and no NCs for the last 8 years.

      • The Chimp will be definitely available soon, but the fart-in-the-wind has it that he will retire straight to a nursing home. LOL!

  10. Ya know, one or two injuries I would agree, but once you’ve lost most of both lines, then you’ve got an issue.

        • Nope, and like most average teams, Stanford apparently has no depth at running back. Remember that year under Pete when SC had 11 running backs?

          • Over the course of their career, I wonder how many of them regretted going to USC, due to lack of playing time. If I remember correctly, wasn’t CJ Gable in the dog house for an extended length of time

  12. Flow, do me a favor, especially Chaz Beefcake…don’t ever again say “but, but, but…”

  13. I thought Mike Williams left USC after the 2003 season. He left after his sophomore year and declared for the draft. USC played VaTech to begin the 2004 season. Imagine that, with all that signing bonus money, the guy was still trying to sneak into the game for free on the team bus. Pete was right to kick him the heck off the bus. Cheapskate!

    Wolf, the misfortunes of USC football obviously have you out of your head with giddiness. However, you should let the hate come to you, don’t force it. Keep your head, keep your cool and just let it flow naturally. Take what they give you and don’t get too greedy or you’ll make these mistakes. That’s alright baby, shake it off get back out there.

    • Yeah, he also forgot to mention that SC was somehow able to muster some offense with NFLers… Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, Lendale White, Steve Smith, Sam Baker, Fred Matua, Ryan Kalil & Deuce Latui. Yes, Winston Justice missed the first game, but pretty much every guy on that offense either won a Heisman or was named an All-American.

      • Not to mention Lofa Tatupu, Fred Davis, Dwayne Jarrett, Sedrick Ellis, Matt Grootegood and others. Listing some of the players from that team was the angle I was going to take until I realized the whole post was half-baked. My guess is Wolf gets over six figures to do what he does. Amazing.

  14. Injuries are never an excuse for not winning in football because they’re very much a part of it. You play with what you’ve got. Every team has a long injury list at this point.

    • Injuries are a contributing factor in the outcome of a game. There’s no need to voice an excuse when it’s obvious. People who say differently are delusional.

    • They don’t excuse it, but they go a long way towards explaining it. Wolf lives in some strange world, where USC is lucky and has an advantage by playing against backup QB’s, yet any injuries on SC’s roster shouldn’t impact the game.

      Do you really look at SC’s OL, with two 17-year-old true freshmen, and a DL, with Pili and Connor Murphy rotating at the nose, and think that coaching is the only reason SC can’t run the ball or stop the run?

      Should the Cardinals fire Bruce Arians because he can’t win with Carson Palmer and David Johnson on IR?

  15. I wouldn’t call it “alibi making”. There are very few teams that could lose this many starters and still not be effected. Alabama might have 3rd stringers who will be 1st round draft picks in a year or so but most teams are not that blessed. Rector was not even a starter at the start of the year. I’d be surprised if they beat ASU. To talk about injuries is not making “alibi’s”…….not when you have this many injuries. ND had a similar year last year…..injury-wise……and they were 4-8.

  16. Hey wolf, you and little-hands have something in common, twisting the facts to fit the narrative. You should feel embarrassed

  17. Winston Justin.

    Not as funny as listening to a Hillary defender repeatedly saying that the “Ukrania” story is “Fake news,” but still too stupid not to laugh at.

    I can understand messing up one of the Tuis or Imatorbhebhes but Justice?

  18. “But, but, but . . . this USC team is different. Why” ?

    I went outside today and picked up some dirt, and then I looked at it and it reminded Me of someone…

    ???

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