USC Morning Buzz: 10 Things To Fix To Beat UCLA

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USC can beat UCLA without making corrections from last week but it would be a lot easier if it did. Excerpt:

1. Control Jack Jones: In the past two games, cornerback Jack Jones received unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. USC coaches have been unable (or unwilling) to get Jones to play with composure.

“It’s not high school anymore, nobody cares what you say after the play,” USC secondary coach Ronnie Bradford said in reference to Jones’ penchant for trash talking.

“Obviously, we’ve had some good conversations about that,” defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast said about Jones’ penalties.

Does anyone believe Jones will change for the emotional crosstown rivalry?

Wolf: Here are 10 things USC needs to fix to beat UCLA

74 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: 10 Things To Fix To Beat UCLA

  1. From the )ahoo football site –

    “Chris Low ESPN Senior Staff Writer Close College football reporter Joined ESPN in 2007 Graduate of the University of Tennessee Follow on Twitter Former New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi spent time Wednesday with coach Lane Kiffin and the Florida Atlantic football team. Girardi, a Boca Raton, Florida, resident, met Kiffin when Kiffin was coaching at Alabama. Kiffin had Girardi speak to Florida Atlantic team after practice, and Girardi’s message was to make sure the Owls did everything they could on a daily basis to continue making this a specialseason. “You don’t want to look back and say, ‘If I’d only done this worked a little harder or been a little more focused.’ Make sure you
    finish.”

    Expect Lane to be moving on after next year for 2019

    • That’ll be the day when Kiffin rejoins one day as the HC of SC for the second time. Can it happen?

      • Lane Kiffin to USC again? Never going to happen.

        Clay Helton is the third and final member from a cast of clowns who has tried and failed to play the part of a head football coach at USC in recent years and his act is coming to a close. Helton is the last act, working from the same scripted playbook we’ve all seen before, the same playbook that didn’t work for Lane Kiffin or Steve Sarkisian. You’re witnessing the final episode of a drama and comedy filled coaching carousel trilogy gone wrong, featuring “The Three Stooges”.

        Nobody in their right mind should want see any part of a re-run of that again.

  2. Barring some truly unexpected and unpredicted developments in the game possibly by a series of early errors and missed scoring opportunities, I don’t think this game will be that close. In other words, not committing those early momentum-breaking mistakes will be highly crucial to avoid a difficult game thereafter. I’m sure the little gutties will employ many unorthodox things to put us out of rhythm, and my guess is they’ll also try to put the maximum amount of pressure and blitz against Darnold because they know they wouldn’t have a chance if he’d be given enough time to throw the ball to his newfound targets, such as Tyler Vaughns. And The Chimp also needs to worry about our run game. I’m sure he and Rosey aren’t sleeping real well this week. LOL!

    • SC needs to play an error-free game this Saturday. I’m predicting a pretty wild game, in which quite a few surprises might occur. The team with cooler heads will prevail.

    • Norm Dow, John Barnes, 2006.

      This game should be a cake walk, but this team doesn’t have those. Unfortunately, I think this game will be a struggle.

        • I could be a clueless rah rah like you and think this team that can’t play 60 minutes of solid football will magically do it this Saturday

          • I’ve been called a brainless rah rah before. What is the difference now that I am a clueless rah rah?

      • There’s a good possibility it’s going to be a struggle. It won’t be the first even if it was, anyway.

    • I’ve watched UCLA this season, RT (it wasn’t easy). Every single week they commit an obvious targeting penalty….and every single week some bruin hits a player who’s already down. I’m sure they’ve charged somebody with the responsibility of “getting to” Sam. It’s just the way Mora plays the game. Not only do our guys need to pick up the blitz this Saturday, they need to continue to protect Sam AFTER he completes his slide on designed runs. This isn’t gonna be the cleanest game you’ve ever seen.

      • Sam’s a big boy, not like little Matty Barks.
        I think Sam can take the hits. It shouldn’t be too hard for SC to win this game, but it will be.

      • Totally agreed, MG. We’ll definitely see quite a few dirty plays from The Chimp’s team, especially since they’re fully aware of themselves being over-matched in talent. And yes, they’ll do their best to knock Darnold out at all costs, including targeting attempts more than once. The truth is they’ve got very little to lose from this game, and I don’t even think they’re that interested in being in a bowl game. All they want from it is to accidentally beat us for the bragging rights that’ll last their lifetime and their future generations.

        • It’s a really scary thought, RT —-but you could be right. UCLA may not even care about a bowl game. This Saturday could be about nothing other than making life miserable for USC any way they can. If you think about it, that makes them doubly dangerous.

          • Yeah, MG. I think they’ll come out with the mentality of backstreet gangsters in the game. They’ll even carry baseball bats if that’s allowed! LOL! And that’s why our boys should stay cool and take out their fire early in the game with the halftime score like 21-0 or 21-3.

          • “They’ll carry bats if that’s allowed.” It’s Pac 12 officiating, RT —it’s allowed.
            #AsLongAsIt’sAgainstUs

          • Hey MG, I’ve never thought about that, but you’re right! Bad zebras working against you are like the 12th man in the opposing team and more. I wonder how many reviews will be going against us this Saturday. Quite a few, I would imagine.

          • But you said it yourself, pardner——none of it will matter if we score EVERY time we get the ball.
            #ScoreEveryDrive

    • One of local news channels was doing a live remote from UCLA practice and they where working on a hook and ladder play in the background. Guaranteed we see that on Saturday.

        • Actually Rosen was practicing dropping 10 yards back and going into fetal position. Than Mora would sprint out for a face hug.

          • Nice image! I’ve gotta find somebody with some photo shop skills.
            #CoverOfNextYera’sBruinProgram

  3. For some reason Scott’s column again resides on the Ucla side. Will he be wearing baby blue this weekend?
    As for his most repeated column today I think he should just say bench Jack Jones. With 86 some odd players on the roster, there is bound to be a hungry kid to take his place. Jones’s antics have cost USC almost every game. Even though I really don’t see the unsportsman like conduct being called, the second time it was called was all Jones’ fault whether he agrees with the ref or not

  4. Cut down on the PI / PF penalties within reason (after all its the PAC), eliminate turnovers, take the FG at 4th&1 inside the 30 (again no turnovers), stick with the running game, and USC will wipe ucla off the field.

  5. 11. Fire entire coaching staff and replace them with men who know how to coach up young men

      • very ironical u say that sense u say same thing over and over to cortez, but thats to be suspected sense girls always talk and repeet themselfs,

        • Nice point, Ed. It isn’t good for ANYONE to repeat words 547 times. On the other hand, firing the entire coaching staff this week would probably force USC into another hurried coaching search…..
          #….CausingADistractionBeforeGame

  6. “We’ve had some good conversations”. That’s the problem. Too much talking to Jones. It has not changed the behavior. It’s a real simple concept. If Jones gets another 15 yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, take away his helmet and send him to the locker room. It’s not as if he is a shut down corner like he thinks he is.

    • Gomer and his band of clowns don’t know how to discipline anyone. Gomer made the kid do push ups, that’s showing him !

      • Exactly.. They do not discipline these kids.. Penalties and Turnovers.. The only one that appears to make a big deal out of it is RB coach McCullough.. and look how good the RB’s have been all year.. every one of them!

  7. What if USC only fixes nine of these ten things you list? What if they only fix seven? Will the lose this Saturday? You know Jack Jones will be Jack Jones. You know they will not be lining up under center, if they get into a 4th and short situation. It took eleven games for you to realize, after S. Tillman noted, the punt blocking hand position was wrong? They will likely be the same USC we’ve seen all year long.

    But let’s not forget sw, the Coliseum should be packed for Saturday nights game. The gate entry needs to be fixed, as you have noted in the past, in order for USC to win. I guess that would be the most important and #11.

    • Packed ? last year SC fans didn’t fill up their allotment at the Rose Bowl for the game.

    • Paragraph #2 is pure USC jojo…….there isn’t anything jojo needs to fix!
      FightOn!

  8. Scotty,
    You do bring up some issues that should be corrected but I don’t think all 10 need to be checked off in order to beat UCLA. If the Trojans do accomplish all 10, the score might be 100-0.

  9. Why fix anything, SC is undefeated in the Pac-12 on Saturdays, headed to the conference championship, and then headed to the college football playoff. If there’s anything we’ve learned this season it’s that growth is for smurfs, Trojans can stay even from week 1 through week 14 and still get everything they deserve for not improving one teeny tiny bit. SC is gonna blow them out 45-44. It will be 45-10 in the 3rd quarter, so it counts as a blow out, don’t look at the final score.

    • Your post has the ring of truth, Sandy. They say a chain is only as strong as it weakest link —-and we have two weak links: Marshall & Jones. Unfortunately, the only thing UCLA has going for it is someone who can complete passes to guys covered by Marshall & Jones.
      We’ll win —-but it’s going to be frustrating to watch our corners taken advantage of.

      • The “weak links” aren’t the problem, it’s USC’s chain of command, the coaching staff is incompetent.

        • Weak links are always a problem —but, you’re, right —-the problem goes deeper.
          I still think Helton’s okay if everybody but the running backs coach is switched out for young turks presently coaching and burning it up in the NFL…..if they’ll come.

  10. Jack Jones is no longer the main concern of this USC team. It’s the O-line. Look for Jim Mora to learn from Washington St. tape to jam the recievers so Darnold has to wait longer for them to get open. This will give UCLA time to overtake the O-line and get after Sam.

    • Expect it. As a matter of fact, expect UCLA to play like the Russian Olympic Basketball Team that took down our dream team —–lots of rough stuff (interference, late hits, etc, etc.).
      USC needs to plan on a VERY physical game.

  11. Hey wolf, Is John Baxter on your s**t list. Corner him, and ask the hard questions….YOU CAN DO IT!

  12. USC 51 – ucla 38. This is a little warm-up for the conference championship game. USC just has too much firepower for the little gutties who will probably abuse our corners, Grabby and JJ, but who hasn’t?

    5-5 ucla drops to 5-6 despite a boring pre-game pep talk from John Barnes who is till trying to get a screenplay out of his big USC upset so long ago.

    The Darnold and RoJo show could be the last one ever in the Coliseum. Last time Rosen was there, he tasted more sod than a field of earthworms.

    Honker Rosen’s been a big fat “meh!” at little ucla. Shaw at STAN is SO glad he turned Rosen down, but he really regrets not landing Darnold, even though Darnold was always USC’s for the taking.

  13. Sam Darnold is going to need to grow up and at some point act like a leader and start calling some audibles. USC’s talent can’t be expected to make big plays in order to bail out Helton every game.

    Maybe Darnold isn’t able to read defenses and that’s why he doesn’t audible like he should. Why he keeps running these incompetent plays sent in instead of taking command of the game himself is anyone’s guess.

  14. The same every week this year…
    1-LACK OF DISCIPLINE …. on Both the O and D
    2-PLAY CALLING on SHORT YARDAGE & RED ZONE

  15. How about USC fixes it so that for the first half of Saturday’s game the Trojan players just go out and play, let them decide which plays to run. This way the team can finally jump out to a big lead and won’t have to worry so much about Helton, Fredo and Tee keeping the game close with their play calling for the entire game.

    Should be a big enough lead to where the coaches can take over the play calling duties in the second half and it won’t be such a nail biter at the end.

  16. Scott Wolf will include a chapter in his book titled: 2017, an opportunity wasted due to a coaching staff overwhelmed.

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