Getting Better?

What is so different about this year is the inexperience. In 2003 and 2004, the defense was very experienced. In 2004 and 2005, the offense was very experienced. But in 2006, there is great inexperience on both sides of the ball. It takes longer to develop those players. They are clearly talented. But noone can take a team that is dominated by starters who are freshmen and sophmores and turn them into a national championship calibur team. But this team holds great hope for the future. I think it is way too premature to judge the quality of the coaching with this team.

at this point id say no, they havent improved. hopefully the awakening that occured with about 2 mins to go in the 3rd quarter will be the punch in the mouth that they all needed to realize that they arent gonna coast in any games this year.

Most of the problems with the offensive line are on the right side with Kyle Williams and Chilo Rachal. (Even though it was Kalil who made what could have been a key penalty on the last drive.) Those two are constantly jumping early and/or holding. The only mistake I've seen from Baker was when he got beat inside against OSU and Booty got sacked. He tried to make up for it by holding the guy to prevent the sure sack but it didn't matter. chilo and Kyle need to improve.

Dan,..YOU ARE SO OFF BASE!,..
"But noone can take a team that is dominated by starters who are freshmen and sophmores and turn them into a national championship calibur team." What do you think Coach Tressel has at Ohio State,.. young players, but Tressel has an offensive coor of over 6 years experience, and a defensive coor of over 11 years experience!
With the Talent USC has,..Coaching is everything!.. In Pete's First year, approximately half way into his first season, he turned it around,...after 2 games, some of the Trojan faithful were asking for Pete's head! He had a team which he (PC) did not recruit, yet turned the season around and began a dynasty about this time in the season. Improve, YES, and it started with DEFENSE and his coaching style!..
We are SC.>!!!
The Oregon State game WAS the 7th game of the year,.. How disappointing when there wasn't ANY IMPROVEMENT, Defensively, Offensively and with 'Special' Teams,..,A young team, yes, but TOTALLY recruited by Pete and it is his and his coaches decision to play the younger players, sans of course injuries. I believe even Pete thought that at this time of the season there would be improvement. Now, unless Pete is blind and likes to lose (He is NOT blind, and does NOT like to lose-it is obvious)he will take more control of the team. His young coaches aren't progressing and he needs to step in!...

....Fight On!

Why do people keep saying USC is inexperienced? The defense was not supposed to be that young. remember our "great" linebacking corps that could start for any team. Or Lo-Jack, Barrett, or any of the other D-linemen. And our offensive line was supposed to be the strength of the offense including the receivers. That leaves the most inexperiened members of the team that has the most effect on the ball games and practices, the coaches.

Lane Kiffin and Sark are only second year offensive coordinators. And Nick Holt has never run a first rate defense (sorry Idaho). And don't even ask about Sam Anno (special teams). He may have been a good special teams player, but we all know just because you are a great player doesn't make you a good or decent coach.

So, the lack of improvement really are the coaches of 2006 (and 2005 but we were lucky to have expereienced players).

Here's hoping that the coaches "wake up" from this loss and start evaluating their coaching. some of these coaches need to go to a coaching clinic to learn how to coach.

I think the D Line and LB Corps is as good as it's gonna get. That's where USC had most of its seasoning and they are not getting better.

Which leads me to recruiting:

Recruiting nothing but blue chip recruits is a double edge sword. USC is getting the best out of high school, but also they're getting the egos that come with it. As Rey M mentioned, he was surprised by Oregon State. These guys need to realize that high school superiority doesn't automatically translate into NCAA superiority.

IN PETE WE TRUST!!!

Mental mistakes, lack of execution, and an overall image of it not bothering the players ... what seems to be the problem to me is a lack of leadership.

Outside of a handful of players (DJ, Steve Smith, Ryan Kalil, Dallas Sartz, Keith Rivers) there's really nobody left on the team that played a major part in SC's recent domination. Of those previously mentioned players, has anyone seen these guys get in people's faces and pump the team up? Smith has led by example, especially at WSU and this past game. But DJ seems to give up on half his routes, and the others don't seem to be very vocal guys. Now, if I was on the team and saw our "all-american star wr" giving up on routes, something tells me it wouldn't sit well.

I remember when Shaun Cody was at SC ... not only was he the most dominant player on the defensive side of the ball SC had since Junior Seau, he was a vocal leader. During his interviews he always mentioned keeping the young guys grounded by telling them how it was for him his freshman year under Paul can't Hackett and reminding everyone to not take anything for granted and to work as hard as possible. That type of leadership doesn't seem to exist today.

Everyone talks about the team needing an identity. Leadership fosters an environment where you can create an identity. When you have a young team full of players battling for positions, their focus isn't on being a leader, their focus is on doing their job better than the next guy to get some playing time. Leadership just can't be expected of a freshman or sophomore. That's why I think it's important for one of the older players to step up this week and really start leading this team. Even when Leinart took the helm, he had Shaun Cody and Troy Polamalu on the other side of the ball to focus on being the team leaders.

Once somebody steps up to do that, the team identity will develop on it's own. Until then, there's going to continue to be issues.

Here's to hoping someone will step up and be a leader.

Fight On!

RR22 - Cody not only never played for Hackett, he never would have come to SC without Carroll.

The secondary has been devastated by injuries and the loss of veterans from last year. It is one thing to have one or two young guys stepping in over the course of the season (which was the plan), but the majority of these guys are freshman or sophmores who are still learning how to survive in the pass happy PAC-10.

You can't truly compare Jim Tressel and his Ohio St. team to this year's USC team. Everyone knows that to truly make a run at a national Championship experience at QB is the first thing you look for. Teams with a returning starters at QB typically have the best shot - after all the QB has the ball in his hand on almost every snap. It's almost never happened where a team with a first year QB has gone on to the NC game (Matt Leinart was one of the few exceptions and even in his first year USC lost a reg season game).

The fact is USC is very inexperienced on the offensive side at 2 skill positions (QB and RB) and in the one other skill position at which they had returning talent (WR) they experienced major injury losses and a lack of continuity.

Just take a look at the teams that have been the most consistent so far to date. Both Mich, OSU and WVU all have tons of game experience at the QB and RB positions.

Whenever I look at upcoming seasons my first choice for NC teams is always the teams with returning starters at QB. I had no thoughts of USC returning to the NC game this year - it just never happens. We've just got to hope that this team grows and learns as they go along.

Is it just possible that we're maybe expecting too much out of Booty? After all even Carson (arguably one of USC's best QBs all-time) lost 2 games in his Heisman season.

I agree with you, Tyler. Booty has been mostly terrific. His turnovers are an issue, of course, but Carson Palmer struggled for two years before the light when on. Granted he played for three different offensive coordinators, but he used to drive fans crazy dropping the ball and throwing dumb passes. Booty is much more settled in his first year than Carson.

When it comes to the OSU loss and the three near losses and any other L’s that happen this year as well as the big double L – Lack of Leadership, the blame can be placed clearly on one source. No, it’s not Pete or his coaching staff, it’s not Booty or the O-line or the D-line. The source is what Pete has been harping about since late January – Agents! Now you know why. There are some terrific football players who still had a year of eligibility left at SC, but are now either sitting on their cans as 3rd stringers on the bench or sitting at home on Sundays when they could have been honing their skills contributing to SC this year. I’m not talking about Reggie. He had to go. He deserved to go. But they’re were starters here who swallowed agents’ lines about all the money they would make as first-rounders and now they’re virtual weekend taxi-squaders. They wound up being late-round choices or undrafted free agents. Just two of them, any two, one on defense and one on offense could have been the leadership and that extra push that the team so desperately needs this year.

So instead of all of us wasting time writing blogs because we presume to know what the team needs and what the coaches should or shouldn’t do (as if Pete really needs to know what we think), we should spend just a few minutes of that time writing to our legislators as well as the NFL. Let’s get a state law passed that prevents these guys from coming near a kid until well after the bowl season has ended. Let’s force the NCAA to pass a ruling that allows kids to change their mind after they have signed. Let’s get behind Pete’s efforts to persuade the NFL to come down hard on agents who go after a kid before he graduates. Above all, let’s make the agents put their promises in writing and be liable for damages if those promises of being a first-rounder are not met. Just some suggestions. Maybe you have others. But that’s where are undefeated season and a shot at the NC now sits – mired on an NFL bench or lying on Taxi Squad couch waiting for the phone to ring. Thanks to these slimeball agents we can kiss the NC good-bye! And I’m sure there are a few former Trojans who wish they had it to do all over again.

I agree with RR.

This team also needs an attitude adjustment. Note the Washington St. game when they went out before and stood on the cougar logo at midfield. And Rey's "surprise" that OSU played so tough. You can see it everygame. As soon as they get up by 7-10 points, they expect the other team to roll over and die.

In practice Monday, it was just like another day at the office. No one was upset,like nothing even happened. (This from www.wearesc.com to all the hyper-critical posters who will say "how do you know were you there??")

Somebody better step up and get the heads screwed on straight. I always though Lua would do that..

Offense:
There are penalties, but JDB seems to have a descent amount of time to throw. Moody's been stalled at the line on occasion but that's going to happen with his shake n' bake style of play. Chauncey seems to find room a descent amount of time

Defense:
It's hard to say they're getting better when they just gave up a season high in points.

What's the word on Rey Maualuga's leadership skills so far?

Obviously the team respects Oscar Lua but I never hear about Rey one way or the other.