McKay had same concept. But opposing QB's not as talented back then. McKay felt they would make a mistake trying to do it all in the air and ususally he was right.
RE everyone complaining about this 5-0 season. Here is my five game review:
1) "Lane Kiffin is obviously not Norm Chow." Nor is he worse than high school JV offensive coordinators as many make him out to be. Chow has been coaching for 30 years and thus, should be significantly better than Kiffin. And the offense has become more complex as the season has gone on. Also, why show everything before the other games if we don't have too.
2) "Our offense is not the same": No kidding! There is not an offense in America that could be dominant with so many all-Americans graduating/leaving. This is not necessarily shown at QB and RB but on the OL, which takes the longest to develop. While Kalil and Baker are playing well, it’s taking the new starters some time to gel; which is normal in college football.
3) "Vidal Hazelton and Travon Patterson are not being used". Is there any other program that even knows who their fifth and sixth receivers are? Because that's what Vidal and Travon are.
4) "Our pass rush doesn't get any pressure." Whether we like it or not we don't have a pass rush guy like a Cody, Mike Patterson, or Troy Polamalu or even a Leach blitzing. Couple that with injuries such as Sed Ellis. Now that I think we'll start facing tougher opposition, we'll start seeing the fast LB's blitz.
5) "We're not getting the turnovers this year." Valid point. Because we have dropped (or just not caught) balls we could have easily picked off. Against UW I counted three times we had the ball in our hands and dropped it. Not to mention the last UW TD pass which somehow squeaked past two defenders.
Sub point: This hurts the offensive production because they get fewer possessions during "try to score" time rather than "run out clock" time.
6) Game management/clock management. This is one area we need to improve. VS UW we should have ran on 3rd and then run or pass on 4th to try to score since the field goal was "pointless."
Vs. Wash St. we had clock issues.
Vs. Texas we wasted a time out (though I think that was Justin Wyatt, not the coaches.)
Vs. Notre Dame: while we all loved the Leinart sneak, everyone would have been screaming if he had not got in when a field goal would have forced OT.
This is the one and only area I would criticize Pete Carroll. Its something that needs to be planned in meetings because apart from the four instances I gave above, I can't think of any other clock issues unless you go back to 01 because of either blowouts or a comeback on our part.
7) "USC is the third best team in the conference right now." Maybe, but only because of injuries. Remember, we still have five weeks before Oregon (who is overrated) and then Cal. As long as we contain Cal in special teams we will win that game.
Everyone, relax and enjoy USC football. To be 5-0 and in contention for a national championship, we have little to complain about. We trusted Pete Carroll in 2002, when at one point we were only 3-2, why don't we trust him now? Be faithful fans and enjoy a run that doesn't happen anymore. Whenever you want to complain, remember the Hackett years, remember losing to Fresno St. in a now defunct bowl, remember losing 8 in row to UC Westwood. Before this year, any of us would have been happy with 1-2 losses and Rose Bowl. Let’s hold our complaints until we are actually in a crappy bowl. As for now, we are national championship contenders with a legit chance to win this year, next year, and have a total of four out of five championships!!! With the only non-championship being a #2 finish by 3 points and 16 seconds.
You made some good points. I guess the only thing us "glass half empty" guys keep posting about is just the end product. Yes we have new guys. Yes we have a young OC. Yes we have injuries. Yep we have had bad refs and some dropped picks. But every team has to deal with these kind of things. And to be honest, watching them almost lose to Washington was a bitter pill to swallow when we are pushing ourselves to be in the BCS title game.
Here is a simple explanation: USC has had the #1 or #2 ranked recruiting class the last 4 years. We have the best football players in the USA. Why are we almost blowing games to Washington? Irregardless of who is the co-ordinator or who dropped what interception???
OR:
Winning games by 2 or 3 points, and stopping the other team on our 1 yard line with time running out is like Russian roulet. Sometime you are going to lose...
OR:
Do you see Texas in a close scrape with Baylor? Or Oklahoma pulling out a last second victory over Tulsa?
Remember, we have to CONVINCE the pollsters that we belong there. We are probably not going to be the only undefeated team at the end of the year (hello Florida, Ohio st., West Virginia...Rutgers? haha just kidding with that one) and if we keep up these wins by 1 point over unrated teams and squeak out a lucky win over Notre Dame, we might end up at #3 or #4. Yeah we are a pretty good team. If I coached a college football team I would not want to play USC. But there is room for alot of improvement. :o))
I don't feel it's as much a matter of offensive or defensive schemes by our coaching staff. It's more a case of execution - missed tackles, missed interceptions, missed blocking assignments, poor routes, poor reads, etc. But this can be expected with inexperienced kids no matter how talented. They need to work harder and play smarter. I don't think our coaches are giving them any more than what they can handle from week to week. They devise their schemes according to the abilities of the players on the field. As those abilities improve, the more complex will the schemes become.
Secondly and most important of all, because of Pete's success, SC has become the New York Yankees of college football. Only a Yankee fan would consider a season unsuccessful if they didn't win the World Series. Personally, if SC were to wind up #3 or #4 or just in the top 10, I'd jump for joy. In fact, even without all the injuries, at the start of the year, I figured we would lose at least 2 games if not 3. I think the entire coaching staff is doing a hell of a job bringing these kids along with all the key personnel they lost from last year's team.
And BTW, if it weren't for the zebras making a couple of bogus calls, we could have added another 14 points last week for a 20-point margin.
I agree with almost everything above. I think that thing that is keeping the quote “glass half empty� people upset is lack of adjustments that are not happing at half time. We are used to see Sc ROLL in the second half!!! Whatever the opponent is doing that is working on offense stops, and Sc’s offence puts its foot in the accelerator and we are gone. That has not happened once this year I don’t know if they are holding anything back to not show future opponents stuff but if you are in a close game Lame you should not be holding anything back. But PH55 is right before year started all of us would be happy with one loss and a Rose Bowl bid.
Scott Wolf has covered USC for the Daily News since 1996. A USC graduate, he covered his first Trojan game in 1984 for the Daily Trojan. Scott is known as the "scourge of the Internet message boards," according to radio host Petros Papadakis. Despite this moniker, there's no truth to the rumor he takes pleasure in antagonizing the "Internet geeks."
Comments
when is coach carroll going to go back to 4 man defensive line and stop using cushing as one
Posted by: rick perez | October 13, 2006 02:53 PM
McKay had same concept. But opposing QB's not as talented back then. McKay felt they would make a mistake trying to do it all in the air and ususally he was right.
Posted by: paul morantz | October 13, 2006 03:00 PM
RE everyone complaining about this 5-0 season. Here is my five game review:
1) "Lane Kiffin is obviously not Norm Chow." Nor is he worse than high school JV offensive coordinators as many make him out to be. Chow has been coaching for 30 years and thus, should be significantly better than Kiffin. And the offense has become more complex as the season has gone on. Also, why show everything before the other games if we don't have too.
2) "Our offense is not the same": No kidding! There is not an offense in America that could be dominant with so many all-Americans graduating/leaving. This is not necessarily shown at QB and RB but on the OL, which takes the longest to develop. While Kalil and Baker are playing well, it’s taking the new starters some time to gel; which is normal in college football.
3) "Vidal Hazelton and Travon Patterson are not being used". Is there any other program that even knows who their fifth and sixth receivers are? Because that's what Vidal and Travon are.
4) "Our pass rush doesn't get any pressure." Whether we like it or not we don't have a pass rush guy like a Cody, Mike Patterson, or Troy Polamalu or even a Leach blitzing. Couple that with injuries such as Sed Ellis. Now that I think we'll start facing tougher opposition, we'll start seeing the fast LB's blitz.
5) "We're not getting the turnovers this year." Valid point. Because we have dropped (or just not caught) balls we could have easily picked off. Against UW I counted three times we had the ball in our hands and dropped it. Not to mention the last UW TD pass which somehow squeaked past two defenders.
Sub point: This hurts the offensive production because they get fewer possessions during "try to score" time rather than "run out clock" time.
6) Game management/clock management. This is one area we need to improve. VS UW we should have ran on 3rd and then run or pass on 4th to try to score since the field goal was "pointless."
Vs. Wash St. we had clock issues.
Vs. Texas we wasted a time out (though I think that was Justin Wyatt, not the coaches.)
Vs. Notre Dame: while we all loved the Leinart sneak, everyone would have been screaming if he had not got in when a field goal would have forced OT.
This is the one and only area I would criticize Pete Carroll. Its something that needs to be planned in meetings because apart from the four instances I gave above, I can't think of any other clock issues unless you go back to 01 because of either blowouts or a comeback on our part.
7) "USC is the third best team in the conference right now." Maybe, but only because of injuries. Remember, we still have five weeks before Oregon (who is overrated) and then Cal. As long as we contain Cal in special teams we will win that game.
Everyone, relax and enjoy USC football. To be 5-0 and in contention for a national championship, we have little to complain about. We trusted Pete Carroll in 2002, when at one point we were only 3-2, why don't we trust him now? Be faithful fans and enjoy a run that doesn't happen anymore. Whenever you want to complain, remember the Hackett years, remember losing to Fresno St. in a now defunct bowl, remember losing 8 in row to UC Westwood. Before this year, any of us would have been happy with 1-2 losses and Rose Bowl. Let’s hold our complaints until we are actually in a crappy bowl. As for now, we are national championship contenders with a legit chance to win this year, next year, and have a total of four out of five championships!!! With the only non-championship being a #2 finish by 3 points and 16 seconds.
Fight On!
Posted by: PH55 | October 13, 2006 03:55 PM
RE: 5-0
Amen PH55
Posted by: el capitan | October 13, 2006 05:30 PM
wow...nice post PH55.
You made some good points. I guess the only thing us "glass half empty" guys keep posting about is just the end product. Yes we have new guys. Yes we have a young OC. Yes we have injuries. Yep we have had bad refs and some dropped picks. But every team has to deal with these kind of things. And to be honest, watching them almost lose to Washington was a bitter pill to swallow when we are pushing ourselves to be in the BCS title game.
Here is a simple explanation: USC has had the #1 or #2 ranked recruiting class the last 4 years. We have the best football players in the USA. Why are we almost blowing games to Washington? Irregardless of who is the co-ordinator or who dropped what interception???
OR:
Winning games by 2 or 3 points, and stopping the other team on our 1 yard line with time running out is like Russian roulet. Sometime you are going to lose...
OR:
Do you see Texas in a close scrape with Baylor? Or Oklahoma pulling out a last second victory over Tulsa?
Remember, we have to CONVINCE the pollsters that we belong there. We are probably not going to be the only undefeated team at the end of the year (hello Florida, Ohio st., West Virginia...Rutgers? haha just kidding with that one) and if we keep up these wins by 1 point over unrated teams and squeak out a lucky win over Notre Dame, we might end up at #3 or #4. Yeah we are a pretty good team. If I coached a college football team I would not want to play USC. But there is room for alot of improvement. :o))
Posted by: Patrick | October 13, 2006 08:05 PM
I don't feel it's as much a matter of offensive or defensive schemes by our coaching staff. It's more a case of execution - missed tackles, missed interceptions, missed blocking assignments, poor routes, poor reads, etc. But this can be expected with inexperienced kids no matter how talented. They need to work harder and play smarter. I don't think our coaches are giving them any more than what they can handle from week to week. They devise their schemes according to the abilities of the players on the field. As those abilities improve, the more complex will the schemes become.
Secondly and most important of all, because of Pete's success, SC has become the New York Yankees of college football. Only a Yankee fan would consider a season unsuccessful if they didn't win the World Series. Personally, if SC were to wind up #3 or #4 or just in the top 10, I'd jump for joy. In fact, even without all the injuries, at the start of the year, I figured we would lose at least 2 games if not 3. I think the entire coaching staff is doing a hell of a job bringing these kids along with all the key personnel they lost from last year's team.
And BTW, if it weren't for the zebras making a couple of bogus calls, we could have added another 14 points last week for a 20-point margin.
Posted by: fanman | October 13, 2006 11:47 PM
Great posts guys.
I agree with almost everything above. I think that thing that is keeping the quote “glass half empty� people upset is lack of adjustments that are not happing at half time. We are used to see Sc ROLL in the second half!!! Whatever the opponent is doing that is working on offense stops, and Sc’s offence puts its foot in the accelerator and we are gone. That has not happened once this year I don’t know if they are holding anything back to not show future opponents stuff but if you are in a close game Lame you should not be holding anything back. But PH55 is right before year started all of us would be happy with one loss and a Rose Bowl bid.
LBC Rob
Posted by: Rob | October 14, 2006 07:29 AM