Scott Wolf inside USC

Here's the opening grades of the season.

RESULT: USC 38, IDAHO 10.
RECORD: 1-0.
WEEK 1 GPA: 2.51.

QUARTERBACK

John David Booty certainly did not establish his Heisman credentials, especially against a weakling. He needs to be a lot sharper against Nebraska. And Mike McDonald added to the turnover count.

C-

RUNNING BACKS

C.J. Gable once again demonstrated he has the potential to be a top back. At least now we know Joe McKnight does have something in common with Reggie Bush. He can fumble too.

WIDE RECEIVERS

Without Patrick Turner, David Ausberry and Vidal Hazelton were able to make more impact. Hazelton’s one-handed touchdown grab might be his season highlight.

B-

OFFENSIVE LINE

True freshman Kris O’Dowd enjoyed a successful debut despite pre-game jitters. USC wants him to be the center so he’ll start the Nebraska game too. Sam Baker gamely played despite some persistent pain from his fractured rib.

B-

DEFENSIVE LINE

Freshman Everson Griffen started, demonstrating the coaches’ single-mindedness to give him a chance. Otherwise, the line did not get many sacks (much like last year) but Carroll singled out Sedrick Ellis and Lawrence Jackson. Stopping the run must improve however.

C+

LINEBACKERS

Keith Rivers was active but the hidden star was Clay Matthews, who took advantage of Brian Cushing’s injury. After years of promising Matthews playing time, he just may get some. Stopping the run must improve however.

B-

DEFENSIVE BACKS

A ho-hum evening but Shareece Wright made some plays and Cary Harris played solid despite a sore hamstring.

C+

SPECIAL TEAMS

Who know David Buehler’s kicks would travel farther if he placed the ball at the 30-yard line? Now let’s see if McKnight returns punts.

A-

COACHING

Thanks for coming to the scrimmage everybody. We won’t want to say the Trojans took Idaho lightly but the work schedule did seem a little lighter last week. If this is the nation’s No. 1 team right now, then Michigan might be No. 5.

D+

Comments

You really hate this job, don't you?

Posted by: Captain Intangibles | September 3, 2007 09:38 AM

Scott,

Im shocked at your generosity. Considering the quality of opponent, Id give every area an F.

Right now this team has 3 loses coming.

Posted by: USC_89 | September 3, 2007 09:44 AM

To me it seemed that the coaching staff left the team adrift this week, called vanilla plays and shut the emotion off early.

They must be worried about Nebraska.

Posted by: scorpion77 | September 3, 2007 10:12 AM

I would have given the Runningbacks a B because of how excellent Stafon Johnson and CJ Gable were.

Other than that your ratings are pretty good, even if your comments are a bit negative.

Posted by: Trojan_JP | September 3, 2007 10:17 AM

Booty sucks!

Let the Mark Sanchez ERA begin NOW!!!

Posted by: John Redcorn | September 3, 2007 11:16 AM

This squad is going to be just fine..First quarter was #1 USC, after that it was simply treated as dress rehearsal. After Brian Cushings injury it was prevention mode and lets not show Nebraska anything!

Posted by: TrojanBoomBots | September 3, 2007 11:42 AM

why do you keep ignoring Stafon? He's looking like da man

Gable is not, and never will be, a great back

Posted by: just4sc | September 3, 2007 12:37 PM

B- for the O-line? You're kidding right? The first team ran zone all night and gave Booty had all the time in the world. I give them an A-. Also, Byers communicated very effectively with O'Dowd. You give the guy the task, you have to praise him when he does well.

Booty gets a B. No, it was not a Heisman caliber performance, but three long series at the start was more then enough to win the game, and that using the most boring plays from the playbook so as not to give Nebraska any good film.

Coaching grade is about right. Idaho mixed things up in the 2nd quarter on both O and D. USC didn't seem to make any adjustments. Props to the coaches for not digging into the playbook when they didn't need to.

In short, I think we're all being a little harsh. There's no reason to run it up on Idaho. Nebraska, yes, Notre Dame, definitely, UCLA, we wouldn't have it any other way, Stanford, fer sure. Not Idaho.

Posted by: BoscoH | September 3, 2007 12:44 PM

I think USC's objectives against Idaho were to win the game, keep Booty injury-free, and not show Nebraska too much. If so, we succeeded on all counts. Booty wasn't stellar, no, but the game was run-heavy, so it's not like he had a lot of time to get into a rhythm. It looked like Sark/PC wanted to try and get some clarity on the rb front first and foremost.

It's always fun when the first game gets the Chicken Littles jumping off the bandwagon. Later in the year they'll be happy to jump back on and deny saying anything negative about the team/coaching.

Posted by: Defender90 | September 3, 2007 01:07 PM

I don't know about how anyone else feels, but John David scares the hell out of me.

Posted by: CritcalSCfan | September 3, 2007 04:40 PM

The sky is falling. The sky is falling, we only won by 4 TDs.

Posted by: Cozzie | September 3, 2007 06:24 PM

CHEMISTRY, RHYTHM.
Not a single one of you know it ALL experts have addressed that? Consequently Booty gets blasted. The coaches have to find out WHY the chemistry and the rhythm of the offense is NOT there.

Posted by: Door Prize | September 3, 2007 06:32 PM

Scott, you were generous. But keep in mind USC kept a lot secret for Nebraska.

And this was not USC's OL. Skill positions may never play to hype or season may follow last year's. Problem is opposition and travel.

USC could use Moody, Patch and Green.

Turner was out of game. Rey Rey should have been

Posted by: Morantz | September 3, 2007 09:57 PM

Idaho Report Card

TrackBack

Comments

Post a comment

Scott Wolf

Categories

Search

Archives

Recent Posts