There you have it:

Offensive line has not been intact, and he been unable to practice sufficiently-- thus, no jelling;

Johnson and Gable got hurt;

Booty is good, but not great; Sanchez still needs seasoning;

Sark is still learning on the job, but has talent.

Carroll was a hero when successful on 4th down attempts, but a fool when unsuccessful (or so his "fans" think)

9-3 or 8-4 seasons are not acceptable to the "fans" because they are entitled to better years.

Well said, Lawyer John. At least our coaching staff is being accountable, and with that, we are actually getting to the bottom of our Offensive woes. No more over-simplified, misdirected analysis from Pete...."well, we lost the TO battle today". But, some real answers. Injuries have created inconsistency at O-line and RB. WRs developing slowly. And, a predictable, conservative offensive scheme that does not play to our strengths on Offense. Still not sure that the coaches have a plan for fixing the penalties problem or the slow player development problem. I just don't understand why they feel the need to "baby" Sanchez when he's in there.....he's been with us 3 years and is an immense talent. I think they may be "overcoaching". Give Mark more of a leash, open up a vertical passing game, contract and focus the RB rotation, take the FG on 4th down, and don't get too cute on critical plays. Maybe our TOs are from the coaches putting TOO MANY restraints on the players, forcing them to think too much during the game. Let's simplify and let our racehorses run.

OSU is a damn good defense, and changing back to Booty now scares the crap out of me. Keep your chin up, Mark, you may be back yet! Fight On Trojans! Buehler for Groza Award! Lick the Beavers!

Anyone who accepts a 9-3 or 8-4 season after being selected No. 1 in the pre-season polls is not a die-hard fan. I guarantee you that the players and coaches do not think that such records are acceptable. Neither do the vast majority of USC fans, including those who post on this board.

As for fourth down, if you decide to go for it in a close game, you better have a play designed that gives you an ironclad first down every time. What? No such play exists. Then kick the FG. It has now cost us wins against Oregon State and Stanford, cost us the chance of going to OT in the Rose Bowl vs. Texas, and to a lesser extent, cost us against Oregon last week.

It's the lack of attention to detail that really gets to me. I know Wolf's brought this up many times before... but HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU NOT HAVE A FULL TIME SPECIAL TEAMS COACH??? It's utterly inexcusable. Special teams are such an important part of the game and Pete acts as if its merely an afterthought. And the fact that Pete turned over the reins of this defense to Nick Holt because he wanted to spend more time with the overall game management (he points to having to call a timeout after the final Texas touchdown in the NC game as the impetus) is absolutely mind boggling.

Pete Carroll does 2 things exceptionally well: coordinate the defense and recruit. Clock management/game management is NOT ONE OF THEM. Pete would be better served to hire a "common sense coach" as Bill Simmons puts it, to figure out time, score, down and distance problems and focus on his specialty: coordinating the defense. He's the best defensive coordinator in college football and one of the best in the game (Super Bowl ring proves it) but he's not even doing that with his own team. It just makes no sense to me whatever for him to ignore his strengths and emphasize his weaknesses.

Baffling. Mind boggling. Simply Stunning.

I'm curious to hear other thoughts on this subject.

Sureshot

Holy sh*t! I just read, and checked to veryify....Oregon St is currently the #1 team Def against the Run and #1 in Sacks. Talk about matching up well against us. We all know how Booty responds against a heavy rush.

Our only hope, I guess, is the really quick reads on short slants and outs, in which Booty does excel. No chance for a running game or time to open up a vertical passing game this week. Of course, our Def should shut them down as well. Final score prediction is 3-0. And, since we don't like to kick FGs, I'm not certain we come out on top.

Agree with Sureshot....clock management, score management, overall game mgmt are weak. I would think Pete could delegate some of this to one of the younger coaches.....Brendan or Yogi...but, he obviously hasn't. Lick the Beavers!

Throw in a few screen passes, draws and misdirection to keep them off balance. The shotgun couldn't hurt, either.

Yep that's right trojanman..we will be in deep dog shi* on Saturday

I am not even going to bother watching it I am tired of watching bad football.

I wonder what all the sunshine pumpers will say Sunday if we lose again?

Pat Ruel needs to stop worrying about doing paper interviews and figure out wtf is going on with the O line

USC Mike, has the right idea. "Throw in a few screen passes, draws and misdirection to keep them off balance." There are two(2) problems with this. (1) these things have to be set up. (2) We have an OJT OC in a major program. He is too busy substituting and calling predictable plays, maybe scripted, as if he is managing scrimage or practice instead of a REAL game making opposition DC's look REAL smart. Why isn't he in the booth so he can see WTF is going on the field.

Best DC? Stanford? Oregon w/o BOTH starting receivers? Idaho looking competitive? UW looking like a top 10 team?

When was he a DC on a Super Bowl team? As I recall he was a DC on 49ers during 2 down seasons when he didn't even coach his own system.

He has an inspiring attitude, at least publicly but he also has some ego problems evidently. Too bad one had to outweigh the other.