Open Forum

Any predictions for PAC 10 football final standings for the 2008 season?

My comment: SweaterBoy will have two good to great seasons at UCLA, and then things will start to slide. If you remember, Phil Snow was recruited to UDUB from UCLA with a two year contract, and was swept out in a year, and is now in the NFL. All the hype with Dewayne Walker is over rated, he is a flash in the pan.

Scott,

You said in the past week that the sign of a successful offseason for USC, or even a dissent-free regular season, is if no players were arrested. So how do you think the coaches view players that do get arrested? Do they view the players as a distraction to the team or is it an individual matter? Do these off the field issues affect a player's standing among the coaches in the future or do they turn a blind eye to them as long as they can help the team?

Thanks in advance.

Was Mitch Mustain recruited by Pete Carroll when he was in high school?

Hi Scott:
When I asked about dissension last week, I meant to ask about team unity, comeraderie, guys liking and helping each other, etc. Can you comment on what you observed or felt? Was it as good as usual last season?

I didn't make myself clear on what I was asking last week, and that's my bad--but hoping you will re-visit last weeks' query.

Anyway, this weeks' question refers to recruiting in general--even if we close well, we are going to have a sub-par class for us--at least compared to recent seasons. What do you think the main reason[s] are for this?

Thanks in advance, Scott, and thanx for the forums--I greatly appreciate.

I know Mitch Mustain has gotten a lot of very good publicity in the media since coming to SC, but do you not think that he still has a very low profile? Does it not appear as if many people still have not heard of him and don't even know who he is?

ATTN: JAY#42--I TRIED TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION BUT THE THREAD WOULDN'T TAKE THE POST---MAYBE TOO OLD--ANYWAY, IT WAS A LONG PASS, MAYBE 40 YARDS, WHICH WAS QUITE UNUSUAL FOR JON!!

SCOTT---THANX FOR THOSE OLD PIX---THEY ARE WORTH GOLD--ESPECIALLY THE ONE WITH JAGUAR JON AND OLD "CRASH AND ROLL" ROBERTS!!!

Where would you rank and grade Mike Garrett among past USC ADs and among current ADs in the Pac-10? And Why?

I didn't see much info on who all declared themselves eligible for the draft. Was Chilo Rachal the only underclassman to do so? I heard Fili Moala might but I guess Maualuga and Cushing stuck to their promise to return. What about other players in the PAC-10 that left early, DeSean Jackson, Patrick Chung...?

SW, if a train is leaving NY at 200 mph, and an airplane is leaving Dallas at 450 mph, how long will it before Rick Neu-weasel really invades the Trojan back yard for recruits and disenchanted/dishearten Trojans? "It was just a neighborhood pool" cried the rat. Fight On!

Hi Scott. I was wondering when that video interview you promised us with Mitch Mustain was going to happen? Another thing, how's "Mitch and Me" progressing? Anything new to report?

Scott,

Web Design 101.

The new site is missing one very simple yet important feature. The pages displaying the comments for your post are missing navigation links so that users can jump from one post to the next. To do this you now have to hit the back button to the main page, find the next post and hit its link to see comments and/or an expanded post. This is very annoying and probably reducing the number of comments/visitors. Please add these simple navigation links "next post" & "previous post".

Thanks

Any chance Nick Holt leaves? If so would Carroll hire Coach O to be DC or will he assume the position himself and hire for another position coach?

Is there a final BCS poll? USA today continues to show the pre bowl poll with OSU 1

I get worried when I look at scout.com. It seems like all the good exciting players are going elsewhere this year. Is Pete worried yet? Don't we need some good CBs? What's the deal with recruiting. Is Carroll on his way to change some of these players minds and convince them to go to USC?

There are rumors that Broderick Green is still looking at Penn State as a transfer option, any validity in that?
When will SC get a men's soccer program?

Scott, would switching CJ Gable and Allen Bradford to defense immediately clear up the RB logjam and give Stafon and Joe the carries they require to succeed? Gable and AB are both great players, PC recruited them for versatility and both played defense in highschool. Gable to corner, AB to linebacker or safety?

Did you and the other local media notice the new Impala Reggie Bush started driving when he was still in school?

Is President Sample happy with the 2.36 team GPA ??

Did you see the Portsmith FA win a couple of weeks ago ? Man, that was a close call for Portsmith

Scott, do you ENJOY covering USC football? Or is it more difficult since you are a USC alum? It seems to many readers that you bend over backward to find negative news or negative slants on news. For instance, when Carroll's name surfaced with the Falcons, you posted and posted and posted rumors about it in the blog. When he didn't pursue the job and remained at USC, you didn't make that big of a deal about it. Another for instance: You reported that two USC players were academically ineligible and that was a headline story in the newspaper; a day or two later, when it was discovered that you were wrong, the follow-up correction was reported as just a note with a subhead in another story. That seems terribly unfair to these guys (whom I don't personally know, but would hate to be) - put yourself in their position and see if you think it was a fair handling of the situation. My take on this is that you dislike covering USC or feel like you need to report negatively about your school since it has dominated college football over the past 5-6 years. I may be reading the situation wrong here, but I know some of your readers would like a few sentences in reply about this question, and not just a flip one-sentence reply. I appreciate your time and response.

Have you read, or intend to read, "Tarnished Heisman." If so, will you share your thoughts after reading the book? If you have no plans to read it, why not? Any insight is greatly appreciated. Also, thanks for the forum.

As to the previous poster, Scott just likes to stir the pot to get reactions. He rings the bell with saracasm, criticsm and cynism, and we start to foam at the mouth like a Pavlov's dog.

Have you introduced Emily to Mitch? And don't you think that would make a better movie pitch than Mitch and Me? Think about it, two crazy kids, destined to go their separate ways and never find true love, meet cute at the Rose Bowl with the help of their snarky, bald-headed friend. Yeah, they have trouble at first, but you know they are just going to make it, and they do!

You might have to change the title to Mitch and Emily. But you can pitch it as Friday Night Lights meets Notting Hill! I'm telling you, it's gold, Scott, gold!

Any word yet as to the date of the spring scrimmage? Do we even know if it will be held at the Coliseum considering the current circumstances?

Scott -

In your humble opinion is there an outstanding issue between Pete Carroll and Norm Chow and what flaw prevents Chow from getting a head coaching position for a college football team?

AJ

or it can be Mitch and E(ME)ly

Hi Scott:

Although little has been raised about it, USC has had only one recruit commit since August 24th of last year (that being legacy player Khalid Holmes). In between that time, USC has lost out on several prolific players (Arthur Brown, Patrick Johnson, Etienne Sabino, Carl Moore to name a few) and has seen one prized recruit de-commit in Chris Polk with another being on the verge of de-committing in Joe Adams.

I know Pete anointed his son the recruiting coordinator once Lane left for Oakland, but something tells me that USC would have fared much better this year in securing more commitments from some of the players named had Lane been in charge of recruiting instead of Brendan Carroll.

Are their any ramblings at SC about this? If so, do you think that Pete will do anything different in putting someone else in charge of recruiting? What are your personal feelings as to why our recruiting efforts have fallen off this year unlike years past under Pete?

Look forward to your reply.

Scott:

Now that the semester has begun and no silly NCAA restrictions stand between our hero Mitch Mustain and his coronation to the Trojan football throne, this raises some serious questions:

1) How does the Hollywood writer's strike affect the film rights to Mitch and Me?

2) Have you given any thought as to who will play you and our hero Mitch in the big screen version?

3) Since you rejected the notion that Damian Williams is our hero Mitch Mustain's partner in crime, and declared that you are his crime fighting partner, will the book contain a chapter on the threat that Damian Williams attempted to take your place?

4) Since you are the crime fighting partner of our hero Mitch Mustain, do you feel you have gotten lax in solving Pedalgate and the Bicycle-Contra affair? When should we expect some updates as to who(...) was behind this attempts to derail our hero from his rightful place?

Fight On