Answers, Take 6

Q: What is wrong with the football recruiting class, it started fast, but now many schools like Texas have more commits than USC also USC has too many soft commits? How do you see the class finishing up?

A: Nothing's wrong. USC got a lot of quick commitments to ward off UCLA and started visiting out-of-state recruits last month. Unfortunately, Caesar was prohibited from traveling, so now he needs to evaluate his assistant coaches' opinions and films and try to get prospects to this month's camps. USC has had two commitments the past couple weeks, so things are actually ahead of last year. Never get worked up in the summer over commitments. Who cares how many Texas has?
From what I hear, the 2010 class will be better than this year so if I couldn't get the best prospects, I might hold a couple scholarships.

Q: The coaching staff does an outstanding job of getting the players physically ready for games with some great conditioning programs. My question, what do they do to get them ready mentally? Is it day to day, on the field instruction or do they provide any kind of formal training.

A: There's not really any kind of psycologist or anything involved although Pete Carroll does sometimes give players The Inner Game of Tennis to get them mentally prepared. The best mental training is Carroll's ability to do everything the same daily so that things in games are almost second nature and it reduces the amount of uncertainty for the players.

Q: In 1990, the Song Girls changed their name to the new politically correct "Song Leaders," but then reverted back to the old "Song Girls" name in 2006 and there has been absolutely no mention of "Song Leaders" ever since, as if it never even existed. What was the reason behind the reversal back to the old politically incorrect name after so many years?

A: I believe this was due to the elimination of the yell leaders and formation of the new co-ed squad that shows up at the Coliseum, whose name I can't remember. They changed the makeup of the spirit squads, so I believe they decided to revert to their original name since the Song Girls were the only traditional remaining spirit squad.