Answer Sunday!

Q: sdog said:
Scott,
It seem you feel it is still up in the air whether or not Kiffin has the leadership ability to be a successful head coach at USC. I am curious how you determine what is a successful leader. Is it strictly wins and loses? The team playing well in big games? Does losing games you are favored in make you a poor leader? Each year Pete Caroll seemed to lose an unexpected game. Did that make him a poor leader? Thanks for you time and answer.

A: Being a leader means you inspire your team to believe in a philosophy and can get them to deal with adverse situations. It does not mean you are perfect. I pointed out as much as anyone that Pete Carroll would drop a game to an opponent each year that USC should beat. But in the bigger picture, his players believed in what he told them and followed his direction. For example, they were very disciplined at never looking past the immediate opponent each week. And in big games, they excelled because he taught them not to play with more emotion or to try harder in those contests. That doesn't mean he was perfect. But I'd take his record. I didn't hear players last season talk about getting through any tough situations by doing something Kiffin preached.

Q: Trojan Conquest said:
Scott, you have continued to say that you don't read the comments. Why not? Seems to me that if you read, and more importantly participated, you could keep the discussion on the subject and keep the juvenile (being generous) comments to a minimum. Unfortunately this blog is getting to the point where you can't have a normal discussion about a SC issue without the same people (on both sides) hijacking it to make it about them. It's flat out boring.

A: I agree with you that people can hijack a board. I don't read comments for two reasons: It would pretty much require me to spend all day editing comments if I did it, which is not what I want to do with my time. Also, I don't want commenters to influence the job I do on this blog. And if I read comments, I'll hear everyone's opinion. And on the Internet, as you said, it becomes juvenile very quickly.