I realize USC does not start the spring semester until Monday so Lynn Swann might be on an extended golf break.
But what has he done since he released his big statement on football Nov. 25?
- Has USC addressed its strength and conditioning program?
- Has USC changed its culture or discipline?
- Has it made important changes to its staff or personnel?
- Has it changed its schemes?
- Has it done anything similar to Brian Kelly did at Notre Dame in 2016?
ANSWER: The only real change so far is Kliff Kingsbury and a couple other assistant coaches. And Kingsbury could leave for the NFL.
So offensive schemes are changing but not defensive. And John Baxter is back with special teams.
Personnel? The recruiting class is below the usual USC standards.
As I said this morning, Notre Dame hired 17 new staff members. USC has hired three so far.
If Swann wants to do nothing, that is his right. It is also the right of USC fans to not purchase season tickets for next season.
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
The bigger question is what are the BOT doing. Last month, they supported an interim president, who fired an incredibly successful dean who had met virtually every “diversity” goal there is for the B-school. The ex-dean will be undoubtedly replaced by a “diversity” candidate.
The university needs much better leadership. The BOT appears to have no idea of what they are doing.
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Not denying any factual scandals but understand the left (LA Times) hates USC…it’s the sole conservative school left of major universities in the nation.
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Stop complaiining our student athletes read these comments: KMS …. Keep Your Mouth Shut …. Fight On!
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Kinsgbury had best think hard if Swann has given him the head coaching position effective a year hence and he (Kingsbury) decides to instead head for the NFL. There is nothing bur pressure in the NFL and esp. for a first-time head coach. On the other hand, he (Kingsbury) will have full rein to a program that is both desperate and very accommodating to anyone but the current poor sap in charge. In fact Helton’s three + years have removed any doubt per his absent skill set – he flat out sucks and always shall.
The fit with the NYJ would be a good one for poor Sam Darnold but, aside from the DET Lions the Jets are historically the worst run franchise in the NFL. It’s better an old coach heading for retirement who can bluntly tell the ‘current’ team mgmt. what needs to be done than a young guy like Kingsbury. The Jets are a graveyard and the AZ Cardinals are just as bad.
This is a great opportunity for Kingsbury with USC – the sole sticking point is he doesn’t ‘officially’ have the head coach slot just yet but regardless if he pumps real life into the Trojans in 2019 it will further burnish his skill set for the NFL.
Matters not who gets credit for Kingsbury – Swann or another – it is a great move.
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Maybe Lynn Swann is allowing Clay Helton to fall on his face, and saving the University a year of Helton’s salary at the same time.
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@Fred Sampson, We don’t want Heltonian face plants, we want WINS! Swanny doesn’t have the luxury of continuing mediocrity. The fact that Helton, Baxter, Clancy and Lewis still being on the staff is Swann’s biggest FAIL. Fight On
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USC athletic Dept. has become old and stagnant, living on yesterday’s glories. Very to sad to its deterioration .
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You raise a lot of good questions that Mr. Swann or coach Helton should address, that is
give the public some answers. Personally, I don’t think any of the problems have been addressed. But for now USC has a good offensive coordinator and USC will score more points. But if the team culture, player commitment, coaching discipline, player development and more doesn’t change, this will be a 7- 5 team or at best 8-4. As of today I dont plan on renewing season tickets unless a plan is made public as to how they will proceed going forward. Fight on
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But maybe USCs athletic department has done enough for the large donors. And if they have still sold all the expensive suites for the 2019 season, then why should anything change?!
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F*ck Notre Dame and what they did. At this point, who cares? ND’s path is leading to irrelevancy and the gold it’s paved with is pyrite.
KK is a huge hire and we should all be hoping he sticks around. My biggest complaint last year was the offense in general and the playbook specifically. KK represents a clear change for both of those things. Last year I suggested that both QBs play and the competition be opened up because I wasn’t convinced. How can I not be happy to get a fresh pair of eyes and a real offensive mind on that situation? Also, there may or may not be an issue with strength and conditioning, but I know for a fact that our offense helped cause some injuries on defense. The majority of our injuries were on defense and my guess is that defense played a lot more total plays than offense did. More snaps = more injuries. If the ratio of plays is exaggerated, then the ratio of injuries will be too. BTW, LSU played their bowl game without 8 starters on defense because of injuries. Does LSU also have issues with S/C? Our offense put the D under way too much pressure and it caused them to breakdown physically and competitively every single game. There were a couple of games last year where a shutout was in play, but there was always an inevitable point where the D would break because we were getting nothing from the offense. Our offense kept teams in games and the defense on the field due to a lack of creativity pure ineptitude. That’s why we lost so many games and players last year and we don’t have to look for a lot of other exotic or involved reasons or wring our hands about every little thing.
If we can retain KK and get some good QB play, we can be really good really fast. USC has the players it needs and I really think KK will know how to employ them to great effect. Call me crazy, but I’m expecting a PAC 12 title next year.
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Ok I will. You Crazy.
SC is a good bet to start the season 1-5. If kk sticks around the offense will look better, they’ll score more points, but it’s not going to help the defense or injuries the way you’re imagining.
The air raid offenses score points quickly when excecuted properly. The d in turn plays more snaps. It works fine when a defense is deep and subs in fresh, effective players – We all know Clancy isn’t big on substitutions. I’ve noticed Clancy’s defenses also tend to play fine but give up 1-2 HUGE plays every 20-30 snaps. Whether it’s coaching or scheme or player discipline I’m not sure, but with Clancy more defensive snaps is a bad thing, not just for the score, but like you said, for injuries.
PS. The strength and conditioning is pointed out so frequently because often in sports when players commit holding or roughing or interference pentalties, or revert to bad habits/technique, it’s because they are gassed or physically overmatched – couple that with the disproportionate number of injuries directly relating to muscle/ligament tears and strains as opposed to bone breaks or stress fractures (the most common injury during PC’s time) – and it all points to a negligent strength and conditioning program.
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You’d call 1-5 for USC a good bet up until the point I offered to take you up on it with real money.
The fact that the offense will score fast and put the D back on the field fast is a valid point. However, there’s a world of difference between going back out there on defense after a quick TD and going back out there after the 3rd straight 3 and out. There’s a psychological effect on your defense and your opponent when you can score on 2 out of every 3.25 possessions. USC used to win games on aura alone and lethal offense will bring that back. The rest of the conference knows USC is a sleeping giant and KK was our wake up call. We’re going to be feared again next season.
Clancy gives up big plays because he plays a risky brand of defense. Giving up a couple big plays matters less when you score 40 every game. I’m not endorsing Clancy as I have questions there too, but we lost last year because of our well below average offense and not because of our average defense. We don’t need to be great on D to win the PAC 12 if we’re prolific on offense.
As far as strength and conditioning goes, I have no idea what goes on in USC’s S/C program or any other school’s S/C program. I’m not going to criticize something I know nothing about. What I know about is what I see when I watch football. If I look on the field and see the issues that are causing our problems, I’m not going to start looking under rocks and speculating about other things.
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KK is very familiar with Houston . If he turned down that HC job and you know Houston pays well, part of the reason may be he made a commitment to SC and means it, another could incl incentives,and there could be even more. NFL is different, many college HC never wanted it and stayed at their college HC positions,some pretty famous ones. They loved the atmosphere, while NFL is getting worse every year. He has not exactly been a success as a HC,but may have learned a thing or two,that is how we usually learn, from failure.He certainly would be an improvement ove helton,who never seems to learn.
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Good points. As lucky as we are to have him, he’s gotta be thrilled to be here. He picked up the phone and called USC because he sees what I see. How many teams do you think HE called with all the people calling him? He lusted after this personnel and this situation. The guy stalked the program because he’s an arsonist and Helton is handing him a flamethrower. The PAC 12 is gonna burn and it’s fitting that the trees are first. I’ve looked at some of his stuff and the guy is pretty sick. The players are going to like playing in his offense and he’s going to add the schematic edge to the athletic edge we already have. A lot of USC’s offensive records are in jeopardy next year. He may yet leave, but he’s got the keys and I know he wants to drive.
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No one can fully understand what is going on behind closed doors in the administration’s moves regarding the flagship sport of the University. Allowing this program to deteriorate under the leadership of an obvious overwhelmed-uneffective HC makes no sense. It is becoming a PR nightmare which invites negative speculation among the fanBase. Is this really what those who are driving the USC bus want and will continue?
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He was at the basketball game last night. Then he collected his paycheck today. That is all he has done in the last couple of days
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