FOOTBALL

What Is The Spine Of Next Year’s USC Team?

An NFL coach asked me recently what USC’s strengths were next season?

I thought this would be a simple question but then I had to provide an answer.

After I got past he wide receivers, I really couldn’t immediately find a legitimate strength.

The secondary? Nope. The offensive line? Nope. The linebackers? Not yet though I like Palaie Gaoteote. The tailbacks? Maybe but not proven yet. The quarterbacks? Forget it.

The defensive line? Perhaps. The defensive tackles take up a lot of space but did not make a lot of plays last season. Defensive end Christian Rector was inconsistent last season. Defensive end Drake Jackson has a lot of potential but is still a freshman.

So maybe this group will improve and make an impact. But it’s no guarantee at the moment.

That’s about the best I could do other than the wide receivers.

Some of these groups might turn into a strength but it is hard to say it with certainty.

How about coaching? LOL.

There are way too many questions even though Clay Helton, the coaches and the USC Internet media seemed so excited at the end of spring practice.

20 thoughts on “What Is The Spine Of Next Year’s USC Team?”

  1. Normally, without question is the oline. Good teams always have good olines. It is up to Drevino to create the backbone for SC by getting the oline up and running. If they do that then any qb can start and look like a billion dollars. If not, then they look like cannon fodder. On defense, it is the dline and lbers. They stop the run, then force the other team to pass, their winning percentage drops by a third due to being limited to using only one piece of arsnal. The dline and lbers then can bate and switch to confuse the line blocking and create a horror picture for the opposing qb.

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    1. USC’s strengths are —
      (1) Graham Harrell
      (2) Receivers
      (3) D-Line
      (4) J. T. (if & only if he can forget everything Ellis taught him)
      (5 -16) The Pac 12

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  2. P. S.
    After all the criticism of Callaway and his half-assed o-lines, it will be interesting to see if ONE PERSON lists Drenvo or our offensive line as one of USC’s strengths in 2019….
    #HeltonNeverLearns

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      1. Yes, Drevno was a VERY good coach under Harbaugh. [Check out photos of that Drevno and compare them with the burned out 2019 version of Drevno —the latter is the one coaching our guys]…….
        #ItDoesn’tMakeMeHappyToSayThis….
        #…ButBurnOutHappens…..
        #…That’sWhyDrevno’sWithHeltonInsteadofHarbaugh

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  4. USC’s strength’s…. #1 The turnstiles! Averaging sub 40K/gm will soon enough get ClayDough fired! Winning brings back the sell-out attendance figures.. The BoT will not allow the coming sub par attendance figures for long. Fewer and fewer want to show up with they full well realize that the HC is incapable of coaching up the team to compete for the NC! Fight On
    #2 There are no other strength’s worthy of mention until #1 gets answered and fixed!

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    2. Unless the BoT’s plan all along has been to wean us off sexist patriarchal male dominated football and get us to root for Womyn Sports.

      #It’sWorking

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    1. KABC is a low wattage radio station, which might have enough umph to broadcast the game all the way out to West Covina during sunlight hours. After dark, AM stations drop their wattage to around the level of a CB radio after dark. There is one clear channel radio station in L. A. KFI is the only station that can cover the whole area.

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      1. That’s funny. It’s not like the “New USC” to ever do anything half-assed…….
        #…ExceptTheirDepartmentHead&Faculty&CoachHiring….
        #…&Admissions&Student/AthleteHearingPolicies…
        #…Etc……

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      2. Well, I’m seeing a 6,600 watts in daytime hours and then rises to 7,900 at night…it also is the flagship station for the LA Kings and I don’t hear fans complaining about the signal. In addition, an ‘all talk’ radio station can ill afford to not have their hosts heard.

        This is a good move by USC

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  6. This USC team doesn’t have strengths. It has potential.

    We’ll just have to wait to see how it all shakes out. They could just as easily rise to the occasion as much as crash and burn into a big ball of flames.

    #Helton’sCoachingandLeadershipWillNeverBeATeamStrength

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    1. Helton could show real coaching strength (and acumen) by turning everything over to Harrell and Clancy on game day…….

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  7. Clay Helton’s football philosophy does not include controlling the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball, he’s alway had a sandlot, 7 on 7 mentality .

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