FOOTBALL

USC Not Ranked In AP Preseason Poll For First Time Since 2001

USC received one vote in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, which meant it tied Arizona for 45th.

It is the first time the Trojans were not ranked in the AP preseason poll since 2001.

Fresno State got 8 votes and is a double-digit underdog to USC.

UPDATED: This is the first time neither USC nor UCLA is in the poll since 1964. What a sad state for Los Angeles college football.

  • If you went to Saturday’s scrimmage, you saw members of the 1969 team introduced beforehand. There were 11 people introduced. But two were managers. The 1994 team had only 7 players show up.

33 thoughts on “USC Not Ranked In AP Preseason Poll For First Time Since 2001”

  1. From start to finish, the planning and execution of the ’69 and ’94 team celebrations was awful. 16 players in attendance from both teams is an embarrassment.

    Folt, was hired to make changes. Not too late for a redo at a home game this year.

    Liked by 4 people

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      1. She’d be better able to pay off those lawsuits and enjoy a way more brightened up office if she’d spend 2 seconds thinking about USC football and the impact of Swann and Helton…..

        Liked by 4 people

      2. And she would also be better able to pay off those lawsuits by increasing the value of the football program. Right now, it generates about $60 million annually.

        Get back to winning, maybe it rises to $80 million? More losing seasons, maybe $40 million?

        #ItAddsUp

        Liked by 4 people

      3. 67 —ONE more losing season and the games will only be on radio…..
        #…[UnlessAGuyNamedUrbanStepsUpToThePlate]….

        Liked by 5 people

    1. Definitely worse than Tollner…who “willed” a boatload of top shelf talent to Smith (who largely managed to not do anything special with)…and Hackett didn’t inherit Darnold, Adoree, RoJo, JuJu, etc…plus was an assistant on great teams under JRob, so isn’t completely without accomplishment…whereas Helton insofar as many of us are concerned, is most definitely without accomplishment…other than somehow managing to stay employed by Haden and Swann…

      Liked by 4 people

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      1. I always liked Larry Smith (not a great recruiter —but a tough coach who made his teams practice hard —and was a winner with other people’s players at three universities).

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Then again ‘Jolly John’ hit the catapult to the Rams ASAP in 1983 rather than stay, as he promised he would, when that scandal broke that he ignored consciously or otherwise. It was the reason Garrett nixed his extension after the end of the 1997 season. And as much as all applaud Pete Carroll he did the exact same thing after the 2009 season was over (Jan 2010). Smith’s whining about playing ‘the princess’ and ‘bel-air tech’ back-to-back in even-numbered years was his own self-inflicted ‘death spiral. You’re 100% right about Hackett – at least he’d coached someplace – never understood how Tollner got the job – never been a head coach anywhere prior to USC i.e. Helton.

        Lou Holtz mirrored John Robinson (UNLV) per his stint at So. Carolina….you got players and you can coach you’re going to win…without both – no way and today USC has nothing approaching a true valid serious and ready head coach.

        Liked by 4 people

      3. MG-I’ve mentioned before that quote attributed to Smith (believe it was when they made SI’s cover after beating Oklahoma in early 1988) about how when he arrived he realized that one of his first tasks was to dispossess people of the entitlement mentality (he said something to the effect of “It’s not about walking around making a “V” sign…)…he was at least tough and his teams had their moments (especially the 1989 game in South Bend)…

        Rus-very good and accurate accounting…Hackett had a successful run at USC under JRob in the late ’70s, and mixed results in the NFL…at USC he didn’t inherit the kind of talent that Helton has had to work with…

        I’d love to have (then, obviously not now) Lou Holtz – yeah, I know it’s pretty widely acknowledged that he engaged in just as much dirty recruiting and under the rug sweeping as any other coach at multiple stops – he was like Bob Knight in basketball, the epitome of the old Bear Bryant “He can coach your’s and beat his, or his and beat your’s…

        Liked by 4 people

      4. James — At halftime of that game in South Bend (where USC scored first and was driving for a second fast score only to lose the ball on an interception), Holtz was asked if he was worried. Smiling, Holtz said “no —I was thinking ‘I’ve been here before'” That’s the mind set of every great warrior when things go wrong —I’ve been here before and I KNOW I can turn this around….
        #It’sWhatSeparatesHeltonFromHoltz

        Liked by 3 people

  3. 2019 AP Pre-Season poll results:

    Others receiving votes: Missouri 117, Army 94, Mississippi State 87, Miami 70, Northwestern 63, TCU 57, Virginia 44, Boise State 38, Cincinnati 16, South Carolina 15, Virginia Tech 12, Fresno State 8, Utah State 8, Minnesota 7, Memphis 6, Appalachian State 5, West Virginia 3, Oklahoma State 3, UAB 3, Arizona State 3, Arizona 1, USC 1

    #therealUSCreceived15votes-Ouch!

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Don’t you dare!
      As an undergraduate alum of the (not) real USC (the school that has tried to style itself as both USC and Carolina to no avail in the public conscience), not so affectionately known as Kakolackia in the region while being situated in “the armpit of the south”…
      I protest!

      Liked by 3 people

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      2. And I believe that one was literally decided in court…
        If only y’all could see how they react when you piss in their grits and tell them that no one but them thinks of them as USC…it’s hysterical…
        Or at least it was until they shaded us 15-1…

        Liked by 2 people

      3. With exception of Dothan-AL (Troy St.) I can’t think of a more difficult place to attract kids to play college football than Columbia-SC….Holtz and Spurrier went off a cliff there but they also knew what they were entering….crazy is they thought they could do what no one else had or ever would.

        Liked by 3 people

      4. Agreed – easy to say they just did it for money (or in Lou’s case, to set Skip up)…but it actually seemed like they thought they could do it…having lived there for a time, added to what we all know as fans…if a kid (and the state, like all of the southern states, produces lots of talent) is that good, does he go to Columbia? or Clemson…or Georgia…or Florida…or Alabama…or Tennessee…or North Carolina…South Carolina pretty much finishes out of the running for the top players…

        Liked by 1 person

      5. James —Do you think Folt (or Swann) comprehend(s) exactly what it says about your football staff when you get ONE vote after you’ve had several top 5 recruiting classes (and many of those players are still playing for USC) …?

        Liked by 3 people

      7. Yes, James. The question is rhetorical. [Right at this moment Swann is leaning back in his chair thinking, “This is my Spartacus moment. It’s gonna be so sweet when we win the playoffs and cream Alabama next year”]…..
        #OnlyDifference:SpartacusHadARealSword

        Liked by 2 people

      8. To carry that train of thought forward…fancying himself Spartacus with the Bama game looming…not getting that the other army has a Crassus in charge (we could only hope that the comparison went forward to the molten gold down the throat bit administered by the Parthians…although maybe the playoff beatings by Ohio State and Clemson sort of serve that purpose)…

        Liked by 2 people

  4. 1 vote too many…
    unless they go with a q/b that can run and pass on the run,and get first downs to get in scoring position.
    Then they may get 3rd in Pac12 south and go 7-5.
    These practices in shorts are destroying the SC TEAM.

    Liked by 1 person

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  6. One fucking vote in the AP poll. ONE ! This is driving me fucking crazy. When did we ever allow the football program to hit the skids the way C.L. Max Nikias, Pat Haden. Steve Lopes, Clay Helton, and Lynn Swann allowed. All of these fucking assholes need to be run out of town for this shit. Carol Folt will NOT do anything. She’s never been an administrator at a school that had a major sports program. For crying out loud she got a Masters or Ph.d in ECOLOGY at U.C. Davis. Although, to her credit (by default), that fucking Max Nikias didn’t even have an American college degree and managed to bamboozle those idiots on the Board of Trustees to appoint him President). $315 MILLION spent for rich friends of Nikias and Haden to drink wine in the new Coliseum towers while the rest of the schlubs who have supported the team for decades get to sit in cheap plastic seats with attached plastic tomato holders this upcoming season. This is all so fucking ridiculous that my head is about to explode because of the incompetency of the administration, past and present. And all the while, we have Clueless Clay and Stuttering Stanley (aka Lynn Swann) making millions of dollars for doing shit. (s)USC(ks) to be a Trojan right now. ONE FUCKING AP vote. Was it Wolf’s vote ?

    Liked by 3 people

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    3. I really miss Kiffy Goat!

      bozo u was such a boffo operatic FB program. Nobody, to this day, has done the sombrero and shades thing quite like his Kiffiness.

      Liked by 1 person

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