FOOTBALL

Morning Buzz: The Decline Of Pac-12

I wrote about the sorry state of the Pac-12 Conference in this article for the Sporting News.

Money quote: “If you want to play big-boy football, we can’t tell a recruit this is the place to be,” a Pac-12 coach said. “We’ve lost our swagger from a national perspective. Watch Clemson, Alabama or Ohio State. It’s a different level than what we are doing.”

Full story here

46 thoughts on “Morning Buzz: The Decline Of Pac-12”

  2. The demographics of California have changed, Latinos & Asians now populate many areas that used to produce quality OL, LB, DL, the kids there now don’t play football and if they do they aren’t D1 caliber. High school participation for football in Cali is down for the 4th year in a row, I would bet that the CET issue is one reason but I also think the demographics is another part of that decline. College football west of the Rockies is pretty much dead.

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  3. Budda,

    I agree and disagree with your comment. Yes, Asians and Latinos are moving in such as Arcadia, Temple City, Alhambra, Monterey Park, my neck of the woods and they don’t participate in football. However the Latinos do. SC has had a great run with Latinos playing, guys like Vella, Munoz, and others. SC has lost out on the kids from Mater Dei, Narborrne, and St. John Bosco for their linemen. That is due to the Col. Klink head coach called Helton. What a cluster f@@k

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    1. Latino’s may play but most are not D1 caliber, the guys you named were from the 70’s, there just isn’t quality OL & DL in California anymore

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    3. Asians have a pretty good history at USC, too. Seau, Polamalu, Maivia, Maualuga, Vanuku. And others who played in the trenches, too.

      Part of the reason Asians have a good lineage in football is through rugby which is huge in Polynesia and other Pacific islands. I don’t think the problem is Asians coming in and taking over areas that once produced quality players. There are some good players out there to be found. Maybe the coaches should take a peek at the Southland rugby pitches.

      And just on this team alone, you have Asian LB’ers Mauga, Iosefa and Gaotete. And even Solomon Tuliapupu although he is done for the year with his just announced foot surgery.

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      1. Excellent point/examples…
        I think the original point was more that parents from (the most part) different cultural experiences are more likely to support their children in a variety of activities, as opposed to “the way it used to be” (ie NO SOCCER! oh, that feels good…prominent forehead ridge calming down)…
        Obviously, there’s not a darned thing wrong with anyone parenting to the best of their ability/judgment…except when it might impact our talent pool! (When that matters, which isn’t now)…

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      2. Then let me more specific, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian etc don’t play football, Pacific Islanders do play but what percentage of the Cali population are they ? And Tongan, Samoan etc are NOT Asians

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  4. Millennials and Snowflakes are soft, especially on the West Coast.

    Their state of mind has even affected those kids in the inner cities unfamiliar with the method of coddling.

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  5. This is no exaggeration, High Schools in Major and outlying cities in Texas have crowds that range from 8-20 thousand for their games. The same apples in Oklahoma, these are regular season season games. Texas division championship games at “Jerry’s House” in Dallas are in the middle 40 thousand range. This is one California trend that isn’t being mimicked in Flyover Country.

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    2. USC’s success from McKay-Carroll was the result of a nexus between unlimited access to the best (local and non-local) talent and coaching staffs that employed systems (both schemes but also training/preparation/practice/atmosphere) that made USC an NFL factory (the players were more prepared for and sought out by the professionals)…USC was ahead of or at least equal to the cutting edge trends in the NFL (and/or AFL/CFL/USFL/WFL depending on era)…which led to success, which of course in turn leads to increasing success…

      Don’t believe you can apply that characterization any time in roughly the last decade.

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  6. Football players in California are on the decline, but remember this is a state of nearly 40-million people, so there are still plenty of good footballers out here. But the good linemen are being poached or end up at Stanford, it seems. Still, if a team (school) starts to excel again, as I believe SC is primed and ready to do, the kids will come.

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  8. Graham Harrell hasn’t really decorated his office yet.

    That isn’t to say Harrell’s space on the second floor of the McKay Center is entirely uninteresting eight months into his tenure as USC’s offensive coordinator. To the right, a few papers are scattered across the desk, including a stack of crossword puzzles. If he has five minutes of free time between meetings, he’ll knock out two or three clues because it frees his mind from football.

    Books sit on a shelf above his desk — like Phil Jackson’s Eleven Rings — and behind his office chair is a framed Packers jersey from his stint in Green Bay. To the left, a window overlooks an IM soccer field, where on any given day Harrell could look out and instead see sororities battling to push a giant beach ball across the goal line, competitive quidditch or even motion-capture tryouts for Madden 2021.

    But the object resting on the mini-fridge next to that window is the most curious sight here. It is the only real belonging Harrell has brought from home. One of his most valuable possessions. His WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt.

    This black strap fitted with shining gold plates goes a long way to explain how USC’s new offensive coordinator approaches the game of football. Yes, winning is vital to Harrell, but he also places a premium on passion and entertainment.

    “Most people judge wrestling without giving it a fair shake,” Harrell says. “If you watched some from the heyday or listened to some of the stuff they said, I don’t think anyone can deny they were good entertainers.”

    Obviously, Harrell prominently displays this belt to show his love for professional wrestling and to pay homage to the grandiose characters — Sting, Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin — he has watched since he was 7 years old. But to Harrell, now 34, this hardware is no toy prop and his love for wrestling is not just a healthy escape. He uses the belt to encourage competition among his quarterbacks, through weekly contests, and he sees the spectacle of wrestling as a way to inspire, by telling stories to his players and by rolling tape of epic matches from his boyhood heroes.

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  9. Chip Kelly created the downfall of PAC 12 football, with his non physical, entertainment style. It brought national attention to Oregon, even though they never won a national championship, So Schools like Washington State, and Arizona hired coaches with similar philosophies, in Mike Leach, and Rich Rodriguez, and it created a snowball effect.

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    2. What Oregon and now Wazzou (and Texas Tech) have done is why the single wing, veer, wishbone…and then, although radically different, the west coast pass-heavy offenses…were developed…to offset talent…

      When Stoopes did it at OU in 1999-2000, it made sense, because OU was coming out of a down period…and the approach largely rests on finding a difference-making (usually) athletic quarterback, which is a lot easier than obtaining huge 4 and 5 * recruiting hauls coached by good coordinators and position coaches (and trained commensurately)…

      But as a general matter, the USC is like Texas, Ohio State, Alabama, Florida…it should never need gimmicks…each of those schools have used facets of the air raid/spread concepts…but they are fundamentally defense-first, physical teams…in short, they can do whatever, whenever, they need to…

      USC was always the epitome of that…until the past decade of HellKiffSark…

      Very amusing to hear Clay talk about how their going to use tempo…and get the ball out quickly…hmmm…didn’t Sark brag about running more than a 100 plays in a game? And then his offense couldn’t even run a 2 minute drill or a simple screen play (which hasn’t changed)?

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      1. Something called “want to” seems to be missing…..
        #ItsWhatSeparatesWinnersFromLosers….
        #HopeThisTeamCanSupplyTheirOwn’WantTo’….
        #CuzItAin’tComingFromSwannOrHelton….

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      2. Yes, MG, it is not impossible…think the Miami team that carried Coker are probably a good example to point to…

        That pesky “want to” thing…

        That was another fascinating aspect of Stoopes first two (then subsequent) years at OU…they employed the quasi-gimmicky offense…but he came from the Bill Snyder-Hayden Frye tree, so tough defense was the actual bedrock (they won that national championship game 13-2 over Florida State – few better “want to” performances I can recall), and he had a number of great running backs…

        But in short order, he found himself coaching a trash-talking point-a-minute team that had lost its soul…that got thrashed 55-19…

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      3. James —And it woulda been 55-12 except for a botched snap close to our endzone at the end of the game….
        #…LeinartWasSoPissed…..
        #[WasThatOnKalil]?

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    3. ESPN scheduling contributed to the downfall, too.

      When games are at 7:30 PM, I guarantee you no one on a Saturday night on the East Coast is going to stay home and watch those games, even if they are USC. Saturday nights are for going out and painting the town red, especially if you live in NYC or the other big cities.

      I remember alot of the Carroll era big in – conference games being daytime affairs – 2005 Oregon, ASU, Berkeley, 2006 Oregon State and just about most of the UCLA games during that time.

      Today most of those games would have a very late start which guarantees that most of the country just won’t care.

      #Don’tBelieveHeritageHall’sB.S.ThatLateGamesAreNeededForExposure;NoOneWatchesLatePac-12GamesUnlessYouWentToThatSchool

      #MaxWhoredOutUSCForColdHardCash

      #ForTheRightPrice,MaxWouldLetFootballGamesBePlayedOnTuesdayNights

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  10. Kelly inherited a program that was already far down that road…and for Oregon (just like Leach at Wazzou, et al), it made sense – the style of play is an equalizer/leveler to offset talent differentials…another reason why, as you or another poster noted earlier this week, it is so illogical for USC to degenerate into embracing an “air raid” approach (rather than extracting the useful parts of it and grafting it onto).

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    1. You’re right, James —-but, obviously, Helton never believed in anything but the slender threat of football that he thought he understood (throwing and catching the ball). The mediocre o-line coaches, the lack of success recruiting bad ass o-linemen and the mediocre run game —all point to Helton’s indifference to power football…..and any talk of a “new physicality” and “a tougher approach” to the game is just empty chatter (if it weren’t we wouldn’t have 79 wide receivers)……

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      2. Very funny image: Helton drowning in wide receivers…
        #..WithBigSmileOnHisFace….
        #[ColorPhotosToBeSoldAtComiCon]….

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  11. I was watching the 2016 usc vs. ucla game with Darnold playing qb. Back at that time they had no oline. It will be true this year. But Daniels is a deer stuck looking into the headlights instead of being Darnold where he made the play go because of his talent.

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    1. Sam was a magician…

      Not well appreciated, largely, but Rivers with the Chargers has been a magician during most of his career, given his lack of running mobility (he, like Jim Plunkett once upon a time, has an innate knack for moving within the pocket to get throws off) and lack of speed targets…

      Sam succeeded despite Helton, not because of him…

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      1. And Sam KNEW he was succeeding in spite of the Helton brothers…..
        #…&KnewThereWasNoReasonToEndureThemAnotherYear….

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      2. And for his next act, he will now pull a white rabbit out of you know where and lead the J-E-T-S Jets-Jets-Jets to dethroning the Pats…I have rarely been even close to as interested in the NFL as USC, but this year…go Chargers and Rams…and go to all of the former players like Sam, JuJu, RoJo, Adoree, Jurrell, Tyron, Uchenna, et al

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      4. Watching those players light it up in the league…
        Is like watching Westbrook and Love in the NBA and wondering how they won zero titles at UCLA (except not the same because the Florida team they encountered was also loaded)…so more like watching Stackhouse, Carter, Jamieson, and Wallace in the NBA, and wondering how that led to zero NCAA titles…
        Or my go-to NCAA favorite, the 1984 Ohio State team USC upset in the Rose Bowl (also a three loss team that when looking at the names and careers makes one go “huh?”)…

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      5. It can be done, James. Nothing is cooler than watching “team” football beat “name” football….
        #Interestingly,WeHavePlentyOf”Names”In2019…
        #Now’sTheTimeToProveThey’reA”Team”,Too….

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  12. I am so glad that the season is here.

    Re:PAC, Mr Larry Scott is an unmitigated disaster. He’s a Harvard opportunistic con artist women’s tennis coach. His oversight top are the college presidents, Athletic administrators & coaches of the PAC and those same people have no sense in whining about lack of revenue because the dude in charge is a failure & they put him there. And they extended his incredibly bloated contract.
    Furthermore, his office needs a thorough audit. Now.

    This ‘weak’ PAC has 5/25 top teams. Two of the three top NFL payrolls. Not 2/10 or 1/5 but 2/3. If the ultimate purpose for an outstanding football athlete is to go pro then the PAC does very well. Added benefit: you get to breath air. Go to the SEC during football season if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

    A lot of people talk about how weak the PAC is. Maybe it is. Hustle over to Tuscaloosa where two of their LB 1’s are gone for the year with full contact practice injuries. I wonder how that will affect their draft stock.

    College sports on the west coast have a lot of competition for entertainment. 8 pro football & basketball teams in California alone(7 soon). If you’re in Kansas in January, what else is there to do but go to a MBB game? Oh, O.K., go outside & freeze to death or milk the cows. If you’re in tix-iss(TY mule) your alternative is to go watch Wal-Mart shoppers.

    As for me, I’ll stay right here & hold the net for MG on 11/16.

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