QUARTERBACK
Kedon Slovis is playing so good I might pay to hear what JT Daniels and his father think right now. By the way, this puts Clay Helton in a heckuva bind too if he comes back as coach next season.
Grade: B
TAILBACK
Markese Stepp is special. The other backs are not. So one had to get hurt for him to get more carries.
Grade: B+
OFFENSIVE LINE
Only the USC offensive line could have so much trouble against a three-man front. Tim Drevno’s worked wonders with this group. When do they get better? At least there are plenty of three-star recruits arriving next year.
Grade: D
WIDE RECEIVERS
If teams want to prevent the deep pass, maybe Genius Graham Harrell should figure out how to get his two best weapons (Michael Pittman, Tyler Vaughns) involved in other ways. Or does that go against the Air Raid principles?
Grade: C+
DEFENSIVE LINE
The rah-rah pundits were going way overboard praising the defensive line the first five games and look what happened when they played a physical, running team. They wilted on the inside and never contained the edge.
GRADE: F
LINEBACKERS
John Houston is getting pummeled and this is no defense but why not blame Clancy Pendergast for playing him out of position? The pundits largely ignore Palaie Gaoteote but he’s not making enough plays or living up to all that hype from Bishop Gorman.
GRADE: F
SECONDARY
Did you see safety Isaiah Pola-Mao pull up instead of hitting quarterback Ian Book as Book reached the goal line? You think Ronnie Lott, Dennis Smith or Troy Polamalu would do that?
GRADE: D+
SPECIAL TEAMS
How lucky was John Baxter that an unforced fumble prevented Notre Dame from returning a kickoff for a touchdown? I’m still waiting for USC to down a punt inside the 10-yard line. Has USC done anything in the return game since Fresno State?
GRADE: F
COACHING
USC had 12 men on the field twice. Graham Harrell waited 5 1/2 games to finally speed up the tempo. He then threw Markese Stepp under the bus and claimed he was “sucking wind.” It’s so bad the apologists (and Clay Helton) are treating a close loss as a win.
GRADE: F
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
Betcha Stepp has been told to back up Harrell’s assessment —“if anyone asks you whether you could have carried the ball an 11th time be sure to say ‘no way’!”
#WhoCaresIfItHurtsYourStock?!
#[TimeToTakeOneForTheCoaches]
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He already has, he said it’s tiring dragging 6 players along for a ride
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The coaching is an F, it is every week, but the players have to do what these boobs tell them to do, so it’s hard to put all of the blame on the players. If they don’t tackle it’s probably because they don’t practice it, not holding the edge is hard if you’re not coached the right way or if you’re too damn small for that position or even hurt.
This cluster fuck of a coaching staff can’t be gone soon enough, but until they are, we’ll have to suffer through the last 6 games and just hope that the talent can outweigh the inept coaching for wins and know that if USC does have a new coach next year, he’s got a top QB and RB as well as some promising DB’s and WR’s to work with. It will take 1-2 years to fix the lines but the players we have can be coached up.
The ball is in USC’s court, if they drop the ball on both the AD and football coach hire, assuming Gomer is let go, then it will be another 5 years or more in the darkness and being irrelevant in football
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Flow finally learns how to spell “genius” after throwing that insult out there for the 5th time. Nice work.
As for Helton? Even if he wins out, which is still no cake-walk, there’s no way he’s retained. I’m including a potential shot at winning the PAC12 title AND a Rose Bowl. This mess has gone on too long and there’s that little coach everyone keeps talking about that’s ripe for the pickin’. It lines up too much and makes way too much sense to pass on that coach while he’s available.
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That little coach you’re referring to has already said that his wife loves Los Angeles and he misses the challenge of coaching. That’s about as clear a hint as he can give that he’s ready to take over Helton’s job if it’s offered. If USC is too scared to move forward because a few people will say Meyer didn’t live up to their politically correct expectations in dealing with a very complicated staff situation, we can drift into the Alabama game and make the university a laughing stock all over again….
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I’ve heard these things as well.
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MG- Meyer is probably cleaner than most of the BOT at USC, we know he’s cleaner than Nikias.
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karma — compared to most of the current board and our past president, Meyer is a fricking mystical holy man…..
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btw, 04 —Tarantino never did get around to spelling ‘inglorious’ correctly…
#…It’sStillAPrettyGoodMovie…
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Flow is by no means a Tarantino. That much is quite clear.
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Well, I can see somebody hasn’t seen Scott’s “Once Upon A Time In Lynn Swann’s Office”…
#NowPlayingInLibya
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Wolf made mention of an NFL asst coach who was at or watched the SC/ND game and said how poorly coached SC is. Take a look at the Raiders staff, it’s one of two guys, or maybe both, see if you can figure out who it might be, it really isn’t hard.
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Scottie what gives with the B grades for QB and RB?
Slovis was 24/35 for 255 yards and 2 TD, no interceptions. Could have been 3 TD if St. Brown held on to that one pass. And all this despite having to look over to Helton literally every single down in the second half.
Plus Slovis is 18 years old and coming off concussion protocol. He is the 20th ranked passer in the country, despite limited playing time this season. Did anybody realistically expect a better performance than Slovis had?
Stepp had one of the most impressive 10 carry games any of us have seen.
And keep in mind the crappy o-line play didn’t help either Slovis or the RBs.
Imagine what the score would have been without Slovis and Stepp.
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67 —Please don’t make us think about the score without Slovis and Stepp.
[If we had gone to South Bend without them —and it was all Fink and Carr —- Helton would have gotten his pink slip 6 games early]….
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Michael, it would have been very ugly without Slovis and Stepp.
#2016Bama-SCUgly
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Exactly what I was thinking…
[btw, when Helton tells the team they have the same record as that 2016 team does he mention fact that 2016 team lost to Alabama and this team lost to BYU]?
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And if Daniels was able to return Gomer would start him over Slovis
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karma —If Daniels weren’t out for the season we would NEVER HAVE HEARD of Slovis…..
#It’sAmazingHowLittleHeltonUnderstands…
#….AboutTheOnePositionHeEverPlayed
#[ItTellsYouEverythingYouNeedToKnowAboutHimAsACoach]….
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SCooter,
The entire defense deserves an F. I disagree with the recievers though. If the refs would have thrown three defensive pass interference calls, plus the completion to Pitman where he had the ball going out of bounds, then the game could have been different. With Vaughns one handed catch in the endzone, his other arm was being held but no call.
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Exactly – the report card should also include a grade for officiating.
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67,
I take it you’re advocating for a grading scale that goes deeper into the alphabet than “F”…?
#[Perhaps”FU”WouldWork]…
#[OfCourseWeCouldGiveThatOutToPac12OfficialsEVERYSaturday]…
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Michael, can a grade of “F” be an abbreviation for “Fired”?
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Every Pac 12 official (all 8 of them) who watched Kelly walk 25 feet on the field DURING the onside kick without flagging him should get an envelope with a post-it inside that reads “F”….
#LetTHEMFigureOutWhatItMeans….
#[It’llBecomeClearerWhenChecksStopAndKeysDon’tWork]….
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My humor is often lost in the other blog, which was much more positive before the season started. However I make no apologies for copying and pasting this here, because it’s true. We are stuck with the worst coach in SC history and and yet again this decade long trudge to football has many of us down. I rewrote our song as a surrender song.
Fight On” to “Wait Long.”
It would go something like this:
Wait Long ’til next year
Them’s the words we always hear
Our Alma Mater Dear,
Has its head
Stuck up its rear
Wait Long for Ol’ SC
Wait long for victory
Wait Long chuckle
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Diabolical, Rialto.
#WhichSiteFailedToAppreciateThis?
#WeMustGoThere&PunishThem
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Trojan daily blog. Nice place if you are from their hood. I quit once but like Scott it’s too compelling to skip for long.
#canthelpmyelf
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