Below is a pretty extraordinary tweet from Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin seeking a home-and-home series with teams from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Pac-12.
Is USC listening? Nope.
Steve Lopes, the senior associate athletic director at USC, handles football scheduling and has effectively eliminated all marquee home-and-home series. If you don’t believe, check the future schedules here.
So I’m highlighting the tweet in the hopes that the new athletic director will call Stricklin.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAttention ADs from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Pac-12 … @GatorsFB is looking to add additional Home-and-Home series against P5 opponents. Let’s connect and schedule quality games the fans want to see! #GoGators
— Scott Stricklin (@ScottStricklin) October 22, 2019
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
I remember when SC played Florida home and home under Tolner. SC lost one and Florida tied the other. Florida had some monster defensive end that chased down and tackled the SC ball carrier while going away from him. They were good games.
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Those were the days when SC feared no one. Now we schedule and lose to crummy BYU.
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GT22, those two sentences are devastating.
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The only reason Florida tied USC in 1983 was because USC muffed the extra point at the end of the game. USC scored a TD with no time left. The XP was supposed to be automatic and for the W but SC screwed it up.
#ThatWasTollner’sDebut
#TollnerWasSoBadSomePeopleAreComparingHeltonToHim;SomeSayHeltonIsWorse
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Worse.
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Can’t believe USC is starting to schedule lesser marquee opponents. UC Davis, Nevada, Rice and New Mexico.
What ever happened to ” Any Team–Any Where–Any Time “…I realize we have gone down thanks to our crappy coach & staff. But do we have to stoop down to the level like most of the SEC teams do for non conference games. A lesser school willing to play a Power 5 school for a fat pay check, reminds me of hooker.
USC isn’t getting the attendance for games now– do you think they will with the above mentioned teams as opposed to a Florida. Look at the attendance we got when we played Ohio State, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida State in the Coli ( yea I know we were GOOD THEN ).
What has happened to USC is SAD!!! WAS the UNIVERSITY of The West Coast.
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The one responsible for the downgrade in scheduling is Senior Associate Athletic Director Steve Lopes. Dude is an idiot and needs to be shown the door.
Lopes would never have had the nerve to schedule these lesser teams if Mike Garrett or Pete Carroll were still around Heritage Hall. They would have gotten in his face and Lopes would have backed down.
Steve Lopes is not a Trojan.
#AndYouCanTellThatF*****MarviennaSaidThat
#BelieveMeLopes,WouldDoMoreToDowngradeSchedulingAndFootballIfGivenTheChanceIfNotRemovedFromHeritageHallSoon
#ThoseInTheLoopKnowLopesHasANapoleonComplexAndWantedToBeSomebodyInAthleticsButHeNeverHadAGraspOfUSCFootballAndHerTraditions
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Okay, marvienna —I’ll tell Lopes you said he was an “F, asterisk, asterisk, asterisk, asterisk, asterisk”….
#…ButItProbablyWould’veMeantMoreIfYouJustCalledHimAFucker
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I’m not the only Trojan to feel that way about him, Michael.
Mr. Lopes believes that USC Athletics could do more if it didn’t have so many traditions to honor and abide by. Recent case in point – the downgrading of Salute To Troy and the disrespectful “olive branch” offered to the former players offended. (Salute To Troy will be reinstated next year but only after complaints made their way to Bovard, not Heritage Hall).
He has also been an obstacle on a few other projects to honor former players and only backed down when other senior administrators like Mike Garrett got into his face, hence Mr. Lopes “Napoleon Complex.”
The last few years he’s assumed more control but he’s been exposed and it’s been shown he’s clueless about how to manage the traditions that go with CFB and USC football. (Drop him an e-mail about late game times and he will actually e-mail you back with ESPN statistics about why late game times are good! He takes ESPN’s side over USC fans, the punk.) It’s time for him to go. He’s been f****** up USC for too many years with no one looking over his shoulder now.
#That’sWhyI’vEDespisedHimMoreThanTheLastTwoA.D.’s
#FightOn!
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Interesting fact of the day: Snarkasm a word combining sarcasm and snarky means sarcasm with a mean twist. The word has been added to scrabble and urban dictionary. I think the official Webster’s dictionary will have a reference link to this blog. In other news Florida is looking for QUALITY teams. USC < Quality at this time.
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Just for fun and with a devious heart we should offer Mario Christobal 5 million to come to USC…….hoping Knight goes for it and counters with 6 million. At least it would draw some cash out of the place and maybe soften his heart toward USC.
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1982 Robinson’s team went to Gainesville and lost a war 17-9 … Gators had their best team in years with Wilbur Marshall.
SC 8-3 that year with Del Rio, Hope, the Browners,Achica, Bickett,Curley, and Troy West on D.
Mathews, Mosebar, Simmons,Salisbury, Spencer and Crutchers on O.
Played this road schedule :
at #5 Florida L 17-9
at #4 Oklahoma W 12-0
at #15 Arizona W 47-42
at #2 Arizona St L 24-17
at #7 UCLA L 20-19
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The O-line was always a source of team strength back in the day.
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Time to even up the playing field with teams like Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio St., Bama, Texas, and many other P5 teams who load up on home games, FCS opponents, and double byes during a season. This wreaks of an uneven playing field. This past Saturday was Wisconsin’s first time out of the state and they lost to Portal-rich, but terrible Illinois. Bama schedules byes before their showdowns with LSU every year and will never schedule a home and away series with anyone of note; instead opting to play their “tough” opening games at Jerry’s World where they have a clear home field advantage.
The times of USC playing a gauntlet of a schedule are over and why should they? All of these schools pad their schedules as much as possible and are rewarded by getting selected to the CFPlayoff. Time for SC to do the same.
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At USC, we duck no one. You go here, you want to play in marquee matchups all the time, to test your mettle, and to send a strong message to recruits who follow: “if you play here, you get to play against the best.” Watch which networks fight to broadcast those games …guarantee it won’t be late night on a Thursday. Teams that are bankrupt enough to pad their schedules… let them. At the end of the season, they won’t have faced the same talent level and will lack the intestinal fortitude for the tougher games that await them than teams that have already been battle-tested. Bottom-line: we seem to have lost that recipe – and we need to get it back by whatever means necessary.
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The worst part is after 2021 no longer being one of the only three teams not to have played a Div II/FCS team. That is a disgrace.
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