FOOTBALL

Morning Buzz: USC Did Face That Difficult Schedule, Right?

How many times have you heard a college football pundit say Clay Helton went 8-4 vs. a difficult schedule?

They have a point. Look at some of the teams USC beat:

  • Stanford without quarterback K.J. Costello
  • Utah without tailback Zach Moss
  • Colorado with woozy QB Steven Montez
  • Arizona State without QB Jayden Daniels
  • Cal without QB Chase Garbers
  • UCLA with quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson nursing a sore ankle

Now someone will surely point out USC’s injuries. But if we agree USC has more talent than other Pac-12 teams, it can obviously sustain them better than Cal or Colorado or Arizona State. I’d also agree with you if you say Helton does his best to neutralize that talent advantage.

38 thoughts on “Morning Buzz: USC Did Face That Difficult Schedule, Right?”

  1. If Mike Bohn’s decision to keep Clay Helton is solely based on that 8-4 record, then he’s not much of an athletic director. Because all of the other factors that are involved in evaluating a coaching staff, Helton gets a big “F” . The fact that USC is the most penalized team in college football, tells you exactly who Helton is .

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    2. I’m thinking if Bohn was going to keep Helton, he would already have made the announcement.

      It wouldn’t make any sense for Bohn to let Helton keep hanging if he was sure to keep him.

      Many good coaches out there – let’s hire one.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      3. Pudly —Welcome back, old friend. Prepare for incoming! [Crap –even the wording of my warning will probably cause you trouble]…..
        #btw,I’dLikeToKickAssesOfParentsWhoTookThatVideoOfTheirKid…

        Liked by 2 people

    2. Bohn is waiting to see if Colorado beats Utah. If they do retain Gomer, look for mostly empty seats on Saturdays, no donor money, a recruiting class ranked below the service academies and another national TV prison raping by Bama

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  3. “Now someone will surely point out USC’s injuries.”

    Injuries can be the result of bad luck. They can also be the result of a poorly run strength and conditioning program. Every team has some players get banged up along the way, but has anyone noticed that the truly elite teams seem to have fewer problems with injuries than your average teams?

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

      1. Have you ever listened to our S & C coach? He’s full of shit. All icing ….and no cake.
        #DoesClayActuallyWantRejects?…
        #..OrAreTheyTheOnlyOnesWho’llWorkForHim?

        Liked by 3 people

  4. Hope the money is enough to content them for what will be a lifetime of knowing to be just how idiotic, incompetent, and undeserving (and that includes if they are just carrying out directives from above) they proved to be if they do what a kindergartner would know not to do (how can the same president fire Swann and keep Helton? what sort of tortured mental gymnastics are required to arrive at such a state of affairs? Yes, yes, BOT, I know…a perverse form of quasi vulture capitalism)…

    As many of us have already said and everyone needs to make clear where it matters, with their purchasing power…do this, and we’re done…

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. James — Obviously Clay is not the best coach out there. Obviously Meyer is. Obviously USC is afraid to go out and sign him up [cuz it would hurt the feelings of ‘moral’ people across the globe]. So let me ask you this –what happens if Clay is forced to BELATEDLY do what he should have done after the Cotton Bowl — cut Clancy and Baxter lose and get rough, tough, NFL-experienced mother fuckers in their place? Granted, we’ll still lose to Alabama when Clay changes the play 4 times on the goal line and we get called for too much time —but can we win the rest?

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. I’m working on “plan B” for us, MG.

        After shoveling 14 inches of fresh snow off my deck, I’ll get after it.
        Remember, a great DC hire could segue to “interim HC” quite quickly.
        We all know that this is the likeliest scenario moving forward.

        If UM takes on the challenge, I’m on board. I’ll take UM’s life story over
        Otis Chandler and the LA times 10 out of 10.
        (Yeah, he’s a quiet Catholic–a real reason for many to hate him)

        Liked by 2 people

      2. MG
        It repeats the mistake I complained to you about a year ago – what failing company fires underlings and keeps the CEO? No, that happens in the realm of politics and we refer to it as “failed states.” No decent coaches (even Ryan on the Peristyle, who used to contest this point, more or less admits now…and probably having the Coach pound on that point has had an impact) are going to come and put their careers on the line to work for a buffoon like Helton. There is only one answer, and any of us (which would notably include you my friend) who have been part of successful organizations, know what it is…

        Liked by 3 people

      3. People need to move on from Meyer, he is not coming to SC. There are many coaches out there that are better than Helton. The new AD know who would be good.

        The only way I see Helton coming back is if they could hire a really hot defensive coordinator and they use that to sell the fan base on the fact that next year will be different under Clay. But what hot defensive coach would want to work under Clay?

        I think that Helton has known for several weeks that he is not returning. His interview demeanor has been much different in the past week. There was one interview where he almost chocked up. But the admin wants to move him out on a positive note, not a kick in the pants.

        Liked by 3 people

      4. I don’t hate Chandler because he’s a quiet Catholic but I’ll take a guy who’s not a phony (Meyer) over a hypocrite like Otis Chandler any day (but the present leadership at USC wouldn’t —and that’s all that matters).
        I like Folt and Bohn –they’re smart, decent people —but it would take more than they’ve got to close the deal with Meyer, create a new USC Football Dynasty (which, believe me, wouldn’t threaten the structure of the moral universe)….and tell their mixed up, fucked up L A Times critics to go piss up a rope.

        Liked by 2 people

      6. 2020 Trojans’ first half dozen games include Alabama, Utah at Utah, Oregon at Oregon, and Stanford at Stanford. SC will only be favored against the ex-Indians, but Coach Shaw won’t go down easily either.

        Liked by 2 people

  5. I must compliment Mr. Wolf on this post.

    I had not forgotten that we barely beat Utah sans Moss back in September. You could see the “what if” on Coach Whittingham’s face at the end of the game.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Bourbon –Pete Carroll’s teams closed out games against a lot of teams with injured receivers and injured quarterbacks —because, in the first quarter, his teams injured them. We’ve done the same this year. It’s part of the game.
      #All’sFair,Etc……

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

    2. He had an entire 3 quarters to change his defense from a 7 man to 4 and he (Whittingham) didn’t, mind you it was Matt Fink’s victory to cap it. Don’t think much of Petersen but he used a 4 man and won.

      Like

      Reply

  6. While it is true USC played teams missing “star” players, it is also true that USC played games without their their stars. Sometimes their stars were less than their replacement, which leads me to my point-USC played those games with unqualified coaches.
    1. Clay Helton had one game (a bowl game) of head coaching experience when he became full time head coach. Even though he was the offensive coordinator, he was under offensive head coaches and just a butt kisser to keep his job.
    2. Clancy Pendegast has never played a down of organized football and has only been the coach of his fraternity house team prior to taking a job as an assistant coach. He is the Frank Abagnale of college football.
    3. John Baxter cannot count to eleven without pulling off his pants. He hasn’t succeeded in putting together a flawless game this season.
    4. The jury is still out on the offensive coordinator. We may never know if he was truly calling all of the plays. However putting all of your eggs in one basket offensively, isn’t a preferred method of play.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  7. Gomer said in January that there would be improvements across the board, didn’t happen

    New S&C coach sucks

    Same old tired bullshit about his assistants, best in the game according to Gomer, every new hire is some POS that he knows, his dad knew or knows, his brother knows and they all suck ass

    Went to an offense that has never won a NC and never will win a NC, you have to have offensive balance to win and tough defenses, Gomer has neither

    He doesn’t learn from his mistakes.

    He doesn’t send his assistants to schools that have won to learn from them but they do watch NFL film to see how to stop running QB’s, buying that BS are you ?

    His quotes last night were embarrassing, his post game pressers are embarrassing, his Sunday night conference calls are embarrassing.

    His post Darnold record is a joke, he beats shitty PAC 12 teams, sometimes barely, with 5 times the talent of the other teams and they don’t call him Horseshoe Helton for nothing, the guy is luckier than anyone you’ll every know.

    If he is retained, how many of you will pay to go see it or watch it on TV ?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  9. If Del Rio wants the HC job but Helton is retained, perhaps Del Rio should consider being the DC and effectively Interim Head Coach in Waiting

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to trojan1967 Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.