FOOTBALL

Mike Bohn Watch Continues

Mike Bohn retweeted the USC basketball team’s victory over Long Beach State. That’s all he has done since Dec. 4: Retweet.

He has not actually written a tweet.

The guy who was such an extravert is now basically hiding in Heritage Hall.

  • Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt will be the announcers for the Holiday Bowl.
  • Arizona State QB Joey Yellen, who got his lone college start against USC, is transferring. This was one of those games that saved Clay Helton’s job.
  • Here’s an article on the state of USC recruiting.

15 thoughts on “Mike Bohn Watch Continues”

    1. If you can’t take the heat, don’t make lousy administrative decisions. Some schools have a coaching carousel, our beloved USC has an AD carousel.

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  3. Off-topic, but thought I would share this – great story about Sam Cunningham, as well as the competition he faced in the backfield to earn the starting job. One of the best lines is about the size of the holes he ran through that were created by the O-line.

    View at Medium.com

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  4. the poor bastard is shell shocked. He thought this was going to be a promotion to the promised land and he crapped in his own bed. I am going to have to assume he wanted to do something other than retain Helton and he did not have the cojones to put up a fight with Folt. If he wanted to retain Helton he is stupid. Going to be interesting if USC loses by two touchdowns to Iowa and we have 12 men on the field and two guys wearing the same number.

    Liked by 2 people

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  5. On a serious note, Bohn has probably learned that it doesn’t matter how available or nice you are to the Los Angeles press. If things go south, they’re gonna eat you alive. It’s what they do. Tweets and personal appearances don’t mean a thing. The only thing that counts is winning —- and, hopefully, all his energies are now devoted to ensuring a good year in 2020…
    #….NothingElseMatters…

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  8. I admit that I can’t talk to anyone about kicking or punting a football, but what exactly is it that John Baxter is able to tell a kick returner about running with the football? It’s not that I can just look at him and know he doesn’t have deep knowledge about running with the football, I can look at his work product and see that his return man hasn’t been taught how to do it. Look at Velus Jones returning the football over the last couple years and more times than not, you will see him get tackled in a very specific way; he will run right by a pair of engaged players, the defender will slide off the block, hit Velus solidly from the side with his helmet in front (that’s just how you want it), while Velus has one knee up in the air mid-stride. If you look at all of his returns the last couple of years, you will see a ridiculous percentage of them that end in that very specific way. I described it earlier in the year as him, “running right the F into people” and I’ve been watching him do this ever since he got here. You know why this is happening? Because Velus doesn’t have a coach who understands vision or the interpretation of the information contained therein. You can’t teach what you don’t know. If Velus had been given vision or had been taught anything about it, his returns would not be ending with him getting drilled from the side so often.

    I use the term “vision” broadly and a large part of it is recognizing the information you see in your field of vision and knowing how to make it serve you. In the context of the very specific way Velus gets tackled, it’s due to the fact that he is not recognizing what kind of block he has when two players are engaged. (I’m sure he’s also being told by his coach to just hit the hole as fast as possible which is kind of dogmatic) There is a range in the quality of block that you’re getting from your blocker and it can range from a “pancake” block to players essentially playing Patty-cake with each other. That’s part of the information that you’re processing and interpreting when you’re using your vision while running with the ball. The more information you see and interpret in your vision and the speed with which you do it determines how good your vision is. Creativity and individuality comes from the way you use the information you’re processing through your vision. Anyway, if I constantly see Velus getting tackled in the very specific way that I described, it’s because he’s running right next to a defender who is not fully engaged and is absolutely available to make a very solid tackle on him. Velus should be able to see and interpret that block and if he isn’t doing that by now, it’s because he isn’t being taught. You can’t know how frustrating it has been for me to keep seeing this and I’ve ranted about it before. Go back and look at his returns and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Why, if you know what you’re doing and you’ve had all this time with him, is he STILL doing this? Is that REALLY the best we can do there? Why have I not seen him setup a lightly-engaged blocker to one side and then go back to the other side to better utilize his “blind” blocker? Why doesn’t he know that he can make that defender have to cross his blocker’s face to make the tackle once he’s been setup properly instead of just sliding off at will? I’m glad that I asked, as the answer is that his coach has no idea about any of that or the other finer points of running with the football.

    Look, I know people think that if I really knew what I was talking about, I would’ve gone into the business, but I just didn’t for whatever reasons. However, I swear to you that I would’ve made Velus a better KR/player if I had all this time with him and it was my job to coach him. The coaches apparently look at 4.2 speed and think they’ll automatically get a great return man, but it doesn’t work like that. There are levels to running with the ball and you don’t know (and can’t teach) what you don’t know. USC should have a coach who knows something about what I’m talking about and can teach it. Velus Jones hasn’t learned anything about returning kicks and running with a football since he’s been here, and he should be a finished product by now. Moreover, why isn’t special teams a weapon with all the weapons the team has? Look at John Baxter…what can he tell someone like Velus Jones about running with a football and what has been the result of his tutelage?

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    1. Baxter coaching Velus: “Catch the ball and take off in a straight line. See how far ya get before somebody tackles ya.”
      #Velus:”AnythingElse?”
      #Baxter:”Nope.”

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