FOOTBALL

When You Don’t Win, Plug Stats

USC tweeted out that Amon-Ra St. Brown passed 1,000 yards receiving in the Holiday Bowl. And that St. Brown and Michael Pittman are the first duo to surpass 1,000 yards in the same season since season since Robert Woods and Marqise Lee in 2011.

USC previously mentioned Kedon Slovis had the highest completion percentage for a freshman in NCAA history. Slovis also set USC’s single-season record for passing efficiency (167.6).

We get it. The Air Raid produces lots of impressive stats. Texas Tech proved that.

But USC fans want to win. They want to go to the College Football Playoff. They want to play hard and with discipline.

We’re not here to talk about stats.

34 thoughts on “When You Don’t Win, Plug Stats”

  1. State are nice, but just imagine what these players, properly trained and disciplined, would have done.
    What they remind us about is that we are wasting brilliant talent with baboonery for coaching.

    Liked by 3 people

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  2. Truman —If you were to say that to Helton’s face he wouldn’t know what you were talking about. He doesn’t recognize the degree to which he’s wasting talent. He doesn’t see the connection between himself and our poor recruiting. His defenders on this site don’t recognize it either. You know why? They fail to understand the concept of education. The reason that (once upon a time) instructors required certain classic books to be read is we (once) believed that students would learn and imitate the values contained in those books. The same concept applies in sports. Great coaches (Saban, Meyer) impart lessons about keeping your head when everything around you is going wrong. The players who play for those coaches don’t give up. They’ve learned to keep fighting. Helton’s players have completely given up in at least 2 games every year he’s coached. That’s the bad lesson players get from watching his slap happy interviews and participating in his daffy practices: it’s all good, losing hardly matters, you can always spin it.

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    1. Helton is pathological. He actually is at the point where he believes what he says, even when everyone else in the room knows he is BS’ing.

      My favorite example from this week is:

      “Mike and Dr. Folt have given me the resources I need to move this team fforward from good to great.”

      Let’s parse this.

      Since when is a .500 team in the Pac-12 considered to be “good”? (13-12 the last 2 years)

      Particularly when that team has an average of 5th best recruiting class in the country over the last 4 years?

      Since when does virtually every assistant coaching position turn over, either by firing or a coach leaving voluntarily, every 3-4 years?

      After the loss to Iowa, both Leinart and Bush remarked that “recruiting is bad because SC no longer wins at a high rate, and the kids aren’t developed like they were back in the day. That is why the So Cal talent is going elsewhere.”

      I never thought Helton would turn out to be such a selfish guy.

      Liked by 4 people

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      1. 67 —- Yeah, isn’t it funny how Haden picked Helton cuz he thought he was such a bumpkin that he wouldn’t play turf-orama politics—and Helton turned out to be the biggest turf prick of all time?
        #WatchHelton’sFaceWhenChallenged…
        #…HeFlashesAnExpressionThatALotOfMurderVictimsSee

        Liked by 2 people

      2. trojan1967, I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I feel like, as a Trojan fan (where being such used to be a privilege and an honor), I’ve been tarred an feathered in disgrace, and left to rot in humiliation in the town square, with even little kids throwing tomatos at my face.

        Liked by 3 people

      3. This coach needs be fired yesterday, its foolishness to think your not going to fire this guy but keep thinking stats can cover bull-h-t. Oh you’ll fire this guy next season unless he knows harry potter or he’s the true messiah, you will fire Helton an it will end bad

        Liked by 1 person

      5. helton is good at fighting for one thing, his job. he cares about helton. always has, always will. just a phony.

        you have to wonder why many heads have not rolled at Heritage Hall. my guess is that there are alot of bodies buried. let’s see if varsity blues scandal starts to spread further.

        I dont see Bohn/Folt really clearing the decks at Heritage Hall. Seems like maybe there are some higher-ups who are afraid of what will come out if they start to fire people.

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Best win was probably Cal. Or, perbaps, our “respectable” showing in South Bend. OH, HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN!!
      …and been flushed into the foulest gutter.

      Liked by 2 people

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    2. I don’t see the evil man that y’all see in Helton. I do see alumni and others spoiled rotten by memories of the past while remaining ignorant of the dynamics surrounding college football today.

      SC’s football program is in turmoil and I believe that fact is reflective of the entire university’s corporate structure, from lecherous medical professors to knee-jerk SC exec’s who launched a good and honorable man, Lynn Swann.

      As I see it, Helton is trying to coach in a toxic atmosphere not of his own making. Give him his year. If he’s as good as I think he is, he will make champions of his current crop, or not. But he deserves the shot.

      Also, having experienced good management systems and bad since my service in the US Army [ a grunt] during the war in Vietnam (Class of ’68) and our then-management’s wildly inappropriate and defeatist response to the Tet Offensive, I’m not sure I want the current “brain trust” to select our next coach. They’re too new to rate.

      Fight On.

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. Thanks for your service, R. D. All respect to you and your deeply held ideas about honor. Being a decent person, though, you don’t fully appreciate men like Helton. As a prosecutor I was around people like Helton all my life. Nothing is their fault. All the mistakes were made by their subordinates. When they discuss their own merits all they talk about is NEXT year (let’s forget the past, it hardly matters). Helton’s presser after the Iowa game was his most sustained low. He talked about going from goodness to greatness —ignoring the fact that EVERY TIME he goes up against a good coach with a good team he gets his ass handed to him. He won’t change next year…
        #..It’sJustWhoHeIs…
        #[LetBohn&FoltGetFooledButDon’tGetTakenInYourself]….

        Liked by 2 people

      3. PJM — I think maybe you’re putting a little too fine an edge on it. So many fans (fewer and fewer every day —but still a lot) take Helton’s words at face value —even though he NEVER delivers. Some fans STILL don’t realize that the Air Raid is only as good as the O-Line [and we don’t have a very good one].
        Think about this, PJM : If Helton cared about this team he wouldn’t (1) have waited til AFTER Iowa to dump the burnt out duo of Pendergast and Baxter (he would have realized when we we signed for the Alabama game we needed to make changes so the team could begin working within a new system ASAP—now the FIRST test of the new system will be against Alabama)! (2) I asked a week ago whether Helton knew he was being retained when he voted Alabama 13th in the country. It didn’t occur to me at the time that —whether he stayed or he left —the TEAM is going to suffer the consequences of that petty, stupid act.
        Bottom line: Helton cares about Helton, he doesn’t give a shit about USC or “his kids.” And, when he finally goes, he’ll never look back and he’ll never visit the campus he “loves” so much again.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. “Give him his year. If he’s as good as I think he is, he will make champions of his current crop”

        Like

  7. Agree, the Dodgers are all about stats in regular season. But if they get to playoffs, hitting and pitching stink!

    Bellinger or Kershaw postseason, anyone?

    How about McVey’s coaching in Super Bowl or 2019 season? Why is he jot on hot seat ? Goff is NOT going to win a Super Bowl, ever!!

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      1. Baseball has always had sign stealing, corked bats, spitballs etc, the Astros just took it o a different level

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  9. For SC football, do not renew your season tickets. Let the revenue fall and let the fan support fall for the sake of SC football. When Bohn gets a $30 million bill for the renovation and he only has $1 million, then he will get the idea that SC needs a better coach.

    I WILL NOT RENEW MY TICKETS UNTIL HELTON IS GONE.

    Liked by 1 person

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      1. Can you say Dave Roberts and his “analytics”? Worst pitching changes in World Series history. He has not gut feeling, he relies on numbers and has been wrong every single time. He personally lost to the Astros and Nets.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. Moral victories are “L’s.”

    Pure and simple. The Pitmans, St. Browns and Slovis’s are being wasted, and their talent not developed or improved. Next up Stepp and Christon.

    It’s even worse on defense and special teams.

    Gomer is in above his head. This won’t change – he’s incapable.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. So true, Juan. Helton’s ceiling is VERY low….. and he’s already reached it [but he doesn’t know it —like a lot of punchy fighters he still thinks he has what it takes to win the belt]….
      #LuckilyForHim,Bolt&Foam…OrIsItBohn&Folt?…ArePunchyToo…..

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  11. I’m fine with the Air Raid. It makes the games much more entertaining. I do think Harrell needs to buckle down and run it 15+ times a game or Kedon will be mincemeat.

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  13. I’m with Pasadenatrojan. Do not buy season tickets for football. Mike Bohn is used to low attendance at football games. While he was AD at Idaho, less than 17,000 bothered to show up, and he was good with that. This guy is here for a paycheck, and only that. Low football game attendance follows him from AD job to AD job and he doesn’t care. Collects his paycheck and then heads over to the rented Santa Monica house (USC pays $35,000 a month) where President Folt is squatting while she too impersonates a university President. Meanwhile, Folt refuses to answer the question of why Lynn Swann and Max Nikias approved a contract extension for Helton while it is clear he is incompetent at coaching the Trojans. Why was Swann fired, and not Helton ?

    Liked by 1 person

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