FOOTBALL

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2020!

It looks similar to 2019, however.

At the risk of being repetitive, how does USC change when it has no leadership at the very top of its football program.

The offseason is where excuses get made: It was the defensive coordinator and special teams coach. It’s the small recruiting staff (which produced the nation’s No. 3-ranked class in 2018). It’s the fan base not properly supporting the team.

We all went through this 12 months ago. There was the culture change where Michael Pittman talked about Clay Helton yelling at him once. And then Helton said there was only one penalty during a week of spring practices.

Blah, blah, blah.

At some point, Mike Bohn (when he comes out of hiding) will tell us again Helton is the right man for the job and then he will lecture the fans about “intensity of interest.”

Welcome to 2020.

49 thoughts on “Happy New Year!”

  1. Happy New Year! What a way to start of 2020 with my all time favorite photo of the coach!

    Thanks for the uplifting New Year’s message, Scottie!

    It is as if we have been transported back in time one year ago, with Swann playing the part of Bohn, telling us changes will be made and the team will soon be competing for championships. Yada, yada, yada.

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    1. Yes, Happy New Year to Alv, the Whole Crazy Gang, and the Bad Boy Blogger who makes all the insanity possible [by skillfully baiting us 6 times a day, every day, 365 days a year]…
      This is ALREADY make it or break it year for Bohn and Folt [okay, especially Bohn —who was hired to be the designated fall guy]. Unless first tier coaches come in to lead the team FOR Helton, USC will lose every MEANINGFUL game this year. I’m not optimistic Bohn realizes that —based on that misbegotten video he put out before the Holiday Bowl Disaster [“USC is putting the Pac 12 on notice”], it looks like Bohn is going the Swann Route [remember last year when USC put out videos of Pittman doing “strength and conditioning” and players saying they had “a bad taste in their mouth”!?]. Soon we will find out if Bohn understands that all Trojan fans are sick of the empty words and want to see USC prove it on the field…
      #NextUp,Alabama

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      2. Happy New Year, 67!
        Answer to your question: Remember how much dumber Homer Simpson got between the first season and the second season?
        #HeNeverWould’veRunAroundTheLawnLikeSquirrelIn1stYear….

        Liked by 4 people

      3. Happy New Year, Michael. And it is good to know that Homer’s twin brother is SC’s AD! Another big-time hire for the Trojans! Hope 2020 is a good one for you and yours.

        Liked by 3 people

  4. 2020 will see
    SC get blown away by Bama,
    open at home against New Mexico to a crowd that won’t be over 35,000 even though the ” official ” number will be higher,
    the local press will continue to ask Gomer softball questions, when he faces the media and isn’t hiding under Bohn’s desk,
    SC will beat the lesser teams and lose to teams that are actually well coached,
    the talent advantage USC had over most teams won’t be there this year, games that fans will think are sure wins will be battles and maybe loses, Slovis won’t make it through the season unscathed,
    USC will not win the PAC 12 South
    Gomer will be brought back in 2021 because he has integrity

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    1. If you’re substantially right about these predictions [and there’s more than a 50% chance you are], poor dumb Foam and Bolt (or is it Folt and Bohn?) will somewhat (but not entirely) unfairly become the targets of all the wrath and anger that’s been building up for the ten years before they got here—and it will get hotter than they can stand…
      #…AndItWon’tBePretty

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      2. Mike the guy must know how to kiss a**. He got Haden to hire him. Swann to give him more loot. And Folt and Bohn must have felt his charm also. He knows how to bring up God at all the moments when he is getting drilled with the media and it allows him to skate to the next week. Nick Saban is coming off a season that was not the normal Alabama team we usually see. He’s out to make up for It next year and we have no chance. I hate to say it but we will most likely have a QB get smacked around and lose one for the year. That’s terrible. This was the perfect opportunity for Folt and Bohn to move on. Just pay him to leave, the school is in more trouble outside of sports so a big hire would have brought in more people and support from the donors with a new guy who wins and it would have gave the team a new culture. Whatever it would be doesn’t matter because it needed a new one and Urban Meyer vs Nick Saban would be a whole new world for the program in so many different areas. Spotlight, the direction, the recruiting, the power that was reclaimed from that hire would have probably saved the program. When you don’t have a team in the NFL this crap really effects someone like me.

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      3. “Helton might not make it to Halloween.”

        LOL!

        Halloween of what year, 2023? Helton is the perfect coach to lead the program right where USC and the BOT want to see it go…right down the toilet.

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      4. Well maybe they need to stop letting people like Pat Haden run sports, keep an eye on their weirdo doctors who are getting off on patients each day, hiring coaches that will do as much dirt as possible to make a kid look as if they were on the kickball team because the parents paid them on the side. Also they hire a coach to lead USC after he beat one team. He was a nice man to everyone because he “played nice” now look at him. Who the heck gets a head coaching gig because they seem normal and they beat a wannabe football program that still needs a training bra? Thank The “Chosen One” Josh Rosen for sucking in college and ushering in Clay Helton. Damn Bruins can never do anything right except winning softball and gymnastics titles. They help Helton land the job and then they can’t beat him this season to help him keep the job.

        To all the Bruin fans who truly hate USC.
        F*** You!
        UCLA can win a women’s sport any day but they can’t beat the Hurricanes or Clay Helton.
        WTF is wrong over their. Now that I think about it we better give them men’s teams at Ucla a shot of of whatever the gymnastics and softball teams use because they are letting all the Bruin Nation down and it’s also effected USC.

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    3. You’re absolutely wrong on the media asking Helton ‘softball’ questions. Helton is a real godsend for any newspaper writer – eyes are always going to whatever ‘soap opera’ a sports page can churn up and Helton is the perfect piñata for anyone with a keyboard in front of him/her.

      Plaschke will be writing about him once a month same with Dylan Hernandez. It’s the columnists that do the most damage.

      Believe me the local ‘4th estate’ can’t wait for next year and don’t forget talk radio and ‘PMS’

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      2. Alv — When it comes to the face to face stuff, karma is right —-the locals will ask an ostensibly tough question once in a long while —but then they’ll nod & smile when Helton gives them a total bullshit non answer….instead of doing what they’re paid to do: ask a tough follow up…..
        #DanWeberIsAlwaysSatisfiedWithANYAnswer….
        #…HeNEVERCallsBullshit….
        #WhatIsHeScaredOf?HeltonHittingHim?
        #[ThatWouldBeBiggestPayDayOfHisLife]!

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      3. It doesn’t matter what questions the media ask Helton, he gives the same stupid answers. He’s been doing that for years.

        You should know that by now.

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      1. Does he even look at that? or anything? Sure seems to be the classic. bumbling lives “second to second” type (the “85” character in “Alien3”)…as I would assume MG would say/confirm: You can convict him of negligent homicide, but not murder…no malice aforethought (or “heat of passion”)…comes across quite clearly when he tries to answer any question…any…question…

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      2. But —know what? —if the negligence is extreme enough (like it was in Holiday Bowl Prep), you’re actually in second degree murder territory….
        Helton:NoDefenseToCharge

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      3. So sort of the unstated “too dangerous for normal rules to apply” situation? Can you get that injected intravenously into Caruso & Co.’s gray matter?

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      4. Ha! The only possible Happy Ending to USC’s story requires Bohn breaking all the old rules —and it’s not just lack of grey matter that’s holding him back —in fact, it may not be that at all….
        #….LackOfGuts,Maybe?

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      5. My forecast I more dire, as I see USC as a failed state…will require an overthrow among the ruling cabal – someone who wants USC football to be restored has to be a part of the group and gain enough power to overcome those who have been in power…Helton still having a job is like the petro oligarchs in Russia in the ’90s keeping Uncle Boris in power and having him change prime ministers whenever the public started to approach the anger threshold for overthrow by force…do we have a secret power broker who can bring in a Putin (for us that was Carroll in a lot of ways)? I find it difficult to believe…much more likely the U of the west coast with three public stooges, or their Chernomyrdin/Gaidar-like successors…

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      7. L. A. may be too much of a lost cause for any rescue efforts ….and I say that as someone who loves L.A. more (way more) than any other city I’ve ever lived in….
        #BorisGetsToStay….

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      8. Themistocles — Did you see the way Alabama (which was on the ropes) adjusted to completely shut Michigan down and exploit every defensive weakness Michigan showed in first half???
        How on earth is Helton gonna stand up to that?
        #Answer:HeCan’t&Won’t….
        #HereWeGoAgain…
        #ThanksFolt&Bohn…GreatCall

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      9. Yep – was watching just like you and thinking same exact thoughts (adjustments…and then when he had them where he wanted them, went to the hammer with Harris and made a point of physically dominating them on that last drive – Harbaugh’s response when they showed him spoke volumes)…and instead of the little engine chug-a-chug-a that Claydough routinely demonstrates when flustered, Saban clearly got his players and the refs attention, didn’t he? Yes sir, another party in Jerry World is on the menu…

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      10. USC’s opener with Alabama is definitely going to be a giant humiliation —that’s a given — I just don’t want us to get so physically beat up that it costs us the rest of the first half of the season. Slovis and Stepp are still very young….and they can’t even imagine what they’ll be facing or enduring. If quality changes aren’t made in the persons of our S & D and O-line coaches — we’re in Big Trouble….
        #AndIDon’tThinkBohnHasAnyMoreSavvyThanHelton….
        #….WhenItComesToRecruitingTalentedStaff

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      11. And it can’t be said enough – unless they find someone (of better quality) willing to play the HC-in waiting roll of the dice, which there’s no evidence to suggest will happen, then it doesn’t matter what they want – no sensible person takes that free ticket on the Titanic.

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      1. gt —and with those words, Pat signaled a whole new way of looking at and doing things…. the sweet way, the good boy way….. the New L. A. way that so attracts recruits that they laugh at and mock USC offers during signing rituals on ESPN….
        #GoodWork,Pat….
        #StayOutOfReach….

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  7. Happy New Year gang–including the folks from UCLA, Cal, Ore.

    The Japanese had a “lost decade” economically due to financial mismanagement, corruption, and an overly generous welfare state.
    That was 1999-2009. It got worse from 2009 to 2020.
    Govt Debt to GDP ratio of 250% is deplorable.
    (Pardon my wonkiness)

    USC CFB just suffered a horrible decade. I count 3 ten win seasons in the decade. USC has had “lost decades” previously. I counted the 1983 to 2002 stretch as TWO LOST DECADES. If we are not to suffer another “lost decade,” then some pain and suffering from structural and budgetary change is mandatory.

    Happy New Decade (if you consider 2020 the new decade) Trojan fans.
    Chin up. Wear your swag. Proudly tout your University’s accomplishments. When your malefactor chides you, remind them with an ever-so-casual smirk that WE ARE THE #15 academic university in America.

    Better days for us–with or without HC CH.

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      1. Fine with me, MG. I don’t care who is the HC so long as I see consecutive 11 win seasons EVERY SEASON, with smashmouth&opportunistic defenses (hard hitting creates turnovers) and imposing O-line and RB’s.

        I don’t listen to pressers, etc. Waste of my (our) time.
        With the exception of Dennis Green (We know who they were) and Old Man Mora (Playoffs? Playoffs? What PLayoffs?), I’ve never found the presser to make much sense.

        The 140 plays on the field tell the story. The past 5 years have told the story.

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    2. “…WE ARE THE #15 academic university in America.”

      According to who, what, where, why and how? With all due respect Mr. Bourbon, I would love to read the assessment that anoints USC “…the #15 academic university in America.”

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      1. #15 WSJ–based on accomplishment of students AFTER graduation.
        #22 USNWR–based on their usual criteria. I don’t feel that having a Nobel Laureate on faculty makes a school “desirable.” You are not going to take a class from that laureate or end up on their research team.

        Anyway, JO, I like the WSJ assessment.

        BTW, as I’ve stated before, I’d like to see a 10-1 or 11-0 Bruin team take on the Trojans at either LA stadium “just like the good ole’ days.
        #ain’tholdinmebreath

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    1. Cheer up Juan4SC.
      During the Zumberge/Sample era, USC thrived and “did it the right way.”
      I am uncertain about Nikias, though I know he brought in the money, developed the property North of Campus, and VASTLY improved upon an already excellent Medical School. The Carmen P story was shambolic, but not a reflection of the thousands of awesome employees at Keck USC Med.

      I just dropped $2000 in San Diego on the Holiday Bowl fiasco, so the Iowa loss hurts like hell. (I went to the IHOP to watch practice, but it was “closed.”)

      Wear your swag and remind your detractors that–at 850 or so CFB victories and 11 to 17 Nattys–USC is pre-eminent and their school pales in comparison.

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  9. For me, time is ticking off. I would like to see SC again be competitive against teams that haven’t de-emphasized football. I am losing hope. The disastrous hire of Dolt (a gift to the SJW’s that infest SC) makes it unlikely that we’ll not see a resurgence of athletic prominence in my lifetime.

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  10. With All the MONEY that the Donors and ALUMNI give to USC … PAY claydo gomer HE’LL Ton BUYOUT also BUYOUT FOltandBoner Get RIDD of the SHII

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