USC offensive coordinator Graham Harrell praised offensive tackle Aijah Vera-Tucker this morning.
“Alijah is playing as well as I’ve ever seen an offensive lineman play,” Harrell said.
That sounds like quite a statement. It immediately reminded of what Harrell said about Kedon Slovis last year.
“Talent-wise, he’s as good as I’ve ever seen,” Harrell said.
So the above statements can mean one of three things:
1.) Harrell is telling the truth.
2.) Harrell hasn’t seen much in his career.
3.) Harrell likes to exaggerate.
You can decide for yourself.
Imagine if Harrell coached during the Pete Carroll era.
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
Wow, the first coach in the history of college football to ever play up a player on their team. I am shocked, shocked.
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Does it help if a former scout says the kids pretty good? Nah, he put his name on this so it has no value…gotta be a nameless source to be of any real value…hahaha
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If these are the best he’s ever seen you’d think the team would be wildly successful. If the players are the best, what’s that say about the way they are coached-up and the positions the coaches are putting them in where they can succeed?
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He was referring to one player, not the entire team.
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You must have missed the third sentence.
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Are you referring to the sentence between the second sentence and the fourth sentence, smackyd?
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I love it when two Charlie Bucket sock puppets argue between themselves, like the voices in his head.
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“Certs is a candy mint!”
“It’s a breath mint!”
“No, it’s a candy mint!”
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It would be great to see Slovis have the benefit of a Pete Carroll-era O-line.
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Slovis would be a 4th team walk on at Pete’s USC
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Where Slovis would rank when Pete was recruiting is a whole different question than how Slovis would benefit from a Pete Carroll O-line. But 4th team walk on? I’d pick Slovis over John David, over Aaron Corp, over Mitch Mustain. Obviously not over Palmer or Leinart.
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Can’t disagree with those rankings, 67!
Unlike Booty, Slovis wouldn’t have gotten beaten by a less than mediocre bruin team …
#…PeteWouldaWoundUpWithOneMoreNatty
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Michael, that loss to ucla in ’06 is still stuck in my craw…never seems to go away.
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I can still see it happen in my mind 14 years later.
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We are so tired of big talking idiot young OC hacks at USC … just stfu and draw up your next deflected lucky completion, get canned, and move on.
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I’m OK with a CFB coach lavishing praise on (hopefully) future professional FB players. Part of the business model of USC FB is to prepare the student athlete for a professional career. USC med did that for me. Why not for a QB or OL?
Harell is likely being honest. He likely has not seen a college sophmore (with now about 13 full games played) QB do this well this early in the game. I’m not sure the talent at North Texas was as good.
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Could be a little psychological warfare to counter the Joe Kapp comparisons two weeks ago.
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Harrell is too young to have much to compare Slovis with, so his comments
don’t carry much weight.
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Bus62–so glad to hear from you again.
Come back more often.
I think you more clearly elucidated what I was implying with my statement above. Ergo, North Texas (or even Texas Tech) din’t have really great QB’s.
Nevertheless, I’ll remind everyone that “according to the FPI metric” USC had the #9 best offense last year. USC played against the toughest DEFENSIVE teams in America and did well against all of them. I’m giving Harrell some cred and some time to develop the program. Most of us believe that he is as frustrated by the o-line as we are.
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Yep! Harrell would fire Drevno in a New York minute if he could (of course —while we’re on the subject— he’d also fire Helton if he could)…..
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If Harrell had coached when Carroll started at USC, he would have been 15 years old and probably would have been considered a progidy.
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Prodigy*
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