FOOTBALL

If It’s Friday, It’s Time For A USC Notes Column

Well, now what?

No USC-Colorado game. Immediate reaction: Saturday will be a lot less stressful!

No worries about blown timeouts, penalties, bad playcalling, etc.

  • USC now wins a tiebreaker with Colorado if both teams win out. USC would be 5-0 overall and 4-0 in the Pac-12 South. Colorado would be 4-0, 3-0.
  • With Colorado 2-0 this season, it means the teams taken off USC’s original schedule (Alabama, Notre Dame, Oregon, Washingon, Colorado) are currently a combined 22-0. Clay Helton remains the luckiest man alive.
  • USC took finals last week so it’s ironic that it is dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak now that it no longer has classes the rest of the regular season.
  • It probably is not a bad thing for Kedon Slovis to have a weekend off even though everyone at USC is trying to blame his problems on the footballs.
  • The Colorado-San Diego State game will be on the Pac-12 Network. That means I won’t be able to watch it.
  • With USC linebacker Abdul-Malik McClain transferring to Jackson State, it means he could be coached by former USC player/coach Dennis Thurman, who is expected to be named defensive coordinator at the school.

Jackson State doesn’t start its season until Feb. 21, so McClain won’t have to wait until next fall to play.

  • And now for some history:
  • USC linebacker Greg Slough was a Playboy All-American in 1970. John McKay said before the season Slough was the best linebacker in the nation.

But in the winter of 1970, he fractured both ankles playing rugby for the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club in San Diego. Slough played several years for the club.

Can you imagine a preseason All-American breaking his ankles playing rugby today?

“He has a great future in front of him as a professional and he could endanger it if he was hurt to the point he couldn’t play,” McKay said.

  • Here is a picture of the 1938 USC-UCLA game played on Thanksgiving Day before 65,000 at the Coliseum.
  • My Thanksgiving Day game memory will always be the 2007 USC-Arizona State game in Tempe. USC won, 44-24. The victory improved USC’s November record to 23-0 under Pete Carroll.
  • Who remembers USC basketball player Don Crenshaw?

He averaged 8.3 points and 4.9 rebounds in his college career. And then he was drafted in 1970 in the 17th round . . . by the Los Angeles Rams?

USC basketball Don Crenshaw (22) guards LSU legend Pete Maravich on Dec. 19, 1969. The other USC players in the background Dana Pagett (21) and Chris Schrobilgen (44).
Photo Credit: AP/Shutterstock

85 thoughts on “If It’s Friday, It’s Time For A USC Notes Column”

  1. Oh Mission Beach was a good team. We literally beat the snot of them & cleaned their clocks every year when the OLD BLUES won national championships 7 out of 8 years running in the 70’s.

    #OhThoseLightweightHippies
    #AsCoachMckaySaid’I’dHateToMeetThoseGuysInADarkAlley’
    #HeMeantCAL
    #P76ApprovedTroll

    Liked by 5 people

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  2. Scottie, for the 1938 game photo, are you sure you didn’t take this from the 3 Stooges archives? The bruin player getting overwhelmed looks remarkably like Curly. I guess Moe must have been a Trojan.

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      1. A classic! Those guys were geniuses, weren’t they? You just don’t get comedy like that anymore. And Moe’s signature two-fingers in the eyes could be the precursor of the Trojan victory sign.

        There has to be some film footage of the Stooges on the USC campus.

        Liked by 3 people

      3. The Stooges would be so un PC today, can you imagine the snowflakes watching the slapping, poking, insults and wooing of babes? OH THE HORROR !!!!!!!!!!!!!

        Liked by 4 people

  3. How many college or pro football players have been hospitalized with COVID ?

    How many college or pro football players have died from COVID ?

    How many college or pro football coaches or support staff been hospitalized or died from COVID ?

    How many athletes have been hospitalized or died from COVID ? I know one, the Red Sox pitcher, can anyone name any others ?

    Just asking.

    Maybe we should all be like Dee Egg O Melendez and just hide until the virus dies ( which it won’t ), or a vaccine ( which is not a 100% cure, none of them are ) comes out, or Senile Joe just waves his magic wand ( made in China ) and all is well and everyone is cured.

    Liked by 4 people

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    1. I wonder how many additional compliance officers big organizations have had to hire since Corona. State restrictions and requirements, then there are those from the county, those from the city, seemingly new ones every week.

      Liked by 3 people

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      1. 67 –Once you convince people that they’ll die if they don’t come to heel [and buy EVERYTHING you’re selling], the battle is over. No one who reads the New York Times is gonna spend ONE second asking themselves why we’re shutting down over something which so infrequently rises to serious levels in the populations we say we’re protecting (players and coaches). How
        many times just last season did we read that several players were out with the flu? How many times did we come to a grinding halt because of it?
        I don’t mind the Colorado game being cancelled —that’s hardly the end of the world. But there are much wider implications here. And karma touched on them.

        Liked by 5 people

      2. 67, the Boise mayor wanted people to rat out others who were having large gatherings. They set up a phone line for people to report others, someone did a program that robo called the number until it was overwhelmed and failed, I’d like to shake that person’s hand and buy them a beverage of their choice.

        The books, Animal Farm & 1984 should be MANDATORY reading for all high school kids and maybe most of the population, maybe they would wake the fuck up to what’s happening to them, morons.

        Liked by 3 people

      4. I wonder how long the NYT owners can hide the fact from their readers that their ancestors were major players in slavery back in the day.

        Liked by 3 people

      5. The People’s Republic of China pioneered this effort, BK, during the Great Leap Backward and the Cultural Revolution. Took it to a higher level.
        Grammar school children were taught in school to report their PARENTS for “subversive,” non-party conforming actions.

        The Mayor of Boise got it wrong. S/He shoulda’ taken it to the Kindergartners who would have done a bang up job reporting on their reprobate parents.
        As long as the kids can count to ten…….

        Liked by 4 people

      6. Bourbon, great point. And how many today know that Mao’s “great leap forward” created a famine that killed 60 million Chinese by commandeering farmers off the fields and into factories.

        Liked by 4 people

      7. 67 —Apparently the “Prez Elect’s” team [hard not to laugh typing that] doesn’t appreciate the facts you’ve shared with us….
        they’ve referred to the CCP as a “good model” for U. S. governance…..

        Liked by 4 people

  4. Well…prohibition has returned to Pennsylvania. Look for the price of alcohol to double.

    #JustBendTheCurveMarch2020
    #SixPeopleInYourHouse6FeetApartNov2020

    Liked by 4 people

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  5. Budda,

    The Marx Brothers and the Stooges are still the best in the world. they were hilarious. the Marx Brothers were dry humor and all of them were great musicians. Stooges were just slap stick. The three blended and ded off each other.

    Liked by 4 people

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      1. Pudly —I bet I’m the only one who watched this video all the way through….twice. I always wondered why the Italians —when they were expanding into what they called northeastern Italy (really Slovenia)– insisted the many Hungarians in the region stop writing or speaking their native language.
        #ItDidn’tSeemFair
        #ItStillDoesn’tSeemFairButIThinkIFinallyUnderstand

        Liked by 2 people

    2. With Finals completed, the Trojans have some freedom to reschedule WSU to later in the weekend–if the Cougars are gamers about it.

      Happy that the Buffs get to play SDSU. A nice tester for an unproven CU squad.

      Liked by 4 people

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  7. Rudely Fooliani just took another PA Appeals Court defeat in the shorts. Fooliani’s campaign shouting reminds me of Algonquin J. Calhoun. As I post, Fooliani, like bozo BB, is 00000 forever.

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    1. I’m not particularly a fan of either Rudy or Donald — but what is eventually going to come out on the DNC is going to [or should] disappoint you, my friend…..
      #…AndItALLIsGonnaComeOut

      Liked by 3 people

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      1. “Since the election, lawyers for the Trump campaign have filed more than three dozen suits seeking to invalidate the election results in various states, and virtually none of them have prevailed, or even gotten past preliminary hearings. Notably, they have stopped short of alleging fraud or corruption in court filings, where lawyers making bad-faith claims can be subject to sanctions. Wednesday’s “hearing” included a witness who said a poll worker refused to tell him whether to insert his ballot face up or face down into the scanner, and an observer who said her Democratic counterparts gave her mean looks. Allegations that Republican observers were kept too far away to accurately scrutinize processing of ballots — which have already been raised and dismissed in court — were repeatedly aired.”

        Gosh 22, those wicked snowflakes hurt the Trumpturd’s feeling. LOL!

        BTW 22 the PA AG is a Democrat and remember those who laugh last, laugh the loudest and longest.

        #just53moredaysbeforeTrumpstartsdodgingthelitanyprocessserverswaitingtoservethePOSmultiplesubpoenas – lock the lousy AH up.

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      2. LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        OWNS, quoting Fake News Propaganda doesn’t impress us.

        Poor OWNS the Socialist lied to us about Russian Collusion for 5 years and now has more predictions to make.

        OWNS, try doing the opposite for once in your long waste of life.

        OH MY SIDE HURTS FROM LAUGHING SO MUCH! BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA! CLASSIC!!

        Liked by 2 people

      5. This didn’t age well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        “Since the election, lawyers for the Trump campaign have filed more than three dozen suits seeking to invalidate the election results in various states, and virtually none of them have prevailed, or even gotten past preliminary hearings.”

        Poor OWNS the Socialist, you’ve done it again!

        You are the Bad Luck Schleprock of Inside USC!

        Like

      6. I’m sure my friend Owns really, deep down, wants to see these suits go forward…..he wants the dems to comply with discovery requests, especially providing audio tapes of closed door discussions that took during the count. My friend Owns wants the whole world to see how fairly the dems in Philadelphia, Detroit and Atlanta conducted the election.

        Liked by 1 person

      7. Sadly these are the 1984 Democrats, who fear transparency:

        Liked by 2 people

      8. gt —The CNN scenario only occurs if repub legislatures grow some balls….
        #SoFarNoIndications…
        #ButThere’sStillTime
        #JustNeedToGetONE…
        #OthersWillGoAlong

        Liked by 1 person

      11. gt — I’m happy for the win —but this judge isn’t even on the superior court –she’s just a commonwealth judge. One of the things the repubs need now is for Rudy to persuade the state legislatures to refuse certification of the vote results. The other is to get one of these federal appellate court dismissals into the Supreme Court —a good decision out of the court could give the legislatures the guidance they need to take this show over.

        Liked by 1 person

      12. The story in the ruling is hilarious.

        Judge McCullough tells the Democrat Governor and Attorney General not to certify the election until she hears the evidence.
        The next morning Democrats Governor Wolf & Attorney General Boockvar say they’ve “certified” the President & VP,
        a) after telling her they were only in the process,
        b) not actually completing the required steps and
        c) not “certifying” any other offices.

        Apparently she was not corrupt enough to not get enraged at their impudence, and here we are.

        Liked by 1 person

      15. gt —This is the first time a judicial officer has said that the issue comes down to the regrettable choice between disenfranchising millions of voters, on the one hand, or allowing an unconstitutional process to be certified. That is the issue everybody has been afraid to reduce to print. I think the answer, under the constitution, is the election result can’t be certified. That is huge. [But it places the election in the hands of weak and corrupt repub legislatures]…..
        #AlotOfPeopleNeedToGrowSpinesInNext2Weeks

        Like

      16. Jim Hoft, 22, is a greasy spoon, Alt. Right, low rent, BS propaganda artist. If you rely on Hoft as a source of creditable Information, 22 you’re a bigger imbecile than the default POS deplorable.

        #Cm’on1/20/2021
        #O/UnumberofsubpoenasreservedforTrump:11

        Like

  8. Lost in the diatribe above, some truly classic Trojan BB uni’s with great embroidered stripes, satin piping. Amazing anyone could run or jump in those heavy uni’s.

    Pistol Pete was incredible back then. A one-man scoring machine at the collegiate and pro level! I think I was in Med School when he died. By my recollection, he was cursed with only two coronary arteries (instead of the usual three). Clog one, and it’s a widow-maker. I recall all of us LA sportsfans were saddened by Pete’s passing. Can still see that shock of Rockstar hair driving for the hoop, stopping abruptly, shoulder and head fake, “put ’em in the popcorn machine,” and then up with the 8 footer…and one.

    And he did it missing a coronary artery.

    Liked by 4 people

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    2. Pete was basketball’s most exciting scorer…ever. [I do remember my dear bruin buddy, Terry Schofield, stealing the ball from Pete and scoring, though]. Unfortunately, like a lot of folks at the time, Pete played around with recreational drugs —most of which were cut with speed. I can only imagine the impact that had on a guy with two coronary arteries.
      Wish Department: It would be so grand if these towering sports, rock and film figures of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s —who died partially cuz of lifestyle choices made in more permissive times— got ONE more chance at the game.

      Liked by 4 people

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      1. OWNS the Lying Socialist, will you pass away doing what you do best, washing cars at Cerritos Auto Square?

        Like

    2. UCLA 107 – Pepperdine 98 in Triple OT. I hope this score “ruins” your day.

      Know what I love Ms. H. bozo BB is 000000 forever.

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      1. It would be partial payback for Charlie Weiss refusing to have the grass cut to slow down the much faster USC team and destroying Desmond Reed’s knee in the (I think) ’05 game.

        Liked by 4 people

      2. Yeah –that was so bush league — no honor!
        #WhatIfTheyLose&WePlayThemInABowlGame?
        #[TeamsAreAboutEvenButWeLoseCoachingMatchup]…

        Liked by 3 people

      5. If we win out on a reduced schedule (hence no chance for playoffs) and Notre Dame loses once…. a USC/Notre Dame matchup would be huge….since it keeps the rivalry alive and people love to see the two of us go at it every year…..

        Liked by 3 people

  11. Back to the rugby angle. I am surprised Scott didn’t mention the punter. I mean his short kicks are the stuff off Scott’s dimension. (One) But I gave it some thought and realized it was the special teams coach from last year who failed to instruct our kicker. Baxter was so senile he couldn’t count to eleven without dropping his pants. His legendary prowess as a coordinator was written by someone other Helton. But he probably just told the punter, rugby Jones, to “kick it away from the other team.”
    Maybe things will improve, but if not I hear USC is thinking about using Traveler as their kicker. Like the movie says the rule book say “player” not “person”
    If Traveler could kick a field goal from anywhere in the field Scott would be able to complain about him celebrating afterwards.

    Liked by 2 people

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