FOOTBALL

USC-Oregon Report Card

QUARTERBACK

Kedon Slovis started off with 2 interceptions then spent the rest of the game running for his life from Kayvon Thibodeaux . . . and then got hurt on the last play. He’s either been hurt since the Holiday Bowl or gotten worse under Graham Harrell.

Grade: F

RUNNING BACKS

It must be hard to be a tailback for a team that hates to run the ball. Stephen Carr and Markese Stepp must wonder how they ended up in an Air Raid offense.

Grade: Inc. (incomplete)

WIDE RECEIVERS

Drake London can’t be tackled but USC acts like it needs to make sure other receivers get their catches too. Remember when Marqise Lee would get 15 catches a game and Lane Kiffin would say he needed more touches?

Grade: B-

OFFENSIVE LINE

The offensive line is what it is. I’ve been writing it was a weakness for several years. It’s why USC can’t play Big Boy football. So why didn’t they double-team Thibodeaux the entire game?

Grade: D-

DEFENSIVE LINE

Oregon tailback Sean Dollars had 1 carry for minus-5 yards entering the game. He then gained 52 yards in seven carries vs. USC for 7.4 yards a carry. No USC defensive lineman had more than three tackles.

Grade: D+

LINEBACKER

The underappreciated story of this season is how Todd Orlando turned Drake Jackson from a pass rusher who would flash 2-3 times a game into a thinner player who drops 30 yards into pass coverage. The opposing teams must have loved it.

Grade: C

DEFENSIVE BACKS

Talanoa Hufanga was named Pac-12 defensive player of the game. But it wasn’t based on this game. He whiffed a tackle near the goal line. Ran into the punter. And dropped an interception the end zone.

Grade: D

SPECIAL TEAMS

Sean Snyder is great for on-side kicks. But not-so-great when 10 men are on field for a punt; or Hufanga runs into the punter; or when Ben Griffiths has punt blocked.

Grade: D+

COACHING

The season was a one-game test against worse-than-expected Oregon team and USC flunked.

Mike Bohn touted a bunch of changes but the results were the same.

Clay Helton has no Plan B and burns too many timeouts.

Graham Harrell thinks he can beat Oregon with a one-dimensional offense.

Todd Orlando puts out a sloppy looking unit each week. Has he figured out yet what to do when Oregon puts Anthony Brown at QB?

It’s a godsend for USC that fans were not allowed this season or the booing would have been humilating for the program.

GRADE: A big, bright red . . .

Single Color Letter "F" – The Bravest Decals

57 thoughts on “USC-Oregon Report Card”

  4. The sky is not falling Chicken Little. SC football as we once knew it, will some day return. SC is sitting on a hot-bed of high school football talent, but they currently cannot attract enough quality California kids because of the present regime. But these coaches will one day be gone, new improved blood will arrive, and predictably SC will re-emerge as a national power. These things run in cycles.

    Or have you forgotten past down periods of Trojan football?
    1957 to 1961– 3 of these years SC lost more than they won including McKay’s first year

    1962 to 1979– A golden age for Trojan football with McKay and the first round of Robinson, winning 5 national championships and 3 runner-ups

    1983 to 1987– One Rose Bowl appearance, but a record of 34-24-1 saw Tollner fired

    1988 to 1990 Under Smith SC played for a national championship and had a memorable game against sucla

    1991 to 2001 sucla’s streak of 8 straight begins and ends in 1999; Notre Dame’s 13 game unbeaten streak ends in 1996. Hackett fired and Carroll arrives, but his first year he is 6-6

    2002 to 2009 Another golden period for SC football with 2 national championships and one minute away from 3 in a row

    2010 to 2020 Pretty pedestrian except for the No. 3 ranking in 2017

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      1. As written, BK, when new improved blood arrives, (when?) predictably SC will re-emerge as a national power.

        Don’t we just hope SC comes back from the dead in our lifetime, the few years we have left in these bones.

        Liked by 3 people

      4. So Wrong, BK.

        1. On a mechanical ventilator.
        2. An intra-cardiac balloon catheter (aka, Swan-ganz catheter)
        3. On intravascular pressors (adrenalin) to support moribund blood pressure.
        4. External cardiac pacemaker as the electric activity of the Heart is erratic.
        5. Medically induced coma to try to protect a struggling brain.
        6. Comfy padding to protect all pressure points to prevent skin breakdown.

        Not to worry, as a different someone comes in every few hours and tweeks a few knobs and slams in a few high risk drugs which they think will miraculously “turn the patient around.”

        D E A D? No way, buddy.

        While I am a very spiritual man, when we brought in the Religious guy into the ICU, it was always a really bad sign for the patient and the family…..

        Like

      5. With sincere apologies to anyone who has been through the above scenario this year. I lived in the ICU for decades.

        Like

      1. Unfortunately, that’s the truth. That real close to the time of my fandom and for most of it we have been mediocre. Pete changed it all up, but that was it for sustained success.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. That could be argued, but the lean years made the golden ones ever more bright.

        By the way, you cherry-picked a fine year for your poster name. I mean, what could be finer than following a 51-0 humiliation SC goes down in 1967 to shellack ND, as Troy was on its way to a national championship

        Liked by 1 person

      3. John – 1967 was indeed a great year. The first game I saw the ND game (I was 9 at the time). Many years later, I became friends with one of the Bruins who played then. He said that with the exception of the QB position, the ’67 USC team would have been competitive in the NFL.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. 67, do you know that aside from Howard Jones and PC, all USC football coaches were once ex players and assistants ?

        Any talk of USC hiring a top coach from another school is just that, talk. There is ONE coach that is currently unemployed that would make USC football relevant again, and he doesn’t have a chance of being hired.

        USC football is………………..

        D E A D

        Liked by 2 people

  5. USC Trojans head football coach Clay Helton was asked on Sunday about the possibility — and need — of having his quarterback go under center in short-yardage situations.

    Helton’s blunt answer: “It’s just not us.”

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. That one I actually agree with. We can’t get a push at all. Going under center would just tip our already horribly weak hand. With this room temp butter soft team, we should just throw it on 3rd or 4th and short.

      Maybe someday we will appreciate the QB sneak for an easy first down and look back at this and not want to throw up.

      Toughness, discipline, assignments, and ultimately winning
      “It’s just not us”

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. Mrs. Helton,
        I liked your hubby’s answer when asked why he and Bohn didn’t make a peep about having game days AND opponents CHANGED at the last minute:
        “It’s just not us.”
        #Yeah,WeKnow…
        #[FindNewJobsPlease]

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Yeah, because our QB is so mobile that any defense we play against doesn’t have to game for him running.

        Going under center would be a different look, but that’s over Gomer & Opie’s head

        Liked by 4 people

  6. Scooter,

    You are too nice and generous in your grading. Any team in college football can beat SC. They are about 120th in football rankings. If I was an opposing head coach, I would call Helton right now and demand to play SC. I would tell him I would show up twice to the Coli just to play them. Helton would take the bait and I would make sure my team had a balanced offense, including have the qb go under center. I would make sure our oline was physical. After 3 quarters, SC would quit. I win both games and then I would listen to Helton say, that they are on the verge of being a national championship team.

    With the virus, Helton, Biden, unemployment, people getting sick, and other stuff, this is one of the worst years i have ever lived through.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  10. I can still remember the giddy look on Gomer’s face when he and Pat Haden announced that Sark was sent home from practice and that “the man of God” was taking over. I have no doubt that Gomer turned states evidence on Sark.

    Gomer is a piece of shit.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

      1. P. S.
        A fairly famous California politician told me “you don’t have to please everybody….just the people who matter…”

        Liked by 4 people

      1. P. S.
        I really hope they do an HBO Special on Haden, Swann and the whole Helton Family one day…
        #WithFunInterviewsOfCallaway&Drevno&Tee

        Liked by 2 people

      5. Helton: “Tee –you’re one hell of a recruiter! How’d ya like to be Offensive Coordinator and call ALL our plays from the booth?!”

        Liked by 2 people

      6. gt –“the right way” —I’ve always wondered if Haden meant that Pete didn’t win the ‘good boy way’….
        and he was going to “fix” that by not winning at all….
        #IfSo,Boy,DidHeSucceed!

        Liked by 2 people

      1. And Happy Holidays to you ’67. Thing is ’67, I don’t know that UCLA Athletics needs a “yuuge” bailout to pay their bills, and neither do you.

        The UCLA FB program, such as it is, will continue to serve great food and function into the future. But thx for your feinted concern.

        Like

  17. INSANE OLD SHIITE. . Lynn Swan Created all this Shiite giving Gomer He’ll Ton such a big Coaching Contract for $ Million s of Dollars How Many years has Gomer He’ll ton been Coaching at USC and every year its DOWN Hill… Gomer s HE’LL Ton BUYOUT is INSANE. Usc will not BUYOUT gomers CONTRACT so we are Stuck with Gomer He’ll ton for at least 2 more years UNLESS some one get s there Head out of there Ass Hole and FIREs gomer or PAYS the BUYOUT. .. the USC football players do NOT Deserve this Shiite. Also please FIRE. Dimbodrevno the OFfensive line coach. ..

    Like

    Reply

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