FOOTBALL

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

Wasn’t it interesting that USC fired offensive line coach Tim Drevno and strength coach Aaron Ausmus two days before Christmas and apparently never had an intention of mentioning it?

Worse was Clay Helton telling Ausmus he did a great job and firing him three days later.

Helton loves to fire coaches but when does the culture change?

The players don’t respect him or particularly like playing for him.

He’s replaced every coach in the past two years and the perception hasn’t changed among the players. He is not trusted. So the culture is the same.

All you had to do was watch games in 2020 to see USC had the same malaise Helton teams always have.

What would happen if Kedon Slovis got tired of it?

That might wake some people up.

  • Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith won the school’s third Heisman Trophy since 2009. It reminds me how USC had three winners in four years (Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush).

Media like myself just became accustomed to going to New York every December for the Heisman ceremony. The first time in 2002, I was part of a small group (around 10 people) that went out with the low-key Palmer afterward to a Manhattan restaurant and drank champagne. I don’t think anyone recognized him.

A USC official wasn’t happy when I wrote about the cost of the champagne.

Two years later, it was much different atmosphere. A group that included Leinart, Bush, Adrian Peterson and Alex Smith went to an exclusive club after the ceremony in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. Kirk Herbstreit was there too. No one left until the club closed.

I remember then-Utah coach Urban Meyer was in Smith’s limo but he refused to enter the club and went back to his hotel. Probably a smart move.

Pete Carroll? He was in L.A.

Carroll always ran USC’s bowl practice on the Saturday the ceremony took place, then flew out to New York for the official dinner on Monday night.

  • I bet you could have quite a conversation if you gathered all 14 assistant coaches Clay Helton fired at USC.
  • USC basketball recorded its first win at McKale Center since 2008 and most lopsided victory in Tucson since 1927. Also, the smallest crowd in history.
  • And now for some history:

Here’s a picture of Bob Boyd and Paul Westphal in 2014 at the Galen Center.

Westphal was so good, he could have gone anywhere and it came down to perennial champion UCLA and USC.

“I wanted to play on a national championship team,” Westphal said in 1969. “I liked the USC school best, and I felt I had a chance for a national championship at either. But if I were on a championship team at UCLA, well, they’ve had the teams with Walt Hazzard, Gail Goodrich and now Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). At USC it would be the first national championship and would have more distinction.”

  • Here is what John Wooden said about Westphal:

“In my career as a teacher and coach at UCLA, the most valuable recruit we ever lost was Paul Westphal.

“He’s the one who got away. He attended all my basketball camps, and I was sure he was going to come to UCLA. He changed his mind at the very last moment and went to USC.

“Paul has said that because we were doing very well at that time, he thought it would be better to help somebody else get in that spot and knock us off rather than just coming to UCLA and help us continue

“I’ve seen a lot of basketball players, and Paul Westphal is the only one who from what I saw was truly ambidextrous. I’ve had a lot of them who were pretty good with the off-hand. But you could tell whether they were left-handed or right-handed. With Paul, I believe that he could have shot with either hand and it would have looked exactly the same.”

  • About a week after kicking the game-winning field goal against Stanford in 1953, USC kicker Sam Tsagalakis was such a big star he got taken to Paramount Studios to meet King Paul of Greece.

Now something momentous happened when King Paul and his wife, Queen Frederica, went to the USC-UCLA game at the Coliseum the following week. They watched the game from the pressbox, one of the few times a woman was allowed into the pressbox before 1974.

Believe it or not, this was the Coliseum policy until 1974. 

“Women and children are NOT admitted to the press box.”

Just to be clear, women referred to female reporters. So what happened if a female journalist wanted to cover a game? In the early 1960’s, the highly respected sportswriter Jeane Hoffman wanted to attend a USC game. She was given two tickets to sit outside the press box.

One of the excuses for keeping women out was that the male sportswriters used too much profanity during the games.

  • By the way, why did USC write an obituary for Tsagalakis but not for tailback Manfred Moore or his brother Kenny Moore? Or for QB Bill Nelsen, who had a more successful college and NFL career?

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

    2. One way to win friends and influence people. Your opinion carries so much influence, we all feel so threatened we will need to use your cry room now that you have finally come out of it.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      2. MG,
        You must have missed the news. You guys are the unhappy people now. I guess by attempting to ignore Wednesday, that slipped past you.

        Like

      3. I don’t give a shit about winning friends! Especially you redneck racist faggot ass crackers!!!
        #GOPandUSCarebothlosers

        Like

    1. “By the way, why did USC write an obituary for Tsagalakis but not for tailback Manfred Moore or his brother Kenny Moore? Or for QB Bill Nelsen, who had a more successful college and NFL career?”

      Because over the years, the university has loaded up on hiring a bunch of incompetents and sychophants. Maybe Coach Bohn can hire some people who are halfway qualified.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. Breaking news from A. D. Bohn’s Office: “I would like to respond to the individual known as trojan1967: I have done everything in my power —not only to retain halfway qualified people —- but to to seek out and hire more of them. Over time, this will become more & more obvious.”

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Hmmm, Nikias is Greek, Tsagalakis is Greek, think there might be a connection as to why this guy was mentioned and others were overlooked ? Eh, probably not.

        Liked by 2 people

  3. I think we all paid our respects to the Moore family. Not good enough, IMHO.
    Malcolm knows that the real Trojan family is with him.

    Since the NCAA beatdown 10 years ago, leadership at USC has just not paid heed to the USC Family. Maybe we can bring them up to speed?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  4. I was in NY on business Dec 2010 the weekend Cam Newton “won” the Heisman.*

    Sitting in La Guardia on getaway Sunday mid-day, young Kellen Moore–who finished 4th that year but was invited to attend the ceremony–was across from me in the concourse. He looked like he was studying. No one but I recognized the fella. I shot him a thumbs up, and he politely smiled back.

    I think most CFB players outside of their home “state” are not recognizable.

    *Cam was likely every bit as ineligible as one Reggie Bush. Cam keeps his trophy, Reggie relinquished his.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Bush was forced to return the HT and St. Pat was kind enough to ship it back to the NYAC. Bush’s selfish greed lead to his utter disgrace and cost the Clown U FB a NC.

      #Them’s the facts.
      #BushwouldmakeafineTrumpflunky

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      Reply

      1. Bush was the NCAA and Heisman’s sacrificial lamb. Last time we checked, JO, Bush’s mom and dad profited by the relationship with the agent and not RB.

        There have been so many “dirty” NCAA CFB stars who also were Heisman winners. I was using Cam and his Daddy’s pay for play story as one point of the hypocrisy of the NCAA and–in this case–the Heisman.

        Give Reggie his trophy back or have all the dirty winners own up and give theirs back. Start with the Whiney Panther. Jameis Winston is likely dirty too.
        The stuff going on at OSU with Tressel was vastly worse that the single event with the Bush family. OSU got a hand-slap and then hired Urban.

        Everyone on this planet knows Reggie was the most electrifying CFB of the past 20+ years and by far the Heisman winner of that year.

        Liked by 5 people

      2. The only fans in CFB that believe that are UCLA fans. Everyone else says USC won the national title.
        Just saying buddy. Probably time to let that one go.

        Like

  6. Which is worse. The attack on our nation’s capital or BLM matters protesters? Did 1 single law enforcement officer die due to BLM? Asking for a friend.
    #ConservativeFaggots

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. I’m way too much of a pussy ass bitch to answer those questions. God knows that if a police officer were ever killed in a left wing demonstration, I’d be desperately trying to put the responsibility on an entire political party or about half the country.

      Like

      Reply

    2. U Idiot,

      28 people have died from antifa, Bowel Movements Matter, and the rest of Biden’s gang. yes, police died, idiot. 4 policemen were killed by Biden’s gang , U Idiot. They wer in Kansas City/ St.Louis area.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Perhaps you missed the gigantic difference that Biden condemned that violence and Trump was almost singlehandedly responsible for the mayhem on Wednesday and after the fact told the perpetrators that they were special and that he loved them.

        So there’s that…

        Like

  7. Memo to: Bourbon

    The difference betwixt Bush’s situation and the other HT winners you mention, is Bush was busted! Not only that, but Bush’s problem was exacerbated by Emperor Garrett and Little Petey Pom-Pom’s Clown U arrogance.

    Ask MG, Bourbon, if claiming in court that someone else did the same thing, but didn’t get caught, as a defense, should entitle a defendant a directed not guilty verdict.

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    Reply

    1. I prefer that justice be meted out equally, Mr. Just Owns.
      That’s how I was raised. My blood boils when I see anyone treated unjustly.
      That is how the vaunted, liberal California school system educated me from 1966 to 1988 (the last 8 at a private school–USC).
      That will always be my belief and my value system.
      Equal justice for all.

      I will admit that I am anachronistic, and I’m happy to have folks poke fun at me. Happy to die that way.

      Mike Garrett likely has quite a story to tell as a black man growing up in the 1940’s/1950’s and succeeding in both baseball and football in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Given those assumptions, I’ll take Mike’s side on any argument with a feckless, racists NCAA cabal.

      Like

      Reply

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