FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: Offensive Line Had Chance To Produce

How ironic is it that USC might produce back-to-back first-round draft picks at offensive tackle in spite of itself?

No one would be surprised if Alijah Vera-Tucker joined Austin Jackson as a first-round draft pick. But the question would be why didn’t USC do more with the duo as college players?

USC was 13-13 in 2018-19 when it had Jackson/Vera-Tucker together to make an impact.

Just one more confounding fact of USC football.

  • Iowa State coach Matt Campbell is now under contract through 2028 after getting three more years added to his deal. He would have been a lot cheaper to hire a year ago for some school (hint, hint).
  • Wyoming assistant Brett Vigen was hired as head coach at Montana State. Former USC offensive line coach Tim Drevno was a candidate for the job.

27 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Offensive Line Had Chance To Produce”

  1. Tim Drevno was a candidate for a head coaching position, but his record blocked it from happening. Ironically the first successful block made in Drevno’s tenure as a coach.
    “The offensive line has a chance to produce,” I had a chance to produce until my wife figured out what made them babies and had it snipped.

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      4. When we have a team we don’t recognize year after year, yet with good players, but a coach that dismisses the notion of lining up under center as strange, it’s time to come home.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. He’s not been great as a head coach, just solid at best. Huge upgrade over Clay, but we can do better. With that, I would be mad at it if it happened, which it won’t.

        Liked by 1 person

      7. Del Rio has been unemployed since the Raiders wised up and tossed him in the traah heap…that’s how good he is.

        #DelRioHasNoTakers

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      8. Jack served as the defensive coordinator for the Washington football team this past year. Until further notice, if any, he’s scheduled to come back.

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  3. Scott,
    Don’t forget that Chuma is also in the NFL, I believe all three played together at one time. If you have 3 NFL lineman and can’t get it done, what’s that say?

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    2. Chuma was a let down. But I have to say that comes from bad leadership coaching him at USC. Neil Callaway was a horrible coach and then you have the soft and gentle approach that Helton takes as a team and we take players with promise and potential but derail that when they get to USC.

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  4. USC actually did things with AJ and AVT on the left side. Most of their run production cam from that side of the line. And that side protected Slovis reasonable well. When he did get hurt, it was often from Slovis holding on to the ball too long.

    But it doesn’t look like USC got production because the right side, and, in particular, the right-side interior, was so weak.

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    1. I’m sure that you forgot that Iowa seemed to like both sides of the line. Why as fans do we forget the truth when it’s painfully obvious that the coaching staff fails its players. 13-13 is the truth and the embarrassment is on the fans that elect to ignore the facts. I have realized that since the Cotton Bowl & the Denial of A.D. & school Presidents has seen the demise of our beloved football team. Prescription- bet against USC – It feels liberating collecting money for the Moron who’s being paid approximately $ 5,000,000. I cannot wait to San Jose State ( hopefully I can get 24-28 points). Another prescription for you to ponder is the USC basketball team- It has been Just 36 years ago since we won the PAC -10 conference.

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      1. What “truth” am I forgetting? Scott wondered why USC didn’t get enough running production when two first-round linemen were paired side by side and I am saying they did get running production when they were paired. That is an objective, statistical fact.

        And why should I ponder the Basketball team? What does that have to do with Scott’s post.

        What a weird comment.

        Liked by 2 people

  5. It is impossible to get production from the air raid offense, as it is constructed by Graham Harrell. The offense doesnt set up players to succeed. When you can install your full offense in just a couple days, it tells you that you have a simplistic offense that will never be able to win.

    GH is a decent QB coach, but that is all. If he wants to remain as the OC at USC, he will need to completely re-formulate his strategy. The offense will take advantage of RPO elements and create strategic leverage in the blocking schemes, or GH will be gone.

    Drevno was not really at fault for the poor offensive line play, as he was handcuffed by Harrell. There are a bunch of really intelligent coaches that are using air raid principles in a more robust offensive scheme.

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    1. Dan Guerrero’s parting gift…which is five times as painful after SOW lost their $280 million Under Armour contract, and instead signed a $50 million contract with Nike.

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      1. ” On the expense side, spending was down in nearly all categories except administrative and support staff compensation, which increased by about $1 million to $24.1 million. ”

        Hard to believe that they didn’t cut this, so so hard to believe, not.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Football is so much more than Xs and Os, and putting players in the right place to succeed. It is about matching the other team’s energy, taking initiative, executing, and winning 1 on 1 battles. Besides his atrocious game management, Helton’s biggest failure is to not have the team ready to take it to the other team. It is like players are hesitant and are waiting for someone to do something. How many times have we seen the team just wait and get punched in the mouth before they start playing well? If there is one thing that great teams do more often than not, is they start off and step on the other team’s throat. I don’t see that killer instinct in either Helton or his teams.

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  9. I had originally thought that the high school ratings of incoming linemen meant something. Then I looked at the star ratings of the starting lines of both super bowl teams and realized it doesn’t. There are more unrated starters on the lines than there are 4 and 5 stars. So it kind of explains what the term “coaching up” means. I think it was five linemen had zero stars from high school and they got better in college to become starters professionally. That really makes our past lineup of O line coaches look very bad.

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