FOOTBALL

An Issue Continues With Kedon Slovis

When I frequently mention the USC offensive line being a weakness, there is another issue that goes hand-in-hand with it and doubles the Trojans’ dilemma.

Kedon Slovis hates pressure.

When I say that, I mean defensive pressure. He’s not especially mobile and has played behind a porous line his first two seasons. This leads to injuries and happy feet.

A troubling aspect of spring I’ve heard from a USC coach is the number of interceptions thrown by Slovis in the first nine practices.

This is one reason Jaxson Dart has emerged too because of his athleticism.

We won’t know until the fall if Slovis is “back” following his injury/mechanical issues. But even if he is, there will be the problem of dealing with pressure.

  • Reserve QB Mo Hasan tore his ACL in Saturday’s scrimmage. That’s 2 torn ACL’s and a torn Achilles in nine practices.

26 thoughts on “An Issue Continues With Kedon Slovis”

  1. This season is going to stink, once again due to poor conditioning and yet another crappy offensive line. The same problems plaguing SC Football for years now. If nothing changes, nothing changes. Same old issues, and what else did anyone expect?

    8-4 prediction.

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      1. I’ve been a hardcore SC fan since 1976, but I don’t live in Los Angeles or Kalifornia, and I don’t have to mingle with UCLA alums at work, at the gym or around town, for the most part. (Just usually the usual random Asian Microsoft dork driving 50 mph in the passing lane with the UCLA license plate frame, on his way to work, etc. But I digress; so, although it’s great to beat UCLA, it isn’t the Be-All, End-All. If I had the choice of only one win per year, I’d pick a victory over Notre Dame, hands-down….if I could only pick one. We should beat the Bruins every year, and ND is more of a real rival. I also don’t care about basketball much, either. It’s great SC got to the Elite Eight and beat UCLA twice. I pull for them. But, who cares. If 8-4 with a win over UCLA excites you, then you are one of the seven-layer bean dip-eating, chardonnay swilling alums (probably wearing one of those stupid cardinal and gold SC faux Hawai’ian style camp shirts that the bookstore sells, along with a straw brim hat with the “SC” interlocking logo and Tommy Bahama khakis) who put up with tolerating having a “coach” like Clay Helton, and AD like Mike Bohn and all of the excuses that go with the piss-poor conditioning and garbage product on the field. I’m glad we beat UCLA (football) last year, but we were lucky to do so. You saw what came next against whOregon. As for basketball (which I don’t care about, but I’d like to make a counterpoint), do you really think the SC team that showed up to play Gonzaga would’ve beaten the UCLA team that prevailed over Alabama and Michigan? Not that weekend, they wouldn’t have. UCLA is small potatoes as far as football goes. There are exceptions to that, such as 1967, 1977, 1978, 1981 and of course 1987 and 1988, where something actually mattered. Going 8-4 with a victory over UCLA isn’t something to feel great about. The standard is winning national championships, Rose Bowl wins and beating both rivals annually. Would I be wrong to guess you’re a liberal? Or do you just not have standards? New to understanding the game of football? Because what you see on the field and at most levels of this program is garbage, and it’s the fault of the university culture from the top on down. USC Football is dead for the time being, and I don’t see it coming back anytime soon, unless leadership wakes up and makes some serious changes. At SC, it only seems to be plunging ticket revenues combined with declining alumni donations and withholding endowments that seem to get their attention, money-hungry whores that they are. The last time declining revenues got their attention was midway through the 2000 season, and SC actually managed to #@$% up and make the right outside hire, for once since 1960. If Wolf’s story about the wealthy alum who offered to buy out Helton’s remaining contract ($15mm or $20mm or whatever it was) if SC hired Urban Meyer, then maybe there’s hope that some ultra-wealthy alums might finally be able to convince Frau Folt to pull the plug on Helton and make a lights-out hire to restore the football program. However, she’s probably not interested, as she’s too busy tweeting about climate change, women’s lacrosse, getting vaccinated, trans-racial bi studies or whatever….anything but football, in her case. USC is so screwed until some serious changes from the top down are made. Maybe a group of vocal football alums (who are more eloquent than Riki Ellison, hopefully) along with a few key ultra-wealthy alumni donors will finally be able to instill some change. Only when the Board of Trustees and Frau Folt see the account balance dropping, they may finally listen and be willing to make a change.

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    2. O line??!! Those are the fat guys I ran by on my way to greatness! What else do I have to do for USC??!! I’ve put the university on the map. It has turned into bunch wimpy guys that can’t win! When are we going to change the building name to OJ Simpson Heritage Hall? It has a nice ring don’t you think?

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  2. Scottie, every QB hates pressure, it is not just a Slovis thing. The problem as I see it is that the opposing defense drops 8, Kedon has to go through all his progressions, and those take way too much time. Answer would seem to be running the ball more to limit the use of the 8 drop zone and more targeted plays (quick hitters) so that there are fewer 3rd and long situations and fewer plays that take too long to develop.

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    1. Slovis reminds me of a bunker General; he’s also less mobile than Daniels (near impossible) and he’s developed mild “happy feet.”

      After the Oregon game debacle, can you blame Slovis – here you take it. So a fat bozo O/lineman takes the ball and does an OJ down the sideline with the game over, what a chuckle.

      #SUCCquitspostseasonFB
      #warm milk and cookies time.
      #pussyon

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      1. JustOwns, I don’t know who you are or where you come from but you best watch your mouth or “the real killers” will cut your dome off!! No fat bozo O/lineman can do what OJ does! OJ is USC football!!

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    2. trojan1967, the problem is USC does not have a RB like OJ to run the ball. I carried the ball over 330 times my senior season alone! The University needs to change the name from University of Southern California to the University of OJ Simpson!

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    3. 67 — I bet ya Slovis will be fine …until the Pac 12 Championship game. Unless he gets hurt, he’ll complete plenty of stuff to London and McCoy (more even than he did to Vaughns & St. Brown). In spite of what folks here are saying —even with all the same o-line problems as last year —- no Pac 12 South team is gonna be able to beat USC. Our problem is that we won’t be able to win the Conference or get to a first rate bowl game.
      #InOtherWords,PrettyMuchMoreOfSameFromHelton
      P. S.
      To my friend, Owns:
      True, Kedon is not a running qb —but no way is he less mobile than J. T. The one time I watched QB footwork drills I was amazed at how bad J. T.’s footwork was —– great, great arm — good decision making — but can’t slide or backpedal worth shit.

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      1. Michael, we saw the transformation of JT at Georgia last season. Just takes the right program and a good O-line and then it is getting everything to work in unison. What I hate to see at USC, season after season, is that the offense rarely seems to click together.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Yep. That’s the Helton factor. He can’t demand more cuz he doesn’t know what ‘more’ looks like….
        #”AMediocreManCan’tLeadTroopsToVictory”
        —-General Patton

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    4. I’m not an expert in football schematics, but listen to Harvey Hyde, the ex-head coach for UNLV who talks about Graham Harrell’s offense. He absolutely shreds the schematics of it. The problems of the offensive line are all on Harrell and the fact that Helton as a HC is neutered.

      The team will probably have a much better defense, as we have some great coaches (So’Oto and Donte). So the defense will need to win the games with turnovers and plain out stopping our opponents, but the offense is going to be hit and miss. It is really too bad, we have some incredibly talented receivers and running backs and QBs.

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  3. Wait a QB hates pressure? Scott might be on to something here. Next he will tell us the team the scores the most points wins. How long before the professor gives us 4 blog post about USC going from shotgun on 1 yard line in scrimmage? You just can’t get more inside USC. #lovethissite #ownssweetowns

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    1. Gosh Ricki, thanks but not thanks; I favor female partners.

      However, I’m thinking Dear Pisley or old stogie could us some spooning – good luck.

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      1. “I favor female partners.” the key question is do they favor you? Rumor has it that your last “female partner”–Quasimodette–dumped you.

        JO, you are the ultimate in putting your foot in your mouth. You just keep on giving. You are the ultimate chump. You just keep walking right into it.

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      2. “ JO, you are the ultimate in putting your foot in your mouth.”…

        After walking through the cow pastures out in Norco.

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      3. Wham right over your head. Also Slovis seem to General right by that powder blue team to the north. DING DING DING #cluelessinwestwood

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  4. Isn’t Slovis a bit over hyped from day 1…………I don’t see this guy as a 1st round pick. There is nothing he does that jumps out at you.

    Sorry to say this he is a little better than average quarterback that will struggle this season on a less than average team. Arizona State, and Utah will fight it out for the Pac 12 South Title in 2021. SC and UCLA will battle it out for 3 or 4th place.

    Helton, will be gone by January 1, 2021 if not before.

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    1. It’s all good! We know you meant January 1st 2022…..
      #…WillTommydBeTheWinnerOfAShinyNewTricycle?
      [I’m putting myself down for 1 hour, 10 minutes ad 13 seconds after the Notre Dame game]……..

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  5. Sorry about that prediction on Helton! We already missed January 1, 2021 let’s hope Helton is gone by January 1, 2022. No way they can keep him with shrinking attendance, and a poor finish in the Pac 12 this year which is very likely with a fairly good defense, but very subpar offense.

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  6. I finally watched the spring game (the original recording was so badly garbled I had to watch an encore) The not ready for prime time channel spent so much time in interviews I didn’t see much football.
    The “sacks” recorded were actually flag football calls. Slovis didn’t look as bad as many would think. And Helton said having coordinator s running the teams helped train them for future head coaching positions. The thought of cloning Helton is frightening. A graphic highlighting his accomplishments showed one exciting bowl game win with the Darnold factor and two Helton factor losses in bowl games.
    And this seems like a reworded post it is my second attempt, so I may have said this in another post.

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  7. Without Darnold, Helton is nothing. Real leadership has left the university long ago, and season ticket holders are voting with their feet. Shameful and sad to see all the resources that can and should be brought to bear to remedy the program, and yet it languishes.

    Spoke with a friend from another PAC-12 school about the waning football relevance of the conference nationally. His unforced answer was interesting, “when USC football is ascendant, it lifts the entire conference up.”

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  8. I concur with Tommy D re: Slovis. 1st round talents don’t struggle throwin’ when there are slight breezes in a particular corner of a stadium as per a Papa Helton postgame comment.

    It occurs that even when Helton’s congenial stupidity is shown the door, his soft touch will still linger over the program in the form of the kids he loves, and loves to recruit. The kinds of kids who dance after making routine tackles while the team itself is trailing Ore by double digits late in the 4th qtr… or kids who dramatically sign their LOI cause they rank “building their brand” over “balling out for ‘SC”. Or “young persons” (kids) who’ve been pampered by how ever many private high schools they’ve transferred to and from. The same kids who bring that same expectant mentality to campus thusly forcing ol softie to issue the same jerz number to 4 dudes plus anyone who makes a sad face. Young people who’ve had private coaches, mentalists, nutritionists, biologists, strategists, etc who primarily specialize in blowning dubious sunshine up a paying clients ass. Recruited prospects who’d claim PTSD if they had to put up with the shit kids at Carson, Banning, Canyon, Hart, etc had to deal with & fight thru just to see the field back in the 70s, 80s, early 90s. Kids who aren’t worried in the least about losing their spot cause even tho they’ve spent all spring and summer on injury island, the Head Cotton Ball plays his favorites, not his best. Kids who accept mediocrity because clever clay has disguised it in the cloak of greatness we once wore.

    In close, I don’t give three shits if they call it by its proper name, the Oklahoma Drill, or they use Clays lame rebrand, the Trojan Drill, or they go with my name, the Too Little Too Late Drill, aint no way that a handful of minutes spent by a handful of players performing the basic block, shed, tackle stuff will undo the Charmin soft mentality that’s plagued our teams since our head ball coach lucked into the gig.

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