FOOTBALL

Discuss The USC-Notre Dame Game

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

What a winnable game. And USC never rose to the occasion. It lost to Jack Coan. It didn’t make stop when it needed to. It had some dumb penalties. It burned timeouts.

The clock management was atrocious.

Could USC even make a comeback at the end if it had scored with its awful 2-minute offense?

108 thoughts on “Discuss The USC-Notre Dame Game”

    1. James — One look at Bohn chatting with woman in the booth [with his mouth full of jelly beans] answers your question….
      #He’llBotchIt…BigTime
      #ButNoOneInUSC’sAdministrationWillRealizeIt….
      #…ForRoughly8or9Years…

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply

    2. Matt Campbell beats the fighting Gundy’s today. His Buyout seems likely to be $6mill.
      Franklin underperforms today. His buyout likely $4mill.
      Dave Aranda–my choice–buyout could be $16mill.

      Jon Smith at Oregon State loses at home to the fighting Wittinghams. Buyout? who cares?

      Fickell? not gonna happen.
      Bill O’brien. IDK.

      If this all turns to shite in the next 2 months,
      Josh Heupel?
      Alex Grinch?
      A pac 12 retread (see, Larry Smith for details)
      An NFL loser?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. my mistake, the Beavs come back in the second half at home to beat the fitting Wittinghams.

        Jon Smith’s beavers rush for over 200 yards vs Utah. hmmmm

        Liked by 3 people

  2. When I said I thought USC would take it to them, I hope everybody knew I was referring to “outgain” them in total yardage.
    #TrojansKnewJustHowToDoItToo..
    #GetToRedZone….
    #AndStop….
    #[OrTurnBallOver]

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  3. Thanks for the lead in, Mr. Wolf.

    Seven inviolable rhetorical questions in a row. All with the answer, “yes.”

    My contribution?
    Is this the worst coached (and played) USC FB team in the last 40 years?

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

    1. I think Donte agrees with you judging from the look on his face at the end of both halves… he was fit to be tied….
      #MaybeSomeoneShouldTellHimHeWasTheGuyAtTheControls

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply

      1. I doubt Donte can control haughty harrell or orlando. Bohn likely didn’t give Donte power, only headaches. If harrell was doing his job, he would have pulled slovis. Kedon, his pet, looked terrified throughout the game and made rookie mistakes. What about that play at the end of the half when he didn’t throw to Drake in endzone, instead spiked the ball. To me, this is someone who needs to be replaced. Throughout the game, Drew kept saying slovis has to get rid of the ball faster in a number of ways. Still slovis hangs on to the ball too long. If Moss was not ready, why??? I suspect because all training goes to harrell’s pet rather than preparing the team for success by training the other QBs.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Carra:

        I think the O-line is really the problem.
        I think ND QBhit/sacked Slovis 3 times in the first 4 dropbacks in Q1.
        O-line got a “tad” better later, when the game was already decided.
        This O-line play was deteriorating in yr 1 with Helton, and we are crazy
        to think it was ever going to get better.

        Slovis has a run game now. His WR are improving SLOWLY.
        If he can get rid of the ball sooner, he might survive the season.

        Liked by 3 people

      3. Bourbon — Yeah, it’s no fun playing QB behind our line….but… I don’t think we should let Slovis off the hook too easily. It’s not his fault but he’s not the kind of sparkplug this team needs. He’s a talented thrower with nearly zero leadership qualities. When NBC flashed his portrait at the start of the game I thought I was looking at that blank face in the billboards that went up in L. A. advertising “The 40 Year Old Virgin.”

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Yep, Michael.
        Remember when the Trojans held the jeweled shillelagh for about 8 years during the PC era? The rivalry was dead.

        Or when Holtz routinely slapped Troy around for over a decade. The rivalry was dead.

        It’s been a decade of decadence with Nikias/Folt, Haden/Swann/maybe Bohn, Kiff/Orgeron/Swann/Helton.

        Remains to be seen if the USC BOT is willing to take the fight.
        As they are rich, privileged, left-wing, and white skinned, I rather think they don’t have the fight. Better to sniff pricey wine.

        The rest of us who are part of the Trojan family do have that fight.
        Maybe we can take it to ’em (?)

        Liked by 3 people

      2. These “people” —Folt and Bohn —-can’t see the writing on the wall…
        #TheyWillGoDownAsTheTwoBiggestJokesEverPerpetratedOnUSC

        Liked by 3 people

      4. Yeah, you’re right, Tim. This isn’t an accident. The present clique likes losing.
        #USCIsn’tCompetingWithAlabamaOrOklahomaFootball…
        #..It’sCompetingWithTheCityOfPortlandOrSanFrancisco

        Liked by 2 people

    2. well you don’t live and breathe sc as some of us do…we die a little and under hellton yrs and folt yrs we are nearly half gone.

      Like

      Reply

  6. Well wishing in one hand came up short again. The ghost of Helton was on display once again. Calling two runs at the end of the first half was just brilliant. I’ll bet, just like Helton, Williams thought nobody would ever expect it.
    It was nice at the end of the game The Notre Dame coach whispered into Donte’s ear, “see you next year Clay Jr. “

    Liked by 7 people

    Reply

    1. “Stay in your lane, Donte.”
      –Bourbon4me.

      In all fairness, ND is a far better program with a far better fan base and better financials and better coaching than USC. Donte was way out of his league tonight.

      The next HC might wish to only keep Donte.
      The rest may clear out their desks the week after Thanksgiving.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      2. Along these lines, Michael, I was incensed to hear Mike Tirico–the Domer Homer–expound on the virtues of Clay Helton. Had the audacity to call Helton “a good coach who just didn’t mesh with the USC atmosphere.”

        I previously liked Tirico, but he proved himself to be a football idiot.
        Preach to that ND choir, Mr. Tirico.
        We’ll see which program Clay will “resuscitate” when he is re-hired (lol).

        Liked by 3 people

      3. Bourbon – Same thing with Herbstreit – you could tell several years back that he, along with the SEC homers and other Pac fans, were desperate for USC to keep Helton…it’s what differentiates the Pac from other conferences (something brought up on this board a few times) – the SEC programs are perfectly happy with a Kentucky basketball and Alabama football hegemons, and look forward to the occasional year or two they get to break through (the Pac was like this back during the McKay/JRob era it seemed to me, although I was young)…the Big 10 gets bad Ohio State and Michigan football is bad for the conference…even the Big 12 knows Kansas basketball being good is good for the conference…but the Pac? No – the other programs seem to delight in aiding in USC football staying down, and then scratch their heads in wonderment that the rest of the country has no interest in anyone else, barring the occasional time where a team clearly has merit in the national sense.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Bourbon —Did I hear you say “WHEN Helton is re-hired”?
        #NotSureWe’llLiveThatLong
        #[That’sIfYou’reTalkingAboutFootball —
        #…DifferentDealIfYou’reTalkingTelevisionEvangelist]…..

        Like

      1. It was kind of Kelly to give a qualified adult opinion and comment to Donte. Lord knows he needs to hear something from a successful, dedicated knowledgeable coach. He won’t find that at USC.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. As much as I want to dislike him, Kelly is usually a pretty class act —-[btw, he would have beaten Helton with his entire secondary injured were it not for Adoree’s heroics that day]……

        Liked by 1 person

  7. Picked 30-10 … 31-16 so ND is worse than I thought this year
    SC even received some great calls ( it was not targeting, was a drop ) btw, we do not want to waste good calls at ND on this shitty team.

    Well good news Donte can meet with every kid this week and try to get them to beg he gets the HC gig … what the hell is Gomer jr trying to pull he isn’t getting this job

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

      2. I always believed Cody Kessler and his team were responsible for helton’s change from interim to permanent. Helton pandered and wooed the young people and he got his way. Haden was too busy finding ways to enrich his family and advance his social causes to put the time into hiring a great coach.

        Liked by 3 people

  8. As a member of the sanction-crippled/JR exododus crippled 1983 team–which was beyond a horrible team–I must wonder if our heartless team was worse than the Paul Hackett 2000 team (I did not watch a single game that year) or the 2021 Helton/Orlando team?

    Having matriculated undergrad in 1983, I enjoyed going to the Rose Bowl in 1985 (after the 1984 season) as a medical student at USC. “Give Trojans a chance at the RB and we will get there and win.”

    I never watched the 2000 squad, but I suspect that they were the worst team since the Don Clarke days, followed by the 2021 Trojans who were humiliated at the LOS in the first half of this game. In true Kelly fashion, he managed the game “just enough” in the second half to win. A decent coach, doing just enough to win a bunch of games, satisfy the fan base, remain “relevant,” earn a paycheck, and never win the big one. Hats off, BK.

    My vote: 2000 Paul Hackett Trojans–worst ever. 2021 Helton Trojans–@=#2.
    1983 Ted Trojans, #3 or 4. Don Clarke’s 1957 and 1958–pretty horrible.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

      3. Charles, that 2000 Hackett team ended the season 5-7 (2-6 in the PAC-10). They get my vote for worst team because they ran off 4 game losing streaks. This year’s team us as bad as that team. I put these 2 teams as the worst because their failure was solely due to incompetence of the coaching and the administrators that put those coaches in their jobs.

        The ‘83 team was more a victim of circumstances (JRob had left, NCAA probation). I wasn’t alive for the ‘57 team.

        Liked by 2 people

    4. Bourbon-Your a man for that…1983 did some wretched things (and it was unnecessary from what I’ve read and know about the roster – you know first hand – was it just the the gutting of the previous coaching staff/poor transition? The next year’s team wasn’t great – they won ugly and lost big…but they were tough and didn’t back down).

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. You’re spot on, James.

        JR was a great CEO, and Goux and Houck were the Heart (and discipline) of the team.
        Gil Haskell was likewise a great WR coach, and he went to the NFL also (Rams? Packers?).

        JR left a good stable of young coaches: Dave Wannsteadt, Norv Turner, Nate Shaw, but wisely taking Houck and Goux to the Anaheim Rams was briliant.

        Practices in 1982 were so freaking tough. Gameday 1982 was a walk in the park. Practices in 1983 were a true joke. No pain.
        Felt pretty good when the final whistle blew.

        Losing Mosebar and Mathews to the NFL after 1982 left a big hole on the O-line. Still, Wannsteadt did a pretty decent job with what he had on the O-line. Losing Joey Browner, Achica, Clint Hampton, and Riki (Gray) Ellison to the NFL/USFL hurt, but Bickett/JDR/Keith Browner were a solid returning core. Jeff Simmons and Timmy White were Senior WRs in 1982, and the 1983 WR team played poorly (other than Ware).

        All in all, practices in 1983 were wimpy and the team gave up likely after losing to KU.

        Interestingly, the Tollner “era” started with an epic come from behind/4th qtr heroics at the Coliseum against the Florida Gators. Game tying TD pass as time expired–Salisbury on a dime to Timmie Ware.

        The new kicker–Donnie Shafer–comes on to kick the winning PAT and shanks it.
        Tie game. Didn’t get better.

        With sanctions ending for 1984, the team played well and won the RB–as they should every year.

        Thank you.

        Liked by 3 people

      2. I remember that 1983 season opener with the Gators – was super keyed up for it because of the loss the previous season in the opener (Salisbury’s debut – the Gators were, unbeknownst to the country, cheating their asses off but loaded with Wilbur Marshall and John L. Williams type talent…and were just one of three brewing powerhouses in Palm Tree East Land – never understood replacing Mazur with Salisbury, other than the obvious difference in physical size and arm strength – Mazur seemed to have strong intangible qualities in 1981…Salisbury seemed like a lesser version of Carson Palmer?)…that tie was super disappointing (I was a freshman in high school)…and you got the feeling something wasn’t going well, just by reading a box score and noticing the difference in the style of play, which continued…definitely a lot of lost talent, but thank you for the insight into what was happening inside…as bad as 1983 turned out, 1984 was by contrast very satisfying – it was clearly not a powerhouse team, and it struggled in almost every game…but that win that cost Washington the national title and secured the Rose Bowl…the equally impressive upset of a loaded Ohio State team…it more than offset the disappointment of dumping games to UCLA (who probably was actually a better team – they thrashed Jimmy Johnson and the Canes in the Fiesta, and won the 3 Rose Bowls sandwiched around) and a Gerry Faust coached not good Notre Dame team for a second year in a row.

        Liked by 2 people

  9. This game accurately displayed where we are right now. No coaching, no discipline, no regard for interior lineman importance, no conviction in vision (remember the inconceivable worse than Hackett Gomer saying we will be a run 1st team and 4 years later being enlightened by the air raid IN A LOSS to ND), no experience in the AD position, a joke of a BoT, and a president that doesn’t care about USC Football.

    In fairness, Donte is in a no win situation that he should never be in and is doing his best IMO. He is a position coach.

    Drake may taunt, I don’t like it but he dominates and leaves it on the field. Without him, we really suck.

    We will win next week. We would be 10 -2 if we played Arizona every week.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Nailed it, BP.
      Each point.

      This is the Helton effect.
      Just like the Tollner effect.
      Just like the Hackett effect.

      Three nice guy QB’s who did not belong in the game of football.
      At least Sarkisian and Kiffin are assholes. One is probably a decent coach.

      Here’s to the future for the Trojan family. Today showed (like Oregon State at the Coli)
      how ugly was the past..

      Fight on.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

    2. I have a good friend who got his Law Degree at Colorado. I received a text following the Buff win against the Wildcats saying they finally found a team they could “manhandle”. I hope to send him a similar text next week.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      2. The Mildcats looked tough against the UW Huskies on Friday–esp on defense.
        Still, I’d like to see Ingraham run for 150 and the WR/Slovis have a breakout game.

        Like

  10. Mike Bohn is washing Carol Folt’s feet in the back of a Lincoln Town Car heading back to Chicago right now. There is no ass that Mike Bohn won’t kiss. He’s a terrible AD and Carol Folt’s a worse president and leader. How many selfie’s did you take tonight Carol?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. “Sometimes nuthin is a real cool hand.”
      Luke–to Dragline (academy award winning George Kennedy) after Luke wins a hand bluffing with nothing.

      We’re bluffing, Minion. We got nothing.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  13. Thank you Dave Roberts, you bungling POS.

    Houston in 6 games. Even if the Dodgers defeated the Braves, Houston would have mauled the Roberts mistake riddled Dodgers.

    #The best first plan of Dodgers post-playoff, off-season business, tarmac Roberts at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

    Roberts, allowing Buehler to pitch to Rosario was stupid, stupid, stupid. Rosario’s 3 run homer sealed the Dodgers 2021 seasons demise.

    Brutal, just stinking brutal DR mismanagement.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    2. Runners on 2nd and 3rd, no outs…and you then serve up a silver sombrero…brutal as it gets…manager isn’t holding the bat, but he is giving the orders, to include pinch-hitting choices, etc….Baseball 2021 sucks in the HR Derby approach…but professional hitters have to make contact (it’s not as if it was Nolan Ryan or Sandy Koufax on the hill) especially Pujols…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  14. Get Fickell and I could not care less if we lose all the rest of the games. If you can’t get Fickell, I still would take a close look at Jonathan Smith from OSU.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  15. Sorry. Did anyone else expect a different outcome? 2022 can’t come soon enough. And in more ways than one (not just football). I do, however, disagree with Flow on the rivalry. It just needs two strong and competitive teams. Hopefully that will come in time.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      3. No, I understand. But at least change will be here. That’s what I was going for. I understand it could take a couple years after the regime change. But at least we get that change.

        Like

  16. Helton was not running either the defense or offense, so how would firing him change anything about the team performance. Orlando and Harrell were both terrible hires and Bohn paid good money to keep them on staff.

    I cant see how either Orlando or Harrell get a coordinator job at any P5 program now. Just horrible management.

    Is it Donte managing the clock or Harrell sending in the plays? Just horrible game management.

    It was like they decided to take London out of the plays when the game was on the line and they had a chance to come back.

    This defense always finds a way to lose. 3rd and long, let’s foul them and make sure they get the first down.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. We need a great HC and things will change. We haven’t had a really good HC since Kiffin and he was too young at the time. If we could get him now I’d go for him. Neither Orgerin, Sark or Helton are outstanding coaches. Let’s see how many people are interested in hiring Orgerin, Helton or Sark(after he gets fired from Texas after 2-3 seasons). I’ll bet there won’t be too many takers. That just points out what terrible hires Haden and golf boy Swann were.

      Like

      Reply

    2. Weak line play was bred into this program by coaching these past 6+ years.
      Can’t correct that overnight, though a strong recruiting class (linemen), Strength coach, and smash-face football coaching will.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. ABSOLUTELY!!! The failure started when helton hired daddy’s friend Calloway. He was as talented as helton. From there is was one mistake after another until we got the gimmick Air Raid. What great lineman who wants a career in the NFL wants to train for a restrictive offensive program.???? USC will not attract great linemen until we prove we can develop them into great NFL candidates.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Carra – you and Bourbon are right (and he – and probably you – know better even than I do), but I think it started earlier. I actually think there has been a slow, steady shift starting with the heyday of Pete – the 2003 team was awesome, with Coach O on one side, and Tim Davis on the other – absolute intensity, while still teaching technique and scheme…but EdO left…word was Pete essentially showed Davis the door in a similar way to how he ushered Norm Chow out…and then the rise of SarKiff…and the puzzling unnecessary giveaway losses (you could see it in 2005 – ND shouldn’t have even been close, nor should Fresno State or Texas…and the ridiculous talent level, and Pete’s personal defensive genius for making adjustments…and I think on occasion chewing some SarKiff ass when not getting the ball to Lendale and/or Reggie enough when the offense scuffled) from Texas through Oregon State in 2008…

        The only time the line play and intensity seemed to be restored to some degree was during the brief interim period with Coach O…otherwise, it’s been SarKiff with Helton (a Dollar Store knockoff of those two, who at least have some native smarts, charisma, and ability – that would mainly be Kiff, as I think Sark is at his level of competence as a QB coach and passing game coordinator).

        The line coaching, and probably as a consequence the recruitment (and certainly the development) has just continued a downward path throughout…

        This from the school of Mix, Yary, Powell, Munoz, Foster, Budde, Van Horne, Mosebar, Matthews…Boselli…Justice, Baker, Kalil, Smith, Brown…

        Yes, football has been de-emphasized, to put it politely, in California…yes, the game has changed…

        But not that much…this is purely coaching (which starts with who makes decisions to hire/retain or replace).

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I recall USC recruiting Talamaivo, Damien Mama, and several other 4-5 star O-linemen during the SarKiffin years. We were signing good talent, but did not have the O-line coaching to develop them fully.

        Interestingly, we’ve had 3 O linemen during the Helton years get drafted in the first (or early) rounds.

        A fired up O-line coach will get the recruits and develop them. In an average USC year we had a consensus All American O-lineman every year and a top NFL draftee every year (or so).

        Like

  17. Embarrassing as usual. Get rid of both coordinators (instead of having these “coaches” pretend they are doing something) and let them do it on their own, worst case same result

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  18. This game tonight should show everyone that offensive stats don’t mean a thing especially if you don’t play defense. That is BS that USC played well enough to win or even think it was a winable game tonight. This team is playing with no confidence right now, and it could get even worse.

    Football games are won on both sides of the ball, and in this case tonight most of the time the average ND offense could do whatever they wanted with the SC defense.

    This is nothing more than an average ND football team this season which should show us all how far USC football has really slipped.

    Sorry folks this program needs all the resources to be replaced starting with Mike Bohn, and all the assistant coaches with the exception of Donte who can recruit. This game looked like a scrimmage- and USC gave me the impression that keeping the game as close as possible was more important than winning it.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. ND offense first qtr alone: about 150 yards. Game over by then.
      Orlando made a few adjustments, but by that time the sputtering offense was too far behind.

      Oh, and stupid penalties?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    2. I agree. I am happy to report that I just read Haughty Harrell said that the number of passing yards isn’t as critical as the number of points on the score board. Hallelujah!!! Our offensive coordinator realizes now that the number points on the score board are more important than the statistics of passing yards.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  19. looks like Dart did not play…glad I slept through it…folt runs this former fine Univ, and her actions have led to this…not firing her boy hellton,she has ruined everything until she leaves, thank the BOT.
    Look back on her career at least as far as Dartmouth,& NC…she put them on some very democrat/commie agenda paths ,especially gender & title 9 ones( not justice but so called the social justice one),only large money will buy a coach to work under her.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. I think we’re about to find out that even large money won’t work, Tim. Not one of the First Magnitude coaches will be willing to spend ONE moment with that smiling, phony ding-a-ling.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. And MG, if they hire an up and coming of lesser magnitude, he will be so controlled that he never reaches his full potential. We’re on deck for a Tollner, Smith and Hackett replay.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. The answer is to have the BOT fire her. They hired her and should have seen her idiotic position when she kept helton the destroyer. She doesn’t care about football. If she is really looking for racial equity, she is failing miserably. For people of color, football and basketball have given them a path to a wealthy future. She allowed helton to destroy the dreams of many people of color football players who will now not have that future, but she and helton do!

        Liked by 2 people

      3. That’s the problem with people like Folt, Carra. And it’s a lot bigger than football and basketball….their lazily muddled philosophy is infecting daily business, law and politics…
        #They’reWealthDestroyers
        #[EvenIfTheySayThey’re”OnThePathOfRighteousness”]

        Liked by 2 people

    1. “The Drake” might be a Heisman candidate if Clown U wasn’t getting rolled losing like a drunk sailor on a three day bender. SUCC’s offense is nothing more than a “pitch and catch,” Slovis to London, “get open” option.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. James has pointed out several times how badly we need a mobile QB to make this work…I dread getting into the Red Zone cuz I know Kedon’s inability to take off makes it too easy for the defense to bunch up the endzone. I keep hoping we score from the 25 or 30 so that Kedon won’t be put in the position of fucking it up if we get close to the goal line.
        P. S.
        There is no way the Dodgers shoulda been on the wrong side of a 4-2 series with Atlanta. What a waste.

        Liked by 3 people

      2. I’m a fan of the previous “pro style” of football with balanced run/pass…but these changes have occurred purposefully, to shift football into basically a P.T. Barnum-approved single point of failure, run and dump game…and that means you have to have athleticism to make it work, since the style of play makes even the best blocking no certain thing, since the QBs aren’t usually throwing on time and often will improvise…

        The strange thing that most probably don’t get, and I only do because I played for a (Missouri High School…not pro or college) hall of fame coach who had been one of the last single wing tailbacks when he played in college – he brought the single wing out of the scrapbook the year before I arrived, and for a year in wrought havoc on opponents who didn’t know how to play disciplined defense, and simply chased all the lateral false key motions and counter action…

        He ran it mostly to run, as it was originally designed for, but one of my classmates ended up being a nationally recruited QB (and punter) who played for Mizzou…for several games (should have been all the time), he put in special packages to feature his passing ability, running lots of what we thought was Dallas Cowboy/Roger Staubach shotgun type of stuff…

        Well, looking at the present, it’s why I have brought up Roger Staubach on this site – he was Mahomes and Jackson a long time ago…he would make $100M a year in this era of QBs being protected against hits and receivers being able to push off without being flagged…Steve Young was a poor man’s version of him…Aaron Rodgers has a lot of his qualities, but has a better arm…

        The offenses they run now are essentially a variant of that, with the more precise routes being replaced with super athletes like London and QBs who can move, make up for bad blocking, keep plays alive, improvise, and when necessary throw up high quality jump ball passes.

        A QB who drops back in an old pro style fashion, standing straight up and patting the ball with his off hand while scanning the field…and who is asked to do that by what kind of coach?…ends up…well, we’ve all seen it.

        The exceptions to this are significant – Rothlesberger makes up for lack of mobility by having the lower body of a nose guard (a bigger version of Jim Plunkett, who had an absolute howitzer of an arm, and would stand in the pocket and take severe beatings while waiting for receivers to come open), Rivers similar but not as big but maybe even tougher and also having Plunkett’s nack for sliding around in the pocket even though he wasn’t mobile per se…and then there’s Brady…playing for the coaches and teams he has…getting a lot of obvious special protection (to include his linemen being allowed to hold to laughable degrees)…and any time anyone has hit him like he should be hit frequently (e.g. Bernard Pollard) they get fined…despite that, he is still a special player, and an exception, because of how prepared he is, and how fast his decision-making cycle is…he, like Joe Montana…seems to be able to run the play in his head before the snap and know exactly where to go with the ball, and has some sort of built-in pressure sensor faculty that again he seems to know immediately if feeling a particular type of pressure to get rid of the ball (other than a few playoff games – the Ravens, Jets, and Titans all got him at least once…the other losses were usually years in which the team around him wasn’t as good).

        Liked by 1 person

  21. I re-watched the some parts of the game, starting and stopping it to see what was happening on defense. Our senior players are absolutely clueless about how to cover and tackle. Angles are all wrong. Kanai Mauga is just terrible in coverage. IPM takes bad angles. There are so many times where it is third and long and the coverage seems to hang well beyond the line of gain. Players take horrible angles of attack to the ball. Drake Jackson looked awful on several plays, he is simply terrible on setting the edge and dropping into coverage. Not a top round draft choice in my opinion. Everything about this defense is just horrible.

    Linebacker play is atrocious and TO is the coach on this, so WTF? Secondary play is horrible, they just let players run past them, seemingly frozen.

    Both coordinators are horrible, horrible, horrible.

    So we know that Helton couldnt get good coaches to work for him, but is Bohn also clueless about decent coaching? If so, how can we expect him to hire a stellar head coach?

    At this point, I have lost faith in Bohn, until I see something that shows he has a clue.

    Note Dame is not a good team at all. Very winnable game.

    There is simply no effective defense schemes, coaching or practice at USC. It is all a joke. There has been no player development at all.

    – This team has only two bright spots, Drake London and Keontay Ingram.

    A head coach like Dave Aranda can come in and have this team being much better in the first season. We need to recruit a linebacker or two and get Raesjon Davis and Julien Simon up to speed. We need to get Korey Foreman up to speed. We need to let the talented athletes in the secondary get coached up. We need to get the middle of the defensive line healthy with a few big guys. Defense can be solved. Our defense needs to practice against a REAL offense, not his air raid pathetic BS.

    On offense, we simply need to get the offensive line coached up and developed, with intense physical competition in practice. It would help if we could get a couple 5 star offensive line athletes recruited.

    The whole schematics of the offense will change and unlock the potential of the run game, but we need new talent since Keontay is a senior. But the wide receiver corp is decimated. The players cant catch the ball and are running terrible routes. Next year we have Dart to step in and Devin as the back-up. Slovis will transfer out and so will Moss. But we need to really develop those receivers and Colbert isnt doing it.

    I blame Bohn/Sosna for not firing Harrell along with Helton. There was no way this team could get better with Harrell as the OC. They could have had Jinks work with Donte and reformulate the offense. If Harrell is the one calling plays on that 2 minute drill before the halftime, then he is possibly the worst coach in football. If that was Donte, then he is clueless. Any fan could have called a better 2 minute drill.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Watching the final seconds of the first half was like watching a beloved pet die. So excruciating …and you’re powerless to stop it.
      And make no mistake about it: we are powerless to stop what is happening at USC. Tim pointed out in an earlier post that the misbegotten thing we watched last night is the way USC wants it. The administrative team that said they had “100% confidence in Clay Helton” after the Holiday Bowl is the same team that is conducting the “search” for a new Head Coach….
      #..NothingGoodWillComeOfAnythingTheyDo

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply

      1. You cited my nightmare. How can we have hope for a truly great new head coach when the decision makers are the same group of incompetents that kept horrible helton in place for two additional years of program destruction. If we had replaced him two years ago, we’d be celebrating. I am hopeful the BOT is seeing the USC FOOTBALL future with all these current losses. They are losing their bragging rights…..perhaps, that will help if it hurts them directly.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. I look at always smiling Carol…and totally phony Bohn…. and the misbegotten operation they’ve run so far…& I recall the words “All who enter here lose all hope.”
        #AndThey’reHereToStay…
        #TheBoardLikesit

        Liked by 2 people

      3. I dont really know Folt or Caruso, but I find it hard to believe they want a football team that sucks. Even Folt, who is in so far over her head, cant possibly think that trashing the football team is a smart idea. The alumni hate the woman. They have lost huge revenues and donations and prestige.

        The problem is competence. USC always had a problem with hiring or keeping incompetent and corrupt people who were part of the “family”. Now our problem is that we are hiring incompetent people who are building their own new “family” of incompetents. It starts at the top. Does Folt hire a great AD? No. She hires Bohn, who is at best a mediocre AD who got lucky with Fickell. Maybe he was the only AD who didnt require in writing that they could fire Helton immediately.

        I dont think they WANT the football program to fail, but I think there is a level of incompetence that is overwhelming with this administration. It starts with the hiring of Folt. She was hired by Caruso because she would follow his lead in turning USC into just another “woke” institution, thereby gaining Caruso credibility with the progressives in the liberal party and allowing him to run for LA mayor and then go beyond to other offices. She wasnt hired for being a visionary or a great leader. If Folt was a great Chancellor at UNC she would have been able to navigate the situation with the stupid statue. You just dont hire a fired chancellor from UNC to be the head of USC.

        Firing Helton with no plan as to what comes next was not a demonstration of competence. Putting Donte in charge with no real authority to change the offense and defense and practices was a formula for disaster. You could say that they fired Helton to simply stop the shower of boos from the fans, but was the plan to throw away this season and see the team lose every game? The truth is that there simply is no plan and that is a sign of incompetence.

        Liked by 3 people

      4. There’s so much I like about what you’ve written –I’d like to say I agree 100%. But there’s one thing you might have missed —and that’s the psychology of the righteous ‘reformer.’ I worked in a very political prosecution office for a good period of time and witnessed how the administration’s contempt for critics evolved into a weird sorta death wish for the health of the city. Citizens who complained about the absence of criminal filings in areas our office was “too woke” to prosecute were laughed at and seen as rubes. I see that same attitude in Folt — right from the start she’s seen complaints about the football team and smiled to herself. I believe she’s eventually come to view our football fiasco as a battle between the enlightened few and the ignorant, backwards masses.
        She may not exactly say to herself “I like losing” but she’s gonna go on doing everything that assures it. It’s part of being on the Path of Righteousness.”

        Liked by 2 people

      5. MG and I have discussed the similarities between USC and Miami (Donna Shilala – a good Exhibit A for the type of self-righteous but incompetent reformer he points to)…USC is on a path towards what has befell the U (and you can make a case they’ve taken more competent steps to at least regain a tolerable level of success within their football program by prior hiring of Mark Richt). There is nothing written that USC football must be great, and many of these puppets are string-pulled by people whose egos prefer incompetence and failure on the field rather than what for them must have been the indignity of Pete Carroll and Mike Garrett’s independence (and popularity)…same contempt most politicians have for military figures who obtain some degree of popular acclaim…and that nearly all elitists have for the unwashed masses/useless eaters.

        Liked by 2 people

      6. Back in the day, I actually watched liberal politicians poke fun at the people in our office who didn’t own expensive suits or go to expensive restaurants. These were the people they courted for votes …. but they looked down on them with something very close to contempt. I saw that kind of contempt on full display when that student tried to tell Folt she was making mistakes that hurt our Athletic Department and she called him a “jerk.” That incident occurred in public. I don’t need to guess what she says about the importance of our football program in private.

        Liked by 1 person

      7. MG – Yeah, you’re talking right out of Thomas Frank’s brilliant “Listen Liberal” where he describes how the rise of the Clintonites in the wake of the Democratic Party sliding past irrelevancy towards potential extinction (which has afflicted each party and in recent times) led to the forsaking of what had been their base (working class) in favor of the elitist/technocratic cabal they’ve degenerated into (for anyone ready to throw a political hissy fit, I think the opposite side is just as bad…and that once you scrape the paint off of either you find that it’s all from the same factory…er, financial institution).

        Liked by 2 people

      8. James —
        I WISH our friend, Fuck You, was with me in 1992 as I walked with a group of leftist politicians and their advisors to Cole’s French Dip Restaurant (across from the Greyhound Bus Station) in L. A. As we passed the homeless on the street they were making comments about the ‘special perfume’ they wore, and the “sophisticated architecture” seen in their paper box houses. It was the first time I fully realized how much the left do-gooders really hate the poor they pretend to champion…..
        #And,OfCourse,TheFarRightIgnoresThePoorCompletely…
        #[HardToKnowWhichIsWorse]…..

        Liked by 1 person

      9. MG-exactly right (just what Thomas Frank was getting at…the party of Williams Jenning Bryan and the New Deal eventually transmogrifying – thanks Calvin and Hobbes! – into party of Government Sachs)…

        Liked by 1 person

      10. The Complete, 3 Volume “Calvin & Hobbes” & homemade lemonade —great way to spend a Summer afternoon….

        Like

      11. If nobody or next to nobody shows to watch this charade…then the BOT acts, money talks to these morons.

        Like

  22. I thought USC played better than previous weeks, and Slovis was pretty sharp. But you had no real answer to our pass rush, and we moved the ball pretty easily, We left at least 10 points on the table.
    Coaching does matter, I’d bench whoever that was the drew the ridiculous personal foul near the end.
    And we will be better next year! But good luck the rest of the way. Dave Aranda might be a good choice.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

      1. They do have great fans & grads. Always treated the TMB and fans very well. Always root for them when they aren’t playing us. I don’t want to beat a weak ND team. I want to beat them when they’re at their best! FIGHT ON!!

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Coaching does matter. The up-tempo play in the Q1 was brilliant: about 140 yards in Q1 out of 380 for the entire game. Game over at the end of Q1. The final drive to secure the win was vintage Kelly.

      If I’m Swarbrick, I’m casually calling Fickell’s agent with a plan for 2-4 years from now.

      Yes, Aranda is Choice #1–better bring a hot shot OC, as I see Baylor’s offense as their only weakness. Matt Campbell’s team is improving in FPI every year. The computers don’t lie. He also has a huge buyout, I surmise.

      See you November 2022, ND grad

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  23. friendly ? competitors? as woody hayes said , show me a good loser who is nothing but a loser…I do hold to being a good sport win or lose,but a good loser I shall never be,and I never get along well with the enemy, just be civil is my motto…

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.