FOOTBALL

Morning Buzz: How Much Has USC Regressed?

I spoke to a Pac-12 coach this week who watched the USC-Arizona game.

“They have poor fundamentals on defense,” he said. “There is no coordination. They are poorly coached. I don’t know what their identity is. It looks really ragged most of the time.

“Some of their guys look like they regressed by last year.”

Which guys? “Start with the secondary,” the coach said.

  • Here is Georgia Southern athletic director Jared Benko on Clay Helton: “He’s an elite offensive mind who has produced record-setting offenses and high NFL Draft picks everywhere he’s coached.”
  • USC sent out an email to students at 3:21 p.m. informing them of a town hall with Carol Folt and other administrators at 5 p.m.

The town hall was supposed to “answer questions about recent events and troubling reports of possible sexual assault and drugging at USC fraternities.”

56 thoughts on “Morning Buzz: How Much Has USC Regressed?”

    1. The Biggest Loser Donald J. Trump wearing the same pants as Hillary.

      No need for a zipper because Trump wears a diaper…

      LOL!

      OH MY SIDE HURTS FROM LAUGHING SO MUCH!

      AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

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  3. You really need to speak to a Pac 12 coach to see that the secondary is terrible?

    Pola-Mao and Steele in particular, have been awful this year. Even during the Smith and Hackett years, we never saw such brutal secondary play.

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      1. I think it’s the not covering after interfering and then allowing the WR to catch the ball after not covering but interfering and then not tackling after not covering but interfering and then gesturing to the official ” What did I do ? “

        Liked by 5 people

    2. What I remember most about the Hackett years was the high number of False Starts on the Offensive Line. Well, that and how easy it was to get a parking spot right behind the West End Zone with only 42,000 attending.

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    2. SC’s administration was warned by Washington and its fans about Sark’s drinking addiction. Haden, however, was too busy to investigate… I think GS has already signed. I wonder what due diligence Benko did. I am thankful they are moving him out of LA. Of course, helton’s man hugger, bohn, likely gave him a sterling recommendation. Who will give bohn a recommendation when his time has finally run out?

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    1. Georgia Southern should have just placed generic grey portrait in his bio —like they do in high school annuals for students who were absent on photo day….
      #ItWouldHaveBeenMoreRespectfulToUniversity

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      1. btw, I am gonna SO enjoy it when Helton gives this goofus the game ball and calls him “Coach Benko”….
        #Clay:”YouAreTheBestestA.D.Ever,CoachBenko!”
        #…”BetterThanHaden,Swann&BohnPutTogether!”

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Let’s not laugh —let’s all pretend this is the right way to go for the dems —( i.e., don’t talk healing, don’t talk common sense, don’t recognize that the whole country respects minority rights, don’t acknowledge our civil rights laws are the pride of the world in terms of housing, employment and freedom of choice)…..
      #PleaseKeepItUpDems…KeepGoingTillYouGetToCliff…
      #…THATIsTheBest”PathOfRighteousness”ForYouGuys…

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      1. Let’s also pretend that racism no longer exists and that Trumpism benefits everyone and that it doesn’t turn off any moderate voters.
        In other woads, let’s pretend that we’re not also driving toward a separate but equal cliff.

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      2. Hopefully, we’re headed back to the middle —you on your 45 yard line, us on our 45 yard line –where we can hear each other…
        #NoGoodShoutingAtEachOtherFromOppositeEndZones

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  9. For the rest of the season SC should go heavy on the 21 and 12 personnel, and blitz less and when they do go delayed, and also focus on some basic line games. Run first, play action and more balls to the TEs. Dart may not be able to run much but let Slovis or even Miller try on some designed runs. Those plays are there but the least used. The players don’t have to over think, they just have to whip someone’s a$$.

    At the very least it will establish SC as a physical, disciplined football team that isn’t running a “jump ball, blocking disadvantaged offense” and “gambling and out of position defense”, but simply a “I’ll whip your a$$ or get whipped” team.

    As for the other Folt anti Fraternity bs, we all know that was coming. Looks like the UVA bullsht all over again. IF and that’s a big “IF” a member of Beta Theta Pi or Kappa Sig gets a 4.0 GPA and 170 on the LSAT, another member can’t say, “Well a guy in my fraternity got those numbers so let me into law school”. No, he’ll be held to account for what he did. Do we blame all Geeds for what a Geed did or didn’t do? They’re not even trying to establish some statistical or proven cultural pattern and cause from it. If anything, Fraternities and Sororities are the only groups that have mandatory anti alcohol and drug abuse and sexual safety training, and appointed chaperones overseeing parties and such. This is part and parcel of the postmodernist, neo-Marxist attempt to destroy all institutions– familial, religious, social, fraternal, etc. and to centralize authority and control. They don’t believe in truth, facts, stats, or objectivity, nor making things better or conciliatory, they just believe in power. I hope people, Greek alum or not, are volunteering to protect the fraternity houses.

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    1. Folt has long believed she’s on the winning side whenever & however she tramples on tradition. It’s a “short range smart” plan of action….
      #”ButIFearIt’sGonnaGetHerIntoTroubleSomeday”
      —-Christopher Guest in The Princess Bride

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  10. Personally, I was done with the Helton story the day after the Stanford game. I’m movin’ on. Hatin’ on Clay isn’t gonna help my FB team (other than assuring that nothing ever instituted by HC CH is EVER repeated on Howard Jones Field).

    I am pleased that some of Gentleman Clay’s buyout will most likely be covered by GaSo. The instant cash saved by HH could translate to a good Assistant Coaching hire.

    Case closed.

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    1. Borubon4me,

      History does repeat itself. Look who is on the hiring panel, Dolt and Bohn. I believe that Folt will only look for a coach that is like a Helton, incompetent, yes man, and have a nice ass for her looking pleasure. With these idiots involved, I will be shocked if they do hire a comptent coach. Instead, Helton II will happen.

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  11. Hard to say that the defense has regressed, as they were SO horrible in 2019. Hard to tell if the defense under Orlando in 2020 was any good, as we played mostly horrible teams in that 5-1 season, and Oregon was a horrible offense. I do feel that IPM has not improved and ITS has not improved. Steele has had some good passes defended/batted and some good tackling. Bullock could become a real baller! Mauga and Goforth? Don’t know. The D-line was decimated just as things were looking up.

    On O, the run game has improved and the pass game has regressed. The O line is slowly improving from the shambles that it was in 2019/2020
    (though USC did gain 1600 yards in 13 games in 2019, it was still a horrible run game). Slovis was coached up in 2018 by Warner and had an experienced and talented WR corps in 2019: likely why the offense was so good in 2019.

    Poor recruiting and retention of the talent has hit home.
    Here’s to hoping for a baller HC who can recruit and develop the talent.*

    *Instead of dissing on Helton, let’s get back to picking our next head coach. Christmas isn’t that far off.

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  12. Looks like the Town Hall Meeting has been changed to a Zoom Webinar, so individuals may safely share their stories of sexual assault without sharing their identity.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Due process at it’s finest. This new way of dealing with crime is so much more effective than the outmoded complaint, investigation, charges, public trial, testimony under oath, cross examination thing we used to have…
      #OrAreWeNotTalkingDueProcess…
      #…ButEmptyPublicRelationsStunt?

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    1. Ha! [Nothing like Trojan patience]…
      #Bohn:YouHaven’tScrewedItUpYET…ButWeKnowYouWill…
      #We’veLostPatienceWithThe”Search”

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  16. Beating Arizona State at Sun Devil Stadium without Drake London would be HUGE….
    #ItCANBeDone…
    #..IfTheDefenseShowsUp

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  17. Beating anyone on USC’s schedule this year is huge. You might be dreaming that they are going to beat ASU on their home field.

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    1. I agree with TommyD, the only winnable game this season is Cal. I hope that I am wrong, but if I had to bet, that’s how I would bet.

      And Bourbon is correct too, hating on the Village Idiot isn’t going to change anything. It’s not his fault that Bohn & Dolt continued to pay him millions for 2 years when it was obvious to everyone that he was a bad coach who was causing real damage to the fb program. Now we need to keep the pressure on the AD to make a good hire.

      The real questions are 1. who let Captain Benko out of the Georgia Institute of the Intellectually Challenged and gave him the AD position? 2. knowing what everybody knows about Gomer, why did Capt. Benko give him a $800k per year contract to coach fb at GaSo?

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      1. calabsastrojan,

        Helton is begging for the Georgia Southern job. See the problem is, we are thinking as Californians where everything is so expensive. If you look at from the South’s side, he will be makeing out like a Chase. See when he goes there and buys groceries his bill will be a lot cheaper than here. You can get possum for 25 cents a pound, Oxtail for 15 cents a pound, pigs feet for 10 cents a pound okra is 2 cents a pound. For fish, he just goes fishing and catch cattail for free. For transportation all he needs is a covered wagon and for a house, it will be a two bedroom shack with an outhouse for $1,500. Property tax will be $10 per year compared to paying $30,000 every six months.

        Like i said, he will do better down there financially than here.

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  18. And at Georgia Southern Clay Helton can go 4 and 7, and they will think he is a king. Helton, will again get the last laugh with no pressure to win. The guy is the luckiest man alive seems like everywhere he goes he is at the right place at the right time for his own individual needs.

    At SC no question he stole money from a once proud university who did not know any better. The USC boosters donated their hard earned money for a good cause, and Clay Helton was not a good thing for USC.

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    1. Helton is a football idiot, we all know that, but I wonder if he learned that hiring weak coordinators was a bad strategy and will hire much better coordinators this time?

      With the right coordinators any head coach can look good. Orgeron rode on the skills of Aranda for a few years. When Aranda left, things started to crumble. Notice Aranda stole the OC from BYU for his second year and now things are cranking at BYU.

      Helton has the potential to luck into success at a place like Georgia Southern.

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  19. So all I really care about now is when will the new HC be hired? We need a name, so we can start to lock in recruits and transfers.

    Got to get T-mac to decommit from Oregon and Kingsley Suamatai to choose SC for his transfer. Need to lock in the other 5 players on the line – Devon Campbell, Ernest Greene, Josh Connerly, Hero Kanu and Mykel Williams. It is rebuilding year and we need the best athletes.

    If Aranda leaves Baylor, would he bring any of his players with him? I assume most of the staff would come with him.

    I actually think Aranda is a better bet than Fickell at this point. Aranda wants to live in California, he is competing against tougher teams (on average) and he has been recruiting Texas and the western region, so he can flip relationships faster. I think Aranda is just one of the smartest coaches in all of football in terms of effective schemes and overall game management.

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    1. gametv,

      I perfer Aranda. He is from the Southland, went to college at Cal Luthern and is from Riverside. He is def cord. I just think with the background that he has, he could solve a lot of problems on defense instantly. Defense wins games.

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  20. There is a simple answer to what to do about USC’s poorly coached football team. It’s not rocket science. The answer is simply to get a good coach. Then they won’t be poorly coached anymore. As far as CH being an elite offensive mind…..nonsense. He’s probably a good QB coach but not an elite offensive mind. Norm Chow, Lane Kiffin and even Chip Kelly are(or were) elite offensive minds. To put CH in that category is to a large extent hyperbole.

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