FOOTBALL

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

USC is already a third of the way through spring practice.

So let’s get some impressions of the workouts, which are considered more intense than under the previous administration.

You know who I hear has stood out in practices? The transfers.

Not suprisingly, the first three names I heard from coaches were wide receiver Mario Williams (Oklahoma), defensive end Romello Height (Auburn) and linebacker Shane Lee (Alabama). Lee was the only player to stay on campus and work out over spring break.

  • Now I didn’t include Caleb Williams above because it’s just a given he’s standing out. Observers tell me his legs are making as much an impact as his arm.
  • Williams and wide receiver Michael Jackson are both wearing No. 13, which is not allowed during the season because they play on offense. A player on the team tells me that Lincoln Riley has left it to Williams to get Jackson to agree to relinquish the number. So far, Jackson has refused all offers from Williams.

With all of his Williams’ NIL deals, Jackson probably feels he should hold out for the moon.

  • Lincoln Riley is awarding the Trojan helmet logo to players who earn it during spring practice. So as spring goes on, you might see a number of players with the helmet logo and others with just a plain cardinal helmet.
  • This has been incorrectly by some as an additional helmet decal like Ohio State awards. USC is not doing that.
  • One other change is the Trojans are wearing gold pants instead of white pants during practices. This makes the quarterbacks look a bit garish in yellow pants and yellow jerseys.
  • The NIT is expected to play its semifinals and final away from Madison Square Garden for at least the next two years. The NIT has been a New York City staple since 1938.

USC played Notre Dame in the 1973 NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden on . . . St. Patrick’s Day.

“Can you imagine?” USC coach Bob Boyd said. “The Pac-8 finally gets a team in the NIT and we draw Notre Dame on St. Patrick’s Day. Maybe we shouldn’t show up.” The Trojans had 28 fouls called against them, Notre Dame had 10. USC made 32 field goals and one free throw. Notre Dame made 23 field goals and 23 free throws. The Irish won, 69-65. Boyd kicked a chair into the stands at Madison Square Garden.

  • Former USC tailback Brandon Campbell visits Houston this weekend. He is also looking at Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Former USC offensive lineman Ty Buchanan visits Texas Tech this weekend.
  • Lincoln Riley and Graham Harrell are actually good friends. Their wives are reportedly best friends.
  • USC ends “Trojan Check” beginning Monday, the system by which you needed to answer questions every day before you came on campus to say you didn’t have COVID-19.
  • “Saturday Night Live” cast member and USC alumna Ego Nwodim will deliver the commencement speech at the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences satellite ceremony. Nwodim graduated in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences.
Ego Nwodim
  • Former Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman will be the keynote speaker at the commencement ceremony for the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, which is for more than 6,000 undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students and their families at the Shrine Auditorium.
  • And now for some history:

I love color photos from the past and this is the 1973 USC-Notre Dame game. That is USC linebacker Ray Rodriguez (52) chasing down Notre Dame QB Tom Clements.

Who is on the sideline? No. 75 is defensive tackle Tim Rhames. No. 22 is Lynn Swann.

You see No. 42 on the sideline? It’s then-linebacker Ricky Bell. No. 54 is Melvin Jackson. No. 50 is Kevin Bruce. No. 44 is Manfred Moore. No. 89 is Jim Obradovich and No. 26 is Shelton Diggs.

How about the USC coaches in yellow pants and the way many players took a knee on the sideline?

  • USC has called itself different things on the cover of game programs.

In 1966, it was Southern California.

  • In 1978, it was Southern Cal, which is taboo today.
  • And in 1963, we have Southern Calif.
  • I’ve run some famous USC illustrations by Art Brewster. But this illustration is by award-winning author/cartoonist Murray Olderman in 1963. Olderman’s sports caricatures were syndicated in more than 750 newspapers from the 1950’s-1980’s and he wrote several books.

And since I mentioned Brewster, here’s one of his from 1963.

Did any of you go to see Chuck Arrobio when he had a dental office in Pasadena?

  • How is this for a gift? A 1975 USC football record album. Side 1 is John McKay giving talks at his kickoff banquets throughout Southern California. Side 2 is Tom Kelly’s play-by-play of the second half of the 1974 USC-Notre Dame game along with some music from the band. You probably had to lower the sound on the record player when Kelly’s booming voice came on.
  • A reader passed along a photo of these footballs from 1962 that belong to Ron Heller, a halfback-fullback on that team.

Note: I’ll be posting restaurants of the week separately.

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

  1. Bravo, on finding and posting the Coach McKay record album. That’s a great find.

    Hate to admit it but the Blogger’s posts on Trojan football might be the best landing spots for USC football history and trivia. Well done, sir.

    #FightOn!

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. McKay didn’t promote Anthony Davis for the Heisman because he didn’t like the fact that Davis was dating his daughter.

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      3. What the hell kind of sissy practice is ‘Ol Mule Shoe running here?

        What a fucking joke!

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      4. Oh and before you tell me two females were raised in the McKay home, those were Corky’s kids. Rich and JK were John’s. (He barely acknowledged females in the home)

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      1. Probably not the best choice to run the team, I guess Bohn was hoping for a John McKay style leader or diamond in the rough. With Helton as his former mentor I wonder how long before he’s shipped off to a high school.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. The hybrid air raid crap offense ‘Ol Mule Shoe is going to try and run ain’t going to work with the trash offensive line that he has

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      3. In watching the video of Riley’s offense, what I like is how Caleb Williams is patient and not throwing to guys who are covered. How many times did we cringe in the last couple of years, watching Slovis and Dart throw almost blindly into heavy coverage?

        Liked by 1 person

    3. I’m guessing that the Friday column is the one Scott pours his heart into. It has a different tone, different dedication to detail and 4 times the joy of life. It gets better every week.
      Now for a gripe. What the fuck is that porky piece of shit Alexander Vindman doing at a USC commencement ceremony? What is wrong with USC administration officials for inviting him? ? [Don’t answer that]…..

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Vindman is speaking so twenty years from now the Blogger will have an interesting history article to post about USC.

        #2042ScottWolf-ElderStatesmanOfLosAngelesSportsJournalism

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe, just maybe your the one who’s wildly out of touch? What did Vindman do that you find so offensive?

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      3. I thought the same thing. Vindman should be in the Ukraine fighting the Russians. Vindman is a POS attention-seeker (like President Flo and so many other USC faculty). Vindman to Devin Nunes: “Ranking Member, it’s Lt. Col. Vindman, please .” Well at least he said please.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. MG, I wasn’t aware you have a thing against fat people! I’m the same way and since we are politically incorrect here, I just want to say that Donald Trump is a lard assed turd.

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      1. Actually Tebow. It really was my grandmas birthday 4/1/ 1870. And she was very proud of it too. She lived to be 94.

        Liked by 2 people

    2. Thanks for the reminder, George! Just in time for me to do the “there’s a snake in the kitchen!” routine for my wife…
      #StillGoodAfterAllTheseYears

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  3. I STILL HAVE THAT ALBUM WITH McKAY ON THE COVER. THE SC NOTRE DAME WAS UNBELIEVABLE. WE TRAILED 24-0 BUT WON 55-24. I ALSO HAVE A RECORD ALBUM OF THE 1964 GAME WHERE WE WERE DOWN 17-0 BUT WON 20-17 TO DEPRIVE THE IRISH OF THE NATL TITLE. GUESS ITS TIME TO DONATE THEM BOTH.

    Liked by 3 people

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      6. Yeah, MG, the way they whooped it up over beating a sanctioned team. They thought Mora was a god.

        And then BOOM! When we got the scholies back? Wah, wah, waaaaaah!

        Liked by 2 people

  6. Alexander Vindman!!!!!!!!

    Holy Toledo, there are people rolling over in their grave.
    No respect for USC people who choose this guy. Bizarre choice. Benedict Arnold and Julius Rosenberg weren’t available?

    Liked by 4 people

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    1. Hopefully —after the November landslide and a fair trial in front of a jury of his peers— that porky fuck Vindman will join the Rosenbergs.
      #AsHe’sMarchedOffHe’llBeDreamingOfCarol…
      #JustLikeMontgomeryCliftDreamsOfElizabethTaylorInPlaceInTheSun

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      2. He has no reason other than his personal dislike of a Purple Heart recipient. He merely wants it to happen, just like his Biden impeachment wet dream.

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  7. To fix the the number 13 jersey problem they are giving the whole team the same number. In accordance with the new rule enacted this spring, “# 6965.13aa- No two players on may participate on the field while wearing the same number, unless three or more players wear the same number.”
    I was originally going with giving the number 31 to Michael Jackson but putting it on him in a room with mirrors so in the mirror he’ll see 13, but I’m afraid the refs might be confused too. Anyway a coin toss could solve the problem.

    Liked by 2 people

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  8. For a trip down memory lane, the ’78 game with westwood, with no breaks/no huddle time (about 37 minutes) can be viewed here:

    Check out how hard these guys hit, including the baby bruins.

    Liked by 1 person

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      1. Robinson –class act as usual. Running around trying to shake hands with some very reluctant bruins….
        #HopeThey’llBeBetterLosersThisYear

        Liked by 2 people

      3. Remember when Josh Rosen refused to shake hands with any of the USC players coming up to him to congratulate him for a good game in his last coliseum performance? He kept himself outta most of the games for 2 seasons but he wanted to act like the tough competitor when he was walking off the field…..
        #JimMora’sDownfall

        Liked by 3 people

      5. What did you expect from someone stupid enough to wear an “F Trump” cap to practice? I wonder if he’s accepting responsibility for all of Biden’s blunders, especially the blood. Most Biden voters are not. They’re trying to convince themselves that all of these messes would have occurred even if Trump had remained in the White House.

        Liked by 2 people

      7. So Cal —as it becomes clearer that Biden is intent on destroying the Constitution [and Country] he swore to protect, dem voters are just looking the other way [like infants]…..

        Liked by 3 people

    1. Since Mauer coaches both men’s and women’s squads, she can literally “reassign” men to the women’s team. The estrogen injections may cause temporary testicle shrinkage, but nothing to worry about. Fight on✌️

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  13. So COVID is still a massive problem then? Trump invoked it b/c of COVID, a rather liberal stretching of the statute. All it means is – “Once the Title 42 Order is no longer in place, DHS will process individuals encountered at the border pursuant to Title 8, which is the standard procedure we use to place individuals in removal proceedings,”

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  14. I’m curious how Biden benefits from high gas prices and rampant illegal immigration. Seriously. Neither of those things are anything anyone and especially a politician wants.

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    1. Biden is just a lacky and placeholder of the New World Order and the World Economic Forum, and the goal is a controlled-demolition of the economy (world-wide and America’s), removal of the dollar as world reserve currency and eventual one-world government. None of this is by accident.

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      1. Klaus
        The dollar is a turd but still gold plated. Anybody who thinks otherwise at this point, I ask….what currency would you rather have?

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  15. Lt Col Alexander Vindman?

    What is significant or unique about him?
    His rank in the military?
    No. A Lt. Col. Is as common as a branch manager at Bank of America.

    His Ukrainian birth?
    Perhaps…but wouldn’t it be more fun to hear from a Molotov-cocktail making Ukrainian grandmother?

    I hope to God this isn’t a sign that Sol Price is now adding Woke-leftist BS as a degree option.

    BTW – about that 1975 USC record album:
    the current voice of Trojan football can’t hold a candle to Tom Kelly. We wonder why radio is a dying medium – it’s because of radio “talent” like “Mr. How Do You Do?”

    Oh mercy nurse!

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