FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: Game Day Notes

Cal has lost 22 of its past 23 games against teams ranked in the top 10.

  • Cal has won two of the past three matchups against USC, winning 15-14 win in 2018 at the Coliseum and 24-14 in the 2021 season finale. Thanks, Helton. Thanks, Donte.
  • Whatever happened to a USC depth chart? The last one was before the season.
  • Justin Wilcox is 27–28 overall at Cal.
  • This will be the final USC-Cal game for Bears radio broadcaster Joe Starkey, best known for his “the band is on the field” call of “The Play” in 1982. He will retire after 48 seasons.
  • Cal CB Tyson McWilliams is the son of former USC tight end Johnny McWilliams (1993-95).
  • Former USC defensive line coach Vic So’oto is the outside linebackers coach at Cal.
  • • USC has 6 players who attended a Bay Area high school: DL De’jon Benton (Pittsburg HS); DB Mekhi Blackmon (Menlo-Atherton HS); OL Andres Dewerk (Los Gatos HS); RB Austin Jones (Bishop O’Dowd HS); WR Danny Ryan (St. Ignatius HS) and DE Devan Thompkins (Edison HS).

43 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Game Day Notes”

    1. NCAA sanctions ended in 2014 for USC, still coaches and fanboys are trying to use “deprh chart” issues as an excuse for poor player development and roster issues.

      Maybe if clowns like Helton and ‘Ol Mule Shoe wouldn’t focus on recruiting 15 WR’s and 10 RB’s every year they wouldn’t have depth chart issues at other positions.

      #ItAin’tRocketScience

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      1. People who know —REALLY KNOW!—– “rocket science” know there’s no such thing as a “rocket” —-only fake capsules made for fake television landings….
        #….ThisIsWhyOurCoachesDon’tUse”RocketScience”!
        #smdh

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Inner Tebow: I wonder if this is the time to bring this up, but the NCAA is really a front for those NASA bastards who faked the moon landing. Notice the similarity in the acronyms! As the news was breaking of the fake moon landing (filmed a Polynesian garage on Somoa), they used the NCAA–by penalizing USC– to distract everyone’s attention from what was to be a major news report. Notice my sly reference to RocketScience which is really code for “Elvis saw the Rokettes while at a seance.”
        It gets worse, much worse–NASA is in turn a front for the bastard bruins who intended to the use the fake moon landing as a distraction for the phony charges brought by the NCAA against USC, but the whole thing backfired…I think. Actually, I cannot remember which way the conspiracy was supposed to go. Read my forthcoming book, the evidence is overwhemling (Lynn Swann signing “autographs” which were really state secrets passed onto to a Mr. Felix Hambone, Clay Helton’s secret meetings with Tony Robbins..its all there and more!!)

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Reggie Bush’s last season was 2005. So they kept the cloud over USC for 9 straight years. Nothing like that has ever happened before or since. Nobody at the University knew about his parents’ free rent deal. It was completely unfair and when you consider how Miami got off so lightly and the idiotic men’s basketball reasoning for not penalizing a university for having bogus classes “taught” by a booster … it’s comical. The NCAA reasoned that they are the “Athletic Association” and they let the universities deal with the “academic” aspects. So if the university has a bogus class taught by a booster, that’s an academic decision and not up to the NCAA. Go figure

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      1. Oh, timmey wrapped more than his head around Chester Chimp…
        #PhotosAvailableUponRequest…
        #…[They’llArriveInPlainBrownEnvelopeToPreservePrivacy]

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Ed is getting Jake Paul “ready” for a fight with Tyson Fury….. Ed knows Jake is gonna lose & maybe even get killed ….but you know our Ed…
        #…AnythingForALaugh

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  2. I noticed that the referee on the game last night was the’ one that loves USC so much. At least we know he isn’t doing our game today, we get all new fresh clowns to officiate.

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    1. Here this Taliban clown steveg49 goes, already getting ready to blame the refs in case the Ladies of Troy get their asses handed to them at home against Cal just as they did last year by Oregon St.

      How fucking pathetic!

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      1. Tebow, go play with your girlfriend Stacy Abrams and leave the football to the men. All you do is spew hate. What a sick life you must have.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Inner Tebowobama: If you look it up in the dictionary, you will find
        fuck*ing pa*thet*ic 1. A higher degree of pathetic 2. A man named Pathetic who likes to **** . Believed to have originated from the Dutch “fookin pannenkoek” meaning a horrible Dutch pancake. But also believed to be derived from the alternative Dutch usage ” a phrase used by a person of low moral character who speaks in monosyllables”

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Yeah, Mike Mothershed called the Beaver/Dawg game last night.
      Lots of hankies getting thrown.

      My worry, steveg49, is that we get the bozo who called the Utah game.
      He’s a different bird. Still haven’t figured out who is that guy.

      I think the Trojans have enough of a talent advantage and a coaching advantage that the Zebras can’t take this one away.

      Looking ahead (which I hate to do)…
      Does a vindictive Kliakov (sp) pull an Officiating crew from So Cal Pop-Warner leagues to call the USC-UCLA game? We’re both leaving. Why not.

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      4. I would do that in a New York minute, 67… except… they are all listed by NASA as having moved “just outside of the universe.”
        #CheckItOutOnTebow’s”MisbegottenScience”Blog

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    3. You Ladies of Troy fanboys were saying Kourtney Foreman was going to be an All American. I told you Bizo’s before he even played a down for USC that she was going to be a bust

      All American?

      LMFAO!

      AHA HA HA HA HA HA!

      OH MY SIDE HURTS FROM LAUGHING SO MUCH!

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      3. Add:
        I have to admit all your “science/space” videos are a ton of fun to watch….& way more scientifically accurate than “E. T.” …

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      4. Inner Tebowobama: I hope the guys understand that my use bizo and bozo are not used randomly or without much deep thought on my part. I am sure no one will mistake it for a term of endearment, so I should be very clear on this…it is meant as a devastating put down. The ultimate riposte. The ultimate mic drop for which there is no come back. It leaves the recipient of this verbal dart completely deflated and helpless. Now that I have made the clear, back to my me semi-autobiographical “My Life in an Armchair:Tales from Geisha Girl” and also my volume on the history of Alfred the Great and the Saxons “Wessex Fanboys are Bozos”

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  3. SC is not going to lose to Cal tonight with so much riding on the Trojans’ season although I expect the Bears (not to be confused with the copy-cat Midget-Bears across town) to hang around for a while until the second half

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    1. Currently raising 5mil to donate to another school in hopes we can get someone to take Wilcox and AD off our hands in a package deal. No Frekkin way Oregon pursued Wilcox. His agent played the AD like a snare drum.

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      1. I don’t think Wilcox is the problem.
        Having a HC who knows Defense is a good start.
        Cal needs to be recruiting RB like Ott (and Lynch, and CJ, and Forsett)
        WR like Keenan and Marvin, and
        QB like Goff, et al.

        …and BTW, Sonny Dykes wasn’t so bad was he?

        Good QB coach/OC’s are out there.
        Wilcox just can’t seen to get a good OC to come in.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. I watched Cal play at CU Boulder (about 10 years ago) in an OT classic.
        The Bears looked like a FB team. Keenan and Marvin lit it up!

        Liked by 2 people

  4. Good morning, All, even you stalker!! GET UP FOR THE GAME!!

    Almost 9 am and still at home on Homecoming. Feels strange, since in a pre-pandemic world I’d be on campus sipping on my first bloody mary by now.

    Also stinks not being able to hear the band run through halftime & pregame one more time before the game. That really got the Gameday juices flowing!!

    FIGHT ON! BEAT THE BEARS!!

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  6. As I have thought about the USC defense, it all comes down to tackling. Our team simply does a horrible job of tackling. They dont explode through the runners legs and they dont move forward to attack the runner for the minimal gain. Alot of players, like Shane Lee keep trying to collar runners up high. If USC is going to get better on defense, they better teach the players make solo tackles. I heard a podcast where an NFL player said that group tackling leads not only to giving up yards, but also to injuries from “friendly fire”. I wonder if Grinch’s emphasis on group tackling gives players the idea they dont need to learn effective solo tackling. And I also saw numerous examples last game of players that wait for the runner to come to them, rather than being a loaded missile taking out the runners legs with the least yardage gained.

    Good defenses dont miss assignments and they know how to take angles to get to the ball carrier and then get him down. I’m starting to think that ALL of Grinch’s problems stem from not effectively teaching these skills. I think he focuses on schematics that are too complicated. Any defensive player that hits the field should be able to get to the ball and take down the carrier. These are the fundamentals and Grinch isnt teaching them.

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    1. …or, maybe, he teaches them how to get into opposing backfield ….but they’re not good enough athletes to handle speedy, mobile Pac 12 QB’s when they feel the heat & take off….

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    1. There a lots of reason the defense is what it is. No matter what, the coaching is better than what we have had, no question. A lot of these guys have not been coached tackling from the Helton regime. The transfers I don’t know why they don’t tackle well. I just don’t think we can pinpoint the problems, there are to many. What it boils down to is the talent level to me. I am not looking for a vast amount of improvement this game from the D, just stay in the game and make a few stops. Do the best they can and the offense will do the rest. Give it a year.

      Liked by 1 person

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  8. We keep saying this each week about the D, all we need is for our coaches is to be more of tactician. Watching Vols n Dogs and UG defense is stout, play to their strengths and everyone knows where to be. If we do get a new DC it must be someone from UG or Ala., because we need someone who can recruit big uglies from the south like 6 2 335 DT to play over the center. USC 48-17

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  10. Let’s win one for old Starkey!!! Cal has won two of the past three matchups against USC???? That’s more reason to believe SC wins big. Cal has lost 22 of its past 23 games against teams ranked in the top 10???? That’s even more reason to believe that come early Sunday Morning it will be 23 out of the last 24. Here’s another reason……Cal lost to Colorado.

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