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USC Saturday Buzz: A Coach Who Does More With Less Has Advantages

Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith should decide this weekend whether to take the Michigan State job.

I’d love for him to stay with the Beavers but given their conference uncertainty and the money Michigan State has (for coaches, facilities and players) who could blame him for leaving?

But the reason I bring it up is because I thought Smith was a good candidate for the USC job two years ago. He’s not someone who cuts corners, he values running the ball and some people forget how well the Beavers’ defense played last season against USC when it limited the Trojans to 17 points.

If Lincoln Riley left USC, Smith would still be a good candidate. But he’s never been the flashy candidate, which probably hurt him a couple years ago. USC fans wouldn’t have been as excited if Smith had been hired but sometimes it’s better to get the grinder who is used to doing more with less than the entitled superstar coach.

This is why I laugh when I hear some people say UCLA should keep Chip Kelly because it couldn’t find a better replacement. Who would you rather have? A hungry Smith or the been-there, done-that Kelly, who seems to recruit at his pleasure.

USC fans should probably hope Kelly keeps his job even after last weekend’s brutal loss to UCLA. That was more on Riley than anything else.

  • Perhaps Oklahoma fans, who for some reason care that Lincoln Riley left, will feel a little better today after the Sooners defeated USC in basketball, 72-70, yesterday. But I doubt it.
  • Today is the Bayou Classic between Grambling and Southern. The series was started by USC All-American Brice Taylor. He was the football coach at Southern and decided to put a small college from Northern Louisiana (Grambling) on the schedule in 1932.

42 thoughts on “USC Saturday Buzz: A Coach Who Does More With Less Has Advantages”

      1. “What the World Needs Now is love, sweet love,
        No not just for some, but for everyone”

        — The ‘world’ that song is referring to apparently is not earth
        based on human activites

        Liked by 2 people

      2. John —Those idealistic lyrics do refer to the kind of sweet love that flows from human activities—too bad we don’t see more of it ….

        Liked by 3 people

      3. Now we see this:

        Like

      4. All you can do is your little part, MG, when opportunities present themselves. If we all did that, this world would be a much better place.

        Liked by 2 people

  2. Ah, second guessing is so much fun! You get to completely ignore bounded rationality. To wolf’s logic we should have hired a coach coming off a 5 loss season including a loss to powerhouse utah state in a bowl game over Lincoln Riley, a coach with multiple cfp appearances. According to wolf it’s bc smith wasn’t flashy enough. Ya, that’s probably it.

    Yes, **sometimes**, the “look how well the coach did at (fill in the blank), imagine what he could do with the talent at (fill in the blank)” works out: Nick saban from Michigan state to lsu, urban Myler from utah to Florida. But isn’t that the logic we used for Lincoln Riley. I have no beef with Norman ok, but la certainly has better local talent. This is the same logic for grinch’s rise in coaching after a few years doing well with the cougs.

    Just remember every time wolf criticizes USC’s coach, wolf would have preferred that we would have hired coaches like Charlie strong, Kevin sumlin, Gary Patterson, James Franklin, and pat Fitzgerald. I will take Lincoln Riley sans grinch over any of them. I’d even take sark or kiffen over wolf’s list.

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    1. No doubt, John. Because anyone with a lick of sense knows you don’t mention Grambling vs Southern without mentioning the main event…the Battle of the Bands at halftime!!

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  5. Don’t understand the criticism of Chip Kelly. Arguably, he does as much with inferior talent and facilities at UCLA as Jonathon Smith does at Oregon St. Hell, at least Smith has a regulation sized football field to practice with and doesn’t have to drive 20 miles in LA traffic to a “home” game before a roaring crowd of 20,000 fans many of whom are Pasadena locals who were given free tickets. Kelly has one of the best offensive minds in football and has now hired a crackerjack defensive coordinator. He has beaten USC two of the last three years with inferior talent. Why would you fire the guy? True, recruiting is pitiful but rather than firing him, give him some NIL money and do something about the lack of attendance at the games.

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    1. Chip was viewed as an innovative coach back in the day, but that was when Nike was funding the program and their players. Now? Chip’s Guttie record speaks for itself. He is one game over .500, par for the course for the gutties in the last 35 years. Today, he is what the gutties have been for decades – mediocre.

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      1. Chip was “the guy” years ago, now considered a lazy recruiter, but ucla continues to tower over usc on both lines. Mr 7 on 7 LR has made us the butt of football jokes with his finesse passive approach to football.

        Liked by 3 people

  6. So true about sucla’s Chip Kelly and how sports people seem to love building up their heroes and then later tearing them down
    (when they lose a game or 2)
    Chip at Oregon was the first to implement the “2-minute drill’ into every minute of the game, their players sometimes acting as if they are late to catch a plane, and he came that-close to winning a National Title

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  7. Nothing much going on, but that song that was ‘dedicated’ to our one and only George Tirebiter, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love,” it reminded me of another song that was not just about a private personal love but universal as well from Diana Ross–
    “Those tears that fill my eyes
    I cry not for myself
    But for those who’ve never felt the joy we felt”

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  8. There you have it, the future in the Big-10. Ohio St just bullied Michigan the last 50 yards for its tying touchdown with run after run after merciless run behind a big menacing offensive line

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  9. I’m watching two competitive teams in the Big Ten Conference, Ohio State and Michigan, both have the ability to run the ball down your throats. USC is miles away from being able to control the game like that, which is why Lincoln Riley’s philosophy will fail in that conference.

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  10. You want real nasty fans?– After Ohio St’s quarterback threw an interception to start the game, Buckeyes’ fans started writing in things like “Bench that guy now and forever,” but lucky Ohio St’s coaches weren’t listening because McCord now has ‘State’ in a possible position to win

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    1. McCord’s guys lost, pardner [and I sense you were pulling for those guys —so, sorry] — but I wouldn’t wanna see USC play either of the two teams that battled each other for 60 minutes today.

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  11. Oops, the kid couldn’t finish the job
    But hello Trojans, are you ready for this kind of rugged football;
    we’ll find out quickly with Michigan in 2024

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  13. OSU would be the level where Riley could thrive. There are low expectations and he could win 7-8 games a year and go to a bowl game. Then he can build his team around the qb. They have a d cordinator so his defense would be stable

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    2. You seen:
      Luke Fickell record for WI? 6 – 5. WI plays MN at 3:30 pm PST
      Jake Dickert WA St. 5 – 6 – SW St. faces WA 4 pm PST
      Mario Cristobal Miami 7 – 5
      Brian Kelly LSU 9 – 3

      Point is best act wisely with decorum and not keep mimicking the bunch of 14 yr olds that have suddenly roosted here. We’re looking at 2 more years – period.

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  14. This season was a disaster. About 98% of the problem was Alex Grench. They did have some problems with the O-Line and that has to be fixed. But the whole problem was the defense. Bringing back Grench was a career mistake for LR. It has actually damaged his reputation. Just think…..in UCLA’s last 4 games, their offense scored 10 against Arizona, 7 against ASU, and 7 against Cal and then they scored 38 against USC. Better get a real good DC.

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      1. …cuz, according to the NCAA, locker room rape [Penn State] and organized, subsidized signal stealing [Michigan] isn’t that bad compare to Reggie’s parents making a deal with his agent?

        Liked by 1 person

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