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USC Morning Buzz: Did You Know 3-3 Is Better Than 6-0?

Have you heard this talking point? This USC team is better at 3-3 than last year’s USC team at 6-0.

What are we doing here? Is there one person who did not think before the season that USC was better than a year ago?

There’s a new defensive staff. Around nine new defensive starters. A supposedly hungry and wiser Lincoln Riley fresh off being humbled last season. The nation’s most explosive player at wide receiver/returner (Zachariah Branch). A quarterback who threw six TD’s in the Holiday Bowl and scared off Will Howard from transferring to USC.

I don’t know one person who thought this team was going to be worse than last year’s team.

So why is that suddenly the low bar to define success at USC this season?

Because the spinsters can’t say much else after losses to Michigan, Minnesota and Penn State. If you had told me USC would face vanilla, one-dimensional offenses vs. Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, I would have been even more confident the Trojans would beat those teams.

These same people won’t discuss clock management. Or why USC’s passing game and special teams are underachieving. Or why USC’s defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn can’t put pressure on quarterbacks. Or prevent a tight end from catching a record 17 passes. Or how the QB play is no longer elite. Or why Riley can’t get anything out of Zacariah Branch. I’ll stop here but I could go further.

I thought USC’s goal was to make the 12-team College Football Playoff. Not to merely be better than last year’s disappointing team.

  • Joel Klatt, who seems to look for ways to please Riley and Colin Cowherd, said USC is “literally three or four snaps away from being 6-0.” He is perfectly parroting a Riley talking point.

Was he really talking about South Carolina? The Gamecocks lost to Alabama and LSU by a combined five points but Klatt and everyone else aren’t proclaiming they should be 5-1. Probably because they won’t run into the South Carolina coaches in the South Bay.

42 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Did You Know 3-3 Is Better Than 6-0?”

    1. You Democrats love censoring speech. Perhaps Senile Joe and Kamala can appoint you to be their Commissar of Disinformation and Hate Speech.

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  2. Everyone needs to be patient, because the USC athletic administration will give Lincoln Riley one more season before they fire him. His football philosophy will never change, because all he knows is the Mike Leach way, and the last I checked, he never won anything other than the statistics board. Riley will always have his defenders just as Clay Helton did for the better part of his tenure.

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    1. One more season of Wiley?– Who is going to pay off the 10s of millions still owed to the guy? A high buy-out was a major reason for how Ton-o-Hel remained the head man for 7 long years

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  3. The goal for SC is not to merely make the 12-Team cutoff but to win the whole darn thing, which was not going to happen this year with this particular group

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    1. You rah rahs want it both ways, you say we are 3 plays from 6-0 and then you say this team was never going to qualify for the 12 team playoff. If we were 6-0 right now and had defeated #4 Penn State we would be #3 in the country.

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  4. Why did SC hire Wiley?– Well, the guy in 2017, 2018 and 2019 got to the semi-finals where he lost each time to Georgia (2 overtimes), Alabama and to one of the greatest teams of all time in LSU

    In 2020 he won his bowl game and in 2021 trounced Oregon in a bowl game.

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    1. SC should have thoroughly investigated Lincoln Riley before they hired him and they would have determined he is merely a technocrat who didn’t appreciate the rich tradition of a storied program like USC and his prickly “on the Spectrum” personality would not work being the very public USC football coach in the Media Center of the World, Los Angeles.

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  5. Now that any meaningful bowl is off the table for SC perhaps Wiles can experiment with different combinations of players in preparation for 2025, and maybe give the second string quarterback some reps

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    1. Univision’s Kamala Harris “town hall” for “undecided Latino Voters” was actually filled with avowed Kamala supporters. Everything about her is staged and fake. https://x.com/mtracey/status/1844784667435712527?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1845117910311895220%7Ctwgr%5E89a736e15b7587bc5f806026ece68aa21c066686%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftownhall.com%2Ftipsheet%2Fmattvespa%2F2024%2F10%2F13%2Fwe-have-an-interesting-development-about-kamalas-univision-town-hall-event-n2646144

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  6. Charming: Looks like most folks have already made up their minds who to vote for

    Prince: Yeah only the scraps are left but they might decide it

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      1. THIS WAS THE PLAN UNDER BORDER CZAR KAMALA : Child S$x Trafficking Has TRIPLED in Last Three Years Under Biden-Harris Open Border Policies

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  8. Prince: I say “scraps” affectionately because this small U.S. minority probably gave both parties “equal time” before casting their vote

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      2. Thanks to Border Czar KIamala, ‘Evil’ super gang seizes four apartment complexes in major Texas city in new terrifying show of strength.

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  9. Hard to buy the idea that Wiley suddenly became a bad coach, he is in every ballgame to the end but it is hard to win in football– How many NFL teams after only 6-games are undefeated?

    -Winning a National Championship today with the new ‘Top-12 Teams’ tournament is highly unlikely even for the likes of Ohio St and Alabama. It’s time to lower expectations and ‘expect nothing’

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  10. Wiley grew up in a town of 5000, so literally everybody knew everybody at least on sight, so he is different from us city guys– overly sensitive in an introverted ‘shell’ doesn’t mix with the City

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  11. Charming: Getting a little chippy there in these final days, huh-

    Prince: In that regard you look like you’re holdiing your own

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    1. Kamala Harris Lies to Black Supporters in Detroit, Claims She Was “Coming From Oakland” When She Started College… But She Graduated High School in Quebec! https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1846551528233955829?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1846551528233955829%7Ctwgr%5E27e4153b41ecb8d67fb84a6788bef6d67a9f851d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2024%2F10%2Fkamala-harris-lies-black-supporters-detroit-claims-she%2F

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      1. And it is easy to fix, if Scottie would just upgrade his software to the 21st century. BTW, Michael has been missing for a few days. I hope he is ok.

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  14. The second half of SC’s schedule appears to be more manageable if the team can beat Maryland this week and then gets Rutgers at home before flying to Wash and then home for Neb, YUCLA (Rose Bowl) and ND, all of which SC should be favored in except perhaps ND, so 10-3 is still possible

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    1. In New Interview Border Czar Kamala Harris Attempts to Shift Blame onto Private Citizen Trump for Her Unprecedented Surge in Illegal Immigration- She Acts Like Trump Was President The Last 4 Years Instead of Senile Joe!

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  15. I feel MUCH better about this 3-3 team than at any point last year. They are pretty good. If a few calls went their way (as they should have) then this team would be 6-0 and a lot of folks would have them overrated. This is not a bad team. The defense was pathetic last year. The D coaching was worse. They moved on from that disaster.

    This current defense is far more disciplined then last few years. They are scrappy and fight. The problem is a lack of talent, especially upfront on D. The offense has a new QB, young WR’s, and inexperienced OL. They have had the toughest schedule in America and yet, they barely lost three games.

    They are recruiting well and this program is headed in the right direction. Quit your whining Scott.

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      1. While they are still learning how to win, they are playing hard, they have a talented young staff, new facilities coming, and recruiting is trending up. Yes, right direction.

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  17. Those of you defending Riley seem to forget this is his Year 3.

    McKay Year 3 – 1962 National Title

    Robinson Year 3 – 1978 National Title

    Carroll Year 3 – 2003 Split National Title

    That is the expectation at USC, not going 2-7 in his last 9 conference games. (3-7 in the last ten if you count a triple OT win against Arizona at home).

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