FOOTBALL

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

USC spring practice is officially 33 percent concluded and what do we really know about the team?

The media cannot watch anything past some individual drills and stretches, so much of what they report is how big a player looks or what the coaches say about them.

I spoke to a staffer who has watched the scrimmage portions and they told me the offensive line still remains a work in progress with some rough patches in practices. They also told me the receivers look good, which is what they have said every spring under Lincoln Riley.

  • Has any team deteriorated more in a week than USC women’s basketball?
  • Three players are in the transfer portal, including promising freshmen Avery Howell and Kayleigh Heckel. I’ve been told one freshman was unhappy with her role and not getting what she wanted.

That’s not unusual. But it’s also true that when you bring in five-star prospects, they expect to play right away and contribute. It’s pretty hard for anyone else to have a big role when JuJu Watkins is the centerpiece.

There is also talk that AAU coaches are influencing the younger players. Again, not unusual.

The bottom line is USC better sign at least five players in the portal or next season is going to be a letdown.

  • Is it bad that USC lost to a Villanova team with an interim coach? Eric Musselman lost to Mike Nardi. That’s a fine way to end the season.
  • Actress Jane Fonda will be the keynote speaker for the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism commencement ceremony on May 16th.
  • And now for some history:
  • This is a great picture of USC defensive lineman John Vella trying to prevent a Jim Plunkett pass during the 1970 USC-Stanford game. Vella became an All-American the following year as an offensive lineman while Plunkett won the Heisman Trophy in 1970.
  • Here is USC linebacker Greg Slough and Vella (75) pursuing Notre Dame quarterback Joe Theismann at the Coliseum in 1970. This game is notable because USC upset No. 2-ranked Notre Dame, 38-28. The Irish were 9-0 at the time but lost to the 5-4-1 Trojans despite Theismann passing for 526 yards.
  • Here’s USC quarterback Tom Maudlin throwing a pass in 1957. Maudlin is wearing a gold helmet with black numbers on the side, the only year USC wore gold helmets.
  • Legendary silent movie star Harold Lloyd (left) instructs a USC football player during production of his 1925 film, “The Freshman.”
  • It’s the 1976 USC-UCLA game.

PICTURES OF THE WEEK

Jacqueline Bisset

Ava Gardner. It’s not a mug shot for the police but a photo for her MGM employment questionnaire.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

  • Have you ever watched Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals? A triple OT thriller between the Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics. The end of regulation and the first two overtimes are enough, especially to watch some plays Paul Westphal makes at the end of the second overtime. There’s also the Celtics fan attacking referee Richie Powers on the court at the end of second overtime.

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

    1. KAM; Notice The Difference When a Democrat Speaks On Campus Versus A MAGA?

      DON: Police Watch and Do Nothing as Masked Moderate Mainstream Democrat Antifa Vandals Violently Attack TPUSA Students, Staff at UC Davis

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    2. So Hanoi Jane is going to be honored as the keynote speaker. Would SC ever consider a Navy Seal as a commencement speaker. Robert O’Neill the heroic American who killed Osama Bin Laden is available. My brother hired him for one of his corporate events and says he has a great story to share. And he never provided comfort and support to the enemy during a war like Jane did. He would never allow his picture to be taken with VC troops next to an anti-aircraft missile launcher that shot down scores of American pilots. But there is no way Folt would allow O’Neill to speak. Jane is her hero.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilw_siMKlgg

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      1. KAM: Jane Fonda is and always has been a spoiled, self-centered seeker of fame and adulation. She has never cared about anyone but herself — and she betrayed the men and women who fought and died for her comfort.

        DON: If she was really sorry she should do a USO Tour.

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  2. The entire 2025 SC football squad is a “work in progress,” but wait ’til 2026 and beyond when the real Trojans may emerge from their two-decades of Phoenix ashes

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    1. KAM: North Carolina Supreme Court Race in Turmoil: Democrat’s 700-Vote Victory Now in Jeopardy as 65,000 Voters Ordered to Prove Eligibility or Be Removed from Count

      DON: Gee there was vote fraud in a swing state? I’m shocked! Shocked!

      Liked by 1 person

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    1. KAM: DOGE discovered that 1.3 million Illegal Aliens Are Accessing Medicaid and Illegal Aliens Are Voting.

      DON: No wonder Democrats have demonized Elon for exposing their scam.

      Liked by 1 person

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  4. So the SC women’s basketball team disintegrates. Why is that a surprise. Not to wander into misogynist ‘land’ (because today’s men are just as bad), but girls will be girls– “Play me or watch me march out that ‘door’

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  9. Getting Fonda as keynote speaker is such a Joke…..

    As Norman Mailer once said “She’s a good speaker…if she knew something about history, literature or political science, she might have something to say”….

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    1. Let’s put it this way, John—- her 100% goofy extreme left speech at the S.A.G. award ceremony didn’t help…..

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      1. You can tell that Dolly Parton was very uncomfortable between her two commie co-actors- Lily Tomlin and Hanoi Jane. She should be. Most of the people who buy her records and attend her concerts love their country. Some of them probably served in Vietnam. These are the people Lily and Jane and probably Folt call Rednecks, Racists and Bigots.

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      2. That bit was rehearsed and Dolly Parton fully supported what the Dyke and the Commie said. Dolly’s only discomfort was in realizing how many of her fans would realize they had been conned by her Aw Shucks act.

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  11. My high school Civics teacher was a lineman for Plunkett. He loved to warn students on the first day of the semester (with a bit of a Southern drawl): “You don’t wanna get a fight in my classroom. Cuz I’m liable to jump in and you’d just better hope I’m fightin’ on your side”.

    I hope he’s doing well wherever he may be, even if he’s left this world and gone to the next.

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    1. My wife Dr. Carol doesn’t know much about football players, but she loves Indians and recalls Mr. Jim Plunkett fondly

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      1. Dr. Carol, HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

        Dr. Carol who, Folt ?

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      2. By any chance did Dr. Carol read your above post wherein you say ” . . . but girls will be girls– “Play me or watch me march out that ‘door’.”

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      3. KAM: DNC Chair Ken Martin just announced that Democrats are forming a shadow cabinet to oppose Trump, calling it the “People’s Cabinet.” “They will share ‘accurate and reliable’ information to help you fight back.” This isn’t democracy—it’s Democrats setting up a parallel government run by DNC operatives and empowered by liberal federal judges.

        DON: Now that’s Insurrection!

        Liked by 1 person

      4. You are a proud liar, Board Pest Board Cancer Cowardly Gabby aka TebowObama aka Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka The Guy who posts as So Cal’s Wife & Michael Guarino & Trojan RJJ & LawyerJohn & Pudly & Plow Horse and TrojanFan 1-3 & steveg49 & DOJ & Scott Wolf and Frank Young and KATHY and Foreskin Thoughts and SCOTTLOVESTHEROOOOOTTÞ and Manureman:

        Gabby

        FEBRUARY 22, 2024 AT 7:09 PM

        you’re the only limp-d^&% who gives a s&*^ what I said 8 months back … ….. I F*&^ING LIED…..I F&^%ING LIED…….AND NO ONE GIVES A F^&% BUT A FREAK LIKE YOU….. GO F&*^ YOURSELF WHILE A DECIDE WHAT HORSE S*&^ VIDEO TO POST

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  12. Dr Carol is my second (and last) wife, whereas I took the first wife to that 1970 SC-ND game in a pouring rain in the second half with her complaining all the way through it. I should have realized in that moment we weren’t ‘made’ for each other much longer

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    1. KAM: 1996: Chuck Schumer explains “the number one reason” illegals come to the US is so they can defraud programs like Social Security — and wants to stop it…“This is an anti-fraud amendment. All over where we go, people say, why can’t you stop illegal immigrants or others from coming here?” “And the number one answer we give our constituents is when they come here, they can get jobs, get benefits against the law because of fraud.” “If you believe you want to stop fraud in immigration, you have no choice but to support this amendment.”

      DON: . Chuck sounded very DOGE before DOGE!

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    2. Memo to John — I ‘liked” the crack about your wife being Carol Folt [God forbid] by mistake….

      #Sorry,OldBoy

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  13. How embarrassing that Hanoi Jane Fonda will be on campus, much less speakfor the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism commencement ceremony.

    Liked by 1 person

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      3. Full quote: “You ask me here to have lunch, tell me you slept with Elaine, then say you’re not in the mood for details. Now you listen to me, I want details and I want them right now! I don’t have a job! I have no place to go! You’re not in the mood? Well, you get in the mood!”

        Liked by 2 people

  16. -And so the secret SC ‘Spring Football Practices’ is already 1/3 through, so one can only imagine the evaluation banter going on–“That offensive line stll isn’t cutting it, either that or we have a defense that looks like the ’85 Bears.

    And quarterback, to be polite, he’s no Caleb, I’m still looking. But everybody is getting along ok so I guess that’s worth something’

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    1. KAM: PURE EVIL: Colorado House Democrats Pass Bill That Allows State to SEIZE Children from Their Parents if They “Misgender” and Makes “Misgendering” a Discriminatory Act.

      DON: You MUST Wear the Ribbon!

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    1. KAM: Nancy Pelosi Rails Against Unfair Trade and Theft, Demands Reciprocal Tariffs Against China in 1996 House Floor Speech – “This is The Biggest and Cruelest Hoax of All!”

      DON: Democrats are such phonies. They actually think we don’t remember them being for tariffs.

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  18. Funny thing, emotions– The SC women’s basketball team goes from the heights of sports expectation, and then ‘overnight they turn into a depressed vagant lot

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    1. KAM:“During my time in office, I presided over the weaponization of our justice system against political opponents, the coercion of social media companies to censor free speech, and the wholesale destruction of our country’s economy and borders.

      DON: Neither Kamala nor her puppeteer Barack Obama, who wrote off worker layoffs by saying ‘some of those jobs of the past are just not going to come back’, are in any position to weigh in on the merits or constitutionality of the Trump administration’s historic action to put Americans and America First.

      Liked by 1 person

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    1. KAM: A new book claims that I was stunned by my loss on election night 2024. I actually expected to win the race.

      DON: Like many people on the left, she apparently believed the faulty polling that suggested she was ahead of Trump. Of course, we all know how that worked out in the end. It’s fun to imagine the reaction from people in her inner circle when it became obvious that I was running away with the win.

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      1. Their “reaction”? “Looks like it’s time to call in the chips …ring up all those loony left federal judges we own…. Articles 2 & 3 need to be ignored from hereon!”

        #”WeOfferNothing ….ButThatDoesn’tMeanWe’reOuttaTheGame”

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      1. Reminds me of the scene in Rocky III where Rocky is working out in a luxury hotel while Club Lang is doing pullups in a basement with a leaky pipe and a rat.

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      2. …Rocky wised up by the time he fought Drago in Russia…. moral of story: the champ is the one who works out in the dust & grime…….

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  21. Apparently the construction of the ‘Football Only Building’ was necessary to keep up with the Alabamas, Georgias and Ohio States

    But football and its expenditures has ‘gotten a little big for its britches

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    2. Has anyone noticed that no one refers to our players as “student-athletes” any more? Now they are minor league mercenaries.

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  22. KAM: “We should replace our piece of crap Constitution”-Those words from author Elie Mystal, a regular commentator on MSNBC, are hardly surprising from someone who previously called the Constitution “trash” and urged not just the abolition of the U.S. Senate but also of “all voter registration laws.”

    DON: Mystal’s radical rhetoric is becoming mainstream on the left, as shown by his best-selling books and popular media appearances. These people are not my countrymen.

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  23. KAM: Mainstream Moderate Democrats: “I don’t like the US Constitution, change it to suit me”; ” change the definition of male & female, to suit me”; change the definition of crimes to suit us and on and on..

    DON: American liberals are the most self centered people on earth.

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