FOOTBALL

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

I do not enjoy writing so much about the future of the USC-Notre Dame rivalry.

But I’m not going to allow a complete clown to destroy one of the crown jewels of USC (and Notre Dame) football with no pushback. Especially when I see a pathetic headline like this yesterday:

Oh really?

Did USC spin masters write this? Riley made clear Thursday he only wants to continue the series under certain conditions, specifically the Big Ten being gifted four automatic spots in the College Football Playoff.

What’s perplexing is USC won national titles in far tougher formats than exist today and still managed to play Notre Dame every year. But Riley thinks he can’t make a 12-or-16-team playoff if he plays the Irish? Or does he just want to play Missouri State every week. He is utterly feckless, despises tradition and not fit for a school that values tradition.

  • Some heads were turned when USC announced it would take “at least” six to eight months for Alijah Arenas to recover from a torn meniscus. USC did not reveal the severity of the injury.

A local high school basketball coach told me the lengthy recovery time signaled that Arenas would head straight to the NBA Draft and not play college basketball.

  • And now for some history:
  • I continue to be intrigued by the story of USC quarterback Pat Mills.

He played only 40 seconds in 1964 as the Trojans No. 3 quarterback and told starter Craig Fertig, “The only time I usually get in the game is Sundays down at the park” during his lone appearance in a 31-7 victory over Texas A&M.

Pat Mills

But Mills passed for more than 300 yards in USC’s spring game of 1965 and was named the starting QB for the season by John McKay.

It didn’t go well in the opener, as No. 7 USC tied Minnesota, 20-20, at the Coliseum. Mills completed 4 of 15 passes for 51 yards and three interceptions. Troy Winslow replaced Mills the following week at Wisconsin although Mills punted in that game. Winslow started the rest of the season.

It appears Mills threw two more passes the rest of the season but he did not earn a letter. And he was never heard from again at USC.

A few years ago, I asked former USC assistant coach Dave Levy what had happened to Mills and he said he didn’t remember.

  • USC star linebacker Greg Slough responded to a report he was offered $40,000 in the summer of 1969 by the San Diego Chargers.

“Hell, if I was offered that kind of money, I would have taken it,” Slough said. “I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Slough did speak to Chargers coach/general manager Sid Gillman.

“He advised me to go on with college football,” Slough said. “I thought it was best, too.”

Slough’s wife gave birth to a baby boy during the 1969 season, which they named Troy. Slough was a member of the 1970 Playboy All-American team.

  • Quarterback Jimmy Jones throws a pass to wide receiver Terry DeKraai (19) in the 1969 USC-Notre Dame game. No. 56 is offensive guard Bill Redding and No. 77 is offensive tackle Sid Smith.
  • Actor David Janssen, the star of the hit TV show, “The Fugitive” was the sole judge of the contest to name the USC Alpha Tau Omega fraternity Sweetheart in 1965. An original field of 16 contestants had been reduced to five women vying to be ATO Sweetheart. Naturally, Janssen wasn’t about to surrender his cigarette for the photo.

RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK

  • It was all kicking off at Little Pietro’s in 1965. Steaks, pizza, spaghetti. A disco. Live entertainment four nights a week. And walking distance from the Coliseum!

Today, the location is right at the intersection of Martin Luther King Blvd. and Bill Robertson Lane.

USC might have eliminated 12 positions from its athletic dept. but it has a new video board at the Galen Center.

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

      1. KAM: House Ethics Committee Finds Preachy Democrat Congresswoman AOC Impermissibly Accepted Met Gala Ticket for Boyfriend and Underpaid for “Tax The Rich” Dress and Accessories

        DON: Cowardly Sparrow Gabby hardest hit!

        Liked by 1 person

  2. That No. 93 for Notre Dame looking 8-feet tall with his arms raised, and looking meanly at a skinny SC quarterback.– No wonder we can’t beat these guys

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  3. —-

    Wiley “despises tradition” is an over-statement, certainly Wiles is aware of the SC-Notre Dame heritage, although he may not feel as deeply as dye-in-the-wool SC fan, Scott Wolf

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    1. KAM: “although he may not feel as deeply ‘???

      DON: That is as big an understatement as claiming Biden was “impaired”.

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  5. –There is SC-ucla, but somehow the SC-Notre Dame game carried more ‘national’ weight, and for some it was the only game of the season that mattered

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    1. In the 1960s and 70s, USC-ND and USC-gutties were probably equal. But the gutties haven’t been relevant for years. The kids being recruited today have no idea UCLA was once good at football.

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      1. KAM: Once Tommy Prothro left UCLA in 1970 they became increasingly irrelevant. Cowardly Sparrow Gabby grieved at their 2-7 1 record against us in the 1970s as McKay/Robinson dominated.

        Huckster Pepper Rodgers and Terry Donahue never beat USC in the 1970s, capped by a 49-14 humiliation in Sacred ’79.

        DON: Sadly the kids being recruited today were born after USC was great in football. They only know the Sukiffian/Hugs/Sir Lincoln of Riley years of underachievement.

        Liked by 2 people

  6. Scott writes “Riley thinks he can’t make a 12-or-16-team playoff if he plays the Irish?” That is the crux of the issue. If USC has a really tough schedule and loses three games they still have an outside chance to get into a 16 team playoff. They will certainly get in with two losses. OSU won the national championship last year with two losses and that was with a 12 team format. Just play the games. If you lose three games or more you probably don’t deserve to be in the playoffs.

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    1. I’ll always remember (and love) what PC said shortly after he arrived at USC: “We already have a playoff. It’s from September to November.”

      But shortly before he left, he changed his tune.

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  8. –For tv people it makes no financial sense to drop SC-ND, so if this is about ‘making it easier for SC to win a national championship,’ then let’s look at the odds of the Trojans ever seeing a national championship–

    Need probably a 10-2 or better record to even make the Playoffs, a long-shot for most teams, but THEN must win 3-games in the Tournament against the best 12 teams that season

    The incredible football runs enjoyed by SC, Nebraska, Miami, and Alabama are of the past

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      3. “The governor and I, we were all doing a tour of the library here and talking about the significance of the passage of time, right, the significance of the passage of time. So, when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time in terms of what we need to do to lay these wires. What we need to do to create these jobs. And there is such great significance to the passage of time when we think about a day in the life of our children.” Kamala Harris

        Liked by 1 person

      4. I take your point……Harris is up there with Fitzgerald and Faulkner and Conrad and Melville…
        #InFact,She’sSurpassedThem

        Liked by 1 person

  9. –So now over at SC the attitude is ‘Tournament-or-bust,’ even if it means busting up SC-Notre Dame.

    Is that really all there is to this, Mr. Wiley?- We’d like to narrow down the issues

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  10. Before the college Playoff system was created, basically we had the best 12 teams in various Bowl Games with 6 winners, each with an argument for being national champions

    Now we have the top 12 teams in a round-robin with only 1 winner and 11 losers

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    2. And a team can lose to it’s traditional rival and can get hot and win the NC like Ohio State did. In the old days the Buckeyes would have been eliminated from NC consideration with that stinker 13-10 loss to mediocre MICH.

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  11. –So Pat Mills gets his one SC chance and blows it. His story could be the story of hundreds of Trojans who were ‘not quite good enough’ for football

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  12. —Wise-cracking Pat Mills, I can imagine an exchange with a friend, “Hey Mills, we lost touch, how’s it going at SC?– Says Mills, “The only time I get in the game is Sundays down at the park”

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    1. …..Unless you’re “eccentric”….

      #Seriously”Eccentric”

      [Actually, read up on Lynne —major talent, unfairly maligned, who died mysteriously while quite young]…..

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      1. I think Ms. Frederick would have no reason to fear being around Mr. Eccentric. That Macaulay Culkin kid from Home Alone is another story.

        Liked by 1 person

  15. Stanford’s coach John Ralston back in 1965 had these words about his team that Wiley might find familiar: “We got scoring punch. I just hope we can hold them”

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    1. Lincoln: I used to think we could beat teams 48-47 —-but after getting embarrassed by Utah, Tulane, UCLA and Notre Dame —- I’m re-thinking that approach.

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  16. KAM: THEY COULD DISH IT OUT, BUT . . . Under Siege From Trump and DOGE, a Top Liberal Group Falls Into Crisis: Scrambling to pay legal fees, Cowardly Sparrow Gabby’s favorite propaganda site Media Matters has dialed back its criticism, trimmed its staff and contemplated closing entirely.

    DON: Weird how all these lefty outfits started shutting down as soon as the USAID money spigot was turned off.

    Liked by 1 person

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      1. Media Matters is a Soros organization. They tried to portray themselves as a neutral, media fact checker. Nobody really bought it but the MSM cited them all the time.

        Liked by 1 person

  17. Trump owns the record for the lowest approval rating of any president, 37%. He broke the previous low that he also set from his first presidency

    Fake gabby hardest hit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. KAM: Why do you always lie,vile antisemitic and racist Board Pest Board Cancer Cowardly Gabby aka Sparrow Calypso aka TebowObama aka Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka The Guy who posts as Buddhakarma & 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 and eric and Smacky:

      Political Polls New – Trump approval poll

      Approve 50%

      Disapprove 48%

      DON: Cowardly Gabby hardest hit!

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. post a link referencing 50% ……or S T F U !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        fake gabby hardest hit at 37%

        BAAAAAAMMM/CROTCH/KICK

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