FOOTBALL

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

For the past four years, there has always been hype around the USC strength program from the fanboys and media.

But there were some not-so-great marks at USC’s Pro Day. Linebacker Eric Gentry had only 13 reps of 225 pounds. Linebackers usually do at least 20 reps.

Wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane did 11 reps in the bench. By comparison, Zacariah Branch did 20 reps at the NFL combine.

All-American safety Bishop Fitzgerald did 12 reps at the combine.Cornerback DeCarlos Nicholson did 11 reps at USC Pro Day. Those marks are toward the lower end of the spectrum for that position.

  • Would it surprise you to hear the DeMar DeRozan has scored more career points in the NBA than Steph Curry and Tim Duncan?
  • There’s been a lot of debate about whether Miami of Ohio deserves to be in the NCAA Tournament. One problem Miami said it faced was that Power 4 schools refused to play the RedHawks. You know one of the schools the RedHawks said turned them down? USC.
  • In the Pac-12 era, USC’s 17-0 start in baseball would be invaluable because it would provide a nice cushion heading into the brutal Pac-12 schedule.

But that’s not really an issue now that baseball plays in the Big Ten. USC baseball is one of the few sports where things got noticeably easier with the move to the Big Ten.

  • Penn State beat USC in lacrosse, 19-8, Thursday night in Los Angeles. I’m trying to think of anything significant USC has done in lacrosse since it started playing in 2013. And the Trojans have had the same coach the entire time too.
  • And now for some history:
  • No wonder USC players did not want to face Marlin McKeever when he returned to play on the alumni team in the 1961 spring game. Here he is taking out two players, forcing a fumble and losing his helmet on one play of a USC game.

He looks like Charles Jefferson playing football in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Here is something from 1962 that doesn’t happen anymore. An all-university street dance on The Row.

  • Stanford cost at least one USC coach his job. In 1924, Cal and Stanford told USC they would no longer play the Trojans the following year. This was only a week before USC was supposed to play Stanford the following week at the Coliseum, but the Trojans canceled the game.

That cost Stanford a big payday. But it also cost USC coach “Gloomy Gus” Henderson his job because he was costing USC the only two major teams on its schedule. So Henderson was fired and paid $20,000, or $10,000 for each year remaining on his contract.

  • Sometimes it’s easy to forget some of the drama Lane Kiffin created at USC. He barred former assistant coach Norm Chow from letting his Hawaii team use the Coliseum before a game; he was fined $10,000 for criticizing the referees after a loss to Stanford and he lied about voting USC No. 1 on his Top 25 ballot.
  •  In the 1970’s, former USC pitcher Tom Seaver was at a restaurant in Pasadena with pals when a fan showed up with a baseball. “Tom, can you put your John Hancock on this baseball?” Seaver took the baseball and signed it. The signature read “John Hancock.”
  • Actor Fess Parker was known to a generation for his portrayals of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. But before that, he was a drama student at USC.

PICTURES OF THE WEEK

Tomoko Umeda

Donna Loren

Vikki Dougan

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

    1. KAM: Here’s a concept,  Cowardly Gabby aka Charlie Bucket the UCLA Fan aka TebowObama aka The Guy who posts as So Cal’s Wife & Michael Guarino & Buddhakarma &LawyerJohn & Pudly & Plow Horse & steveg49 & DOJ & Scott Wolf & Kathy & Foreskin Thoughts & Frank Young, why don’t you stop hijacking every other poster’s username for the last 20 years……you look like a dumb—-a s s

      ……and apologize for being a d i c k

      DON: S e n i l e J o e B i d e n is your man-crush

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      1. KAM:  Brain dead 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, how does it feel to get a taste of what you have inflicted other innocent posters here the last 26 years?

        DON: Is it starting to sink into that thick skull of yours? Hello, McFly?

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      2. KAM: Brain dead 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 spends 25 years of her life stalking a USC sportswriter’s blog and she doesn’t find that weird?

        DON: Apparently she likes getting humiliated daily by the posters here….

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      3. KAM: If you really hate Scott so much go away and he won’t get the hits from your millions of insane obscene rants you have posted the last 26 years, brain dead 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 .

        DON: You are too stupid to understand that the opposite of love is indifference. You are obsessed with Scott.

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  2. sorry you got stuck covering Lacrosse and the puny-muscled receiving corps, wolfman. not exactly the same as covering the Bruins gallant victory over Rutgers led by Donovan Dent’s historic Triple Double!!

    #ThorobredPlowingAPotatoField

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  4. I am pleasantly surprised about Gentry’s bench press stats.

    The key here is that with his enormous wingspan, the weight he is pushing is functionally higher than for a short guy, say Zach Branch, due to the fact that Gentry has much longer levers than Branch. So it is really not at all a reasonable comparison without adjusting for length of arms.

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    2. Agree 67. Gentry’s bench press was fine given his body type. The issue with him is whether his unusual body can hold-up in the NFL. I am skeptical based on the number of games he missed in college.

      And the same can be said for Lane and Nickerson. They are exceptionally tall and lean so their bench press number are fine. In fact, an argument can be made that the bench press metric should be eliminated for receivers and cornerbacks.

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    1. KAM: Cowardly Sparrow Gabby spouts whatever the hired help Riley Coyote tells her to believe.

      DON: Pathetic quisling!

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    1. KAM: Uh oh, Cowardly Sparrow Gabby is triggered.

      DON: She prefers celebrating ugly women like Rosie O’Donnell, Joy Behar and Jennifer Welch.

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  7. Redhawks – now that is an impressive mascot name. Beats Oregon Ducks and UCI Anteaters. Back in the early 80s the new President of CSULA wanted to change their mascot name, Diablos, to something more upbeat. The student body voted for Oysters but the President vetoed it. He selected Golden Eagles. When was the last time someone saw an Eagle near downtown Los Angeles.

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