FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: The Pundit Reacts To Their Golden Child’s Fall

On Sunday, I mentioned the pundits who have embarrassed themselves by constantly defending Lincoln Riley.

So how did they react? Well, perhaps the most predictable is loyal USC glazer Yogi Roth, who did a podcast with Todd Blackledge on Monday.

Roth chose to punt on the topic of Riley instead of examing his shortcomings:

“Living in L.A., being around ‘SC as much as I am, I do urge everybody to like take a beat.

“Like immediately a game ends, and it’s boom! We know what it is and I’m not even to reference it. . . . (but) things can flip in a week . . . it’s like people feel like they deserve answers immediately.

“I believe ‘SC is more than capable of winning the game Saturday night (against Ohio State).”

Imagine, people wanting immediate answers. The nerve. I mean, it’s Year 5 of Riley and we haven’t gotten any answers so how long does Roth want us to wait? Ten years?

He also didn’t want to reference any critical reactions. Why not? Because he doesn’t want to offend anyone in power at USC. Ever.

  • Meanwhile, the human windsock, Colin Cowherd, who has made campy, obnoxious videos lecturing everyone about good USC would be the past five years, turned on Monday.

“Soft doesn’t travel… It’s the same issues over, and over, and over again. It looks so much harder than it needs to be.”

“Their just not a tough, physical team . . . Maybe there’s flaws within the program. There’s an arrogance within the program. Whatever it is. It doesn’t work.”

20 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: The Pundit Reacts To Their Golden Child’s Fall”

    1. sorry he doesn’t have the “look” for image-centric SC. he looks like Fred Flintstone got fired from the rock quarry and put on some weight.

      #Yabba-Daaba-Doo

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  2. There is no discernible trend of improvement. They are much worse than in the game versus Michigan last year. It is easy to see that in every non-tomato can game this year, particularly last week. And it just isn’t the lack of being physical, it is the coaching staff not making real time game adjustments last week. Not since Alabama in 2016 have I seen the team so manhandled.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  3. “A game ends, and it’s boom…, which means there are immediate knee jerk reactions, especially when SC loses

    Like

    Reply

  7. Hilarious that anyone would claim it’s due to one game. As I stated the other day, the marginal wins against cupcakes showed quite clearly to anyone who knows anything about football that this was coming.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Absolutely – like watching the early Reeves-coached Elway teams running gimmicky shuffle passes and draws out of the shotgun (before it became rigueur de jour) and knowing it would get them through the then woeful AFC playoffs, it would get blown apart in the Super Bowl … but then watching Mike Shanahan add Terrell Davis and a bunch of players with attitude and winning back-to-back … focused, disciplined aggressive play (ie attitude up to and ever so slightly crossing the line from time to time) never goes out of style …

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  8. Here’s some stats for you

    • Tackling Efficiency: Fifth-worst overall in the country (out of 138 FBS teams).
    • Defensive Efficiency: Ranked 116th by ESPN and 97th by PFF.
    • Defensive Passing Efficiency: Slotted at 113th, trailing almost every team in the Big Ten.

    “Thud” Tempo vs. Live Tackling

    When USC players talk about doing “tackling work every day,” they are referring to individual tech drills on dummies or “Thud” periods. In a “Thud” practice, defenders run at full speed, strike the ball-carrier with their upper body, but explicitly do not take them to the ground or drive through their legs. Other teams force players to the turf during specific scrimmage blocks to build muscle memory. USC relies on “mental leverage,” which frequently backfires on Saturdays when a running back doesn’t just stop moving when he gets hit.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Think of that in comparison to the stories about how physical the practices were under McKay and Goux (and later assistants like Jackson and Houck) … and not just for the big uglies (I’m thinking of multiple accounts of the running back gauntlet that was used to prep the TBs for the workload) …

      But Miley Coyote is an air raid 7-on-7 drill buffoon like Harrellsbury … one thing to do it because you have to in an attempt to overcome talent/recruiting deficits (like Leach did at Texas Tech) and you have some type of original understanding of how to make it work … totally another to just be replicating the diagrams on paper that someone handed you along the way.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

  10. Let’s compare the Air Raid offenses! Has anyone with this type of an offense ever won an National Championship. The answer is NO, and USC will never even win a Big 10 Conference Championship with this Finesse/timing type of offense created by the late Mike Leach who never won anything either when he was coaching except for a bunch of 7=5 seasons.

    Mckay stuck with power football even when playing against the superior/larger opponents like Notre Dame and Ohio State, but he did make adjustments to the offense over time. Bear Bryant, switched to the Wishbone after some setbacks in the early 70’s, and it worked for awhile and revitalized the Alabama program.

    Bottom line- the Air Raid offense is washed up! Defenses have caught up with it just like the old offenses of the past including the I formation, and Wishbone. USC’s problem is Riley only knows the Air Raid offense, and is not an innovator in modern offensive football so he too is washed up just like the Air Raid. Folks, for 12 million a year we should have a coach who is an innovator, who creates a real Trojan Fight On culture, a teacher, and most of all a leader who motivates young men to exceed at higher levels beyond expectations on a week to week basis.

    One thing for sure I have had it with these passing game professors like Bill Walsh, Paul Hackett, Mike Leach, Norm Chow on and on. Walsh, tried it at Stanford after successful years with the 49ers.but it failed,and so did he at the college level. USC today reminds of the great Stanford passing teams of the 70’s including with Elway that never even won their conference even with top notch NFL QB’s, and top notch wide receivers.

    The great coaches ran the football, and you know what it still is the key ingredient for success today along with defense. Football is on a time clock for a reason the best teams control the time of possession by running the ball., and moving the 1st. down chains down the field. Take a look the championship games are always lower scoring because the games are won or lost with the running game and turnovers

    Bottom line never ask Lincoln Riley to run the football this Saturday as we have for the last 5 years because he doesn’t know how, and because if he doesn’t know how he can’t teach it or preach it. USC will again try the Air Raid to attack Ohio State on Saturday, but folks I am afraid there is no air left in the ball, the players, the coaches, and importantly the USC fan base. The running game and defense put USC on the map in college football history it’s time to throw out the “air” and bring in someone dedicated to re-building the Trojan empire through the running game just like Mckay, and Robinson did, and later on Pete Carroll.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a Reply