Random thoughts for an early Sunday Morning...

by Paragon SC on Nov 15, 2009 6:11 AM PST in USC Football Comment 18 comments

Just throwing a few things out there this morning. I have no particular opinion on these...yet. But I am curious on what you guys are seeing. I may have more later...

Where is the high flying passing attack that John Morton supposedly brought from New Orleans?

Is Pete Carroll's shepherding Bates into the college game taking time away from the defense? Many think Rocky Seto is a yes man. If true then it is a double edged sword? Is Seto having a hard time delivering PC's message? If he is not a yes man and he has some input on the defensive schemes what does that say about Seto as the DC?

Following that line...we have heard very little about Ken Norton this season. The LB corps is certainly not what we have been used to seeing, are the LB's progressing under Norton's tutelage? It has looked good the past few weeks...

There were some complaints about too much assistant coaching turnover the past few seasons. Not all of that is PC's fault. It is clear that PC really has no choice but to make some coaching changes in the off season. Will that affect team chemistry? Who should go, Who stays?

I am certainly not conceding the ucla game, but the performances of the past few weeks have to give everyone pause, Instead of two good teams fighting it out it will be two ugly teams fighting it out.

Does Matt Barkley give us the best chance to win?. It is pretty clear that neither Mitch Mustain or Aaron Corp is ever going to see the field in any significant capacity, if at all. How did Pete Carroll miss on those two guys...

There a lot of questions now and not many answers...thank God for the bye week...

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Basically Pete runs the team and his coaches have become very well paid observers. So until Pete wakes back up the USC football Trojans will not do very well, I hope it hasn’t got to the point of the NY jets time of Carroll. The difference is that at USC the players change enough not to have dissension in the ranks, unlike the NFL where players have 5-10 year contracts and fans that want to eat your young.

Please don't tell me what to do or think, what I might say is a personal opinion.

by so.cal.native1952 on Nov 15, 2009 6:26 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Here's the problem with so much success

Now you have a crop of recruits, coaches, etc. that come in to and just expect to win because they are playing for USC. They expect to win because they come in from outside the west coast, hearing year-in and year-out that the Pac-10 is a weak conference. Better recruits start going to other schools because they know USC is so deep they may never see playing time.

While it has been an amazing run for SC, I don’t think you’re looking at a rebuilding season here. You’re looking down a long road of improved teams in the Pac-10 and many more years of competitive play. Sure, SC will get better. Frankly right now, you’re just flat-out mediocre at best (See – ASU game).

The bigger question is now that the veil of invincibility has crumbled, the blood wafting in the Pac-10 waters and spirits down how do you build not just a better team, but confidence? This is a situation PC has never found himself in. It’s incredibly easy to keep your team morale high when you’re the favorite in every game you play. But can he deal with adversity? I’m not seeing it since the defining loss at Oregon and I have serious doubts about the morale improving even into next season.

Stanford is on its way up. Cal is always strong. Oregon has a new look. OSU gets better every year. The future is bright in Arizona. USC has picked a bad time to find itself on a downswing.

Life is hilarious.

by SolGoode on Nov 15, 2009 11:27 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Veil what are you talking about please take foot out of mouth, what do you even know about Fb anyway.

Please don't tell me what to do or think, what I might say is a personal opinion.

by so.cal.native1952 on Nov 15, 2009 12:05 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Total BS

Cal is who they always are. OSU has consistently been good with Riley, and hasn’t changed. ASU is down. UCLA is down. UW is down. WSU is down. Oregon is no better than they have been for the last decade – very good, top 10 worthy. Zona may be on the way up, but they remain unproven. The hard part of their schedule just started, and they already fumbled.

We really only have one surprise team this season – Stanford. Zona may or may not be included in that conversation. The conference is NO BETTER than it always is. The PacX typically has 5 ranked teams. Guess what, the PacX looks like it will have 5 ranked teams at season’s end: USC, UO, OSU, Ford, and Zona.

“The conference is better” is complete and total horseshit.

by DFWTrojan on Nov 15, 2009 3:23 PM PST up reply actions 3 recs

Bingo! Rec'd

A few teams are better but not the whole conference…

Conquest Chronicles

by Paragon SC on Nov 15, 2009 3:32 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Stanford is doing it on the back of one really good player, by taking advantage of conference wide poor defenses. The best defense in the conference is ASU #15, then Arizona #17, followed by mighty USC at #38. The rest are ranked #60 and above, with the Washington schools not even cracking the top 100. Defense doesn’t win championships in the Pac-10, pinball number generating offenses do, that’s who we used to be.

¡Fusílenlo, después veriguamos! - Pancho Villa

by Locoweed 1.1 on Nov 15, 2009 5:26 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

LOL

Sounds like a bunch of defensive USC fans here. The team should take a page from your book.

One good player is stupidity. UW has one REALLY good player, but they aren’t doing so well. Andrew Luck is a tremendous quarterback, the O-line at Stanford is dominating and the coaching staff are hitting their stride right at the sweet spot of the season.

Conference wide poor defenses? Oregon’s defense, before Stanford, was only allowing 17 PAG by their opponents, most of those scores coming off turnovers in short-field situations. That’s a pretty good defense, especially for a bunch of no-name freshman.

What do I know about football? I know USC is going to become the next Ohio State or Michigan. Have fun struggling to get into a BCS game the next seven years.

Life is hilarious.

by SolGoode on Nov 15, 2009 6:13 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Judging by your comment rates elsewhere, and the immediate recall of the stat above, I’m guessing that you’re an Oregon fan. I look forward to Oregon hitting a BCS bowl game two years in a row. Lord knows if Chip Kelly can overcome the grand Oregonian tradition of implosion, he really is as good a coach as he’s looked so far this season.

In the meantime, morale can turn on a dime. Carroll inherited a team for the 2001 season that was used to average results and had them up and running by the end of the second season. This time could be harder because he’s the one at the helm when things have gone south – but predicting now that morale won’t come back smacks of wishful thinking. Hell, everyone knew after Oregon’s loss to Boise State that they were going nowhere this season, so you’ll understand if I don’t give your prognostication due consideration.

by DC Trojan on Nov 15, 2009 9:31 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Not that I would ever want to be a Buckeye....

But your statement reeks of stupidity – Ohio State is pretty much the only team in the country that has played in BCS games as consistently as USC has over the past decade (and actually has more title game appearances). To say they struggle to play in the BCS is like saying it’s a stretch that the SEC champion will get to play for a national title.

The poor Wolverines on the other hand….

by FightOn09 on Nov 16, 2009 10:09 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Basically you live in Oregon and are a duck fan, so come into the sunlight get some rays, it might improve your skin tone and brain power.

The fact that you Duck Fans have no class (see how you treated one of your own, Kevin Love) is a factor in your reasoning. Also I saw you Fanshot on Nov. ! calling PC a D-Bag, classy have you ever talked to man, did he shot your pet duck etc.

Please don't tell me what to do or think, what I might say is a personal opinion.

by so.cal.native1952 on Nov 16, 2009 12:00 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Since I got warned about my tone...

It’s obvious a little ribbing is not tolerated here, unless of course you’re for the home team, in which case calling someone’s idea “horseshit” is totally cool. So I’ll let you 6 or 7 USC fans stay in the bubble and never have to deal with dissension again.

But on a final note…

Don’t worry, I’m sure you guys will sweep next year and go to the national championship, and then again and again and again. I’m sure the run isn’t ending this season. It’s just a rebuilding year, that’s all. You guys will come back next year and every team will be fearing you and Pete Carroll will be proved genius again. The trophy case will overload they’ll have to build better support beams for it and maybe even add walls to fit all the heismans and championship and coach of the year trophies. All sorts of Pac-10 teams will be losing their key players and will more or less be ready for the steam-rolling you’ll deal them for the next 10 years because after this disappointing season they’ll just want it that much more to excel and prove themselves and they totally will and all the pundits and media guys who will probably not rank you very high to begin next season will be all like “Well we were sure wrong about this USC team, they are better than ever! If only USC could play USC in the national championship that is the only way it would be remotely fair!” then in the National Championship game you guys will be up 55 to zero and Pete Carroll is going to let Will Ferrell come in and kick the extra point and everyone will think it’s hilarious cause he’ll be wearing one of those uniforms from the 1800’s with the leather helmets, then get called for a penalty but it doesn’t matter cause the trophy is in the bag and the color commentators are busy talking about how Matt Barkley gets his hair to do that even though he’s been wearing a helmet because the outcome of the game was decided long ago. And then pretty soon teams are just going to concede defeat to you guys and no one will ever have to play cause, really, what’s the point? They’re just going to lose anyway so might as well not risk all sorts of season ending injuries to your team, so all that USC is left to do is play against NFL teams, which is a horrible idea because none of the NFL teams can do anything against the quick strike offense and pounding defense and pretty soon they have to invent some freak hybrid-trophy of the superbowl and NCAA national championship to give to USC and it’s all gold and diamonds and platinum and is about the size of a 91 toyota carolla but weighs twice as much, but that isn’t a big deal because just one of your defensive linemen can hold it over his head with one hand, with Matt Barkley sitting on it and then not long after that happens the entire sport of football collapses under the weight of USC’s domination and we’re forced to move onto basketball, but then the EXACT SAME THING happens with USC basketball and pretty soon all the monday morning talk around the cooler is about the big water polo and curling matches of that weekend.

Life is hilarious.

by SolGoode on Nov 16, 2009 1:07 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Again come out of your cave get some sunlight it will improve your thoughts.

Please don't tell me what to do or think, what I might say is a personal opinion.

by so.cal.native1952 on Nov 16, 2009 1:31 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I read the first sentence and stopped...

It is simple really…Try and find any one of our regular posters going on to another site to poke the eyes out of a team that just got boat raced at home…

You can’t find it. That is not how we are we kind of do our own thing here and the only place we really venture over to is CGB. And that is because I guilt a solid relationship with Twist from the first day they started. I did the same thing with Dave from ATQ before he gave it up…I haven’t had much of a chance to do it with Jared.

It is no secret that some of us are rubbed raw by this weekends loss. We don’t need you here to tell us we’re defensive. Me and my guys have a pretty good relationship with all the other Pac-10 blogs EXCEPT for BN. We don’t cause trouble, we don’t rub our wins in other peoples faces except for ucla and ND and we don’t call out other fan bases for being defensive or petulant when they get smoked. Win or lose…we make note of the outcome and move on.

I have a very low tolerance for flamers because it gets in the way of the message I want to get out and I don’t have time sit on CC all day long. As much as I like it on CC I do have a day job that I like very much.

We have an overall respect for the players of ALL the other programs…they leave it all out on the field. We feel the same way about most of the coaches too…Slick Rick and Chuck Weis are the exceptions…Harbaugh is making his way onto that list too.

I mean this is a partisan USC blog so wouldn’t you expect us to be protective our team and readers? We don’t tell you your yard is dirty over on ATQ so don’t do it to us here.

Anyway, like I said…pretty simple really…

If you have something to add that is constructive to the conversation then I am all ears…fire away. If not then take it somewhere else.

Thanks for stopping by…good luck the rest of the way.

Conquest Chronicles

by Paragon SC on Nov 16, 2009 1:32 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs