Is the ASU game a turning point for USC?

It has to insure confidence in the team that they can pull it out even due to adversity, the idea that it isn’t over until the clock stops is great. Yes, Baxter has to understand that going forward is best because all teams have more than one HS all-star on defense. This week should be a good test for them facing Zona, if they keep their noses to the grind they will do alright. The offensive line has to be aware of play count so no more motion and holding happens to much still, at least USC has cleaned up late hit BS it seems.

There is reason to hope that USC can finish the season like a Pac-10 title contender, but there really isn’t much evidence of that yet. IMO, USC has established itself as a mid-level Pac-10 team, and that’s exactly what they looked like last weekend. Same team that played Oregon, Stanford, and UW…but better outcome…mostly because the D held up better.

Do I expect that this USC will go on the road the next two weeks and dominate Arizona and OSU? Of course I don’t. This team is going to have to fight for everything it gets. But…if there was a let-down game on USC’s schedule, it was last week. And the Trojan’s played with admirable effort. Credit Kiffin for opening up the competition for a few starting spots. It wasn’t an accident that he did it the Monday after USC’s “bowl game”. Nothing gets the players attention better than a lineup change.

Like Paragon said, the only way this team is going to turn the corner is with a lot of hard work. And it looks lke that’s exactly what the team is doing. Fight On!

That looked like a serious ankle injury. Bring on, CJ!

I don’t think ball control issues are really the problem. He should still be our main guy when he is healthy.

Right now, I think the season is going according to the way the NCAA’s COI truly wanted it to go. By allowing for free agency with our upperclassmen, they knew that by depleting the Trojan football team of depth- that would really put us in CFB doldrums. It’s remarkable that they (COI) had the foresight to know that we wouldn’t be losing a large number of future recruits because afterall, we’re U-S-C!

I’ve gone through all our games on replay and there’s something that sticks out the most in our games (save for the UDub game)- large swaths of our team members HAVE SIMPLY NOT GIVEN UP. The beginning of our season, our players were playing the game based on reputation alone and weren’t quite bringing their best to the table. After the UDub game, players started to realize that we weren’t going to get the benefit of the doubt on calls, the lucky breaks just weren’t materializing, and that (to a man)- they had to simply handle their own responsibilities/gaps/routes/ AND FINISH ON EACH AND EVERY PLAY.

Conditioning plays a large part in all of this, but- as the season wears on, conditioning shouldn’t be that much of a factor as their (the players) bodies get used to playing with the continuing “hard-effort”, throughout all those downs/plays, and that the margin for error for each and every player/position was very slight. Any potential fuck-up by ANYONE on the team and ANY GIVEN time throughout the course of a game MIGHT just put the team behind the 8-ball and prevent them from winning. It’s entirely weird and totally beyond me to think that ANY PLAYER HAD TO ARRIVE AT THAT CONCLUSION so late (mid) in the season. That’s the way a player should be thinking in Summer practices!!!!!

Under Carroll there was a total disconnect to what the reality of CFB was and is. These 5- and 4-star recruits might have brought with them their play-making ability and football smarts, but if you ask me. . . .Coach Carroll and a number of his coaching staff “dumbed the players down” to some extent.

This is Coach Kiffin’s cross to bear right now. Not only does he have to get these players to buy into what he’s bringing (as far as offensive and defensive systems), but he has to “un-brainwash” them into believing that they are “all-that”. Because, . . . .THEY AREN’T. Not just yet. They have to prove it each and every practice, game, rally, and class day. Coach Carroll wasn’t running an Urban Meyer program, what with all it’s looseness and entitlement. But, it wasn’t that far off.

Only now, as a Trojan fan through and through, am I just realizing this.

I’m not into the “admire” or “proud” wording for describing our team this year. But, due to all the ups and downs of our season (even before our season started), I can’t imagine a better group of starters/players or coaching staff to make me feel such admiration and pride when seeing them take the field.

Whether they end up in the top half, middle, or bottom of the Pac 10 this year- if the nucleus of this team sticks together- the COI will eat a ton of shit come 2012 because this team will mature, gel, and come into 2011 on fire, and for 2012- they’ll be taking names, numbers, and championships against any team they will face.

Fight On Trojans 2010!