I am not going to get too worked up over Aaron Corp's pending transfer, though I will ask you to read Trojan Empire's piece on why Corp should stay...
He's gone but I like Anthony's take.
Moving on.
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I did see one article of interest earlier this week that did intrigue me though.
USC was missing something other than experience this past season, according to ABC/ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit.
Herbstreit — who’s extremely astute and as good as anyone in his business — detected a difference on the Trojans sideline with coordinators Steve Sarkisian and Nick Holt no longer around.
"I think they’ve got to reshuffle some things on the staff," said Herbstreit, who’s in town to call Thursday’s BCS title game at the Rose Bowl. "They were really hurt by losing Sark and by losing Nick Holt, and I think it showed.
"When ‘SC was going well, Pete Carroll with the look, Sarkisian with the smile on the sideline … after a play he’d high-five (Mark) Sanchez or (John David) Booty or (Matt) Leinart. It was L.A. cool. This year it didn’t look that way. It didn’t look like USC was in complete command at all times. Something beyond just being young was going on there. That’s what Pete’s going to have to figure out between now and next season."
That certainly sounds like an indictment of quarterbacks coach/play-caller Jeremy Bates, who might very well be a QB guru but definitely isn’t "L.A. cool."
I think that is a bit too simplistic.
Sure losing Sark and Holt definitely hurt us but it was no different than losing 11 players to the NFL or having a true freshman QB at the helm.
By itself it really isn't a big deal but when combined with all those issues that is how it really hurt SC.
BTW, the Chicago Bears contacted Bates about their OC job...Whatch out what you wish for, if you think Bates is bad wait till you get Morton running the offense....just sayin'
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Is anyone as curious as I am that the whole McKnight thing has been pretty quiet?
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Here is a quick blurb on USC's 2010 schedule...
When the Pac-10 released its 2010 football schedule earlier this week, there was only one change for USC. But it was a significant one.
By switching the Oregon State game from Oct. 23 to Nov. 20, the Trojans get a much more logical, helpful bye.
Oct. 23 falls as close to the middle of a 13-game schedule as possible. With the new setup, USC has seven games before the bye and six after.
If the schedule had remained as it was, the Trojans would have played 11 weeks in a row before their bye, with their only break coming on the weekend after the Thursday season opener at Hawaii.
USC said the change was made "for television considerations." The same thing happened this past season, but it wasn’t nearly as fruitful.
The ‘09 Arizona game got moved from Oct. 10 to Dec. 5. That gave the Trojans an early bye week — but it also created an imbalanced schedule featuring six road trips in the first nine games.
Moving this year’s Oregon State game back has the opposite effect. USC would have played five of its first eight games on the road. Now it’s four of nine.
(It also creates this oddity: The Trojans play three of their first four games on the road, as well as three of their last four — assuming you count UCLA as an away game.)
I am not really sure why it needed to be changed other than the fact that some fool at the Pac-10 scheduled SC for 11 straight games... </sarcasm>
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Tonight is not a total loss...
Pete Carroll will be the guest analyst for tonights BCS Title Game between Texas and Alabama...
Here is what he has offered up so far.
During a few hits on ESPN's "SportsCenter" on Wednesday, guest analyst Pete Carroll joined the "GameDay" crew on the set inside the Rose Bowl -- complete with an earpiece and a drive-through microphone. The USC football coach had this to say about this, that and the other things concerning tonight's BCS championship game between Alabama and Texas, without going Corso and putting a pair of Longhorns on his head as he opined:
== On what the coaches can do to keep their teams relaxed:
"The most important thing is you want your team to be confident and trust in the preparation and be prepared ... so you want to convey that in your actions and your body language ... you want them to be comfortable and be ready to go."== On how these are coaches with experience in title games, and how it helps them:
"Probably Mack's message all along has been, 'we've been here before, we know what it takes, we know what it's like' ... and try to convey that everyone can be comfortable. It's not something too big for them. I'm sure Nick is doing the same thing."== With veteran players, should that be a factor?
"Still, (confidence) can get shattered if you make a mistake - coach gets out of wack, or the players kinda lose it. It can knock them off that normal mindset that you want them in."
There is no question that Pete Carroll knows what he talking about. But more important does anyone else think that PC watching this game as a casual observer instead of coaching the team in this game might put a bit of a fire in his belly to get back to this game?
He still has some big questions to answer for 2010...
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BCS Title Game predictions...
Who Ya' Got! I am not yet sure but here is what I am thinking...
Alabama looks pretty good but Texas will play better than we have seen most of the season. Texas also likes to play and has been successful on the west coast.
Pro's and Con's...
If Alabama Wins, they tie USC for the most bowl wins in NCAA history, The SEC will have 4-in-a-row BCS MNC Titles, Nick Saban then has an argument for coach of the decade (2 Crystal Balls, but he gets 1/2 credit for LSU's Title because those were mostly Saban's players) and all we will we will here is S-E-C- S-E-C-!!!
If Texas Wins, Mack Brown has two Crystal Balls and it opens up old wounds from 2006...
Decisions, decisions.......
Leave your predictions in the comments.