USC Trojans Football: Sports by Scondi season preview

One of the most irreverent USC blogs, Sports by Scondi, has returned to publishing now that the season is almost here. You should check out his season preview here. A brief snippet is below:

“Head Coach: Clay Helton

After righting the ship after the mutiny of our former (allegedly) drunken captain, Helton was promoted to head coach. Despite winning four games straight and beating UCLA for the Pac-12 South, the statistics actually showed the on-field quality regressed significantly. The yards per play differential went from +2.5 to -1.6 when Helton took over. Now the strength of schedule could be a huge factor, but it’s something to keep an eye on this season. Or ignore it completely. We are already speculating on who will be the next coach. Someone say Mike Tomlin?

. . .

Since being promoted, Helton has drastically changed the culture within the program. USC looks to become a physical, run-first team that will hit people and it’s shown with increases in practices per week and conditioning. Apparently, the linemen are running an “unquantifiable amount” more than last year which makes me think half of our team would take as long to pass a conditional test as Albert Haynesworth in 2010.

University of Spoiled Children? Not anymore as the team no longer receives maid service as Helton has moved them from the “luxurious” Radisson Hotel to Fluor Tower. That insulting moniker now only applies to the non-football playing students. And alumni. And fans. And probably a couple of the walk-ons.

FAITH. FAMILY. FOOTBALL. Coach Helton looks like he was the right choice after all *begins to sharpen pitchforks for riot after first loss*.

Defensive Coordinator: Clancy Pendergast

Clancy returns as defensive coordinator after his brief one-year stint with the Trojans in 2013. You’d think someone who lead USC to have the best defense in the Pac-12 (#13 nationally) would be retained, but apparently Justin Wilcox had some sort of dirt on Steve Sarkisian. Wonder what it could have been? After Wilcox took over, the defense unsurprisingly regressed to 78th nationally in 2014, and 65th in 2015.

Pendergast is known for getting results and getting them quick. With the Arizona Cardinals he improved their defense from 26th to 12th, including a Super Bowl appearance. With perennial Pac-12 doormat Cal, the defense went from fourth worst to best two years in a row.

I like to call him Clancy Postmates, because he delivers!

Offensive Coordinator: Tee Martin

Promoted from Wide Receivers Coach, this will be his first time calling plays. Good thing we start the season against Alabama and Stanford. Just a couple easy games to warm up to.”

You can read the whole preview here: https://medium.com/@cscondi/saturdays-are-for-the-trojans-usc-team-preview-e84ff1233f19#.u4a4zdv96

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