Musings from Arledge: Utterly Ineffectual and making peace
I’ll admit, I was skeptical when Heritage Hall announced that Monte Kiffin would lead the team out of the tunnel and then stick around to coordinate the defense.
Musings from Arledge: Utterly Ineffectual and making peace
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I can promise you this......I won't be attending anymore night games until I see real change. Just not worth it to me.
All I feel is complete and utter resignation. Way to go Haden, Swann, Helton. You managed to do what the NZAA could only dream of.
Obviously can’t disagree with message of lack of heart at SC football and understand the expectation of patience. Agree that it’s been “built” over many years of incompetent leadership. But, disappointed that our current “leader” was given a pass.
Mike Bohn took the AD job either knowing fully the condition of the football program and obtaining the control to make the changes or he acquiesced through ignorance or greed. In either case, HE is responsible for CHOOSING to keep Helton for another year, much less two and pushing this circumstance to the current condition. And HE is responsible for righting the ship???
Pardon me if I don’t get too excited about the prospects. The decision to keep Helton this year was simple incompetence. Some have suggested Bohn needed to take another year off the buy out to save money. How much will that decision cost over the rest of the year? I suspect the Coliseum will be mostly empty and merchandise sales non-existent. No, keeping Helton was a Bohn-headed decision that fans and alumnus will pay for over years. Stop giving Bohn a pass.
Mike Bohn took the AD job either knowing fully the condition of the football program and obtaining the control to make the changes or he acquiesced through ignorance or greed. In either case, HE is responsible for CHOOSING to keep Helton for another year, much less two and pushing this circumstance to the current condition. And HE is responsible for righting the ship???
Pardon me if I don’t get too excited about the prospects. The decision to keep Helton this year was simple incompetence. Some have suggested Bohn needed to take another year off the buy out to save money. How much will that decision cost over the rest of the year? I suspect the Coliseum will be mostly empty and merchandise sales non-existent. No, keeping Helton was a Bohn-headed decision that fans and alumnus will pay for over years. Stop giving Bohn a pass.
You are correct, it started with Helton, but his assistants were the ones that got the free passes too, not only the kids. If you watch the clips of the Harrell and TO’s pressers they both just sound lost. They too are culprits of the Helton culture that Donte is trying to change! We can place blame on the kids, but this is systemic failure by the coaches! Harrell is just mumbling on, very defeated. Players sense that, no fricking adjustments the entire game. This is a time they should be stepping up and it is not happening!
Fight On!
Fight On!
I expected us to be very mediocre, but not this bad. We all thought we can at least win the weak pac12 south, but we may actually finish last.
we have never lost to Colorado but that streak probably ends next week.
I keep hearing that the next coach can use the transfer portal to rebuild. But that can work both ways, some of our best may decide to abandon a sinking ship. Imagine if Dart decides to transfer.
we need a magician like Carroll or Meyer to fix this but I am not hopeful that we can get one.
we have never lost to Colorado but that streak probably ends next week.
I keep hearing that the next coach can use the transfer portal to rebuild. But that can work both ways, some of our best may decide to abandon a sinking ship. Imagine if Dart decides to transfer.
we need a magician like Carroll or Meyer to fix this but I am not hopeful that we can get one.
East Coast here. 2:15 AM for a finish. Worth it in the Pete Carroll days. With this product, if I keep doing it, I expect to be committed to the Nut House.
I was at 1960 OSC win over S.C.. I even saw S.C. play during 1-9 season in 1957...
This is the worst S.C. team I have seen
Disagree .. talent far below average ..spirit non existent..
Agreed it will take years to be successful again maybe
.. my guess we will be like SMU and never recover
At my age I do not expect to see us excel again
This is the worst S.C. team I have seen
Disagree .. talent far below average ..spirit non existent..
Agreed it will take years to be successful again maybe
.. my guess we will be like SMU and never recover
At my age I do not expect to see us excel again
"I wonder if they haven’t become comfortable with blowing assignments, committing stupid penalties, wanting it a little less than the other team and still expecting to be called warriors in the post-game press conference."
Think it's all young people.
Shocked during new employee orientations in business world just how much time is spent on this exact same ****. Coddling snowflakes. Suspect it started with educators and politicians picked up on it.
The country has changed for the worse.
Think it's all young people.
Shocked during new employee orientations in business world just how much time is spent on this exact same ****. Coddling snowflakes. Suspect it started with educators and politicians picked up on it.
The country has changed for the worse.
Fantastic write-up as usual. This is becoming one of my favorite articles every week.
I agree this is a well-written piece. Sadly, beyond the current crop of coaches / players (not all of whom are problematic, I would note) lies the Administration, which I think is thoroughly incapable of understanding the gravity of the situation, and likely doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude to help the program be championship caiber. Everyone says they want to be great, but very few have the will to really give it a run.
SC is going to need an overhaul of coaches and staff. Keep Donte but the coordinators must go!
Bilbo.usc : I wish you many, many more years of life. I am sorry that you feel sad and upset about the current miserable state of the USC football. I hope USC does not become another SMU. Maybe that was the intention of the sanctions imposed on the program . Usually this mediocrity lasts about twenty years. Unfortunately we still have about eight more years to go. I hope you and I will see another John McKay or Pete Carroll era. I never believed that SC football team to be so horrible to be dominated by a team such as Oregon State. Twelve years of incompetent leadership of the program and the Athletics Department and the NCAA sanctions have created this sad situation. The decision to keep the head coach for another two more years was wrong and the program will pay for it for years to come. You cannot have a winning and successful football program with two- or three-stars players. The Stanford and OSU games clearly showed that. The coaching and execution in both games were embarrassing.
Not years and we are no where near SMU
SMU didn't win a rose bowl/bowl game or their conference. For 20 to 30 years. I want folks to keep things in perspective and stop going off the deep end.
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I'm not as old. Saw my first USC game when I was 7 in 1961 and this program has gone through periods where nobody thought it could be good again, so I'm not ready to say it can't happen again. They just need the right guy. They found the right guy in McKay and found the right guy again in Carroll. Everything you need to be a power is already available in terms of regional talent, tradition, resources. Fight on!
And 5 years later you saw an undefeated National Championship team.
I agree. That series was fantastic. Jared Harris is a great actor. I bet he could have been a better coach than Helton too.
I was there too...in'57 and those gold helmets...the PCC aka jr.ncaa, totally obliterated sc recruiting,etc...the '52 team was my favorite and 2nd sc season I attended,and that '53 rosebowl my first...great sports/coaches at sc in those years
this article hurts to read 'cause it is TOO TRUE...GOD HELP US...WE WANT MERCY AND REAL COACHES FOR A CHANGE
Great article Chris. I too have come to the realization that this years team stinks, and is likely to win about 2 more games. It isn't really about winning games this year, but hiring the right coach that can completely eliminate the stench created by Helton, and to start leading us back to playing SC football. Even with a good hire, it may take a few years to clear out the roster and change the culture.
This article absolutely nails it. We are very average. Slovis is not going to get us there either. While it is not all his fault, this is a team sport. We are indeed soft and undisciplined. One would think that even with our "pillow soft" schedule we could do better. This is not going to happen. The last two games of the season are against a lot better opponents. I am not going to go to get on a plane to fly out see the same old bad play and watch us get really embarrassed again. OSU is not Alabama or Georgia but compared to us they looked like it. 322 yards rushing for an average of 7.1 per carry is an embarrassment for any USC team. Stop the pain and give Moss a chance. Put someone on the line who wants to play. Not sure it will work with the present state of our team. Like Chris said the only thing good we have to look forward to is new HC hire.
hope donte spends the rest of the year finding guys who want to play instead of those that need to be pandered to.
too many of our players have a sense of entitlement, which is fine, but it has to be backed up with performance.
they think success means having their rear ends kissed and pampered by coaches.
gameday isn't facebook, twitter, tiktok, etc. what they can make people believe isn't the same as a result based on actual performance.
it's like watching a buncha used car salesmen and/or social media "influencers" play and coach football.
too many of our players have a sense of entitlement, which is fine, but it has to be backed up with performance.
they think success means having their rear ends kissed and pampered by coaches.
gameday isn't facebook, twitter, tiktok, etc. what they can make people believe isn't the same as a result based on actual performance.
it's like watching a buncha used car salesmen and/or social media "influencers" play and coach football.
Musings from Arledge: Utterly Ineffectual and making peace
I’ll admit, I was skeptical when Heritage Hall announced that Monte Kiffin would lead the team out of the tunnel and then stick around to coordinate the defense.www.on3.com
Bruddah Chris, Mahalo for another insightful write up. Yep, this FB team is broken and like you said "A Mess"; it does not have heart & pride. Our players are being coached by bad coaches! USC needs a strong, experienced, tough HC to fix it. I believe AD Bohn is a good, competent AD and will find that special HC. Looking back C.McKay & C.Carroll did it. Even C.BKelly at Notre Dame did it. C.UMeyer did it at every school he ever coached.
The new HC must and should clean house, every AC, OC, DC must go and only keep C.DWilliams & maybe So'oto. I feel for several players that play hard and want to win (London, J.Dart, Malepeai, Ingram, Mauga, Bullock, Triggs, Manjack, even Slovis and entire DL-Tuli, Figueroa, Jackson, LIchtenstein, Tufono, Taufoou, but they can not do it by themselves.
After losing big to Oregon St game, many are slamming Slovis; heck I feel Kedon played well enough to win the game. Slovis stats 31/49, 63%, 355 yds, 31 1st downs, bad 3 IT's, but 1 IT not on him. Slovis spread the ball, completed pass to many WR's & RB's & scored 27 points. There were at least 4 drops (3 by Washington alone and 1 by London) they were momentum killers. Nah, the loss is on the D's DB's, OL, stupid penalties & bad coaching.
Cheers, Keep the Faith...
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This brings us to the second fact with which we need to make peace: it’s going to take some time to fix this mess, and there is no guarantee that it will happen.
I couldn't agree with this more. I sat watching the game Saturday night with this thought being proven in front of me. I actually thought the WAZZU game was going to be a mirror or this game, more or less, and it appeared to be going in that direction until superDARTman showed up.
Speaking of which, not only does Dart remind us of Darnold, but he is oddly in the similar situation in that his skill and talent can make an underachieving and or not very good team, do much much better. He has that kind of panache and cachet. As such he is going to make any coaching staff look good and seem to be better than they deserve. Therefore, beware of a coaching staff that wants to rush him back on to the field before he is near 100% healthy. Winning this season doesn't matter whatsoever. It is fine to get him some game time reps for sure. But I wouldn't put the weight of saving this season on him. There is nothing worth saving.
I couldn't agree with this more. I sat watching the game Saturday night with this thought being proven in front of me. I actually thought the WAZZU game was going to be a mirror or this game, more or less, and it appeared to be going in that direction until superDARTman showed up.
Speaking of which, not only does Dart remind us of Darnold, but he is oddly in the similar situation in that his skill and talent can make an underachieving and or not very good team, do much much better. He has that kind of panache and cachet. As such he is going to make any coaching staff look good and seem to be better than they deserve. Therefore, beware of a coaching staff that wants to rush him back on to the field before he is near 100% healthy. Winning this season doesn't matter whatsoever. It is fine to get him some game time reps for sure. But I wouldn't put the weight of saving this season on him. There is nothing worth saving.
Coaches will be motivated to save their jobs. I fully expect them to rush him back.
The line you quote from the article is the most important.
It is going to take a couple years to fix this mess. But it can obviously be fixed. The coaching hiring decisions coming are make/break time.
Agree. Slovis is not the problem. But he does appear to be dispirited and it’s up to him alone to fix it. He’s used to bad blocking, no running game and lousy play calling, but he’s not used to lousy receivers. When I played basketball I avoided passing the ball to guys who couldn’t shoot, and if I were Slovis I’d be inclined to avoid passing to guys who can’t catch and kill drives.
I dont see why everyone is getting so down NOW. Did people expect that we could fire Clay and the next week everything is fixed? Really?
Donte gives this job everything he has, but both the offense and defense are broken. The core problem is simple. The Graham Harrell Air Raid is a joke. And the lack of diverse schematics not only hurts the offense, it doesnt give the defense the proper competition on a daily practice environment. It creates a whole team of softness. Firing GH right now might be the only solution.
Washing the stink of Helton off this program will take a little time, but it wont be forever.
Fans should look at the Trojans as underdogs, which is what we are. Let's celebrate any small improvements and realize that the future is much brighter, very soon. A good coaching staff can get the team back to being a solid team by next year, but the key will be getting a #1 recruiting class in 2022 and 2023. With the right schematics, practices, culture and discipline and then a re-built roster, SC can return to a CFP contender by 2023 and be a potential Pac-12 winner in 2022. That is reasonable.
So if you want to direct your anger somewhere, it should be straight at Caruso and Folt. The two idiots who created this problem. Bohn came into this position to fire Helton immediately, but was lied to by Folt. Blame her and Caruso. The BOT should understand that the mismanagement of the football program is only the tip of the iceberg of mismanagement at USC. . There is a vacuum of leadership at USC, Caruso hired someone to do his bidding, not a leader for the University.
Donte gives this job everything he has, but both the offense and defense are broken. The core problem is simple. The Graham Harrell Air Raid is a joke. And the lack of diverse schematics not only hurts the offense, it doesnt give the defense the proper competition on a daily practice environment. It creates a whole team of softness. Firing GH right now might be the only solution.
Washing the stink of Helton off this program will take a little time, but it wont be forever.
Fans should look at the Trojans as underdogs, which is what we are. Let's celebrate any small improvements and realize that the future is much brighter, very soon. A good coaching staff can get the team back to being a solid team by next year, but the key will be getting a #1 recruiting class in 2022 and 2023. With the right schematics, practices, culture and discipline and then a re-built roster, SC can return to a CFP contender by 2023 and be a potential Pac-12 winner in 2022. That is reasonable.
So if you want to direct your anger somewhere, it should be straight at Caruso and Folt. The two idiots who created this problem. Bohn came into this position to fire Helton immediately, but was lied to by Folt. Blame her and Caruso. The BOT should understand that the mismanagement of the football program is only the tip of the iceberg of mismanagement at USC. . There is a vacuum of leadership at USC, Caruso hired someone to do his bidding, not a leader for the University.
I feel everyone's pain here, and there is certainly a hill to climb. Chris is, as usual, spot on...this is the product of a succession of really bad decisions starting with Mike Garrett, Pat Haden, and Lynn Swann (setting aside the Bush/Mayo impacts here). Then we reached a perfect storm of a new administration that didn't prioritize football along with other academic scandals that extended a very sub-par HC's tenure.
But there is no way we will be another SMU. That program made illegal activities - paying recruits and their families - a nearly institutional activity, that shored up a small program and small schools otherwise complete inability to compete with the larger blue bloods. That is in no way, shape, or form, USC, which is legitimately, in scale, infrastructure, and environment, a top 5 national program (as tarnished as it may be).
We will be back with the right leadership. It's largely on Bohn now.
Are we winning the recycling championship in PAC. Get your priorities straight. Glad I had McKay games as a student & Pete games when my son was a student. He never saw a loss in Coli as a student. Will SC allow Bohn to hire a take no prisoners HC?
Clovis is not the problem - he could easily win a natty with ALA- but he's not the answer-we need someone who can compensate for harrells ****** offense and stupid adjustments (or lack thereof) ,run scramble, make difficult throws -Slow-vis cant- he's a three star, solid recruit who should be 3 or at best 2 at a school like USC (or what USC USE to be like )