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USC football: A program running for cover
November 14th, 2009, 9:13 pm · 27 Comments · posted by SCOTT M. REID, OCREGISTER.COM
This is how far the once mighty Trojan empire has fallen in just three weeks.
Midway through the fourth quarter of No. 25 Stanford’s 55-21 embarrassment of No. 11 USC, Cardinal cornerback Richard Sherman and defensive tackle Ekom Udofia, turned to Fox Sports camera on the Coliseum and mocked the Trojans. The game wasn’t over but the Trojans were done and Sherman and Udofia knew it.
“Fight on, fight on,” Sherman and Udofia crowed.
The Trojans of course had already given up the fight.
The most disturbing part of USC’s performance on Saturday wasn’t Matt Barkley’s three interceptions or that the Trojans gave up 469 yards total offense. No what has to concern Pete Carroll and USC fans the most about Saturday is that the Trojans seemed to quit in the fourth quarter.
So much for “Always compete.”
The Trojans were Sonny Liston against a young Cassius Clay in Miami. They were Roberto Duran in the second Sugar Ray Leonard fight. After spending three quarters checking themselves for Toby Gerhart cleat marks, USC saw Gerhart and the Cardinal headed into the final 11 minutes of the fourth quarter with a full head of steam and a 21-point lead and cried “No mas.” In mailing in the final quarter of the Trojans’ worst home loss since 1966, USC looked more like a Paul Hackett team than any of the Carroll squads that won a record seven consecutive Pac-10 titles.
This was USC, college football’s team of the decade, in name only.
How meek were the Trojans? Stanford’s freshman back-up tailback Stepfan Taylor ran for more yards (40) in the fourth quarter than Barkley and Co. had combined. USC managed just 26 yards total offense on 12 fourth quarter plays, only eight yards on the Trojans’ final eight plays. The Cardinal picked up 165 yards in the fourth quarter. And that doesn’t include Barkley’s TD strike right on the numbers to wide receiver-turned-defensive back Sherman.
Perhaps the low point of the Carroll era came after Gerhart made it 48-21 with a six-yard TD run with 6:47 remaining. Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, no fan of Carroll’s, decided to go for the two-point conversion. The attempt failed, but Harbaugh made a larger point that won’t go unnoticed by the rest of the Pac-10.
USC is no longer a program to be feared.
“It was kind of disrespectful,” Trojan linebacker Malcolm Smith said after the game. “It was definitely a punch in the face.”
The Trojans no longer deserve respect, not after the way they folded Saturday afternoon.
As the final seconds of another embarrassing Trojan Saturday ticked away, Harbaugh noticed USC players high tailing it for locker-room. Maybe they were trying to beat the throngs of long gone USC fans out of the parking lot. Or maybe they were running cover, scared that Gerhart might have one more bone-crushing run left in him. Whatever the reason, it was already too late.
The Trojan mystique had already left the building.
“Look at them all running in,” Harbaugh snickered as he watched the fleeing Trojans. “Look at them all running in.”
27 Comments
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You made the right choice Mark Sanchez.
Similar to the Ducks game where the team really seemed to quit in the 2nd half too. Both sides of the ball seemed to give up the fight after getting down double digits. Something is wrong. Youth, inexperience, injury depletion? Quitting on the coaches? No leadership on the field?
I think the Trojans lack leadership on defense, and have lost all confidence in young MB7. Put in Mustain and try to shake up the chemistry a bit, I say.
Maybe we are recruiting the wrong type of young men. What happened to pride and competition. Maybe PC should talk with Marine and Army recruiters and the coaches should go to to “boot camps” You are correct……..no leadership !
Not running for cover just getting restarted after all this team has hit Rock Bottom. But unlike you Scott they have the character to stand up try harder, you have to use a pill for that.
OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This recent crop of USC players are obviously living off the aura established by the likes of Bush, Leinart, White, Cody, Tatupu, Polamalu and the like. They think that since they are blue chip recruits and put on that SC uniform and everything will simply fall into place easily. I don’t mind losing, but I would like to see some character wherein they kept fighting and playing hard until the end instead of just rolling over and letting the opponents do whatever they want. This current SC team gets punched in the mouth and they just huddle up into a little ball and can’t wait to get off the field and run to mommy. Somehow I think the mental toughness of the USC football team had left town along with those past players and past assistant coaches.
I think it’s Corp’s fault!
I dont’ know who did more backpedalling yesterday. USC football or Miguel Cotto. I guess Pete wasn’t much of a genius on Defense after all. I guess the brains and fire really came from the likes of Orgeron and Holt. And I won’t even bother with the unimaginative like watching paint dry offense.
I had foreseen this day coming as I previously stated “a great football power from North will rise’ it has risen and it is the Mike Rileys’ OSU
Beavers that team will dominate the Pac-10 Conference in the next 10
years! Great coaching and cohesion and the small town atmosphere
is now a attraction and receiving consideration as a destination for
many star prep athletes. The Beavers with their balanced running and
passing and emerging defense and great special teams play will
beat Oregon in the run for the roses. Bank it! Adios USC-you have had
your day.
This is a team of quitters led by the most overrated player in college football, Taylor Mays. When will people get over his physique and alleged 40 time and realize that this guy has no tangible football skills. This is a frontrunning team incapable of dealing with adversity. Pete Carroll has successfully recruited the nations largest collection of quitters and overrated players. This team would be better off without the 4 and 5 star “Me” guys like Taylor Mays, Everson Griffen, and Will Harris. It could use more players like Jeff Byers and Jurrell Casey, who at this point is the only guy on defense that has played consistently well all year. Did I mention that contrary to popular belief Chris Galippo has not replaced Rey Maualuga? Outside of Barkley, I don’t think anyone has regressed this year more than Galippo.
CJ
When will you get over TM Money in the future. While you will be living pay check to pay check
” They think that since they are blue chip recruits and put on that SC uniform and everything will simply fall into place easily. I don’t mind losing, but I would like to see some character wherein they kept fighting and playing hard until the end instead of just rolling over and letting the opponents do whatever they want. ”
Mack Brown used to recruit these same blue-chips all over the country like PC does. But Mack noticed a few years ago that some blue-chip recruits are attention divas and fold when things don’t go their way, rather than fight through adversity. It’s a big reason why he now exclusively recruits Texas kids who want to come to Texas (as evidenced by many early commits), rather than have to be persuaded because those kids (most likely) will fight to the end.
@Dex
Nice insight. Maybe Pete should look into that too. Pete’s just trying to load up on as much 5 star tailbacks, QBS, LBS, and others that he doesn’t know how to deal with all of them. What Pete’s doing is basically getting a bunch of mercenaries who are out for themselves from their stats, personal glory, and personal highlight reels.
Taylor Mays is going to get exposed in the NFL, particularly his poor tackling techniques and awareness on pass coverage. Can you imagine him trying to tackle Adrian Peterson, Jones-Drew, Chris Johnson, Michael Turner and the like? Can anybody imagine him trying to cover the likes of Randy Moss, Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, and others?
He’s going to be a glorified special teams player at best.
Joe Mcknight watches out only for himself. He runs out of bounds so he doesn’t have to take a hit to avoid the risk of injury. What a joke.
Barkley is horrible. Freshman or not, this guy does not know how to aim the ball.
USC has not won a championship since Norm Chow was chased out by Pete Carroll. He helped us win two of them and also two QB Heismans. Bring him back!
Well at least I know where most of the idiots flock to after the games.
Comments ranging from Pete not being the genius afterall to bringing back Chow to our players as a team of quitters.
Maybe, just maybe we got our butt handed to us.
Maybe we’re just finally, not that great anymore.
Maybe, just maybe 3 major coaching regime changes “can” have an effect on a program.
Maybe an injury list as long as ours combined with the toughest road schedule in the nation was too much.
One thing is for sure, none of you know.
It isn’t because Pete is suddenly non-genius or dumb.
It isn’t because Chow isn’t here, because we’ve been good after he left. I always love the Chow comments…since he’s doing so well at UCLA. Where are all the Chow rah rahs with his amazing UCLA record.
It isn’t because we have quitters. Like the guy calling out our team as a bunch of quitters would know the first thing about being a Trojan. About what they give each day to be out there and represent. How nice it is for you to arm-chair your opinions like they are some kind of actual fact. These guys do more than you’ll ever do and more than you’ll ever comprehend.
I’m so happy none of you are on this team.
I could only imagine the towering inferno of Babel that this program would dive into if we had people like this as players, coaches or leaders.
The Trojans did QUIT. Half baked attempts at tackling and basically mailing it in hoping that the clock would hit zero already so they can get off the field.
The only ones who don’t see that the team rolled over in the fetal position and Quit are you USC followers who have blinders on.
Chow is only in his 2nd year at UCLA and the cupboard was practically bare when he got there. He has NOTHING to work with as we speak and is making do with many players that won’t even have a career in the NFL. If Neuheisel manages to recruit the right players, watch out.
I’m a USC alum, and as much as it pains me, I’ll have to call it as it is. The team did quit, plain and simple. They didn’t want to play anymore when the rout was on. When adversity came and they got hit in the mouth, they packed their bags and ran, which is the very definition of quitting. I think Troy Polamalu, Shaun Cody, Lofa Tatupu, and Mike Patterson would’ve kept fighting even in the midst of a blowout.
Then your definition of quit is tainted.
If you’d like to point out a specific play where someone “quits” I’d love to see it.
Mind you “quits”, not gets beat or out-executed.
There’s a difference and by and large people confuse quit with simply being beaten.
What a shining example of players “quitting” when USC stopped, no STUFFED completely, the Holy 2pt conversion everyone is talking about.
Is that your example of quitting?
I think a “team of quitters” as some here are describing doesn’t even try to stop that conversion and doesn’t, but our “quitters” kept playing.
Or do we get to ignore that part of it because it doesn’t support your opinions?
It’s getting tired and old how spoiled our fans have become.
There’s not another program out there even remotely close in terms of consistency and accomplishments over the last 7 years.
Not Florida, not Texas…nobody.
Florida lost 4 games 2 years ago.
We clearly have some issues with these recent beatings, but if you believe that Carroll is done, that’s a bet I want.
We got beat up, plain and simple.
It happens to good programs all the time. Ask Oklahoma.
That team had the infamous All Day Peterson and we stuffed them, no…. embarrassed them and that was a great team.
It happens. get Over it. We got worked but it has nothing to do with Pete Carroll’s genius or all of a sudden a team full of quitters.
I saw no running for the hills. I didn’t see anyone loafing. Even the game film review shows something entirely different. Knowledgeable football people see it. We have players that our immature, inexperienced and out of place. Shane Horton was terrible in this game, but he didn’t quit. He was simply out matched.
There were 5 freshman on that field at any one given time and at least 5 sophs. I’m not making excuses for the way they played, but the reality is there is much more to the loss than the standard response of we quit.
I watched the game again and I don’t see quitters. I see guys that are young, guys that are playing out of position and guys that simply aren’t as good as what we are used to.
I see an OC that is still finding his way, really still lost, in play-calling. I see players lacking fundamental technique. I see a vast amount of undisciplined play, which is almost always youth.
Tyler-
Get real.
Chow has more to work with than you know.
In fact, UCLA has more than a handful of players USC not only wanted, but offered.
At least they have some experience in the QB position.
Chow has done much more with less and BYU proves it.
BYU will never have the athletes UCLA will, yet their offense still stinks.
I’m a big Chow fan. I really am.
My point is this though…he gets all the genius accolades when he does well, but no criticism when his Offense stinks. Nobody is talking about how bad his Offense is.
UCLA stinks. There’s been very little progress, if any.
So I guess you’re gonna go out on a limb there and say next year will be great?
It will be his 3rd year. How many years should he get?
Barkley is to Pete as Clausen is to Charlie!
Kenji,
Alot of SC fans like to point to the Florida 2007 team as an example of rebuilding and say what SC is going through is the same thing. The two teams are entirely different. That year Florida lost to Auburn, LSU, and Georgia in the regular season. The fourth loss was in the Citrus Bowl against Michigan. The total of all three regular season losses was 19 points. If we included the Michigin loss then the total is 25 points. Even you have to admit the embarrasing losses to Oregon and Stanford are alot more impactful on the image of a team.
If you look around at the Pac 10 all the teams are young and talented. It is going to be interesting to see if one team dominates the conference moving forward. I just don’t see that happenning. USC fans seem to think it is 2001 again and the Pac 10 doesn’t see what a good recruiter and program Carrol is capable of creating. He literally snuck up on everybody I mean no one even SC alumni thought he would be able to do what he did over the last 7 years. That being said the whole Pac 10 was caught with their pants down.
But those days are over. The conference is in my opinion the best conference in the nation and every team seems to be putting together great squads with young players. For the moment it looks like USC is the program caught with their pants down. They didn’t realize how high the talent calber was being raised and frankly they have looked really bad for a few weeks now. In the last 5 games they have been outscored 174-131.
So while I give credit to what Pete Carrol accomplished in the past (he made everybody raise their game and man is it fun to watch). I don’t see the glory days coming back really soon for USC. They may win a conference title in the next couple years but it won’t ever be like it used to be. The sooner USC fans, players, and coaches realize that the sooner they will have a shot at rebuilding the program to past glory.
The team quit, enough said.
@kenji
Give Pete and his staff the current UCLA roster and give Chow the USC roster. I guarantee Chow will have that USC offense humming along.
The team quit big time. The defense didn’t want to play anymore the moment the rout was on. You can see it in their body language. It was like they were pointing to one another going “You go tackle him.” I guarantee Polamalu, Cody, Tatupu, Patterson, Rey, and Cushing woud’ve kept playing hard despite the beatdown.
The only ones who don’t see the team rolling over and quitting are the same people who thinks deifies Pete Carroll and thinks he walks on water and infallible.
Lil Boy Kenji…you have so much to learn young grasshopper.
Your so called “stuffing” the 2 point conversion is a joke. Did you see the game. Did you watch that the last 3 possessions all Stanford did was RUN RUN RUN. It wasn’t RUN TRAVELER RUN…it was Toby runs right, Toby runs left, Toby runs up the gut…but the problem was, USC had no guts!
USC quit. When a team does nothing but run every single play over and over and your HEARTLESS team can’t stop it, they simply QUIT. Get over it. USC if full of prima donnas that have had everything given to them on a silver platter. When it comes time for a team to say we’re here to play, not bow down; USC doesn’t know what to do. In the past, other teams would be fearful and quit. That’s why USC would run it up in the second half. Welcome to the new world. No one is afraid of your tradition any longer.
ANd BTW, Chow is not the answer. He was terrible in Tennessee. Why else would Fisher cut him loose. Don’t even bring up BYU. Why don’t you look at their weak conference before you start you Chow for Pope campaign. BYUs schedule was filled with a bunch of high schools and their National Championship with McMahon was the biggest travesty to College Football. If you love Chow so much, go become a bruin.
And hey…why isn’t that fabulous defensive coordinators name ever mentioned? He’s another joke. Buffalo should’ve taken him 3-4 years ago. The kid doesn’t know what he’s doing. Did you ever really look at his credentials? Why would Seto be a DC over Norton? Did you forget all the experience Norton has from playing the game? DId you know the main person that gets the players energized is Norton?
Pete has turned the program into a circus this year. It’s a disgrace. I feel sorry for all Trojan fans. He pulled his BS stunt with Corp and continues to screw over Mustain. He’s basically turned into the Al Davis of College Football.