USC rolling two games into the LR era.
- Thread starter scubastevefl
- Start date
yep. The hired a great coach and now have a ton of talent in back yard. Just like Texas. Unlike us, we have neither
So, about USC, positive and negatives. First of all Caleb Williams is the truth. He is a fantastic quarterback whose escapablity make him doubly effective. With Addison, Williams and Rice we have perhaps the best WR room in the nation. Travis Dye can not only run, he is a great blocker. The O-line, while not deep, has been very good. In short, the offense will put up a lot of points.
Now the bad, otherwise know as the defense. SC's pass defense has actually been good statistically through 2 contests. The Trojans are allowing just 54% of opponent's passes to be completed at 5.6 yards per throw and have given up few 1 touchdown passes while intercepting 6 passes and returning 3 of those for touchdowns. Add in a pass rush that has generated 9 sacks in 8 quarters and its hard to find too much to complain about when it comes to USC's pass defense thus far, although the PI penalties against Stanford are something you could find the secondary at fault for, even if at least half of those were questionable at best.
The run defense, on the other hand, has been an abject disaster. If you remove the 55 yards USC's opponents have lost on sacks, the Trojan run defense has allowed 422 yards on just 70 attempts. Those numbers add up to a very ugly 211 yards per game at a horrendous 6.0+ yards per carry. That is basically as bad as it gets.
So what can CLR and Grinch do to address this issue? Well, in the immortal words of Rick Pitino, "Larry Bird is not walking through that door." 'SC's biggest issue defensively is that their personnel up front is just not very good, particularly against the run. Benton's absence against Stanford only exacerbated this issue. Obviously, recruiting is the answer long-term, but for this season, we are in deep do-do.
The Trojan defense has actually been decent on 3rd down, allowing Rice and Stanford to convert just 34.48% of their chances, which would have earned a top 25 ranking in that category last year. The key is getting to 3rd down, which is obviously an issue when you're giving up over 7 yards per rush. Media people are talking about us being a playoff teams, but frankly I am worried about the next two games,
So, at the beginning of the season my guess was 8-4 or 9-3. The sure losses were Notre Dame and Utah. As of today, I cannot make sense out of Notre Dame. Based on how your talent matches up with our weakness you should win going away. But we are certainly better than the Marshall, so I don’t know what to think. Best guess right now is that Freeman will right the ship enough for you to beat us, but I no longer think it is a sure thing.
Caleb Williams is impressively cocky, and self-possessed for a young college player. He's got the 'it' factor, if people like using that term, I think it applies to him. Very confident player from what I've seen.
USC not only being able to hire Riley was quite the coup, and then to get his prize freshman QB, thanks to the new transfer freedoms, and he can step in without missing a beat... that's how you turn a program around in a hurry.
USC was in the wilderness for a while, a very long while in fact. And they definitely did their penance, post Pete Carroll, even though that was self-inflicted and they never should have hired Lane Kiffin or Sark, and definitely not Clay Helton. But the football gods have taken pity on them. And they are back, seemingly ready to challenge for the playoff this season. And I'm stoked about it, I'm glad USC'S back. Even though their coach is a redneck...
USC not only being able to hire Riley was quite the coup, and then to get his prize freshman QB, thanks to the new transfer freedoms, and he can step in without missing a beat... that's how you turn a program around in a hurry.
USC was in the wilderness for a while, a very long while in fact. And they definitely did their penance, post Pete Carroll, even though that was self-inflicted and they never should have hired Lane Kiffin or Sark, and definitely not Clay Helton. But the football gods have taken pity on them. And they are back, seemingly ready to challenge for the playoff this season. And I'm stoked about it, I'm glad USC'S back. Even though their coach is a redneck...
Not just that, but 8 turnovers in out favor. If you read my post you see I predating an 8-4 or 9-3 season with a lose to ND. But Stanford is better than Marshall.
Really accurate summary.
We are getting a lot of hype and are a vastly better team, but we won't be in the playoff picture until next year at the earliest. Riley is a great coach, but he isn't Merlin.
Very true, it's early. But it feels like you guys are already playing at OU's level. Going undefeated isn't easy, but the PAC-10 is wide open and up for grabs. I would at least characterize it by saying it's there for taking. Just based off the early returns, there's nobody you guys couldn't beat.
I admit to being a little caught up in the hype, but I feel like it's already safe to say that this is gonna work. Lincoln Riley is also a pretty confident guy, and I don't figure the bright lights of LA are not going to be too bright for him. It seems like it's a pretty good match, between coach and program....
Kelly fooked us and left us in a terrible position in terms of getting a quality head coach with prior head coaching experienc.
USC had the luxury of time and an compliant administration
Right now I'm saving my travel money and watching this unfolding massacre on TV in November.
There is still time to right this sinking ship but I see 5 losses this year if we don't.
I just heard that USC has so far benefitted from an 8-0 favorable turnover margin. Doubtful that is going to remain for the rest of the year. My high school team may have been able to beat Stanford with plus four turnovers.
You must have been on a great High School team, but otherwise this is right, as I pointed out above. Five of the turnovers were forced, three were complete gifts, through the hands of the recovers. The defensive line is the only glaring weakness for USC. but it is really, really bad.
Now in defense, Shaw developed a whole new offense which he hid and used for the first time against SC, It was a an RPO offense which a delayed mesh. I when I say delayed I am talking it looked like the QB and RB were on a date. It is very effective because it means the defense will have spread-out before the decision is made at the mesh.
The issue is that it can only work against a team with a D-line that isn't good enough to pressure the mesh. Think about that, Shaw went away from his 20 year power I, etc and changed his whole offense based on how bad SC's d-line is.
SC is going to be great...next year. At the start of the season I picked us for 8-4 or 9-3 with two sure loses to Utah and ND. I don't have any idea what is happening at ND. It makes no sense based on your talent.
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