Meet my Husband

Do you ever wonder about the other side? I'm always wondering about the husband's of all these bloggers I follow. Are they really who they are made out to be? 

I have a treat for you (and me). Here's your chance to meet my husband. As I've recently shared, Josh loves USC. And he has agreed to share his opinions about USC football (once a week or so) for the duration of the season. I'm happy that you'll have a chance to get to know him through his love for SC football...and maybe, just maybe, you'll start to lean towards his beloved team as well. Hold tight, this ain't for the weak of mind.

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Game 1 vs Minnesota


One tenant of the PC era was that if you were the better player, you would play – regardless of age, experience, star rating, size, speed, or recruitment.1 This, in a time of redshirts and “paying your dues”, was a refreshing way to look at college football rosters. Whether or not Pete actually played all that many freshmen, this tenant created a competitive energy around the program that was impossible not to watch.2 Kids from all over the nation would come to SC because they knew they could play here. This same mindset was reflected in the play-calling which could be summed up as “getting those athletes the ball in space”. There wasn’t a whole lot of trickeration; there were no gimmicky schemes. We simply out-manned you – out-ran, out-jumped, out-toughed you. Pete knew it. The team knew it. The other players knew it.3

The 2011 season is one game old, and you can never tell too much from one game.4 However, the most telling statement from Kiffin’s post-game press conference and the biggest take away from game one was this:

Unfortunately, the game being so tight, there’s some guys we didn’t get in. We wanted to, two of the freshmen d linemen [Heyward and Tavai] and Lamar [Dawson].5

In a nutshell, this is the potential downfall of the Lane Kiffin era. Heyward and Tavai are two random names for Kiffin to be mentioning6, and I wouldn’t mind if both redshirted. But Dawson? Mr. Kentucky is the stud inside linebacker who started for most of training camp as Galippo nursed his hurt shoulder. Sure, he’s a true freshman, and at SC, the MIKE isn’t an easy position to play. But it’s not like he’s never played the position before. Heck, we started Kennard there all of last season. He was the second best MIKE on the field that day and probably the most athletic. He should have gotten some burn – if only to save Galippo’s 22 or 23 remaining independently-rotating vertebrae.

However, it is the greater implications of this statement that are most worrisome. Why bother recruiting 5-star talent if you’re going to be afraid to play them in a real game. These kids are born play-makers. Let them make plays. Who cares if they don’t know the playbook cover to cover. No one is asking them to play a full 60 minutes, read schemes / formations, or call plays. Just put them in the right position and trust that they have “it”. That is why you spent 100 hours a week breaking down their film last recruiting cycle, right? 

I like Kiffin. I think he’s a great offensive mind, and he’s obviously an all-world recruiter. The kids believe in him. I just hope he quits over-coaching and out-thinking himself to realize that we are SC, and you can take those chances because we are bigger, faster, stronger, and better. Man up and beat your assignment. We ain’t Boise.

Fight on.

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1. Obviously there were exceptions (though mostly in his later days), see McKnight, Joe and possibly Barkley, Matt (though that was Sanchez’s fault). Also, this was largely played up by the media types, see ESPN, but for the most part, it held true - “always compete”.
2. It is now impossible to watch. Thanks, Paul Dee.
3.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw4_4H83Pok
4. Although, UCLA and ND did both find their 2011 starting quarterbacks – no small feat.
5. http://www.usctrojans.com/blog/Kiffin-Call-MN.mp3
6. http://usc.ocregister.com/2011/09/06/usc-football-kiffin-regrets-postgame-comment/75083/ Apparently, Kiffin is misinterpreted a lot in his post-game reactions.