Thoughts from the underground

 Well….do I have egg on my face. Coach Kiffin proved alot of people wrong(me at the top of the list) and had his most impressive win as head coach of the trojans. Notre Dame did everything but wear the green jerseys: First night game in 20+ years, biggest recruiting trip ever at notre dame, handed out towels, played Ozzy before 3rd downs…and yet the fighting irish did very little fighting. USC looked very prepared.

Offense:

They  kept the notre dame defense off balance almost the entire game. The game was swinging a little bit at the end of the first half and the start of the second half but USC kepting churning those first downs and surprisingly with the run game.  The tight ends played big, I saw Farmer in the game and he didnt get the ball!!!, as a matter of fact it was a fake toss sweep and Woods was open at the back of the end zone. Excellent playcalling by Kiffin.  Woods had a very quiet 10+ catch, 100+ yards game, 2 Touchdown game!! Curtis and Tyler had a great game as well..but the game ball goes to Barkley. His best game he has ever played as a Trojan so far. He has had better passing numbers, better touchdown numbers..but never has he played as mistake free football as he did last night. He looked every bit the 3 year starter. Great decision after great decision. The best stat line of the game..2 penalities and no turnovers…

Defense:

What can you say about a unit that has been beat up since last season. Pretty much shut out their star receiver who was bigger and stronger than our corners. I would have never believed it if you told me that before the start of the game. They played discipline, controlled, smart and opportunistic football. A heads up play on all three turn overs. Starlings fumble return for a touchdown was tremendous..a 14 pt switch..most likely. Lady luck was not with the irish last night in south bend..Again..a heady play by a 5th year senior linebacker in the second fumble. And 5 8 Robely undecuts the route against 6 3 Floyd..wow..The defense faltered a little on the start of the second half but held together at the end.

The only glaring blemish was the kickoff return for a touchdown. That could have been much bigger than it was. Huge momentum switch.

Congrats to the entire coaching staff and the players on a great win. Both Kiffins and Barkley have been getting killed and I very happy for them. I still think Kiffin should get an experienced OC and that the defense should be simplified but for one night they looked like the Trojans of old.

I often get asked if not Kiffin who? And I have always answered that even though Kiffin has his flaws he is the right coach at USC at the right time. He might be the best long term answer but what program on probation, barely ranked gets College Game Day to come their house??? Kudos to coach Kiffin…Beat the Farm!!

USC vs notre dame

USC faces the Irish this weekend in the arguably greatest rivalry in college football. Before I get    into what I think are the keys to a USC victory I thought it would be a great time to evaluate your 2011 Trojans.

Defense:

This unit was highly criticized last season and seemed to improve this season. Although last Thursday’s seemingly great performance had more to do with the awful performance from the Cal QB than a great performance from USC’s defense.  USC has great athletes on the defensive side of the football. True, they are young and thin at certain spots such as linebackers and the secondary. However, I do not think that is the biggest issue. The problem with USC’s defense continues to be the scheme and the play calling. Monte Kiffin might be a legend in the NFL but I will repeat that the difference between college and the NFL is huge. How many coaches can you name that had success in both? Coach Carroll’s successful performance as a defensive coordinator in both college and the NFL is rare. USC’s biggest problems are that the players do not know where to go and where to be. Receivers and backs are WIDE open most of the time. Monte is so scared of the big play the secondary plays 10-20 yards off the ball. Linebackers do not plug holes on running plays opening the defense up to 20 yard gains. Does USC have the players to be a top defense? Maybe not. But when coach Carroll arrived in 2001 he had less to work with and he made that defense look scary good.  The difference? Coach Carroll had about 6 plays..that was it. Players were told not think but just do what your jobs requires. Their superior athletic ability took over and viola..a top 10 defense. Coach Kiffin needs to follow that mold. The question is..can a 30 year veteran of the NFL suddenly change and adjust? Don’t hold your breath…

Offense:

As much as the defense is under performing..the offense is not doing much better. Ok..in the stats it looks like they are. But the USC offense has even more athletes and yet also suffers from the same poor coaching dilemma. The offense continues to suffer from a lack of identity. What is USC on offense? A power running team? West coast? Pro form? Get the ball to Woods? Yep..that seems to be it. The whole offense seems geared to get the ball to Woods. If he covered..look for Lee. If he is covered…Were doomed. Someone please explain to me how Woods could be bracketed by both safeties..which means he is TRIPLED covered and someone else not be wide open? Don’t mention Lee since he was not wide open, he at least had the other corner on him. I mean WIDE open..A tight end over the middle? A receiver or running back on  a quick slant? Either Kiffin cannot adjust to the defense or Barkely simply cannot go through his progressions..It is most likely a combination of both and that is BAD NEWS for USC.  Please do not get me started on the Farmer and Baxter packages? How many times has Baxter or Farmer came into the game and NOT  gotten the ball? How many times have the actually ran anything other than a play wide? Those formations/packages are the biggest giveaways I have seen since Hackett ran the tank formation. How could a defense not know what you are doing?  To quote a knowledgeable USC observer “Most college offenses rely on 2 fundamental principles:  Multiple plays from the same formation and Multiple formations for the same play.  Multiple plays from the same formation lets you set up future plays.  ”Oh they’re in formation X with these people.  They’ve hit us with a blast every time so far.  I’m going to cheat against the blast and Oh Crap Play action he’s going over my head!”.  Multiple formations for the same play lets your players do something they’re familiar with and master the play without telling the defense what you’re doing.  Our offense is neither.  It seems the me the closest thing Kiffin has to a philosophy is that he’s not going to worry about whether the defense knows what the play is or where it’s going, he’s going to try to be cute with motion to get favorable matchups for his star athletes.  I have news for him, Robert Woods isn’t fooling anybody when he lines up as a running back, motioning out to the slot.  Cal made sure to mark him every time he stepped on the field regardless of where he lined up.  Moreover, this kind of offense is confusing for your own players.  They don’t OWN any plays, they don’t have anything they can fall back on when they’re in trouble… they have a lot of toys and no idea how to use them. “.. The problem with Kiffin is that he is too green for the job he has. He has not been a coordinator long before he got a head coaching gig. It is very tough being the offensive coordinator at a big time university like USC…harder when you are young and inexperienced. It is even harder to be a head coach at a big time university like USC and even harder when you are young and experienced like Kiffin…and it is almost impossible to do both. I don’t know many if any coaches at big time college football that do double duty…much less one as young and inexperienced as Kiffin. I hope that part of the maturation process this off season will be the realization by coach Kiffin that he needs an experienced OC. Doesn’t mean Kiffin cannot be involved and the offense have his mark and influence but someone else needs to take the reins. It is better in the long and short run for coach Kiffin and for USC. Don’t hold your breath…

Notre Dame

I have to admit, I don’t have high hopes. USC has not given me any confidence even with their 5-1 record. Notre Dame’s offense is perfect for USC’s defense. Notre Dame does not have big play capability. They do not have burners on offense. Instead they rely on taking 5-8 yards at a time with big Michael Floyd, the tight ends and a solid running game. With USC playing 10 yards off the ball, Notre Dame should not have much trouble executing their game plan. When they get into the red zone we have NO answer for Floyd. A simple fade to the corner should be successful nearly 100% of the time.

On offense, I think Cal had the blue print and to some degree Minnesota in the second half. Simply take away Woods, keep an eye on Lee and don’t worry too much about the rest. Doesn’t matter if the rest get an occasional pass or even a big play because Kiffin and Barkely will always look to Woods no matter if the defense is giving them other options.  Minnesota stayed in the game because they simply focused on Woods and Barkley simply cannot go through his progression to see that the tight end was WIDE open…or that Brice Butler had beaten his man by twenty yards. Against Cal..Barkely went to Woods no matter the coverage. He had to throw the ball in tight coverage and couldn’t do so…but again, tight ends, backs out of the backfield, other receivers SHOULD be WIDE open.  News flash to Barkley and Kiffin…take what the defense gives you.  You can win with Woods getting 1 catch..if the other receivers are given a chance.

Keys to a USC victory:

Take what the Notre Dame gives you.

Use Woods as a decoy until the defense goes back to reasonable coverage on Woods

Use your tight ends

Use Baxter and Farmer in regular formations and not special packages. A wheel route might be a good idea.

On defense, play bump and run man. Just have McDonald double on Floyd.

Blitz like crazy from all directions and formations.

Predication

SC 30 ND 28

Fight On!!

USC football was very different this year and it goes beyond the change in coaching staff.  The energy around the team was different..had a different vibe. Let’s face it, we expected a tough season. For the first time in a long time, we went into games such as Oregon and Stanford and expected to lose and would be happy if it was a close loss. It goes beyond the change in coaching staff because USC still had and has a ton of talent but very little depth. The players were poorly coached the last couple of season prior to 2010 and thus we knew they would struggle.  Compound that with a new coaching staff and you have the 2010 season. I wonder if coach Kiffin would have taken his “Dream Job” if he knew then what he knows now. Pete did him no favors with his lazy recruiting and poorly selections in assistant coaches the last couple of years in his USC coaching career. The lack of depth falls directly on coach Carroll.

Offense:

The offense started off pretty good and seemed to get better each week. Barkely was playing much better and the running game was strong. The offense was getting yards in big chunks and putting up alot of points. They were doing so well that in the Oregon game I thought the offense could actually keep up with the ducks. Well, the offense did keep up with the ducks for about 2.5 quarters and then it hit a wall….Hard….and never recovered. Barkely regressed big time. The Notre Dame game was the low point of the season for the offense. A bad defense looked like the Steelers Iron Curtain. It got to a point where I thougth a turn over by the defense was not enough….they needed to get the turn over and score because the offense could do nothing. 5 false starts in that game! The offense needs alot of work and it starts with the play calling. Coach Kiffin needs to make mid season adjustments. The players need to play to their potential an execute the game plan.

Grade: C

Defense:

The defense started off as bad as any defense I have ever seen in my life. There was poor tackling  and poor decisions. The worst part was the play calling and schemes. Guys were WIDE open, the hole for the running backs were HUGE. The middle of the field was always WIDE open. This unit improved immensely and was actually pretty good towards the end of the season. They were forcing a ton of turn overs. Unfortunately, they could still not stop a game winning drive. This unit has a ton of depth issues. The front seven needs alot of bodies. I was happy to see the improvement but I am nervous about the future.

Grade: C

Special Teams:

They had some great moments with Woods returning kicks but the kicking game is bad. Your kicker cannot make a field goal past 25 yards. The two point conversions were BAD! Why go for so many? The two point attempt against ucla was embrassing. Up and down season for special teams.

Grade: C-

Coaching

Coach Kiffin and his staff came into a tough situation. For the first half of the season I thought they did an outstanding job considering the circumstances. Keeping the team motivated and playing hard the whole game. Last season you saw players give up Pete Carroll. The standford game comes to mind in particular. That team gave up. However, the 2010 team that had less to play for never did. The closet they came to giving up was the Oregon State game. For the most part these are the same players from last season. That says alot about the coaching staff and the great job by  coach Kiffin. That being said, I think coach Kiffin still has a long ways to go as a coach. He is a young guy and lacks the experience of coaching in different situations, it goes beyond X’s and O’s. It is a feel for the season, the players and moods. That only comes from experience, so we might have to suffer through his maturing process. However, he needs to get an experienced OC. Someone that knows about midgame, midseason adjustments.

As for the defense, the jury is still out on Monte. Yes, he is a legend in the NFL and re-invented defense with his tampa 2 scheme. The key word is “NFL”. Alot of NFL legends came down to the collegiate level and did not display the genius they displayed in the NFL. Bill Walsh comes to mind at Standford. We have seen 2 season of Monte on the college level. One at Tennessee and one at USC.  Neither season was impressive. Obviously it takes time to adjust to the college level and for the players to learn the system. The question is…is the NFL Tampa 2 defense suitable for the college level? Can a 70+ year old coach adjust his schemes and coaching methods and make the transition from dealing with men to dealing with kids???

Grade: B

…Last Note on Carrol

The ESPN 30 for 30 episode on the Pony Express (SMU) and the story of how that school got the death penalty was very good. I though it was funny that right after it debuted ESPN showed the Heisman ceremony with Cam Newton winning considering all the allegations around him. However, I was disappointed that when the show finished and was rolling the credits they were showing clips of more recent pay for play scandals….and of course USC and Reggie were featured. Pete Carroll did not look good in those clips. I thinking it goes to show that his tenure will be forever tarnished. He was great and will be remembered for this great accomplishments but his legacy will be tarnished. The longer USC takes to bounce back from sanctions the more his legacy will be tarnished. Carroll should be Kiffin’s biggest supporter to save that legacy.  Carroll went from the Tom Osbourne, Ara Parseghian realm of coaches to the Barry Switzer realm of coaches. Sad really. A friend of mine who is a fanatical support of Carroll refuses to lay the blame of the scandal on Pete and instead insists that it was Garretts fault. I do not take any of the blame away from Garrett but the Carroll is the man in charge of the football program. The scandal falls at his feet.