Click images for desktop size: "Untitled" by Carlo Carra There are 41 Trojans on the US Olympic team. Six more Trojans are representing the countries of their birth.
Some of them played football as well.
I don't think USC will be playing for the National Championship this season. The defense certainly looks good enough to beat anyone but the offense does not look as blessed.
Every player on the offense is a stud. They have talent, they have technique but it will be too long before they start playing as a team. They could end the season as the best team in the country but it seems to much to expect that from them in the first half.
The O-Line is a huge concern. The kids are too young. I kept a 200 page play book for the O-Line. I'd pare it down until the guys could learn it and get comfortable.
They have to learn the plays and they have to learn each other. And in the middle of all that they have to reassess themselves and be capable of brutal self criticism.
And they have to be able to talk to each other, read and inform, ask for help and recognize when a teammate needs help.
Its not easy.
Click images for desktop size: "Transformers" by HasbroThey are benefitting from getting to practice against a D-Line and a set of Line Backers that are frightening in their intensity, desire and talent. But I worry about that. We all have a need to feel happy. It sticks to our skin, this need to be comfortable, at peace. When a child or a dog is abused daily they seldom settle into a nasty funk over it. Instead they learn to think that the abuse is all they are entitled to. They feel uncomfortable when they aren't being abused and beaten. They think the diminution of themselves is happiness and they are not capable of seeing it any other way. Thy think the constant lessening of self is love, is happiness.
Pete Carroll is a good enough coach to be aware of this and to deal with it accordingly. If you just want to coach football you have to be in the NFL. At every other level you have to be a shrink, a dreamer, a surrogate parent in .love with your changing charges - in other words a coach.
But the young men on the defense have no responsibility like that. There job is to throw their bodies around, to respect their opponents and their teammates and to win. Its difficult being a huge 18 year old kid and to suddenly be all over TV and playing in front of 100,000 strangers. Especially when all you know is that day in day out for the past 2 months you've been getting your head handed to you by a teammate who likes you.
The next worrisome defect in the team are the wide outs. Johnny Morton was a fine player and a decent coach but he is not motivating his charges. There's no receiver who stays focused throughout an entire game. Steve Smith was the best receiver USC had in years. He learned and he took what he learned to making the winning catch in the Super Bowl.
Right now this corp looks like it will catch the bomb on 1 and 10 but blow the easy fade when the games on the line. They all have some incredible talent, gaudy talent, but there doesn't seem to be the all consuming desire to win.
On every big, important play it seems like their minds are someplace else when the ball is in the air.
Kids who would come to me wanting to play wide receiver always worried me. Too often they wanted to play wide receiver because they got to stand way out over here and look over at that big pile of violence that was going on in the middle of the field, like it was something outside of them, something they couldn't be responsible for or to.
I get something of that from this group. They know the glamour of
Click images for desktop size: "Youth Reflecting By A Pool" by Maxfield Parrish the position and they've worked hard to develop the skills required. (Although all of them need work on their crack back blocking especially with the way the line is looking.)
The QB situation doesn't worry me greatly. I want Mark Sanchez back for a lot of reasons. Least of which is his giving the team the best chance to win. He does that. He's a clear field leader. But mainly, I like to watch him play.
Mitch Mustain has me confused. I saw two of his games in Arkansas (on TV) and he was unbelievable. Now he seems reticent and confused.
There's not that much difference in prestige or pressure playing at Arkansas or at USC. The system seems tailored for him to succeed and blow people away. I can't imagine what's going through the poor guys head. He is clearly working so hard and seems so focused and committed to winning.
As good and dimensional as Aaron Corp has been looking I still give a big edge to Mustain. He knows how to win and wants to. Like some actors I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of the star light erupt in his eyes on game day.
I don't think SC will have a weird melt down ala Michigan last year. I still can't see them not winning the Pac 10 for the 7th year in a row. They'll be in a bowl game.
Who knows. Maybe I'm over estimating the opposition. Right now I see them not covering the spread but beating Virginia. Ohio State will be a coin toss. It could end up being a 3-0 game.
Whatever I can hardly wait.
The weekend of my birthday at 4:00 will begin another year of beauty.
I love football.
(I love my friends and my puppy too.)