{"id":3048,"date":"2009-10-20T19:38:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-20T19:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/football-is-usc-poorly-coached\/"},"modified":"2009-10-20T19:38:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-20T19:38:00","slug":"football-is-usc-poorly-coached","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/football-is-usc-poorly-coached","title":{"rendered":"Football: Is USC Poorly Coached?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

In this week’s Couch Commentary column, Leaky Pipes wonders: with all the mental mistakes and letdown games, is USC a poorly coached football game?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bad coaching is obscene.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m not referring to Stan Van Gundy\u2019s freaky similarities to Ron Jeremy or that book Phil Jackson wrote about tantric.\u00a0 <\/span>No, what I\u2019m actually referring to is the struggle the Supreme Court had trying to define \u201cobscenity\u201d\u2014it’s not that dissimilar from the struggle we as fans have trying to define what bad coaching looks like.\u00a0 <\/span>In 1964, in an office-setting that I\u2019m picturing to be something straight out of Mad Men<\/em><\/span>, the Supreme Court eventually settled on Justice Stewart\u2019s definition: \u201cI know it when I see it.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>What it lacks in clarity it makes up for in simplicity.\u00a0 <\/span>Nowadays they could just my internet history as the definition, but fans still can\u2019t agree on a concrete definition of what bad coaching looks like.\u00a0 <\/span>As a result, we all have wildly different views of who is a good coach, and who isn’t.\u00a0 <\/span>And to some of you this might seem as absurd as telling you Christine Hendricks has A cups, but I know bad coaching when I see it: and USC is poorly coached. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, that<\/em><\/span> USC.\u00a0 <\/span>The LA football monopoly.\u00a0 <\/span>Play at the Coliseum, two National Championships, won 87 of their last 98 games, coached by Pete Carroll\u2026They\u2019re kinda a big deal.\u00a0 <\/span>And that makes Pete Carroll kinda a big deal too.\u00a0 <\/span>Well, that\u2019s an understatement.\u00a0 <\/span>It has made Pete Carroll a God, or at least something like a cross between Vince Lombardi and Moses.\u00a0 <\/span>And let me just say this now: I like Pete Carroll.\u00a0 <\/span>I follow him on Twitter, I love his work with A Better LA, I love the profile pieces that detail his hyper-competitive attitude.\u00a0 <\/span>People with that attitude are usually arrogant jerks (heard any good Hall of Fame speeches lately?) but with Pete there\u2019s a positive frame of mind that says that he\u2019s not out to beat you because of some perceived slight, he wants to beat you just because you\u2019re what\u2019s there.\u00a0 <\/span>Anyway, all of that is just to try to assure the angry Trojan fans that this isn\u2019t some hatchet job aimed at discrediting Carroll (although, I am still expecting your venom in my email.)<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Instead we need to get past the personalities involved and began to seriously question whether USC\u2019s success actually shows that they are a well-coached team.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s a fundamental question: does winning automatically mean your coaches are doing their jobs well?\u00a0 <\/span>And Southern Cal has won.\u00a0 <\/span>A lot.\u00a0 <\/span>They have won about 87% of their games, they have won the Pac-10 for 7 straight years, and were it not for a certain Burnt-Orange headcase they would have won 7 straight BCS bowl games (instead they have won 6 of 7 including the last 3 Rose Bowls by an average of 20 points.)\u00a0 <\/span>These are facts.\u00a0 <\/span>These are indisputable.\u00a0 <\/span>The other thing that\u2019s nearly indisputable is that every year they are one of the most talented teams in the NCAA; they consistently have the deepest and most talented teams (ask Matt Cassel how hard it is just to crack SC\u2019s starting lineup.)\u00a0 <\/span>And since they are gifted, is it possible that all that talent has simply been overcoming their lackluster coaching?<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

If I\u2019m going to stick with the \u2018I know it when I see it\u2019 defense for the Trojans being poorly coached, I might as well tell you what \u201cit\u201d is that I see.\u00a0 <\/span>I personally believe that coaches are responsible for three aspects: inspiration, preparation, and discipline.\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to discipline, I immediately look at how penalized a team is.\u00a0 <\/span>Name a penalty, and I\u2019ll tell you why it\u2019s the coaches fault.\u00a0 <\/span>Some are obvious (Delay of game, illegal formation)\u00a0 <\/span>Others- Offensive holding, defensive pass interference- come when the coaches didn\u2019t put the players into places they could succeed, instead those players had to try and compensate for being out of position.\u00a0 <\/span>Some penalties should always fall on the player.\u00a0 <\/span>Personal fouls, those are a player\u2019s fault.\u00a0 <\/span>But to me, those types of flags are lack of discipline- which, again, I put squarely on the shoulders on the coaches.\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

So where does USC rank in fewest penalties?\u00a0 <\/span>96th<\/sup> (out of 150 DI teams). There are only 2 teams in the Top 25 that are worse.\u00a0 <\/span>SC gets nearly 8 penalties a game and I think the Trojan coaching staff needs to be held accountable for the 70-plus yards a game that costs them.\u00a0 <\/span>This past weekend they had a 20 point lead in the 4th<\/sup> quarter over Notre Dame.\u00a0 <\/span>They nearly blew that lead, thanks in part to 5 personal foul penalties in the fourth quarter alone.\u00a0 <\/span>In fact while Notre Dame was trying to tie the game, USC had two personal fouls just in the final minute.\u00a0 <\/span>While USC was supposed to be cool, calm, and experienced, playing against the Dead-Weis-Walkings, Notre Dame ended up looking like the team that had been there before.\u00a0 <\/span>USC escaped, but the lack of discipline is a huge problem.\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Another key component of coaching is preparation.\u00a0 <\/span>What you define that as is up to you, but to me I look at 3rd<\/sup> downs.\u00a0 <\/span>Play-calling is the most obvious of coaching responsibilities and dialing up the right play on 3rd<\/sup> down is the most telling factor of how good a play-caller you have.\u00a0 <\/span>So where does SC rank in 3rd<\/sup> Down Conversions?\u00a0 <\/span>104th<\/sup>. Is this in part to Barkley being a freshman?\u00a0 <\/span>Absolutely.\u00a0 <\/span>Will they be better in future years as he progresses?\u00a0 <\/span>Hopefully.\u00a0 <\/span>But the bottom line is that SC should be competing with Florida (7th<\/sup> in the country on 3rd<\/sup> down) and instead SC is neck-and-neck with UCLA (105th<\/sup>.)\u00a0 <\/span>Some people look at turnover margin- the discipline of holding onto the ball or for your defense, going after the ball, is huge- but SC barely cracked the Top 80 in Turnover Margin.\u00a0 <\/span>There\u2019s no denying this team can find a way to win, but throughout the game when it matters most, statistically speaking, USC does not do well.\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

But since we all agree that wins and losses are the most important thing, let\u2019s look at SC\u2019s loses the last 4 years.\u00a0 <\/span>In 2006 they lose to Oregon State (whose record at the time was 4-3.) In 2007 to Stanford (whose record at the time was 1-3.)\u00a0 <\/span>In 2008, to Oregon State again (whose record at the time was 1-2.)\u00a0 <\/span>This year they lost to U. of Washington (whose record at the time was 1-1.)\u00a0 <\/span>Is anyone going to say that any of those teams are\/were better than SC?\u00a0 <\/span>I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 <\/span>So why did the Trojans lose each of those games?\u00a0 <\/span>Because they made mental mistakes, because they weren\u2019t ready for their opponent, because they took their opponent too lightly?\u00a0 <\/span>Each and all of those fall squarely on the coaches.\u00a0 <\/span>In today\u2019s college football you can\u2019t afford to screw up once, and yet every season USC loses a game they were fully capable of winning.\u00a0 <\/span>Pete Carroll\u2019s an inspiring guy, so why do his teams always lose (at least) one game that they should have won because they just seem uninspired?\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Again, University of Southern California is the pinnacle of success on the West Coast for the last seven years.\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, even a team like Florida would probably like some of SC\u2019s consistency.\u00a0 <\/span>But while Pete Carroll is being canonized, we need to stop and ask ourselves if he is as good as we think he is.\u00a0 <\/span>We need to stop and wonder if SC\u2019s lack of discipline, if their losses against vastly inferior foes, if the problems that winning sweeps under the rug, if all of these things are bigger than we realize and if they all fall squarely on the Trojan coaching staff.\u00a0 <\/span>This year USC is currently ranked 4th<\/sup> despite all the flaws.\u00a0 <\/span>And for schools like TCU, Cincinnati, and Boise State, schools that have worked hard, are currently undefeated, and yet they still can\u2019t overtake the Trojans in the voting, well there\u2019s only one word for that:\u00a0 <\/span>obscene.\u00a0 <\/span>Is USC as good as those schools?\u00a0 <\/span>Is USC a Championship-caliber team?\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019ll believe it when I see it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this week’s Couch Commentary column, Leaky Pipes wonders: with all the mental mistakes and letdown games, is USC a poorly coached football game? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3048"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=3048"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}