2020 SEASON (1st Qtr.)
Week 1
Off week.
USC BCS RANK: #6
Been working with Spencer Foley on the wishbone - the man's knowledge and expertise in the system is amazing. I think we've got the perfect personnel in here to run it successfully, it'll just take some time to get the offense through shakedown cruise mode and fine tune it a bit.
My scouts continue to tell me "this quarterback likes to run all the time" and he has 7 carries through 6 games in high school. Ha! Been there, done that - those guys don't turn out to be good runners at all. My scouts need a visene colonic.
Some of our prime targets in recruiting this year are a running QB from Nevada named Thomas Kluge, a run-stopping DE named Warren Bunn, and a couple of ILB Alan Brantley and Walter Nadeau. Those four recruits alone would have a significant impact on our program for years to come.
PAC-10 (0-0) --- OVERALL (0-0)
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WEEK 2
vs. Keene State (0-0)
(USC -7) USC BCS RANK: --
As we all know by now, the early BCS rankings are silly. We fell from #6 to out of the top 25 after not playing. I don't start taking them seriously until week 5 or so.
Tough game against Keene State this week at the Rose Bowl. They're still running that wishbone I put in - in fact it's still Ernie Stuart running it. Ernie's a good coordinator, I'm sure he'll have his running attack primed for us.
We continue to expand our primary recruiting list - at the same time we narrow the types of players we look for. When I first took over this program, we were grabbing talented players no matter how raw they were, and weren't too concerned about academics. As we got a solid foundation laid we began concentrating on better student-athletes, academically better that is. Now, in addition to good academics we're looking for high tier, high athetic preperation guys - players that can help us immediately if we need them to, and who know how to hit the books so as to maximize their development time.
Our game with KSC this week started out slow, with us taking a 3-0 lead after the first. We then ran off 27 unanswered points and completely shut down the Owls offense en route to a 30-3 win.
Ecven with our other backs getting 12 carries, JB's number got called 40 times in this new offense and he had a terrific day, rushing for 209 yards (5.2 avg) and two touchdowns.
QB Kenny Finch surprised a lot of people with a superb day throwing the ball, going 15/17 for 224 yards and a 26 yard touchdown strike to TE Fred Hastings. WR Eddie Kidman was Finch's favorite target on the day, making 5 catches for 95 yards.
Some terrific defense held KSC to 51 net rushing yards on 25 carries. The Owls only managed 133 total yards as Southern Cal controlled the ball for over 38 minutes of play.
A good start with our new system.
USC 30 -- Keene State 3
PAC-10 (0-0) -- OVERALL (1-0)
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WEEK 3
@ Georgia (0-1)
(USC -2) USC BCS RANK: #18
The BCS rankings are still screwey, as is to be expected. Right now we're 6th in the coaches poll.
Right now we're still at full strength, so no one will be out for this week's game against Georgia.
Code:
Southern California Roster, Injury Report
Player # Pos Elig Health Injury Full Strn.
Francis, Andrew 99 DT Sr Probable Broken Nose 1 Week
Also started recruiting for a kicker and a punter. We'll need a new kicker next season and punter the season after.
Bobby Burgess had a dominant day at the line of scrimmage, making six key run blocks and opening up some big holes for the Southern Cal wishbone and the USC defense held Georgia to -13 net rushing yards as the Trojans walked away with a 35-15 victory at Sanford Stadium in Athens.
The Dawgs kept J.B. Wilson in check most of the day, as the star Tailback was held to 119 yards on 44 carries - though he got the yards when they matterred most, running for three scores and getting a fourth touchdown on the day receiving. QB Kenny Finch had a solid day running the ball, gaining 59 yards on 10 carries as the quarterback option was working with him keeping the ball today.
Finch had a rocky day throwing the ball - we're still not sure why we let him throw 23 passes, but hey - getting picked off three times while throwing for two touchdowns. Ed Kidman was again Kenny's favorite target, making 6 catches for 116 yards.
Reserve OLB Matt Blackston had 2 sacks on the day in leading a Trojan defense that limited Georgia to just 88 total yards. Southern Cal's wishbone offense controlled the ball for just over 39 minutes on the day.
A nice win, but now the tough part of our schedule begins.
USC 35 -- Georgia 14
PAC-10 (0-0) -- OVERALL (2-0)
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WEEK 4
Off week.
USC BCS RANK: #4
We're off this week prior to opening up our conference schedule. Two solid victories have given us some good ideas about whatw e're doing right and wrong with the new wishbone attack, and the defense has played extremely well.
We've got a large number of recruits on campus visiting. Southern Cal becomes more and more attractive to prospective players every year. We have been really spending a lot of time making follow up contacts and are experiencing a lot of competition from UCLA and Iowa this year. Hopefully we'll land more than we lose.
PAC-10 (0-0) -- OVERALL (2-0)
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WEEK 5 BCS RANKINGS
Code:
The College Years
Week 5, 2020
BCS Overall Rankings
School Record Conf Comp Poll Loss Sched Total Rank
Florida 3-0 SEC 5.75 1.00 0.00 3.88 10.63 1
Michigan 3-0 B10 3.75 5.00 0.00 3.08 11.83 2
UCLA 3-0 P10 9.50 2.00 0.00 4.68 16.18 3
Alabama 3-0 SEC 3.00 13.00 0.00 2.32 18.32 4
Rice 3-0 WAC 8.50 7.50 0.00 4.20 20.20 5
Virginia 3-0 ACC 14.50 3.00 0.00 4.56 22.06 6
Hawaii 3-0 WAC 9.50 9.00 0.00 4.16 22.66 7
Syracuse 4-0 BGE 13.50 7.50 0.00 3.80 24.80 8
Penn State 3-0 B10 9.50 11.00 0.00 4.44 24.94 9
Iowa 3-0 B10 19.00 4.00 0.00 4.84 27.84 10
Miami of Florida 3-0 ACC 7.75 18.00 0.00 4.36 30.11 11
California 3-0 P10 9.50 19.00 0.00 3.52 32.02 12
Louisville 3-0 USA 15.00 14.50 0.00 4.60 34.10 13
San Diego State 3-0 MTW 4.00 29.50 0.00 1.60 35.10 14
Colorado State 3-0 MTW 10.00 21.50 0.00 4.04 35.54 15
Utah 2-0 MTW 5.75 26.50 0.00 4.32 36.57 16
Wisconsin 3-0 B10 22.25 11.00 0.00 4.40 37.65 17
North Carolina State 3-0 ACC 10.50 22.50 0.00 4.96 37.96 18
Washington State 2-0 P10 14.00 20.50 0.00 4.52 39.02 19
Vanderbilt 3-0 SEC 10.75 29.50 0.00 2.04 42.29 20
Miami of Ohio 3-0 MAC 21.00 18.00 0.00 4.12 43.12 21
**Southern California 2-0 P10 33.75 6.00 0.00 4.48 44.23 22
Marshall 2-0 MAC 26.25 15.50 0.00 4.28 46.03 23
Boston College 2-0 BGE 25.25 16.00 0.00 4.88 46.13 24
Toledo 2-0 MAC 31.50 11.00 0.00 4.92 47.42 25
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