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01-22-2007, 05:38 PM
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#151 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2019 Season (4th Qtr.)
2019 SEASON (4th Qtr.)
WEEK 13 @ #1 UCLA (10-0) (PAC-10) *TV1* (UCLA -5) USC BCS RANK: #2 Unstoppable force meets immovable object. Things at rest stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. Ten wins no losses vs. ten wins no losses, 7-0 PAC-10 record vs. 7-0 PAC-10 record. Maroon and gold vs. powder blue and yellow. Arch-rivals in their annual showdown game - cue the Star Wars theme, because this is what it's all about. Easily the biggest game of my college football coaching career to date. A win, we win the PAC-10 and likely get an invite to the National Championship game in the Rose Bowl. A loss, we remain second class citizens in southern California to UCLA and have to start all over again next year. These are the games where heroes are made - where bigtime players show they are bigtime. Code:
Everyone but Elder and Knight will suit up. But alas, first comes the ABC's. Quarterly grades came out this week. Pretty good this quarter, one D-, one D, two D+'s. Gave them each some coaching blocs, but looking pretty solid academically. Received an email from my trainer that stated " Brock Dole, a quarterback, is considered completely recovered from his most recent injury." I can only hope he meant Brock's recent rash of Interceptionitis. A capacity crowd of 111,100 fans filled the Los Angeles Coliseum to witness the biggest game Los Angeles had seen since the LA Xpress faced He Hate Me. As Pete Caroll would say, everyone was pumped and jacked. Southern Cal's redshirt senior kicker Rodney Gardner booted a 39 yard field goal to give USC a 3-0 lead with 5:58 left in the first. That was it for the quarter. End of 1st: USC 3-0 Early in the second, Southern Cal drives to the Bruin one yard line, where Brock Dole throws a little swing pass to Wingback Gabe Schultz for six points. Gardner makes the XP and follows with a field goal a couple of minutes later. UCLA can't answer. End of 2nd: USC 13-0 We go in at halftime with a 13-0 lead. I'm not quite what you'd call confident, just I'd rather be on our side of the score than their's. UCLA is a mighty fine football program and I have no doubt they can put two TD's on the board in a jiffy. But again, I'd rather be up 13-0 than down 13-0. Defenses absolutely dominate the third quarter and no one comes within a sniff of a score. You can just feel the crowd waiting for something, anything to break open between these two high powered offenses, but it doesn't happen in the third. End of the 3rd: USC 13-0 Something has to give. The fans can feel it, the defensive players on both sides are exhausted, and two of the most explosive offenses in the nation have fifteen minutes of football left to play. The final quarter drags on, defenses stiffening, playing beyond exhaustion, knowing this is the biggest game of their lives. One, two, then three minutes pass, still no one scores. The tension in the stands builds, still no one has scored in the second half and USC's 13 point lead has held. UCLA is driving and has the ball at the Trojan 30. It looks like they're finally going to put some points on the board. 3rd add 19 due to a holding call, UCLA QB and PAC-10 MVP from last season Rod Gilmore drops back to pass and gets hammerred by Trojan ILB Monty Garcia for a loss of 6, moving the Bruins out of field goal range. The Bruins decide to go for it, knowing Southern Cal will be stacked against the pass. In a call that will no doubt be questioned on talk radio everywhere, Gilmore calls his own number and runs off tackle for 6 yards and Southern Cal takes over on downs at their own 30 with 11:31 left. The Trojans can't move the ball, J.B. Wilson is stuffed on first and 2nd down for losses. On 3rd and 12, with Coach Bear Growlz dreading a Brock Dole game-changing pick in our own territory, Dole drops back and finds All-World WR Ron Morrison for 19 and a first down. Dole keeps the rhythm going. After a run by Wilson to keep the defense honest - he's stuffed for a loss again, Dole finds FB Devin Benzer for 10, setting up 3rd and 1 at the Bruin 44. Offensive Coordinator Zach Fuchs calls JB's number again, figuring they can't stop him every play, and OT Bobby Burgess opens a huge hole for Wilson, who gains 8 and the first down. 1st and 10 on the UCLA 36, the Bruins D looking to stuff JB once again. Dole takes the snap, play action fake to JB, and bang - Dole nails Ron Morrison with a 36 yard scoring strike to break open the game. The crowd is deathly quiet, stunned as Rod Gardner kicks the extra point making it 20-0 USC. We kickoff and both sides get a few yellow flags. 1st and five on the UCLA 24. UCLA QB Rod Gilmore drops back to pass and freshman OLB Ken Kariya nails him for a loss of 10. Big, big play for the freshman. UCLA gains a few yards on third but is forced to punt from their own 21 on 4th down. It was a nice enough punt, 43 yards, but I guess the Bruins were just a little more tired than we were, as Ed Kidman broke free and returned the kick 41 yards to the UCLA 23 with 6:11 left and time running out on the Bruins season. UCLA had to hold here, their entire season depended on it, and they knew who was getting the ball. J.B. Wilson. And they were right, 1st and ten from the Bruin 23, Brock Dole took the snap and pitched to JB who ran off right guard, where redshirt sophomore tackle Nate Dillon simply leveled his man, and Wilson was off to the races for a 23 yard touchdown run. Gardner kicked the single and all of a sudden it's 27-0 USC in the LA Coliseum. UCLA still had more than five minutes on the clock, but they go three and out thanks to a sack by DE Austin Lew. Southern Cal takes over at our own 46 with 4:37 left on the clock. The Bruins wisely look for the run. They stop Wingback Gabe Schultz for a gain of one - heck even gods like JB get tired once in awhile. 2nd and 9 and Brock Dole, playing the game of his life like that dude in "Heaven Can Wait" that ws played by Warren Beatty, drops back and connects with Wingback Gabe Schultz on a 30 yarder and the Trojans are in position to put the final nail in the coffin of their arch-rivals. And boy do we want to swing that hammer. 1st and 10 at the UCLA 38, 3:52 on the clock. RB Skipjack Walker scampers around left end for a gain of 5 thanks to a great block by OT Bobby Burgess. The Bruins stuff Schultz for no gain on 2nd down. 3rd and 5 and Brock - who are you and what have you done with my quarterback? - Dole drops back and hits Skipjack Walker for 10 yards and a first down, but the inexperienced Walker goes out of bounds. 1st and 10 from the UCLA 28, Bruins looking to stuff the run again and Offensive Coordinator Zach Fuchs crosses them up. Dole drops back and nails WR Oliver Hartl for 19 yards before he's forced out of bounds at the Bruin 9. 1st and goal from the Bruin 9, and they're again looking to stuff the run - they really don't have much choice at this point - but they're just a little too eager and Dole forces them offsides with a hard snap count. Half the distance and it's 1st and goal from the 5. You can only stop a great running back so many times before sheer exhaustion wears you down. And that's what happened here. Brock Dole takes the snap, pitches to J.B. Wilson, who gets a great block from backup OT Dan Aska and it's 5 yards untouched into the endzone. Garnder boots the single and all of a sudden what had been a 13-0 defensive struggle was Southern Cal 34, UCLA 0. The Bruins got the ball back but the life had been drained from them. They completed a couple of passes downfield before time ran out and The USC Trojans are the 2019 PAC-10 Champions with a perfect 11-0 and 8-0 conference record. Brock Dole was easily the star of the day with his clutch passing, going 17/24 for 276 yards and making two touchdown throws while avoiding any mistakes. UCLA made J.B. earn every yard as Wilson ran for two scores and 118 yards but it took him 34 carries (3.4 avg) to do so. Redshirt sophomore DE Floyd Jeffers had 3 sacks on the day and ILB Monty Garcia made 8 tackles, sacked the quarterback once and also picked off a pass to lead the stifling Trojan D. The game was a tough dogfight until midway through the fourth when we just blew it open. What a satisfying win and it had to be this way, against UCLA - our arch-rivals. Damn that feels good. USC 34 -- UCLA 0 PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 14 Off week. USC BCS RANK: #1 As expected, with our huge win over UCLA, we move into #1 in the BCS Rankings with an incredibly low 5.43 score (#2 Syracuse has a 10.13 for comparison). Still no respect from the polls though, as the Coaches Poll has us as #3 behind 10-0 Virginia and 9-1 Florida, and the Fans Poll has us at #2 behind Virginia. Our season is done. All we can do now is sit and see where the cards fall, and which bowl game we'll be going to. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 15 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK Off week. USC BCS RANK: #1 Us, Syracuse and Virginia are all 11-0, ranked 1-2-3 respectively. Florida sits at 10-1 but has a 12th game because the SEC has a championship game. Both voter polls have Virginia at #1, but they're 1.2 points behind Syracuse in the BCS rankings. Syracuse is still just over three points behind us in the rankings, so it looks like we'll finish #1 in the BCS rankings and get a shot at the national title. Just don't know whether it will be against Syracuse (probably), Virginia (certainly possible) or Florida (outside shot). We wait and see. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 16 MINOR BOWL TIER Off week. USC BCS RANK: #1 A feel good story about the last player in our recruiting class - Conrad Mogolov, a tight end from Alta Loma High School in Alta Loma, California. Conrad has agreed to come out for the team as a walk-on. He grew up a fan of USC and now he'll get a chance to don the maroon and gold. He's not a very gifted player, but he's the "everyman" who dreamed of playing for his favorite college football team. Now he'll have that chance. Right about now I'd say there's a lot of pissed off college football fans in Charlottesville, Syracuse and Louisville as the University of Florida Gators at 11-1 get to play in the Rose Bowl for the National Championship rather than the undefeated Virginia Cavaliers, Syracuse Orangemen or Louisville Cardinals. Florida just squeaked by Syracuse in the rankings with a 9.09 score compared to the Orange's 9.28 (our BCS score was 6.21 for comparison). The difference for Florida? Strength of schedule. The Gators schedule was rated at 1.84 (ours was 1.96 for comparison sake) as opposed to Cuse's 4.28. Interestingly enough however, both the Coaches and Fans Polls still rank Virginia #1 (we're #3 and #2 in the coaches and fan polls respectively). PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 17 BCS RANKINGS Interesting to note, Syracuse jumped back ahead of Florida in the BCS rankings this week, but the Bowl Bids went out already - so it'll still be us against the Gators in the National Championship game. Talk about controversy. Code:
-20-
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-22-2007, 05:59 PM
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#152 |
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n00b
Join Date: Nov 2006
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Congratz Coach!
 Now, finish with a flurry...  |
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01-22-2007, 06:15 PM
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#153 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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Thanks! Finally felt good to get that damn monkey . . . er bruin, off my back.
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay Last edited by beargrowlz : 01-22-2007 at 06:15 PM. |
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01-23-2007, 02:23 AM
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#154 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2019 Season (Final)
2019 SEASON (FINAL)
WEEK 17 MAJOR BOWL TIER Off week. USC BCS RANK: #1 Redshirt freshman Safety Amos McCollum committed "a serious violation of team rules". The NCAA chose not to act in the matter, but to maintain order and team morale I have chosen to suspend Amos for the rest of the year. He's very talented with lots of potential, hopefully he'll get his head on straight and come back next season. Quarterly grades came out this week, 1 D-, 1 D, and 4 D+'s. Allocated coaching blocs to each of those students to help them prepare for exams and that uses them all up for the year. Needless to say one of the students was a late season walk on - which begs the question, if it was needless to say why did I.... Put the kids through some light workouts and going over film of Florida. They've got one helluva program down in Gainesville, not far removed from winning three consecutive national titles. It's likely going to be the toughest challenge we have ever faced. I think we're ready. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 18 FOUR STAR TIER Off week. USC BCS RANK: #1 Just working with the kids getting ready for the big game. We're still pumped and jacked from the big win at UCLA. Hopefully that'll carry over when we play the Gators. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 19 NEW YEAR'S TIER Off week. USC BCS RANK: #1 Virginia plays this week in their Bowl Game, and the polls still have them as #1. Our players are really big on this no respect angle - I hope they'll use it as a positive like the New England Patriots did in the 2000's and whip some Gator ass. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 20 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME ROSE BOWL: vs. Florida (11-1) *TV1* (USC -2) USC BCS RANK: #1 What a mess the polls are. Virginia won their game and leapfrogged both Florida and Syracuse into 2nd in the BCS rankings - Florida has dropped to #4. Unbe-frackin-lievable. The good news is that aside from Renaldo Elder, we're completely healthy. Code:
My 12th season at USC. Never been more nervous before a game. This is it. This is what they hired me for - to bring Southern Cal back to the ranks of the major football powers in the nation. I brought in the players, I brought in the coaches, I brought in the dollars and the fans. Now I just have to bring in the W. The game doesn't start well for us. Holding on the kickoff return and we start off backed up to our own 7. Seven straight pounding carries by Tailback J.B. Wilson puts us at the Gator 39. We're just chewing up the clock against this Florida team that passes and runs equally well. The best defense is just keeping possession. A penalty on us and then Brock Dole throws his first pass of the day, a 26 yard bullet that takes us to the Florida 7. They stuff JB twice before he sprints to the outside and OG Nate Dillon nails the only man who can touch him and Wilson scores from 6 yards out. With the XP it's 7-0 and we've eaten up 7 minutes to start the game. The Gators start moving the ball but DE Wally Knight and NT Trent Dillon put a stop to that with a QB sack. Gators punt - we take over at our own 28. Florida stops us cold and they take over at their own 11. War of field position is in our favor right now - I want to keep it that way. The Gators get a pretty good drive going and change the field position situation fast. The quarter ends with the Gators still driving. End of 1st: USC 7-0 The short break between quarters must have helped us catch our breath, because we defend a couple of passes and the Gators have to punt. We take over at our own 15 - they're winning the field position war now. Brock Dole changes that in a hurry, hitting three quick passes in a row for 7, 24, and 33 yards and all of a sudden it's first and ten at the Gator 26. the drive stalls at the 22 but Rodney Gardner gets us the 3 point consolation and we're up 10-0. Florida starts off with pretty decent field position at their 32 and they drive the length of the field on the arm of QB Jamie Singhi. That cuts our lead to 10-7. Ronnie Morrison returns the ensuing kickoff and gives us great field position at our own 47 and Brock Dole goes right to work. He hits Tailback J.B. Wilson for 13, then Fullback Devin Benzer for 17 and takes us down to the Gator 2, where he hits Ronnie Morrison on a little out pattern for the score. Gardner converts and it's 17-7. Florida drives right back down and puts up 7 thanks to the running of RB B.J. Kanellitsas and the passing of Jamie Singhi. 17-14 good guys. Florida would not score again. J.B. Wilson and Brock Dole just simply took over the game at this point - it was as if they had been waiting for this moment their entire lives. JB carried the ball 40 times and rushed for 223 yards (5.5 avg) and 3 touchdowns and Brock Dole threw for 2 more scores, simply picking apart the Gator secondary as he went 17/23 for 346 yards and no picks. Southern Cal just overwhelmed Florida, putting up 589 yards of total offense as the Trojans captured the National Championship, 41-14 over the Florida Gators. Ed Kidman was Dole's favorite target on the day, making 4 catches - one a touchdown - for 131 yards. OT Graham Molina had a good day on the line of scrimmage, making 5 key run blocks. But where the offensive line really shined was that they didn't allow a sack of Brock Dole all day, giving the 5th year senior quarterback all the time he needed to shred the Florida secondary. And as I said, the best defense is keeping your defense off the field, as USC controlled the ball for over 36 minutes of the game, keeping our defenders fresh and the Gator crew tired. So, a perfect season, one that started way back in Week 1 with a 48-7 thwapping of Georgia, comes full circle and sees us win a national title by beating another SEC team, hammering them 41-14. And Brock Dole...Brock Dole...the kid played the two best games of his life against UCLA and Florida. He played so far superior to what he had ever played, and he was so in command - he just took charge and seemed to be in a zone for our last two games. And what more can you say about J.B. Wilson. Just sheer willpower alone - 34 carries against UCLA and a whopping 40 carries today - all I can say is wow. And really, what else is there left to say? Wow. National Championship Game The Rose Bowl USC 41 -- Florida 14 PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (12-0) NATIONAL CHAMPIONS * * *
2019 FINAL BCS RANKINGS Code:
-20-
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-23-2007, 07:53 AM
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#155 |
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College Starter
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: South Florida
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Great read (even though I'm not a SC fan).
Makes me want to jump back into TCY (or BBCF) |
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01-23-2007, 10:16 AM
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#156 |
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High School JV
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Good job, Bear ... sounds like the BCS is just as much of a mess in the future as it is now ... so is USC now "home" ?
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01-23-2007, 01:37 PM
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#157 | ||
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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Quote:
Thanks Cat. Appreciate the read and the praise. Quote:
Thanks again Az. Your bring up a really interesting question. The title "Bear Goes Home" originally referred to me, being a New Englander living in the south, going back to my alma mater and starting a Division 1-A football program. But after twelve years at Southern Cal, winning a national championship, and really getting into the heated rivalries against Notre Dame and especially UCLA, I find it difficult to even remotely consider other college jobs now. At one point I even turned down Notre Dame, which was to me the penultimate college coaching position in America - because I had gotten so attached to the program I had built at USC. If this were a Hollywood film, of course the story would end right here - USC wins national championship, coach gets carried off the field yadda yadda yadda. But it isn't, so i don't think it will. So in answer to your question, I guess USC is "home" now. Given what's transpired over the past sixteen years (four at Keene State and twelve at USC) I don't think Coach Bear the "character" in the dynasty, would ever seek another college coaching job. Given the program I've built, it's not likely (always possible though) that I get fired. That would leave me three options I suppose. 1. End the story now like a Hollywood movie would. 2. Continue coaching at USC until I grow bored with this game and retire from there. 3. Figure out some way to start FOF2k7 in the year 2020, make one of the teams horribly bad, place it in LA - the only way Bear would leave USC at this point would be to bring the fans of LA, his new "home", an NFL franchise - and pretend it was an expansion team and try and turn it into a super bowl winner and thus be one of the few (only?) Coach/GM to win a National Championship and a Super Bowl. Number three sounds really intriguing and would present another big challenge to Bear. I started the career in 2004 when I was 38 and have coached 14 years. That makes me 52. That gives me another 13-18 years (65 to 70 years old) before I'd bow out. Thoughts anyone?
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-25-2007, 02:05 AM
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#158 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2019 Season Summary and Review
2019 SEASON SUMMARY & REVIEW
SEASON REVIEW What an exciting season. 2019 was the culmination of everything I had started out to do at Southern Cal. When USC hired me twelve years ago, the program had fallen into a sad state of disarray. My first two years here were difficult, we had little talent and a declining reputation as a football program and academic institution. Now we've won the national championship, restored our prestige as a national football powerhouse, and built an academic reputation amongst the finest in the land. Mission accomplished. Key to our success in 2019 was that we simply didn't turn the ball over. As a team, we had only 11 turnovers in 12 games. On defense, we caused 27 turnovers giving us a whopping +16 turnover margin, 7th best in the nation. Much of the improvement in our turnover ratio was the maturation of Brock Dole as a quarterback. He simply did an amazing job for us down the stretch. That's one of the real surprises of 2019. We always thought Brock could be a good quarterback. But we're a running team in a running offense in a running program. We're known for the J.B. Wilson's and Donnell Cash's, the O.J. Simpson's and Marcus Allen's. But we won the National Championship because Brock Dole threw and threw and threw some more - that coupled with JB carrying the ball 74 times in our final two games. Southern Cal has once again become one of the dominant football programs in the nation. 2019 was merely the culmination of a process which began way back in 2008. 2019 and the glory it brought the Trojan Tradition are merely the fruits of the hard work that started those long twelve years ago. And we're proud to have restored that Trojan Tradition to its rightful place in the southern California sun. * * *
2019 USC Award Winners Code:
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2019 USC Team Summary Code:
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Coach Bear Growlz Coaching Record Code:
-20-
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-25-2007, 09:49 AM
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#159 |
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High School JV
Join Date: Sep 2006
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OK Bear, what have you done for me lately ... I mean that Pete Carroll guy won multiple championships before he left USC ... John Wooden at UCLA won 10 freakin' titles in basketball. Can you do that?? Huh, can ya???
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01-25-2007, 03:14 PM
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#160 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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Az,
Good question. But after I read your post, all I can think of is what an absolutely amazing feat John Wooden accomplished. I'm not at all sure there wasn't a pact with ol'scratch involved.
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-25-2007, 03:26 PM
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#161 |
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High School JV
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Yeah, if Coach K from Duke can't win that many (and I don't think he or Roy Williams at UNC ever will), that record won't fall for a long, long time ...
Of course, a certain guy by the name of Steve Victory might try to make a run at that legacy in a dynasty sequel coming soon to a message board near you ... (shameless plug, shameless plug)... |
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01-25-2007, 03:49 PM
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#162 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2020 Preseason (Winter/January)
2020 PRESEASON
Winter (January), 2020 What do you do after you do what you were hired to do in the first place and the job is done? That's a damn fine question. A damn fine one indeed. It's not like I didn't have many options. In fact, the interegnum between the 2019 and 2020 seasons were the busiest of my coaching career. Schools with big name cachet such as Nebraska and Oklahoma came a courting. The fact that neither school had much success the past few years and had seen their once great football programs fall in prestige matterred not - the big name cachet was still there, always would be. I got a really big offer from Hawaii. Hawaii's no slouch anymore, they've become a very prestigious school (Excellent-83, 11th most prestigious in the nation - for comparison USC is now up to an Excellent-91 rating, 6th highest in the land, see end of this post for a complete listing of prestige ratings) these days, far more prestigious than Oklahoma or Nebraska. If I was ready to retire, man I'd snap that up in a heartbeat. I even had an offer from a group of businessmen to be the lead frontman/pitchman of their group that was trying to bring an NFL franchise to Los Angeles again. LA had gotten an NFL franchise which Pete Carroll had left USC to coach, but we lost that team to Oakland when Al Davis moved the Raiders to Pyongyang to play in the 150,000 seat Rungnado May Day Stadium - incidentally changing the Raiders motto to, well, I can't write Korean characters and I can't read Korean, so I don't actually know what he changed it to. But he changed it. I think so anyway. So to make a long story short, the LA Showtime moved on up to the Bay Area and LA was looking for an NFL team - again. I was really intrigued by the offer. They wanted me to come on in and be the GM of the club if we could land one for southern cal. But they had already picked out a head coach - and I wasn't it. They wanted 70 year old Denny Green to coach the team - and in the end I just wasn't ready to give up coaching yet. Denny Green? I guess in sixteen years of coaching I kind have gotten the reputation of being an outstanding recruiter but just a decent X's and O's guy. And with never having coached in the NFL - not even as an assistant, well they just didn't want me as coach. Not that being asked to be the General Manager/Player Personnel guy wasn't an honor, don't get me wrong, it was. But Denny Green? That's when I was hit with an epiphany - sort of like when you get really, really drunk and finish worshipping the porcelain goddess, and it suddenly hits you, hey there's more beer. Denny Green? That's when I realized these were not guys I wanted to be involved with. In the end, I decided USC was where I belonged now. When I started coaching college football sixteen years ago, I was a burned out social worker and was the only guy my alma mater Keene State College could find that was dumb enough to take the job - and they were the only school dumb enough to even think about hiring me. I never dreamed Southern Cal (and Oklahoma) would come knocking at my door four years later asking me to take over their programs. I guess in the end, I bleed maroon and gold now. How else to explain me turning down the Notre Dame job - a job I admit I had always fantasized about - to stay at Southern Cal? I know we're not going to be as good as we were in 2019. We're making a transition this year from a flexbone to wishbone, our tight ends that have any talent are all frosh, and our starting QB is going to be a redshirt sophomore who can run like crazy but hasn't matured as a passer yet. They say a smart coach knows when to leave a program or team, and maybe a smarter coach would find this year to be that year to move on - and he'd probably be right. But in the end I'm a USC Trojan now, so this is where I stay. (Author's note: Which is kind of funny, because I've never actually been a Southern Cal fan. I've always been a Notre Dame fan, and then when I moved to Georgia, I started rooting for UGA. But the game just kind of pulled me in - big credit to TCY creator Jim Gindin for creating such a terrific game that I've found so immersing and emotionally satisfying. If you're reading this, thanks Jim.) (Author's Note 2: From this point on, you'll notice the storyline will be a little less intensive on the particular details of recruiting. I'll still discuss it, but won't be listing every player we land ad nauseum. I'll be focusing more on the games and the story. I post the recruiting list with player details at the start of the next season anyway, so i don't think much will be lost, and I think the story will be easier to follow.) School Prestige Ratings Through 2019 Code:
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__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay Last edited by beargrowlz : 01-25-2007 at 03:55 PM. Reason: typos |
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01-25-2007, 07:45 PM
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#163 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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202 Preseason (Winter: Feb-Mar)
2020 PRESEASON
Winter (February-March), 2020 As I was afraid he would, Safety Amos McCollum left the team because I suspended him last season. Well, it is what it is, good luck to him wherever he goes. Received an email from a Fullback named Jeffrey Rosales at Central Florida. He expressed an interest to transfer to Southern Cal. Never gotten one of those before, think I'll check him out. He's a redshirt junior (3 years of eligibility left - which means he would have two years left for us after he sat out the transfer year) with decent grades and a high potential. But I don't have any scholarships left. Wonder if he'll still transfer? The answer to my own question would be a resounding "no." My next question would be if I cut a scholarship player does that free up a scholarship. So we shall see. The help file says yes, indeed it would free up scholarship. So, I look to see if there's anyone I'm giving a full boat to that sucks rocks - I really could use another Fullback. I release Freshman OC Jesse Mercer from his scholarship with us as it's clear he's never going to see the field for us and arrange for him to go play at Georgia Southern where he may be able to start as an upperclassman in a couple of years. Unfortunately, I am still listed as having zero scholarships available and Rosales won't transfer without a scholarship. So, I decide to count my scholarship players. Wow. I have 73 players with scholarships now. Didn't think that was possible. Well, guess ol'Jeffrey isn't going to be coming to Southern Cal anytime soon. Tis a Shame. Could have used him. * * *
Had a long meeting with Zach Fuchs, our Offensive Coordinator. Zach was not at all happy about my intention to switch us over to a full wishbone offense this year. Can't say I blame him as he switched to the flexbone for me when I hired him and another switch just makes him even less attractive to prospective employers looking for a new Offensive Coordinator. So we mutually agreed he wouldn't be returning this year. Zach was immediately hired by Arizona and will be running a Trips formation there - much more to his liking. In Zach's place we hired 48 year old Spencer Farley away from the University of Nebraska, where he was their Offensive Coordinator. Spencer has twenty years of experience running a wishbone program, so that should help our transition immensely. The rest of the staff remains intact. * * *
Apparently I was wrong about improving USC's academic reputation. This season saw a rise - albeit slight - in Southern Ca's academic reputation from Very Good (70) to Very Good (71). I was quite surprised to see that, as despite our program having had the highest GPA in the nation, I hadn't been able to get it above 70. That gives USC the 10th best academic reputation in the country. Once again we had the highest GPA, 3.25 this year, barely edging out a rapidly increasing Rice GPA of 3.21. School Academic Reputations as of 2020 Code:
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We had another fantastic recruiting class according to TCY Today, which ranked our incoming freshmen as second best in the nation. Here's a look at our incoming freshmen. USC 2019 Recruiting Class Code:
-20-
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay Last edited by beargrowlz : 01-25-2007 at 07:46 PM. Reason: typo |
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01-26-2007, 01:40 PM
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#164 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2020 PRESEASON
Spring, 2020 Our schedule is full already, as we have our annual game against Notre Dame and the second part of two home and homes - one with Keene State, the other with Georgia. As in every year, there is one PAC-10 team we don't play. This season that school is Washington. Here's a look at our 2020 schedule. 2020 USC Schedule Code:
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__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay Last edited by beargrowlz : 01-26-2007 at 01:41 PM. |
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01-26-2007, 07:01 PM
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#165 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2020 Preseason (Summer)
2020 PRESEASON
Summer, 2020 Spent much of the summer dealing with freshman academic scheduling and player time management. We've attracted a good quality of student to the football program in recent years, so that's a big plus when it comes to football related activities - they need less time studying so they can more fully develop their potential. One thing I did notice was the abject inability of Defensive Coordinator Clarence Ackerman to make any progress in developing our young linebackers. Clarence has a number of other superb traits that make him a fine coordinator, but developing LB's just isn't one of them. We'll likely switch to a 4-3 in camp because of this. (Author's Note: TCY allows you to change your defensive formation every week. I play with a house rule that treats my defensive formation the same as my offensive - I can switch prior to the first game, but it has to stay that way all season long.) After putting the kids through summer two-a-days, it became evident a switch to the 4-3 just wasn't very practical. We have enough talented defensive tackles to start in a 4-3, but not much depth and while Ackerman hasn't developed any stud linebackers in his two seasons with us, we do have a lot of depth there - well, at least moreso than at DT. So we stick with the 3-4. Defensively at the nose we'll have 5th year senior Andrew Francis, a run-stopper. He'll be flanked by defensive ends Wally Knight, who excells at putting pressure on the quarterback, and redshirt junior Floyd Jeffers, who has developed into a very good all around end. Up the middle at ILB we'll have 5th year senior Renaldo Elder and redshirt junior Walt Whalen. Elder is a really well developed player left remaining from when Bucky Riley was Defensive Coordinator. Elder can do everything well and is really a polished player. Where our weakness shows is on the outside. Despite starting 12 games as a freshman, Kenneth Kariya really hasn't shown significant development under Ackerman. He'll be starting at WLB, but I've got some real concerns about his development. Our other scholarship athletes at OLB either haven't developed well the past two years or are redshirt freshmen - so redshirt senior Wayne Biakabatuka - who was a recruited walk-on four years ago, earned the starting job at SLB. In normal years, Wayne would be a good solid backup, but this year he's our best OLB. He's good enough to be a scholarship player, but not really good enough to start in a major college program. Still, he's the best we've got. In three short years our secondary went from easily being the weakness of this program to being a tremendous strength of the program. Redshirt junior Brad Knight plays the shutdown corner position withiout equal and his opposite number, 5th year senior Max Fitzgerald, more thana dequately covers our opponent's second receiver. At safety is the incomparable Lawrence Abdul-Jabbar, who led the team with 10 picks last season and stops the run, defends the pass and creates turnovers. The 1st Team All PAC-10 Safety is entering his junior year with us. At the other safety position is returning starter, redshirt junior Jared Esparza. Esparza really developed well this off season and rounds out what is a terrific secondary. As previously noted, on offense we've brought in Spencer Farley as Offensive Coordinator to switch to, and develop, our new wishbone offense. Farley was running the wishbone at Nebraska when we hired him, and he has run a wishbone offense for twenty years. His expertise will be invaluable in integrating our players into that offensive system. My first fourteen years of recruiting I took my scouts word for it when they said "This QB likes to run all the time". More often than not - far more often than not - they were wrong and the kid couldn't run worth a pitcher of warm spit. So the past two years I've started taking a more in depth look at the high school rushing statistics of quarterbacks I might potentially recruit, with the idea towards finding a running QB that could also throw - but with an emphasis on running a wishbone. While he has yet to fully develop his potential as a passer, I think we've found the perfect kid to run this offense - redshirt sophomore QB Kenny Finch. Finch ran for over 1400 yards in his senior season in high school and redshirted last season behind Brock Dole. His running skills appear well developed and I think he'll only get better as a passer. This first year might be rough with him calling the signals, but we're committed to sticking with him as we think he'll make an outstanding wishbone quarterback. Finch will have plenty of tools to run the ground attack with. Returning for his fourth year as a starter is Tailback J.B. Wilson, coming off a tremendous national championship run in which he carried the ball 74 times in our final two games. Wilson is simply a fantastic back and if he stays healthy - unlike last season - we expect a huge season from him. At Wingback, after sitting out a season redshirting because we had such a talent surplus at running back, will be redshirt junior Ike Daugherty. Ike hasn't developed as well as I had hoped, but he's still a pretty good back. Backing JB and Daugherty up will be redshirt sophomores Jeff Thompson and Al Snyder, both of whom figure prominently in our program's future. This season, in order to take advantage of the increased ability for power running a true wishbone offers, we've incorporated a tight end into the offense, dropping down to one wideout instead of two. Our starting wideout will be 5th year senior Ed Kidman, who was a key component to our national championship run of a year ago. He'll be backed up by junior Glen jacobs and redshirt senior Oliver Hartl. At the Tight End position, we basically had to start from scratch. We've found a pretty solid freshman starter - Fred Hastings. The other frosh we recruited that looks really good at this position is Ricardo Carley, but we're going to redshirt him this year to start building year to year depth at this position. Backing up Hastings though will be freshman Dustin Wynn and recruited walk-on Conrad Mogolov - the kid who has idolized USC since he was a kid and is a real feel good story. Well, Mogolov showed up at summer camp with quite a bit more talent than we thought and we won't be afraid to use him during his four years here at Southern Cal. That's really a feel good story. On special teams Ed Kidman and Max Fitzgerald will be returning punts while Brad Knight and Kidman handle kickoffs. There's a lot of potential from all three returners to make some explosive, game changing plays here. Our placekicker will be 5th year senior Rodney Gardner and punting will be redshirt senior Xavier Eason. All in all, this is a pretty solid unit. There's not going to be a repeat national championship this season - at least I don't think so. But I am hopeful we'll be in the midst of the hunt for the PAC-10 title and you never know. But however far we go much depends on how well Kenny Finch can run the new wishbone offense we've put in. If that goes well - and it may very well given Spencer Foley's longtime experience coordinating such an offense - then Finch's unpolished passing skills will be far less of a detriment to our success than they would otherwise be. It should make for a very interesting season. 2020 USC Roster Code:
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2020 Preseason BCS Rankings Code:
-20-
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-27-2007, 12:42 AM
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#166 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2020 Season (1st Qtr)
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) * * *
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) * * *
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:
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) * * *
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) * * *
WEEK 5 BCS RANKINGS Code:
-20-
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-27-2007, 03:49 PM
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#167 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2020 Season (2nd Qtr.)
2020 Season (2nd Qtr.)
WEEK 5 vs. Arizona State (0-2) (PAC-10) (USC -10) USC BCS RANK: #22 Not getting much TV exposire with our early schedule - thought the KSC game might have been a regional broadcast, but no. ASU runs a single-back offense and they've got a very talented redshirt WR named J.C. Roberts, but they have a lot of difficulty getting the ball to him. Hopefully we'll be able to continue that helping cause that difficulty. No injuries to report this week, though Andy Francis has a big honkin shnoz now. We haven't received any committments yet, but still have a lot of players visiting campus. I think we'll land a few this week and hopefully they'll get a good show of a game and we'll play well. It has become clear as we pursue the recruits on our primary list that our main competition for these recruits are far and away UCLA and Iowa - with to a lesser extent, Virginia being a major national recruiter. The game against the Sun Devils of ASU was over quickly. CB Max Fitzgerald picked off a Sun Devil pass less than a minute into the game and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown. From there it was all downhill for ASU. The Southern Cal offense just took over the game, methodically controlling the clock for 37 minutes and putting up 424 yards of total offense while limiting the Sun devils to 125 yards on the day. The USC reserves got in early today, as the game was well over by halftime as the Trojans built a 42-0 halftime lead. Wingback Ike Daugherty had a solid day, rushing for one touchdown while catching another. Backup QB Eddie Casillas threw the ball really well, going 9/13 for 152 yards and a touchdown. Spencer Thompson, a backup running back, had 67 yards on the day. It was a dominating day - so dominating the starters barely rate mention - and a good game to take the visiting recruits to. A great way to start off the PAC-10 season. USC 56 -- Arizona State 7 PAC-10 (1-0) -- OVERALL (3-0) * * *
WEEK 6 @ Oregon State (1-2) (PAC-10) *TV5* (USC -17) USC BCS RANK: #10 I must be on crack, as when I look back, the Keene State game was televised by the networks as a regional game. I'm getting old. Oregon State runs the old Wing-T offense, and they really don't have much of a passing attack to speak of. The key will be stopping RB Lincoln Sherman, who has an injured thumb but is listed as probable - so we'll assume he'll play. We're healthy again this week. We landed a kicker this week, Burt Givens from down Fullerton way, and he'll likely be our starter next year. Lost a recruit to Virginia and one to Iowa - so it's real competitive out there right now. We didn't land Warren Bunn, the run-stuffing DE. I really was hoping we'd get him to sign a letter, but it didn't work out. Defense was the word this week as Southern Cal held the Beavers to 77 yards total offense and blanked Oregon State 26-0. The Trojan D held RB Lincoln Sherman to 24 yards on 11 carries and redshirt junior DE Floyd Jeffers sacked the Beaver QB 5 times to completely shutdown the Oregon State attack. On offense the wishbone was once again operating pretty efficiently, as Tailback J.B. Wilson ran for 149 yards and two touchdowns on 32 carries (4.6 avg) and QB Kenny Finch had another solid day running the ball, gaining 65 yards on 5 carries. Wingback Ike Daughterty continues to be under-utilized, but that's just because JB is so damn good. USC 26 -- Oregon State 0 PAC-10 (2-0) -- OVERALL (4-0) * * *
WEEK 6 vs. #17 California (5-0) (PAC-10) *TV3* (USC -6) USC BCS RANK: #8 Our toughest game to date this season, and always a hard fought game, as we're in the Rose Bowl against the Cal Bears. Cal runs the run and shoot offense and it's being run by freshman QB Heath Uhl this season. Uhl has thrown for 12 TD/12 INT and been sacked 13 times through 5 games. I think we can put some pressure on him and create some turnovers. Uhl has difficulty with the long ball, so we'll be basically mugging his receivers at the line of scrimmage. We can't entirely ignore the run as they have a talented RB in redshirt sophomore Gus Mahoney, who is averaging 122 ypg. So we'll have to be carefull about overplaying the pass too, too much. We'll be without backup NT Albert Wilcox. Code:
Landed four recruits this week, one of them was one of our top four priority recruits - Walter Nadeau, an inside linebacker from Marion High School in Marion, Kansas. We landed a terrific OLB to go with him, Russell Warren from Hobbs High School in Hobbs, New Mexico. The big question is, now that we've landed these stud linebackers, can we develop them? In our game this week we only got to Heath Uhl for two sacks, and he did manage to throw three touchdown passes against us, but we succeeded in creating turnovers, picking him off four times en route to a 45-24 victory of the Cal Golden Bears. Safety Lawrence Abdul-Jabbar and CB Brad Knight each returned INT's for scores and QB Kenny Finch was an efficient 8/11 for 1 TD and 150 yards on the day. Cal did a pretty good job containing our running game, holding J.B. Wilson to 127 yards on 39 carries (3.2 avg) - but again JB was money when he smelled paydirt, rushing for three touchdowns on the day. Wingback Ike Daugherty touched the ball a little more today, gaining 32 yards on 6 carries (5.3 avg). I would have liked our defense to shutdown the Cal passing attack more, but we did leave the door open by playing such tight man-to-man most of the time. Still, we accomplished what we wanted to do, cause turnovers, and came away with a solid win. USC 45 -- California 24 PAC-10 (3-0) -- OVERALL (5-0) * * *
WEEK 8 @ Oregon (3-3) (PAC-10) *TV4* (USC -11) USC BCS RANK: #2 We've moved into the #2 slot in the BCS right behind our opponent in last year's national title game - Florida. Let's hope we keep playing this well and live up to that ranking. We play Oregon this week, and the Ducks run a very solid flexbone offense. They've got a pretty good running QB Randall Burton running the show but it looks like it's their passing attack we need to worry about, as he has two fine receivers to throw to and their ground game hasn't had much luck this season. So what we'll do is we'll stack against the run in heavy running situations, but predominantly play some 3 and 4 DB sets to shut down the passing game. For the second consecutive week reserve NT Albert Wilcox will miss the game due to injury. We landed a bunch of recruits this week including an outstanding WR from Honolulu, Britt Wells, and a big run-stuffing NT from Louisiana, Jim Shepard. We also gained some young depth for our secondary this week. 2020 is looking like it's going to be another solid recruiting season for us. Started to expand our recruiting list some, looking for some offensive linemen and tight ends. Continued making follow up calls to those on our list already. Our recruiting class is already 9 of 16, so we've only got 7 spots left. The game at Oregon this week turned on who dominated the line of scrimmage - and that was Southern Cal. OG Bobby Burgess and OT Desmond Connell completely controlled the line, making 8 and 6 key run blocks respectively, springing star Tailback J.B. Wilson for 225 yards and two touchdowns on 46 carries (4.8 avg) and allowing the Trojans to control the ball for over 38 minutes in a 22-10 road victory. QB Kenny Finch passed when he needed to but not much more, going 9/13 for 124 yards on the day, going mistake free which is crucially important in a ball control offense. Kenny's favorite target on the day was senior Fullback Devin Benzer, who made 4 catches for 53 yards. DE Wally Knight, who was such an explosive pass rusher in his first season but was plagued by injury last year, had 1.5 sacks as the USC defense shut down the Duck attack, limiting the Oregon run & shoot to 124 total yards on the day. A solid, if unspectacular win for us on the road. USC 22 -- Oregon 10 PAC-10 (4-0) -- OVERALL (6-0) * * *
WEEK 9 BCS RANKINGS Code:
-20-
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-27-2007, 08:38 PM
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#168 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2020 Season (3rd Qtr.)
2020 Season (3rd Qtr.)
WEEK 9 @ Stanford (5-2) (PAC-10) *TV4* (USC -13) USC BCS RANK: #2 We play at a solid Stanford program this week. Their passing game is one of the best in the nation and their running game just about average. We'll be keying the pass mostly, using a lot of 5 and 6 d-back sets, trying to contain their passing attack and force them to run. It should be a tough game on the road. Quarterly grades came out and the team as a whole is doing quite well. We had 1 player with a D- and 5 others with D+'s. Allocated a bunch of coaching blocs to those players to get them some tutor assistannce and hopefully they'll pick those grades right up. Bad news, we didn't land Allen Brantley, the other stud ILB we had heavily recruited. He chose UCLA over us - that hurts. Still, we'll keep pounding the pavement so to speak. We're still holding out hope to land the 4th of our top four targets, QB Thomas Kluge of Nevada. Our game against the Cardinal this week was very competitive with it all tied up at 10 at the half. Our defensive plan to force Stanford to run more worked, as we stacked the defensive backfield against them - and DE Wally Knight applied the pressure to the Cardinal quarterback registering 3 sacks on the day as USC went on to win 27-10 with 17 unanswered 4th quarter points. The Cardinal concentrated on stopping J.B. Wilson, and while they didn't stop him, they at least contained him, holding the star Tailback to 135 yards on 35 carries (3.8 avg). QB Kenny Finch added 37 yards on 10 carries and Wingback Ike Daugherty ran for a score. Finch had a solid day through the air, going 11/17 for 144 yards and hitting wideout Eddie Kidman on an 18 yard scoring strike. Kidman had 4 catches for 78 yards, including the touchdown reception. Along with Wally Knight, leading the Southern Cal defense was 5th year senior ILB Renaldo Elder with 11 tackles, and senior nickel back Dan Cipa, who brought an interception back 65 yards for a touchdown. The defensive gameplan seemed to work quite well and Clarence Ackerman did a fine job of play calling to stifle the Cardinal run & shoot. USC 27 -- Stanford 10 PAC-10 (5-0) -- OVERALL (7-0) * * *
WEEK 10 @ Washington State (5-2) (PAC-10) *TV4* (USC -4) USC BCS RANK: #3 We dropped down behind Virginia into the #3 spot in the BCS this week. Another tough game on the road for us against the Washington State Cougars, who are having a solid season. The Cougars run the old Wing-T offense. That means lots of rushing - but they still have the potential to have a very strong passing game. QB Dexter Schwartz has two fine receivers to throw to so we'll have to be a little careful in not planning to overplay the run. We landed two more recruits this week, one a running back that will be a solid contributor to our program down the line - Andrew McChane, a running back from Marina High School in Huntington Beach, California. We also landed Mario Harper, an offensive tackle from Bergenfield High School in Bergenfield, New Jersey. Harper is a 90+ run blocking OT who comes from a very good prep athletic program. This kid could be our next dominant offensive lineman. We've currently landed 11 recruits, so have only 5 more slots left. Made a few more offers to a couple of Tight ends and some more offensive linemen. We're still hopefull we'll land that QB Kluge - he hasn't committed to anyone yet. Once we took the field this week, it was clear the Cougars were no match for us and we ran the ball all over them en route to a 45-17 thrashing at Pullman. Tailback J.B. Wilson carried the ball 27 times for 172 yards (6.3 avg) and two touchdowns and QB Kenny Finch added another 63 yards and two scores on the ground in a game in which the second unit saw significant PT. ILB Renaldo Elder had another big day on defense, making 8 tackles and assisting on 7 others. Safety Jared Esparza also played well on defense, intercepting two passes and making 5 tackles, while redshirt sophomore dime back Walter Cheng returned an interception 76 yards for a touchdown. This was a game in which we dominated both offensively and defensively and it was a fantastic victory on the road against a pretty solid team. One thing of interest to note however, was that so far this season, our wishbone offense has allowed us to have a huge advantage in time of possession. This game, we were scoring so quickly that time of possession actually favored the Cougars who controlled the ball for about 33 minutes. Fascinating. USC 45 - Washington 17 PAC-10 (6-0) -- OVERALL (8-0) * * *
WEEK 11 vs. Arizona (2-6) (PAC-10) (USC -26) USC RANK: #3 Seven undefeated teams in the nation right now: Southern Cal; Virginia; Florida; UCLA; Penn State; Boston College; and Alabama. So, who is #1 and who is #2? Right now the BCS rankings have us at #3, right behind Virginia and Florida. Of the three, we've played the toughest schedule, 3.12 to UVA's 3.16 and Florida's 4.28. The various computer rankings have us anywhere from 2nd to 7th. And the coaches and fan polls both have us at #4. So I guess we'll just have to keep playing good football and see where the chips fall. We play a pretty bad Arizona team this week, but the game has it's noteworthiness. The Offensive Coordinator of our 2020 national championship team, Zach Fuchs, is now the Offensive Coordinator for the Wildcats where he is running a trips offense. I'm sure he's still a bit bitter about the change in offense we made over the winter and he'd like nothing better than to knock us out of the national championship race. We'll just have to make sure he doesn't get the chance. We'll be missing Al Wilcox again, as well as dime back Walter Cheng, who is gone for the season. Code:
The Cats spread the ball around to their receivers and like to go deep. They don't have much of a running game and they don't have one or two receivers to really key on, so we'll lay off the double teams and play a lot of nickel and dime sets against them as well as more than our usual amount of zone. That should keep them in check - I hope. No good news on the recruiting front, lost a couple of kids to other schools, one to BYU so he could go do his foreign mission religious thing they have you do in the middle of your college career. Needless to say, we may have built a fine football program here, but God trumps us in the BCS standings every time. The game this week featured perhaps the best defensive performance by one player I have ever seen - Arizona's ILB Jose Robasky made 20 tackles and assisted on three others. I can guess many, if not most, of those 20 tackles came from Robasky chasing Tailback J.B. Wilson all over the field, as Wilson had yet another big game running for 155 yards and three touchdowns on 34 carries (4.5 avg) - no doubt putting JB into serious Heisman contention if he wasn't there already - en route to a Southern Cal 38-10 victory in front of 96,600 happy fans at the Rose Bowl. QB Kenny Finch showed his versatility, running for one score and throwing for another as the redshirt sophomore went 13/18 for 269 yards and the one TD pass to Wingback Ike Daugherty on the day. Finch continued to play mistake free football, and if he doesn't make bad decisions in the air, we can win most games on the ground. Wideout Eddie Kidman also had a solid day, making 4 catches for 82 yards. Defensively Southern Cal really put the heat on the Wildcat trips offense, getting to the QB 7 times on the day - 2.5 sacks by OLB Kenny Kariya alone. 5th year senior Andrew Francis added another 2 sacks as USC put this game in the win column in a big, big way. Next up, just Notre Dame and UCLA. Just. USC 38 -- Arizona 10 PAC-10 (7-0) -- OVERALL (9-0) * * *
WEEK 12 @ #21 Notre Dame (6-2) *TV5* (USC -1) USC BCS RANK: #6 We fall to #6 in the BCS, and it looks like we're going to need wins over both the Irish and UCLA to have a shot at the national championship - which we figured anyway. The thing is, even if we beat both UCLA and Notre Dame, we may not get a shot at the national title. Nothing we can do about it but go play football and win. The Fighting Irish have the best passing attack in the nation, averaging 426 yards a game through the air. They have some quality running backs, but they don't run the ball much. They run a run & shoot offense, but interestingly enough, like to go long a lot with it rather than the typical dink and dunk and middle of the field stuff. Our safeties will get a work out today, that's for sure. We're going to try and slow down the passing attack by keeping 5 and 6 DB's in the game almost the whole way. We'll also be playing a lot more 3-deep and 4-deep zone than we usually do - a little similar to what we did against Arizona, but a bit more pronounced this game - and Notre Dame is a heckuva lot better than the Wildcats. We're going to give them the run and hope they stick to their M.O. of not running the ball and stay pass-happy. We'll see how that works. Code:
Same players out as last week, Wilcox and Cheng. Both are reserves, so we're basically at full strength minus just a little depth. Not bad for this late in the year. We landed a couple more recruits this week, nothing sensational, just some depth at TE and the O-line, places where we're kind of thin for the future. As expected, the Irish came out running and gunning, throwing the ball over 50 times against us. We couldn't stop them entirely, their passing game is just too good to be shut down entirely, but the Trojan defense did yeoman's work in containing it, sacking the Irish QB 4 times and picking off 3 passes en route to a USC 42-10 win at South Bend. Offensively, Tailback J.B. Wilson looked like a man on a mission in this contest, running for 260 yards and 4 touchdowns on 37 carries out of the wishbone. Wingback Ike Daugherty added another touchdown on the ground and OLB Kenny Kariya returned a pick for a score as Southern Cal dominated the Irish in every aspect of the game. QB Kenny Finch passed just enough to let the Irish know we could, and again played mistake free football while concentrating on running the Southern Cal wishbone. A very good win against a very good team, in their house. Can't beat that with a stick. USC 42 -- Notre Dame 10 PAC-10 (7-0) -- OVERALL (10-0) * * *
WEEK 13 MEDIA SNIPPETTS LA TIMES Week 13, 2020 It's like a sequel, only better. USC vs. UCLA, both undefeated, winner wins the PAC-10 championship and might get a shot at the national championship. We say might, because the BCS is so messed up right now we have no idea who the top two teams are going to be. A Southern Cal win would give them their second consecutive PAC-10 Championship and perhaps a shot at a second straight National Championship. But most importantly, it would send a signal to UCLA that USC was no longer the unwanted stepsister of college football in Los Angeles, but rather, the dominant football power here - and perhaps even the nation. * * *
WEEK 13 BCS RANKINGS Code:
-20-
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-28-2007, 12:18 AM
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#169 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2020 Season (4th Qtr.)
2020 Season (4th Qtr.)
WEEK 13 vs. #5 UCLA (10-0) (PAC-10) *TV1* (USC -7) USC BCS RANK: #3 Just like deja vu all over again. Undefeated Southern Cal plays undefeated UCLA for the PAC-10 Championship and a possible invitation to the Rose Bowl to play for the National Championship. Where have we seen this before? UCLA runs a terrific pro formation offense. They throw the ball a lot, but still run for a lot of yards. Defensively they're a hard team to match up with. They've got a good receiving corps, but we're going to try and double up on their #1 receiver as he looks to be their single go to guy. We can't overplay the pass too much or their backs will run wild on us. So we've got to trust our corners to play man on man as we won't go to a lot of nickel or dime sets. Basically, we'll try and beat them with our regular 3-4 set. We got bit by the injury bug last week and will be missing some key players this week. Code:
Francis is going to try and play but everyone else is out. Bobby Burgess' blocking is what we'll probably miss the most, he's a dominant force on the O-line. Got fantastic news on the recruiting front today, Thomas Kluge, a quarterback from Laughlin High School in Laughlin, Nevada signed a letter of intent to play for Southern Cal next season. Thomas was one of the top priority recruits we mentioned back at the start of the year. He ran for over 1200 yards in his senior year as a quarterback and we feel he'll fit right into the new system we have. We're just waiting on the last couple of recruits to make up their minds and we'll have a full recruiting class. I think it has turned out to be a very solid class this year. It was not a pleasant start to this week's game. All my gameplanning and Clarence Ackerman's playcalling got us was a 14 point deficit after one as UCLA QB Jessie Graham threw two touchdown passes. After 1Q: UCLA 14-0 Not a good start to the game, that's for sure. But our defense started to stiffen up and then QB Kenny Finch hit TE Fred Hastings with a 53 yard touchdown pass to pull us within 7. A Rodney Gardner field goal just before halftime pulled us to within 4 - and our defense kept the Bruins off the scoreboard for the quarter. Halftime: UCLA 14-10 The 3rd quarter was all defense, neither team could do a thing. I started to take some comfort in knowing my gameplan hadn't been a total disaster, as it looked like it was going to be in the 1st quarter. The 3rd went scoreless and we headed to the 4th. End of 3Q: UCLA 14-10 Again the defenses held for the first 5:30 before UCLA kicked a 3 spot, putting them up 17-10. That's ok, we were still only down by 7 and with our offense we could make that up - plenty of time left on the clock. Back and forth it went, neither side could move the ball, punt, punt, punt, punt. We get the ball back on our own 26 with 2:16 left on the clock and I'm frustrated as hell - we haven't been able to do much of anything all day. An option play gains a couple and then Kenny tosses one away. 3rd and 8 and Spencer Foley calls for a bomb, Kenny Finch drops back and hits TE Dustin Wynn with a 48 yard heave to the Bruin 30 with 1:33 left on the clock. Foley's got us in constant pass mode now, no time for clock controll or the grinding wishbone attack, but Kenny Finch can't find anyone open. First one, then two, then three incompletions leaves us with 4th and 10 from the UCLA 30 with 1:14 on the clock. We can't kick a field goal, we're down by 7. Got to go for it. Finch drops back and again, no one is open. Kenny takes off - he earns his keep as a wishbone quarterback - and scrambles for a 13 yard gain and a 1st down at the Bruin 17 with 52 seconds left in the game. Kenny drops back yet again, but his protection breaks down and he's sacked, loss of 7. We manage to call a timeout with 40 ticks left. Everyone knows a pass is coming, but this time Kenny rolls out and scrambles, looking for a receiver. He spots TE Dustin Wynn in the corner of the endzone and hits him with a 24 yard scoring strike. Rodney Gardner boots the XP and overtime here we come. End of Regulation: Tied 17-17 We win the toss and elect to start on defense so we know what we have to match if the Bruins score. UCLA drives 20 yards to our 5 but can't make any headway and they kick a field goal to take the lead. We need a 3 or we lose. First play Kenny Finch goes deep and it's incomplete, but we get a pass interference call that takes us to the Bruin 10. A false start on us pushes us back to the 15. 1st and goal and Tailback J.B. Wilson runs off tackle for 2, followed by an option pitch to JB for another 2 yards down to the 11. Spencer Foley doesn't see any need to be creative here as all we need is a three to stay in the game, so he calls the option once again. This time OG Desmond Connell opens a huge hole and Kenny Finch keeps it and runs it in from 11 yards out, Southern Cal wins 23-20. What an exciting game. we did manage to contain the UCLA passing game - not entirely shut it down, but enough to keep us in the ballgame, while not allowing them to run all over us. Our dbacks deserve a lot of credit for that. We managed to sack the Bruin QB 3 times on the day without blitzing much - we wanted our linebackers in pass coverage and spying the run most of the time - 1.5 by DE Floyd Jeffers. Jeffers, Renaldo Elder and Lawrence Abdul-Jabbar kled the defense with 7, 8, and 7 tackles respectively. The entire defensive unit made a great effort and it paid off today. Offensively we had a hard time today. UCLA is really the first team this year that just slammed the door on our wishbone - limiting JB to 97 yards on 37 carries. We did get the one rushing touchdown by Kenny Finch in overtime, but other than that they kept our ground game completely in check. Aside from our defense, we won today because Kenny finch threw the ball, going 14/26 for 244 yards while throwing two touchdown passes and not making any mistakes. Quite a performance from a first year player in the biggest game of his life. So we hoist our second consecutive PAC-10 banner undefeated yet again. Life is good. Now we just have to wait and see what the BCS does. USC 23 -- UCLA 20 (OT) PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) ***2020 PAC-10 CHAMPIONS*** * * *
WEEK 14 Off week. USC BCS RANK: #1 The BCS took our win over UCLA seriously and we jumped up to #1 in the rankings with five other undefeateds in the mix - #2 Florida, #3 Virginia, #4 Penn State, #5 Boston College, and #7 Alabama. UCLA at 10-1, sits in the #6 spot. Hopefully we'll be able to hold onto this ranking or at worst #2, though both Florida and Virginia have 1 game each left to play. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 15 Off week. USC BCS RANK: #2 Well, Florida moved ahead of us in the polls, and they still have one game left to play - the SEC Championship game. Penn State and Virginia, both 11-0, are about one point behind us in the BCS Rankings. Bowl bids go out next week, so we're hoping we can stay in the #2 slot. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 16 MINOR BOWL TIER Off week. USC BCS RANK: #2 Florida won the SEC and moved way ahead of us in the BCS rankings. But we managed to hold onto #2 - increasing our lead just a wee bit, and we'll be playing Florida in the Rose Bowl in a national championship rematch. That should be fun. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 17 MEDIA SNIPPETTS LA TIMES Week 17, 2020 He did it again. Coach Bear Growlz managed to beat UCLA and win the PAC-10 conference championship in one of the most tense and exciting games in recent memory. Not only that, but Growlz has Southern Cal in position to repeat as National Champions, if they can just get by the University of Florida in the Rose Bowl. It really is unbelievable how far the USC program has come in the past decade. Now let's see if Coach Growlz can do what Pete Carrol did - bring back-to-back national titles to USC. Wouldn't that be something. * * *
WEEK 17 BCS RANKINGS Code:
-20-
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-28-2007, 12:58 PM
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#170 |
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High School JV
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Go get 'em Bear!! Nice win over UCLA -- one of the most thrilling wins I've seen on TV in years ...
AZ |
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01-28-2007, 02:49 PM
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#171 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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Thanks man!
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-28-2007, 02:58 PM
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#172 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2020 Season (Final)
2020 Season (Final)
WEEK 17 MAJOR BOWL TIER Off week. USC BCS RANK: #2 Allocated the last of our coaching blocs this week in order to assist those players having academic difficulties. Not too many academic problems and no one failing a class. Good stuff. Our recruiting class is all filled up - I think we landed a number of players who can contribute immediately - though we did go after a couple of "project" kids that will take some time to develop. Most of the kids we landed are also top notch students as well, which is always helpful to the program and to their development as football players because it means they can spend more time on football related activity. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 18 MEDIA SNIPPETTS espn.com The Sports Guy Week 18, 2020 Yes I still write this column, I'm an old man now - but I'm still a Pats and Red Sox homer, and no the Celtics still haven't won a title - Danny Ainge says next year is the year. I mean c'mon, enough is enough alredy bring back M.L. Carr. Anyway, that's not my point. My point is BOSTON COLLEGE GOT JOBBED! They should be playing for the national championship, not Florida and Southern Cal. Who do they play anyway? The SEC and PAC-10? Bah! The BCS is broken when a team like BC doesn't get to play for the national title. Oh, and by the way, that pass interference call against Hobbs was bogus. * * *
WEEK 18 FOUR STAR TIER Off week. USC BCS RANK: #2 UCLA won their bowl game 59-6 over Air Force. Ouch. Taking a look at the Florida Gators and putting together a gameplan for them. The Gators run an I-Formation offense and coordinator Billy Barton has been running that formation for 21 years, so it's very finely tuned. The Gators are averaging 153 ypg on the ground and 287 ypg through the air - one of the best passing games in the country, but still a very balanced attack. It'll take some thinking to come up with a suitable game plan for them. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 19 NEW YEAR'S TIER Off week. USC BCS RANK: #2 As I go through the process of putting together the game plan for next week, I want to emphasize defending against the pass, but also need to keep in mind this is a pretty good running Gator squad. What I think we'll do is overplay the pass on the game plan - as in calling pass over run, but only use our nickel and dime sets an average amount of time. This will require our defensive backs to be extraordinarily good and play the Gator receivers tough - especially our corners. It'll be a similar game plan as what we used against UCLA. It won't shut down the Florida aerial attack, but hopefully it'll slow it down some. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 20 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME ROSE BOWL: vs. #1 Florida (12-0) *TV1* (Florida -1) USC BCS RANK: #2 We're still a little banged up from the regular season despite the long layoff between our last game and the national title game. Code:
I'm kind of nervous as the game starts out. It's a defensive duel halfway through the first half, neither us nor Florida can get anything going. The Gators manage to score first with 8:49 left in the 1st quarter on a field goal, 3-0 Florida. We're forced to punt but pick off a Jamie Singhi pass right away and take it to the Gator 45. Kenny Finch had us moving down the field but was injured - he remained in the game. Tough kid but our drive stalled. Rod Gardner booted a field goal to tie it up with 1:44 left in the first. End of 1Q: Tied 3-3 Florida has a nice long drive but our defense bends but doesn't break, forcing the Gators to setle for three. 6-3 Florida. We get a decent drive going but it stalls and the Gators take over at their own 24. We're having a difficult time running the ball so far. Florida hits on a couple of passes before redshirt junior ILB Walt Whalen makes a big play picking off a Singhi pass and we start with great field position at our own 47. We spring a run every now and then, but the Gators are pretty much stymying our wishbone. Fortunately Kenny Finch is throwing the ball well and he hits a few passes and we drive to the Gator 12 with 4:17 left in the half. Three straight runs by J.B. Wilson puts the ball in the end zone - that kid is at his best when he smells paydirt. Bad news is the XP was blocked, but we go up 9-6. Ouch. An 83 yard kick returns gives Florida the ball at our 7 with over 2 minutes left. We really need a defensive stand here. We don't get one as Jamie Singhi tosses a touchdown pass and Florida goes up 13-9. Damn that hurt. Kenny Finch is playing out of his mind and passes us down to the Gator 4 yard line with 4 seconds left - hitting on one big pass play to J.B. Wilson for 50 yards. Rod Gardner kicks the field goal and we're down by one at the half. Halftime: Florida 13-12 Florida gets the second half kick but can do nothing, thanks in large part to a big sack by DE Floyd Jeffers. We get good field position on the punt at our own 43, but we're forced to punt as our own drive stalls due to stupid penalties. The Gators get a good drive going, thanks in large part to a key 3rd and 14 draw play which caught us napping, but the drive stalls and they settle for 3. 16-12 Gators. Boy that blocked extra point is looming large right now. We go three and out and need the defense to step up big and keep us in this game. End of 3Q: Florida 16-12 Florida's drive from the third continues and they've taken the ball to our 34 to open the 4th. The defense stiffens and the Gators go for it on 4th and 14, hitting a 10 yard pass, we take over on downs with a big defensive stand. Our offensive line just takes over and we pound the ball run after run after run, mixed in with a couple of Kenny Finch completions and then WR Ed Kidman runs a reverse for a touchdown. The XP is good and we go up 19-16. The Gators go three and out and punt but ILB Walt Whalen makes his second big play of the day and blocks the punt - we take over at the Florida 33. The Gator defense is determined to keep us out of the endzone and they do, as we have to settle for a Rod Gardner field goal, Southern Cal 22-16 with 4:27 left to go. The Gators go three and out and punt. We get called for holding on the return and take over deep in our own territory at the 11 with 2:48 to go. Can we grind out the clock with our wishbone? We've run for 124 yards so far, and the Gators surely know what's coming. Kenny Finch comes out throwing - boy Offensive Coordinator Spencer Foley has cajones. Another pass and a couple of runs and the Gators have used up their timeouts. 1st and 10 at our own 48 with 1:58 left. We run one play, then Kenny Finch kneels three times and that's the game and we're back-to-back national champions. It was very much a defensive struggle. We accomplished what we set out to do, which was contain the Gator aerial attack. We sacked Singhi twice and picked off two of his passes while limiting Florida to 133 yards passing. Florida did the same to our running game however, containing us to 145 yards net - 105 by J.B. Wilson who finished 4th in the Heisman ballotting. But it was the play of first year QB Kenny Finch, WR Ed Kidman and redshirt junior ILB Walt Whalen - who made two big plays at key points in the game - that really stood out. Finch went 12/17 for 218 yards and completed passes to keep scoring drives alive and that really made a big difference in the game. And once again, Kenny played mistake free ball. Wideout Ed Kidman meanwhile, was hauling in 5 of those passes for 85 yards and ran for 19 yards on 3 carries - including the game winning touchdown. Tailback J.B. Wilson, who ran for 100 yards, also had 112 yards receiving on the day, making 5 catches. He may not have won the Heisman, but he'll be remembered as one of the best players in USC Trojan history. Rose Bowl: National Championship Game USC 22 -- Florida 16 PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (12-0) ***2020 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS*** * * *
2020 FINAL BCS RANKINGS Code:
-20-
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay Last edited by beargrowlz : 01-28-2007 at 04:03 PM. |
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01-28-2007, 08:16 PM
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#173 |
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College Starter
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: South Florida
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Time to go to the NFL, Bear!
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01-28-2007, 08:44 PM
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#174 |
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High School JV
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Nah, stay at USC and be the BMOC for a long, long time ...
So do you play out your games or are you getting all the game detail from a play-by-play log within the game? Just curious ... I like the detail ... I also like the guts of coming out throwing late in the game deep in your own territory ... wow -- a deserving champion... AZ **Also just curious -- how has the University of North Carolina (Tar Heels) done in your history ... I haven't really seen them show up in the top 25 so they must not be very good ... |
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01-28-2007, 08:58 PM
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#175 |
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College Starter
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: South Florida
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A thought just hit me...multiplayer TCY *drool*
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01-28-2007, 09:22 PM
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#176 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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TCY doesn't allow you to call your own plays. Which is probably a good thing in my case, because with FOF I start a career calling plays, get 5 games into it and get sick of calling plays.
But TCY does allow you to watch the play by play of the game as it is simmed. So for the games I go into detail on, I'm pausing the game, then writing my notes and thoughts, then allowing the play by play to continue. I'm sure it's nothing more sophisticated than just simming the game without showing you the result and then reading from the log, but it's real enough to pull me in and make me feel like I'm actually on the sidelines. TCY multiplayer would be a blast. Though I think there is a college football game that is multiplayer - bowl bound or something like that. Still, I like TCY, it has aged well I go back to it every now and then. Was a good value buy when you're still playing it three or four years later. As for moving to the pros, I don't know. I had really seriously considered it before this season. I was stunned to win this year, Ken Finch was perfect for this system and threw a lot better than I thought he would. Bringing in that new coordinator with 20 years experience running a wishbone certainly helped I think. The other thing is, aside from scrambling, the one trait Finch had really well developed was third down passing. And our game plan was pretty much run, run then run some more or pass in a long yardage situation. Now that I've won two in a row, Florida's mark of three in a row is only around the corner. Might be worth staying to try and tie or beat. The other issue about moving the character to FOF is that I really don't have a good handle on customizing the game yet. But I guess the only way to figure it out is to try. So we'll see. I expected to compete for the title in 2019, but the run of 2020 was a complete shock to me. I'm still waiting for it to wear off. Thanks for the read guys! And always look forward to your input.
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-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay Last edited by beargrowlz : 01-28-2007 at 09:22 PM. Reason: typos |
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01-28-2007, 09:30 PM
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#177 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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dola.
North Carolina's prestige ranking is Good-(58), they're 79-113 overall. They've been to a bowl game 5 times (2-3), and they were 5-6 this season (BCS Ranking # 145 out of 258 schools). The school's academic ranking is only a Good-(46). They could really use some help.
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-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-28-2007, 09:40 PM
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#178 |
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High School JV
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Maybe Steve Victory should consider football ... (or maybe your Tar Heels should call Butch Davis, like the real university did...)
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01-28-2007, 09:45 PM
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#179 | |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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Quote:
Didn't he just take a job with NC State? Man there would be some serious feuding and a fighting going on, eg. Rick Pitino Kentucky/Louisville.
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-28-2007, 10:21 PM
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#180 |
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n00b
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: 10683
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Who thinks they can outcoach Bear now? Nobody!
Outstanding work with the latest USC team! That was one heck of a coaching job with those guys, and some great games. Congrats on the second title! Good luck on a third, but I know J.B. will be missed. |
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01-29-2007, 01:46 AM
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#181 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2003
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Seems like Keene State has finally taken a few steps backward... I haven't really been seeing them in your top 25 rankings...
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01-29-2007, 05:42 PM
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#182 | ||
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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Thanks Dev. Your're right about JB, boy will he be missed - best player I have ever had in TCY. As always, thanks for the read. Quote:
Crim, Yeah they seem to have taken a significant step backwards, going 7-4 ranked #42 in 2019 and 6-5 #54 this year. Thanks for the read! PS: Az, in answer to your question re: North Carolina, I transposed columns. I should have realized this when I said it was out of 200 and something odd schools as there aren't that many schools. North Carolina was actually ranked 70th out of 125 schools. Sorry about the mess up.
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-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay Last edited by beargrowlz : 01-29-2007 at 05:43 PM. |
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01-29-2007, 10:48 PM
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#183 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2020 Season Summary and Review
 2020 Season Summary and Review Season Review Well, I have to say, looking back on my remarks during the summer, this season was one heckuva surprise - and a pleasant one at that. The kids took to Offensive Coordinator Spencer Foley's wishbone offense like a fish to water and they ran with it - and boy did we ever run. There were three significant factors that contributed greatly to our second consecutive national championship here at Southern Cal. First and foremost was the play of Tailback J.B. Wilson. Plain and simple, J.B. is the best football player I have ever coached. It's a damn shame that young man didn't win the Heisman in his time with us, he certainly deserved to. He's going to be one heckuva NFL player. J.B.'s performance this year was simply stellar. But aside from all the yardage and statistics he put up, Wilson is one of those rare backs that can smell the goalline and seems to be able to dial it up a notch - even though he's already a level above everyone else on the field. J.B. one us a lot of games this year - and over the past four years. He'll be missed tremendously as he goes on to a career in the pros. The second key factor that was crucial to our success was the play of first year Quarterback Kenny Finch. We all knew Kenny could run the ball - he showed us that in practice during his redshirt year. But his abilityto avoid turnovers and his uncanny knack to make the big pass in a crucial situation showed us something about the young man that you can't really ever know until you get him on the field in the heat of battle. This kid has heart and guts. I really look forward to coaching Kenny over the next three seasons as he develops. He's a perfect fit for our offense and we hope he'll continue to develop as a passer as he did this year. The third major factor in our success was our run defense. Teams simply could not run against us and eventually they just gave up trying. We held opponents to a total of 490 yards rushing on the season - an average of 1.53 yards per carry. This inability to run which led to teams going strictly to the air, helped contribute to our fantastic turnover ratio of +17, which was 4th best in the nation. We had such a terrific secondary that they managed 20 interceptions on the season, making it extremely difficult to do anything offensively against us. All in all, our 2020 championship run was a joy to coach. Everything worked like clockwork, we controlled the clock almost every game, we didn't make many mistakes and we created a lot of opportunities by causing our opponents to make mistakes. And when you play that kind of football, consistently over your entire schedule, only good things can happen. And in 2020 they did. * * *
2020 USC Award Winners Code:
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2020 USC Team Summary Code:
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-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-30-2007, 06:50 AM
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#184 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2021 Preseason (Winter)
2021 Preaseason
Winter, 2021 More news to take pride in. The Southern Cal football program now has a prestige rating on Excellent-96. Only one school has a higher prestige rating - Florida, which is Excellent-98. Both Virginia and UCLA are tied with us at Excellent-96. I take great pride in having built up this prestige level as I remember the days when minor programs had more prestige than us. It certainly has been a busy winter though. Besides going through the ritual of declining a number of job offers - most notable being Michigan (Excellent-87) and Texas A&M (Excellent-82), both schools with multiple national championships - our days of playing in the Rose Bowl will be coming to an end in 2024. The USC Board of Trustees have decided to build a new state of the art football stadium which will seat 116,800 fans. The new stadium is set to open in 2024. That was the easy part - now comes the hard part. They'll spend the next three years arguing over what to name it. * * *
I decided to let Clarence Ackerman go after three years with us as Defensive Coordinator - no worries about Clarence, he quickly got hired by Northwestern as their new Defensive Coordinator. Clarence and I had some philosophical differences over the development of our young linebackers - he just didn't see them as crucial to the success of the defense as a whole. Our new Defensive Coordinator is 40 year old Leland Shepard. Leland is an excellent strategist, has a top notch conditioning and rehab program, and emphasizes development in all defensive aspects. Leland joins us from the Chicago Bears, where he was the Defensive Line Coach. I think he'll be an important addition to our staff. The rest of the staff returns for the 2021 season. * * *
I thought we had another pretty good recruiting class last season. TCY Today gave it the thumbs up again, rating it the 7th best in the nation. One of them, Britt Wells, a WR from Hawaii, is likely going to start for us as a true frosh - something that's very rare in this program. But he's that good. Here's a look at the class. Code:
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-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay Last edited by beargrowlz : 01-30-2007 at 06:52 AM. |
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01-30-2007, 08:27 AM
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#185 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2021 Preseason (Spring)
 2021 Preseason Spring, 2021 Time to put together this season's schedule. We have no left over home and homes from last season. We have our annual game against Notre Dame, this year in the Rose Bowl. And as always, there is one PAC-10 school we don't play each year. This season we won't be playing Washington State. Our schedule is all bunched up this season as we play from Week 5 straight through until Week 13. So I think I'm going to try and schedule games for Weeks 1 and 2. We're rated higher in the preseason BCS than ever before - #3. I'm going to be looking for decent opponents, but very winnable games - don't want to hurt our strength of schedule but also don't want to take an early season loss that could hurt any national title aspirations we might have. Stage 1: I offerred BYU a game in the Rose Bowl for Week 1. They weren't interested. Stage 2: Dartmouth offerred us a home game for Week 2. I accepted. Don't think that'll help our strength of schedule though. Stage 3: Indiana offers us a home game for Week 3, so I accept. That completes our schedule. Not exactly what I was looking for, but I'll take it. Here's a look at the complete schedule. Code:
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-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-30-2007, 04:19 PM
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#186 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2021 Preseason (Summer)
 University of Southern California Trojans 2021 Preseason Summer, 2021 As I started working on the incoming frosh's academics, I noticed we took a big hit in coaching blocs. Leland Shepard isn't nearly as likable as Clarence Ackeman was, so we'll have about 20 fewer blocs to allocate this year. Hopefully that won't be a problem. Most of the academic management was just a case of tweaking the upperclassmen around. This year's freshmen aren't quite as well rounded academically as we have had in years past. They're not bad mind you, just not the grade A student-athletes we've come to expect. Once summer workouts rolled around, it seemed apparent that this year's team was going to be far different than last year's squad. No more Big Bobby Burgess at LT, no more 40 carries a game J.B. Wilson - no Ed Kidman. Kenny Finch is really going to have to step it up a notch and become a leader. Kenny will be calling the signals for his second season. In the backfield with him will be redshirt senior Ike Daugherty. Ike has a lot of talent but just doesn't have the stamina JB did. So I think we can expect to see the workload a bit more evenly distributed this year. At Wingback is redshirt junior Alf Snyder. Snyder has the potential to be an explosive player - but likely not this year, Wingbacks are hardly ever explosive. Backing them both up and likely to get a decent share of carries is redshirt junior Jeff Thompson, another very talented back. Kenny Finch will probably throw a bit more this season - though you'll see our running backs featured a lot more with a new screen package we put in. Aside from our backs, Kenny will be throwing to freshman wideout Britt Wells. The kid from Hawaii is just that special that even in a wishbone offense I think you'll see Britt be a difference maker. Our starting Tight End will be sophomore Fred Hastings - known more for his run blocking than anything else. Dustin Wynn and Ricardo carley will also likely see some time there. Our offensive line is pretty solid - though Burgess is irreplacable. Anchoring the line will be 5th year senior OC Gino Lyubashevsky. Gino has really developed into one heckuva lineman and should have a very good season. On his left - the clear strength of our line, will be redshirt senior OG Des Connell and redshirt senior OT Nate Dillon. If we're playing well, expect to hear those two names called a lot this year. Over on the right side is 5th year senior Brian Barton, probably the weakest link in the line. And to his right is freshman OT Mario Harper. Harper has the potential to be an outstanding offensive lineman and once Nate Dillon graduates we expect Mario to move over to LT. But he could be a key player this year if he works at it. Defensive Coordinator Leland Shepard inherits a very strong defensive line, anchored by first year starter, redshirt senior Mel McWilliams. Mel is a major run stopper and should give opposing runners headaches all season. Flanking Mel will be returning starters at DE, 5th year senior Wally Knight and redshirt senior Floyd Jeffers. We expect to see Knight and Jeffers piling up the sacks this season. The linebacking corps is easily the weakness of the defense - the main reason we brought in Leland Shepard to help develop some of our LB recruits. Only redshirt senior ILB Walt Whalen is above average for a major college program. He's joined by redshirt senior Monty Garcia on the inside. Monty has the potential to be a lot better, but just didn't get the work on his technique he needed to improve the past three years. On the outside will again be walk-on 5th year senior Wayne Biakabatuka. Wayne's worked hard as a recruited walk-on and easily deserves a scholarship. He's actually not too bad. He's gotten as good as he is going to get, but for now, that's a lot better than some of these high potential kids that are in the wings. On the other side is junior Ken Kariya. Kariya's development has been painfully slow and he shouldn't be starting, but he's qwhat we've got right now. I'm hopeful that given a year or two Leland Shepard will have this unit built back up to where it should be - and I should note it's not significantly worse than last season's unit, which helped us win a national championship. The secondary is once again very strong. At shutdown corner will be redshirt senior Brad Knight. Knight has all-world talent - but rarely can play more than 50% of snaps - he just doesn't have the endurance to stay out there. Over at the other corner will be redshirt sophomore Mario Barber, who is really going to be a special player. Backing them up quite ably as our nickel back will be redshirt junior Justin jacobs, who will also see a lot of action subbing for Knight. At the safety positions we have two of the best in the nation in senior Lawrence Abdul-Jabbar and redshirt senior Jared Esparza. Not a lot gets by those two. They are ably backed up by redshirt junior Stephen McElroy and redshirt sophomore Amos Carpenter, both of whom will play major roles for us in the future. On special teams, 5th year senior Xavier Eason returns as our Punter while freshman Burt Givens takes over the placekicking duties from the graduated Rod Gardner. Returning punts will be CB Justin Jacobs and Chris Knight, while Knight and Mario Barber will be returning kicks. It's a difficult call whether to use Knight as a return man, but he's so explosive, and we have the depth at corner that using him some here makes sense. Whether we contend for another PAC-10 and national championship this season will largely depend on the performance of QB Kenny Finch. Last season we only turned the ball over eight times all year. Finch is going to throw a little bit more this year, and we don't have J.B. Wilson to pound at opponents like we did last year. So we're expecting a lot out of Finch. The challenge will be if he can live up to that kind of pressure. Tailback Ike Daugherty is a question mark. How much of a load a runner with his limited endurance can shoulder remains to be seen. We've got plenty of depth behind him, but we'd like to see him make an impact - no, we need him to make an impact. We're also looking for WB Alf Snyder and WR Britt Wells to be in positions where they could make a difference. Defenseively we've got the same M.O. as we always do. Stop the run, pressure the quarterback, and let the secondary chase down the bad guys. We've got a defensive line that's good enough at getting to the quarterback we don't have to expose ourselves by blitzing much, and that always helps. And our secondary is top notch. Life after JB should be interesting. * * *
 2021 USC Roster
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 2021 Preseason BCS Rankings
Code:
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-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay Last edited by beargrowlz : 01-30-2007 at 04:27 PM. Reason: width |
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01-30-2007, 06:50 PM
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#187 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2021 Season (1st Qtr.)
University of Southern California Trojans 2021 Season (1st Qtr.) WEEK 1 Off week. USC BCS RANK: #3 We've got the week off, so I'll be on the recruiting trail all week. Some of the most highly touted recruits we're pursuing this year are OT K.C. Burress from Texas, TE Randall Fix from California, WR Myron Hill also from California, DE Jamie Battle from Louisiana and RB Kelvin preston from Indiana. They're all very highly ranked and come from excellent high school athletic programs which means they're more apt to make an immediate impact for us if we need them to. PAC-10 (0-0) -- OVERALL (0-0) * * *
 Week 2vs. Dartmouth (0-0) (USC -10) USC BCS RANK: -- Don't play the first week you can kiss an early season BCS ranking goodbye. We don't take those rankings seriously until about weeks 4-5. We play the Big Green of Dartmouth from my old conference the NNE. they're not a very good team and hopefully we'll have an easy day of it. Dartmouth's biggest threat offensively is Tight End Thurman Washington, who looks like he's good enough to play major college football. The big question is, can we stop them from getting the ball to him? I think we're going to play some tight man to man, use our straight 3-4 defense rather than drop into any nickel and dime sets too much. We won't totally avoid those sets, but nothing more than the usual use of them. That should keep them honest on the run. I think we'll also blitz a lot and really apply the pressure to their quarterback, Rich Hoover. Hopefully we'll hurry him and cause some turnovers. 1st Qtr: QB Kenny Finch was finding freshman wideout Britt Wells a couple of times early, one for a score as we dominate early and go up 14-0. Finch was picked once though, not good. Hopefully Kenny will settle down. Was one really nice option run by WB Alf Snyder that was real impressive. Looking for big things from him down the road. End of 1st: USC 14-0. 2nd Qtr: Ouch, blocked punt gave them the ball at our 24. We trying to give this game away or what? We play toro D and they punch it in. 14-7. Good news is we are putting pressure on their quarterback, without them creating that turnover they don't score as they're unable to move the ball. Bad news is, we should be blowing these guys out and we're not. Oh what a beauty of a play. OC Gino Lyubashevsky just executed a perfect trap block and Ike Daugherty took it home from 42 yards out. Sweet. 21-7 Southern Cal. Oh man, 4th and long and we rough the punter with 45 seconds left in the half. Stupid, stupid, stupid. gets them a field goal, Sheesh that was dumb. Sloppy, sloppy play. Halftime: USC 21-10 Halftime thoughts: the only reason they're in this game is because we're playing dumbass football right now. defensively we're stopping them in their tracks. Offensively getting some fine blocking and have run for 127 yards at the helf. I'd like to see some smarter football in the second half. 3Q: Ouch, Kenny Finch looks like he is seriously injured. Not a good thing for us. Means we'll go to another fleet footed QB, redshirt sophomore Tony Felkey. Not sure if he's ready - in fact I'm pretty sure he's not. Well Tony started off well, running all over the place and running the option well. He's still driving us down the field as the quarter ends. End of 3Q: USC 21-10 4Q: Tony Felkey hits Britt Wells with a scoring strike a minute in, the kid looked really good on his first drive as a sub, we go up 28-10. We then hold the Green to three and out and Justin Jacobs returns the punt 45 yards for a touchdown and we've suddenly started playing like we woke up or something, USC 35-10. Not much else noteworthy happens, we grind up the clock running the ball and end up winning 38-10. I was impressed with Tony Felkey and with Ike Daugherty. Tony really handled the situation well and ran the ball well and Ike, even with his limited endurance, was able to pound the ball at the Green some. Daugherty ended the day with 157 yards and 2 TD's on 24 carries and Britt Wells had 6 receptions for 76 yards and two scores. Not bad for a freshman in his college debut. Kenny Finch is going to need his knee scoped, we'll get him back around bowl time or so. USC 38 -- Dartmouth 10 PAC-10 (0-0) -- OVERALL (1-0) * * *
 WEEK 3vs. Indiana (0-1) (USC -11) USC BCS RANK: #15 We'll be missing a couple of players from this week's game, but the biggest loss will be Kenny Finch. We're going to tone down the increased passing attack we put in, at least until Tony Felkey grows into the job. Code:
We play the Indiana Hoosiers this week. They've got a big void at quarterback, lots of potentially good running backs who just aren't there yet, and one pretty solid wideout in Trevor Weber. We'll play lots of man coverage - our corners excel at that - and double Weber. We'll run mostly a straight 3-4, and blitz the daylights out of their QB. Lots of kids on campus visiting this week. Two or three of the top recruits we're pursuing have been Southern Cal fans since they were kids - heck I was even the coach back then. God I've been doing this a long time. No new contacts this week, just pursuing follow-ups with kids already on our list. Southern Cal vs. Indiana 1Q: Tailback Ike Daugherty was on his game early, pouunding the ball right down the Hoosier's throat to put us up 7-0. We're just running all over Indiana right now. Tony Felkey is running the option to perfection and Daugherty and Alf Snyder are getting some great blocking up front. Ike is over 100 yards after one. End of 1Q: USC 14-0. 2Q: Some serious pounding the ball down their throats and we're up 24-0. Wonder when Offensive Coordinator Spencer Farley is going to pull Ike. Dumb play, Tony Felkey got picked when he shouldn't even be throwing the ball. We're running the ball at will and he goes and turns it over. Rookie mistake. Halftime: USC 24-0. Halftime Notes: We've successfully pressured the Hoosier QB and taken away his favorite target, and even without Mel McWilliams at the nose, they still can't run the ball. We've held them to 1 yard of total offense the first half. Ike Daugherty is having a field day, but I assume he'll check out soon. 3Q: Ike just took it in for a score, he's way over 200 yards on the day, and we're up 31-0. CB Chris Knight picked off a Hoosier pass and took it to the house. This is getting ugly. 38-0. Looks like Farley finally pulled the starters. End of 3Q: USC 45-0. 4Q: Rest of the game was just spent grinding out the clock, which QB Eddie Casillas did a fine job of. We win in a walkover, 59-0. USC 59 -- Indiana 0 PAC-10 (0-0) -- OVERALL (2-0) * * *
WEEK 4 Week off. Good, we get a week off. We're pretty banged up after our first two games. Might get some guys healthy enough to play next week with a light week. LB Wayne Biakabatuka asked for a scholarship. To be truthful, he has earned one, but I just don't have one to give him. Damn shame, the kid plays hard. Mainly made some follow up visits and phone calls, though did start recruiting a couple of centers. Otherwise pretty typical recruiting week. PAC-10 (0-0) -- OVERALL (2-0) * * *
 WEEK 5, 2021 BCS RANKINGSCode:
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-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-30-2007, 11:32 PM
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#188 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2021 Season (2nd Qtr.)
University of Southern California Trojans 2021 Season (2nd Qtr.)  WEEK 5vs. Oregon State (1-1) (PAC-10) (USC -11) USC BCS RANK: #18 We play the Beavers of Oregon State to open our PAC-10 schedule. The Beavers run a Wing-T formation and it looks like RB Lincoln Sherman is the guy we have to stop. Sherman in averaging over 5 yards per carry on the season. QB J.C. Milano is nothing special and they lack receivers of superior ability. Milano does like to throw deep when he throws, so we'll ease off the man to man and play a lot more zone against them - but still mostly in our straightforward 3-4 set. I don't really see a need to play nickel or dime sets more than usual in this game. We'll also be overplaying the run in our gameplan, trying to shut down Sherman. We will be blitzing and double-covering an average amount, nothing unusually high or low. We're a little banged up for this week, but I think we'll be alright. If we play like we're capable of, we shouldn't have a lot of trouble with this team. Code:
Still no committments or rejections. No news is good news, right? GAMEDAY 1Q: Penalties bog us down early and it's difficult to get anything going. Fortunately, our defense stymies the Beavers and they get nothing going either. Late in the quarter Tony Felkey gets on a roll running the option and hits Britt Wells a couple of times and drives us down the field for a score. Then we cause a turnover and it's time for the Britt Wells show - first Felkey hits him with an 18 yard pass play then Wells runs it in on a reverse from 19 yards out. End of 1Q: USC 14-0. 2Q: We're having a very difficult time stopping Sherman, the kid is pretty damn good. Penalties stall the Beaver drive that was all Sherman, and they settle for a field goal. After the Beavers score, Tony Felkey runs the wishbone to perfection, even using Britt Wells in the option game, and drives us the length of the field for a touchdown. Each side misses a long shot at a field goal at the end of the half. Halftime: USC 21-3 Halftime Notes: As pretty much expected, (RB) Lincoln Sherman is really Oregon State's only offense right now. Our secondary has done a heck of a job shutting down the passing game. We haven't really put a lot of pressure on the quarterback, but we're not blitzing a lot. If we can manage to continue to keep Sherman contained, we should be fine. 3Q: They're winning the field position war as neither side can make much headway offensively early in the quarter, but we're backed up deep in our own end so far. Big sack and a fumble recovery gives us the ball at the Beaver 29. The Beaver D stiffened and Burt Gives missed a chippy. End of 3Q: USC 21-3. 4Q: Tony Felkey led us on a great drive to start the 4th with his passing and running the option to perfection, putting another 7 on the board for Southern Cal. Once we got the ball back Felkey just ground the clock and we win going away, 28-3. Freshman wideout Britt Wells put on quite a show, making 5 catches for 93 yards while rushing for 57 yards and a touchdown on 3 carries. Tony Felkey was a brilliant 14/16 for 179 yards and Ike Daugherty broke the 100 yard mark again. OC Gino Lyubashevsky, LG Des Connell and LT Nate Dillon just dominated the line of scrimmage in the second half, making 5 key run blocks apiece. It was a good, solid win for our conference opener. USC 28 -- Oregon State 3 PAC-10 (1-0) -- OVERALL (3-0) * * *
 WEEK 6vs. Oregon (0-3) (PAC-10) (USC -32) USC BCS RANK: #6 We're slowly climbing into the BCS race, moving up to #6 this week. UCLA is leading the pack at the moment. The pundits have us favored by 32. That's crazy, can't believe any book would take action on a spread like that. We play Oregon this week in the Rose Bowl. The Ducks run a flexbone, and their coordinator has been running it for 22 years, so it's finely tuned no doubt. The ducks are real short on offensive talent however, with their real only threat being WR Archie McClurken. Big void at QB and they just don't have the RB's to run this kind of system. We're going to play our straight up 3-4 and bump and run their receivers, with a heavy double team on McClurken. We're also going to blitz a lot and try and pressure their QB into making some mistakes and cause some turnovers. I think if we can shut McClurken down, they don't have a chance. Code:
We're just a little banged up this week, not too bad. And Tony Felkey has done a good, solid job in place of Kenny Finch. We should be ok this week. Good news on the recruiting front. We landed a couple of recruits this week, one of them the talented Tight End I wrote about earlier, Randall Fix. That's a good catch. Started making some new contacts for our secondary recruiting list. A couple of RB's and DE's. GAMEDAY 1Q: Tailback Ike Daugherty broke a 50 yard run off and a couple of plays later we punched it into the end zone. Good opening drive. Late in the quarter CB Brad Knight picks off a pass and returns it for a score. That really demoralizes the Beavers, as they have been running fairly well against us. Felkey isn't throwing well today at all, he's missed some wide open guys by a lot. Still, we're up 14-0 end of the first. 2Q: Felkey runs a beautiful option pitch to Daugherty who takes it 21 yards for a score. 21-0. They can get nothing going through the air as CB Mario Barber picks off a lame duck pass. They keep trying to go to the air but our secondary is just shutting them down. Safety Lawrence Abdul-Jabbar made a big pick. Felkey starts to get into a rythym passing and drives us down the field for another score. We go into the locker room at halftime with a 28-0 cushion. Halftime notes: The Ducks have made a decent show of it running the ball with 47 yards at the half, but their passing attack is just self-destructing. Defensive Coordinator Leland Shepard is calling one heckuva game. 3Q: Redshirt senior DE Floyd Jeffers is all over the Duck QB this quarter, sacking him twice so far. We get the ball and LG Des Connell makes an excellent block on a trap play and Tailback Ike Daugherty takes it 70 yards to the house for a touchdown. Wow. Subs are in at this point, including QB Eddie Casillas. End of three, USC 42-0. 4Q: Just basically ran out the clock in the 4th, though Casillas aired it out some - guess he's trying to be the next Matt Cassel. We win going away, 42-0. Tailback Ike Daugherty had a terrific game despite being pulled early in the 3rd quarter, rushing for 166 yards and 3 touchdowns on 21 carries (7.9 avg). Wingback Alf Snyder also ran for two scores. USC 42 -- Oregon 0 PAC-10 (2-0) -- OVERALL (4-0) * * *
 WEEK 7@ California (4-1) (PAC-10) *TV3* (USC -6) USC BCS RANK: #9 We'll face our real first test of the year this week against the Cal Golden Bears up at Berkeley. It'll be real interesting to see how Tony Felky fares against a good team. We'll really be holding the reins tight on his passing - he just isn't ready and can't throw the ball with any consistency. So look for a ton of runs by us this week. Cal runs the Run & Shoot offense. They like to air it out, but their pass blocking is suspect and their QB, Wendell Bozeman, is prone to picks. They have at least four very talented wideouts, so we won't be double-teaming at all. We'll be playing a lot of man to man right off the line, and not worry about the deep zone as Bozeman has trouble throwing long. We're also going to use a lot of nickel and dime packages as Cal doesn't run the ball much - even though they have a pretty talented kid as their lone set back. We'll be overplaying the pass in our gameplan by a lot, and blitzing constantly, I want as much pressure on Bozeman as possible. He's a turnover waiting to happen. Code:
Only QB Kenny Finch will definitely miss this week. Gardiner will probably try and play. More great news on the recruiting front as one of our most sought after recruits, Myron Hill, a wide receiver from Ruben S Ayala High School in Chino, California, has signed a letter of intent to play for us next season. We landed a few other recruits as well and this year's class is shaping up to be another good one. GAMEDAY 1Q: Bozeman just picked us apart on Cal's first drive but it stalled inside the 10 so the Golden Bears had to settle for a field goal. We came right back with a 90 yard scoring drive on the legs of Ike Daugherty who just kept pounding the ball right at Cal. We're definitly winning the field position war as the game is being played on Cal's side of the field. Tony Felky hits Freshman FB Warren Gardiner with a 16 yard scoring strike and we go up 14-3 at the end of one. Our defense has really tightened up and we're starting to apply pressure to Bozeman and we've stymied their last couple of possesions. 2Q: Farley has us go for it on 4th and 2 from the 50 - and we don't make it. Hope that doesn't come back to bite us. More pressure on Bozeman and their drive stalls and they settle for 3 again. Southern Cal 14-6. Jeez. We go for it again and turn the ball over at midfield. Our defense better bail us out bigtime. It does, with a big sack and again Cal settles for 3, we're up 14-9. But Felkey drives us down the field so Burt Givens can boot a 3 with no time left on the clock. Halftime: Southern Cal 17-9. Halftime notes: Cal's actually ran the ball very well, 61 yards against us at halftime, as they're going to it more than I thought they would. We're getting good pressure on Bozeman and making it difficult for Cal to sustain their drives. A couple of 4th down attempts at conversions cost us 6 points - it could have been a lot worse though. 3Q: A big sack by ends Wally Knight and Floyd Jeffers kills a Cal drive just outside field goal range. They've really put the pressure on Bozeman today. Hopefully we can take some of the pressure off them with a nice long drive. It doesn't happen, but Xavier eason pins the Golden Bears back at their 7 with an excellent punt. Our defense continues to shut Cal down and they punt and we get excellent field position at the Golden Bear 38. Now's the time to make something happen. And we do as we drive down the field and Tony Felkey hits Britt Wells with a 7 yard scoring strike and we go up 24-9. End of 3rd: USC 24-9. 4Q: Givens adds a field goal 7:30 into the 4th to put us up 27-9. Jeffers and Knight just keep pounding Bozeman, sacking him twice more and causing a key fumble as Cal drove deep into our territory. That should ice the game. And it did, as we go on to win 27-9. Our defensive gameplan worked to perfection, though I'll admit I didn't expect them to try and run as much as they did - largely successfully. I think we're fortunate they didn't try and run even more, as we simply hammerred Bozeman all day and harried him into making bad passes. DE Floyd Jeffers was simply fantastic, making 7 tackles and sacking Bozeman 4 times. He had a lot of help from fellow DE Wally Knight who recorded 2 sacks of his own. Offensively, Tailback Ike Daugherty ran for 116 yards and one score on 28 carries (4.1 avg) and QB Tony Felkey didn't try and do too much and thus was a very accurate 14/17 for 142 yards and 2 touchdown passes. A very good win for us, and you have to love the way Leland Shepard has our defense playing right now. USC 27 -- California 9 PAC-10 (3-0) -- OVERALL (5-0) * * *
 WEEK 8@ Arizona State (0-5) (PAC-10) (USC -21) USC BCS RANK: #5 We head to Arizona State to play the Sun Devils on their home turf this week. The Sun Devils play a Single Back formation offense that is normally a versatile and effective system. ASU's starting QB is out however, and their backup, Sedrick Hill, is very prone to throwing picks. The Sun Devils don't offer much pass protection either, so we'll be blitzing up a storm to really apply the pressure to the kid. We've got to watch out for their RB, Tony Wentz, who is averaging over 5 yards a carry. So we won't be going to many nickel or dime sets, we'll play them straight up with our 3-4. They have one standout receiver, so we'll be doubling him the entire game and make the kid throw elsewhere. Code:
We lost FB Warren Gardiner for the season last week - that's rough he is a very promising frosh. We landed a couple more recruits this week, but none of the big five we were pursuing. None of them turned us down though, so that's a good thing. GAMEDAY 1Q: A defensive struggle through most of the first quarter and Tailback Ian Daugherty goes down with what appears to be a serious injury. That means Alf Snyder will move over to Tailback and Jeff Thompson will play Wingback. Daugherty surprises everyone and comes back into the game and breaks a 16 yard run on his forst play back from scrimmage, and then Tony Felkey ran off left guard for the score. 7-0 Southern Cal. 2Q: The Sun Devils have sacked Felkey twice today alread. He had only been sacked once all season. They're doing a good job getting to him. We're definitely losing the war of field position, but the Sun Devils can't do anything once they get the ball, so it hasn't hurt us yet. We turn it around and back them up deep in their own territory and then DE Wally Knight sacks QB Sedrick Hill, causing a fumble which we recover at their 11. Big money play right there. From which, Ian daughtery takes it into the endzone on an option pitch. 14-0 USC. With 21 seconds left in the half Safety Lawrence Abdul-Jabbar picked off a Hill pass and brought it down to the ASU 29. We get nothing out of it but lead at halftime 14-0. Halftime notes: Defensively we've been superb. We've held ASU to -17 yards rushing and only 78 yards passing. We've been in Hill's face all day. Leland Shepard really has this crew playing well and he's calling a good game. Offensively we've struggled up to this point. Hopefully the running game will get untracked. 3Q: Then suddenly boom. Mario Barber returns the halftime kick to the 50, Ian daughtery breaks off a run for 36 and then Alf Snyder takes it in from 14 yards out. Running game untracked. We're just pounding Hill, you almost feel sorry for him. Almost. Tony Felkey proceeds to drive us 80 yards down the field where Ike daugherty takes it in for 7, killing most of the 3rd quarter in the process. At the end of 3, it's 28-0 Southern Cal. 4Q: Just need to get the ball back and have another nice, long drive. We add a few points and the starters sit most of the 4th quarter and we come away with an easy 35-0 whitewashing of ASU. That;s the third time we've stoned a team this season. Wally Knight and Floyd Jeffers continue to do a great job applying pressure to opposing quarterbacks as Knight had three sacks today while Jeffers added 2 more and Southern Cal sacked Hill 6 times total on the day. Offensively, the Sun Devils held Ike Daugherty just under 4 yards per carry but Wingback Alf Snyder ran for 79 yards and a score on 13 carries (6.0 avg). QB Tony Felkey was very efficient once again, picking his spots and going 14/16 for 135 yards while throwing 1 touchdown. The key for Tony is to avoid mistakes and so far he's done a pretty good job of that. A very solid win for us this week. USC 35 -- Arizona State 0 PAC-10 (4-0) -- OVERALL (6-0) * * *
 WEEK 9 MEDIA SNIPPETTSLA TIMES Week 9, 2021 Despite an injury to Southern cal's starting quarterback, Coach Bear Growlz has the Trojans sitting pretty at #5 in the BCS rankings, ready to make a run at a third consecutive PAC-10 championship, and, dare we say, a third straight national title. Only the Florida Gators have ever won three consecutive national championships - coincidentally the same school Southern Cal has defeated to win it's two national titles under Coach Growlz. Can SC do it? We don't pretend to know. But with the way that Trojan defense is playing, it wouldn't surprise us one bit. Boy has Southern Cal come a long way. * * *
2021 BCS RankingsCode:
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-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-31-2007, 05:50 AM
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#189 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Not Delaware - hurray!
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I read this entire thing last night and I'm sorry I missed this one earlier. Great job with this. Very well written and I encourage you to keep it up.
One of the great things about TCY is the annual letdown game I would have in my dynasties. Your losses to the teams from Arizona were absolute shockers and heartbreakers. I'm glad you overcame and brought a title home. I'm a Bear Growlz fan, but I'm still not a fan of USC  .
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She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! She loves you, yeah! how do you know? how do you know? |
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01-31-2007, 02:25 PM
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#190 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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CraigSca,
Thanks for the very kind words. I'm glad you're enjoying the story. You're absolutely right about those losses though. I could deal with losing to UCLA every year, they simply were a better program and had better players. But if a game can emotionally devestate you, those losses to those really bad teams from Arizona did. But in the end it made the emotional investment in the story that much more of a rewarding payoff when we finally won a national title. So, it's a fair trade I think. I talk about emotional investment, and this being the first dynasty I have ever written about, I have noticed that telling the story, writing it up, makes the game come alive more than any other FOF or TCY career I've ever played. I'd certainly recommend writing a dynasty to anyone who really wants to maximize their emotional attachment to their players or teams in the game. It's been lots of fun. Most of all, thanks for the read! It's nice to know what you're writing is being read and enjoyed.
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-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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01-31-2007, 04:07 PM
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#191 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Not Delaware - hurray!
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I've attempted a great many dynasties of my own, but usually get stuck in year 2 when it comes to write-ups. Your patience is amazing! I'm banking on it to keep this particular dynasty going
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She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! She loves you, yeah! how do you know? how do you know? |
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02-01-2007, 01:16 PM
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#192 |
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High School JV
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Yeah, good writeups ... I like the graphics in recent posts as well ... Sounds like you've "mastered" the game at this point ...
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02-01-2007, 06:10 PM
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#193 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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Thanks!
Taking over gameplanning entirely from the AI really helps. And at some point, with great recruiting class after great recruiting class, the talent just has to come to fruition at some point. If I can win a title this season, that'll make three in a row and tie Florida's record. Not counting my chickens mind you, my backfield isn't nearly as good as it was last season. But if I do, I'll make a run at breaking the record, and either see about bringing an NFL team to LA or wait one season until Kenny Finch graduates, and then see about getting an NFL team for LA.
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-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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02-02-2007, 12:09 AM
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#194 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2021 Season (3rd Qtr.)
 University of Southern California Trojans 2021 Season (3rd Qtr.)  WEEK 9vs. #15 Stanford (6-0) (PAC-10) *TV2* (USC -10) USC BCS RANK: #5 We play a very good Stanford Cardinal team this week in the Rose Bowl. Stanford, UCLA and Southern Cal are all undefeated in the PAC-10, and overall. In essence, the loser of this game is virtually eliminated from the PAC-10 race - not to mention from contending for a national championship. We're a little banged up heading into the game, but freshman FB Warren Gardiner is the only player defintely out. Code:
Spoke with Kenny Finch and he wants to play. This is a big game in our season, and if he's physically able to go we'll go ahead and start him. But the threshold for removing him will be set very low and we'll keep Tony Felkey loose and ready just in case. Quarterly grades were given out this week. Four players had a D+, no one with anything lower. Allocated three coaching blocs to each of those players and still have plenty for the last two quarters. We've landed a couple of linebackers this recruiting season - Jermaine Louks and Floyd Fauber - and we're looking for some good development of these two players what with being the first incoming class of new linebackers that Leland Shepard will get to work with. We're still waiting for DE Jamie Battle - one of our prime recruiting targets - to make a final decision. He's going to be an outstanding defensive lineman. Stanford runs a standard Pro Formation offense and their offensive coordinator has been running it for 14 years, so they have it well tuned. Their quarterback, Ralph Duffy, is no better than an average college QB. They do have an outstanding WR in senior Isaac Stone - we'll be double covering him a lot as he is clearly their best option in the passing game. They've got a solid offensive line - Duffy has only been sacked 7 times in 6 games. Our scouting report says Duffy doesn't like to go deep, and with our corners so good man to man, that means we'll be running lots of man to man coverage. The Cardinal have a very solid running game with RB Jared Phillips leading the way. Phillips is averaging 112 yards per game and 5 yards per carry. He's a very dangerous runner. I'm more worried about Phillips beating us than I am about Stanford's passing game doing so. However, our front seven is pretty adept at stopping the run, so I don't think we need to overplay it in our gameplan. In the end, after mulling this over some, I've decided we're going to look about equally as much for the pass as the run - overplaying the run in short yardage situations but otherwise playing for the run and the pass about equally. We're not going to blitz an extraordinary amount. I want our backers spying the run and dropping back into pass coverage. The Cardinal don't give up a lot of sacks anyway - but our best pass rushers are our ends anyway, so they'll be rushing the passer no matter what. All in all we're looking at a pretty straightforward 3-4 with heavy man to man coverage in the secondary, and a heavy dose of double-team on Stone. GAMEDAY 1Q: We kick off and right away Wally Knight gets 2 quick sacks of Duffy and the Cardinal are forced to punt. It's a real luxury when you can get that kind of pressure on a QB without having to blitz. Kenny Finch drives us right down the field with a nice combination of running and passing capped off by a 12 yard run for a score by Tailback Ike Daugherty. We go up 7-0. It's good to see Kenny play so well the first drive, but we've got a quick hook set for him if need be. Hopefully he'll stay away from reinjuring that knee. Kenny is driving us down the field again - he sure likes having Britt wells as a target - when the quarter ends. End of 1Q: USC 7-0 2Q: Daugherty scores from 2 yards out and is really running all over these guys. They can't seem to lay a hand on him today. 14-0 Southern Cal. DE Wally Knight got banged up on a play, don't know if he'll return. Stanford can't move the ball at all against us so far, they've got -11 yards total offense. Both teams make defensive stands and we trade punts before Kenny Finch drives us downfield, mixing his highly accurate passing and our wishbone option game to perfection. Ike Daugherty takes it in from 9 yards out for his 3rd rushing touchdown of the day. We go up 21-0. Looks like Wally Knight isn't coming back today, but his opposite number, Floyd Jeffers really starts harassing Duffy and the Cardinal just can't get anything going. we drive down the field again and Daughtery punches it in from 3 yards out for his 4th TD of the game. 28-0 USC at the half. Halftime notes: Our defense has been superb the entire half, completely shutting down the Stanford offense, which has posted -17 yards of total offense. Our offense has been just as efficient, marching down the field over and over behind the dominating blocking of RG Brian Barton and his teammates. Now hopefully Offensive Coordinator Spencer Farley will get Kenny Finch out of the game and let Tony Felkey take over at QB. No need to risk re-injury to Finch. 3Q: Kenny Finch stays in the game and late in the third hits Brit Wells with a 56 yard scoring strike. Now maybe Farley will take him out as it's 35-0. Farley finally pulls Finch and puts in Felkey. End of 3Q: Southern Cal 35-0. 4Q: The second unit just pours it on as we grind out the clock and we win going away, 49-0. Southern Cal controlled the ball for over 36 minutes and we limited Stanford to 29 yards of total offense - their backup quarterback came in at the end and hit on some passes. Tailback Ike Daugherty had a solid game despite checking out early, rushing for 111 yards and 4 touchdowns on 23 carries (4.8 avg) and WR Britt Wells had a big day, making 6 catches for 150 yards and 1 TD grab. QB Kenny Finch was a very efficient 13/16 for 218 yards and 1 score in his return to action, also rushing for 24 yards on 4 carries. Defensively Wally Knight and Floyd Jeffers each had a pair of sacks as we sacked the Cardinal quarterback 6 times on the day, almost equaling the 7 sacks in the 6 games previous that Stanford had given up. Wally Knight hyperextended his elbow and could miss up to 3 weeks, but that was the only bad news for us on the day as we played an excellent all around game. USC 49 -- Stanford 0 PAC-10 (5-0) -- OVERALL (7-0) * * *
 WEEK 10vs. Washington (4-3) (PAC-10) *TV4* (USC -16) USC BCS RANKING: #1 We move into the #1 slot in the BCS rankings, but still have to play Notre Dame (#2) and UCLA (#3). No one said trying to win three national championships in a row would be easy. We've got three slots left open in our recruiting class for this year - still waiting word from Jamie Battle. I have a feeling it's going to come down to us or Florida. We play at home this week against the Washington Huskies. We're a little banged up this weekand we'll really miss DE Wally Knight. Redshirt senior Austin Lew will start in Knight's place. Code:
What we're going to do is play their receivers heavy man to man, but no double teams as their best receiver is out for the year and they don't have any other one standout receiver. We're going to overplay the run and stack it with some 4 man fronts - leaving us a man short in the secondary, but a risk I'm willing to take against these guys - blitz early and blitz often, and try and force QB Greg Orlasky to make some mistakes. Offensively we'll keep the slightly opened up passing attack in place as Kenny Finch starts again, but again we've got an early hook out there for him. No need keeping him in the game if it gets out of hand. GAMEDAY 1Q: Game starts off beautifully with a big sack on the first play by DE Floyd Jeffers. 8 minutes in and Kenny Finch hits freshman wideout Britt Wells with a 42 yard scoring strike, 7-0 USC. They're really containing our running game very well though. Orlasky is throwing the ball pretty well for the Huskies when we don't get to him. But their kicker shanked a FG attempt and wasted a good drive for them. It was a hard fought first quarter. The only runs that are working for us are the option play and the trap - they've shutdown the power stuff and really contained Ike Daughtery. Kenny Finch is throwing the ball well though. After 1Q, USC 7-0. 2Q: Finch drives us down the field end of the first and first minute of the second and Ike Daughterty takes it in from 3 yards out, 14-0 Southern Cal. We drive down the field mostly on the arm of Kenny Finch and a lot of traps called by Offensive Coordinator Spencer Farley - they're overplaying the run and the traps are catching them way out of position. Kenny then hits senior wideout Glenn jacobs for an 8 yard touchdown pass - 21-0 SC. We're really pouring the pressure on Orlasky now, no sacks but a lot of hurried throws and deflected passes. The Huskies can't get anything going and then Glenn Jacobs takes a punt return 51 yards to the house and we go up 28-0. Fnch is just on fire throwing the ball and he marches us down the field where Wingback Alf Snyder takes it in from a yard out, 35-0 Southern Cal. That's how the half ends. Halftime notes: Kenny Finch just has blown the game wide open. The Huskies are so focused on stopping the run - and doing a relatively good job at it, that Finch is just able to pick apart their defense through the air. Orlaskey has been decent when he gets the time to throw, but we haven't been giving him much time at all. And we've held them to 21 yards rushing through the first half. It's pretty much time for Farley to pull Kenny, but I bet he lets him play the 3rd. 3Q: I was wrong, QB Tony Felkey starts the second half. Good move by Farley, no need to risk re-injury to Finch in a blow out. Washington finally gets on the board with a 66 yard punt return for a score. 35-7 SC. The Huskies pull Orlaskey as well. He didn't play poorly, and didn't make any mistakes, we just harried him all day. No further scoring in the third. Felkey, when he throws the ball is simply awful today. the Huskies continue to do a good job containing our running game - though not shutting it down entirely. Felkey has a lot of growing into the QB role to do before he's ready for prime time. 4Q: We add a few more points and third string QB Eddie Casillas sees some playing time and we go on to win 45-7. We controlled the tempo of the game by controlling the ball for 40 minutes. Kenny Finch, in one half of play, was 8 for 10 passing the ball for 165 yards and two touchdowns. He also carried the ball 4 times for 21 yards. His favorite target, as always, was wideout Britt Wells, who made 9 catches for 179 yards and a touchdown. WR Glen Jacobs had a good day, returning a punt for a touchdown and also hauling in a pass for a score. Wingback Alf Snyder probably had his best day as a Trojan to date, rushing for 80 yards and two touchdowns - many of his runs were traps that just caught the Huskies out of position. Good play calling by Farley. A very solid win for us against an average team. USC 45 -- Washington 7 PAC-10 (6-0) -- OVERALL (8-0) * * *
 WEEK 11@ Arizona (2-6) (USC -28) USC BCS RANK: #3 UCLA and Notre Dame climb ahead of us in the BCS rankings this week, and after this week's game against the Wildcats we have both Notre Dame and UCLA left to play. That should settle some matters. Still no word on Jamie Battle. His high school coach has already let me know nothing we do at this point will improve our chances of landinh him, so it's just sit and wait and see what he does. Looks like Arizona has a new Offensive Coordinator, but they're running the same trips formation Zach Fuchs put in there when he left here. Zach has since moved on to Arkansas State as their Offensive Coordinator. Their quarterback is A.J. Middleton who is very prone to throwing interceptions and he doesn't get a lot of protection from his offensive line. They don't even make an effort to run the ball, it's strictly a one dimensional attack. They have two receivers they throw to about an equal amount of the time - so we won't be using the double team. No reason to get burned when our guys our good single coverage guys anyway. We will however, put in a full blitz package against Middleton and use some nickel and dime sets. We won't go to four down linemen at all, we'll expect our base 3-4 to stop their run even in goaline situations. I think that should work. We're pretty banged up this week, but I think only Gardiner will miss the game. Everyone else will try and suit up. Code:
Offensive Coordinator Spencer Farley again has orders to pull QB Kenny Finch early if the game gets out of hand. like I've said before, no need to risk re-injury unnecessarily and besides, it does have the added advantage of getting Tommy Felkey more snaps to help develop him. GAMEDAY 1Q: A defensive stop on the first series is always nice, though I was stunned when Arizona ran three run plays to start the game. Now I see why they don't try and run more. Kenny Finch drove down the field on our first possesion, eating up half the quarter and then hit WR Britt Wells for an 18 yard touchdown. 7-0 SC. We add a field goal off a turnover then pickoff a bomb in our own endzone. Don't know what Middleton was throwing at, but he sure threw it a long way. Just as good as a punt for them. End of one: 10-0 USC. 2Q: The Wildcats are doing a good job stopping our run - we've moved the ball on Kenny Finch's arm, nothing else. They're playing really good D against us. But we stall every drive they start by pressuring the QB - ILB Walt Whalen and DE Floyd Jeffers leading the atack on the passer. With 3 minutes left Safety Lawrence Abdul-Jabbar picks off a Middleton pass at the Wildcat 26. Finch runs a couple of options plays and we finally spring Wingback Alf Snyder 11 yards for a score. 17-0 Southern Cal. That's how the half ends. Halftime notes: They've really played our running game very well, holding us to 50 yards at the half. For an NFL team 50 yards might be ok, but we run a wishbone and running yards are our bread and butter. Kenny Finch has been solid passing today, nothing special, not like when he gets on one of his can't miss streaks. Defensively we've done exactly what I wanted. We've pressured their quarterback, created turnovers, shutdown their passing game and their running game is non-existent - they're simply not trying to run the ball after that first series - they just don't have the hosses to run. Hopefully we'll see the offense pick it up a notch in the second half. 3Q: Nothing much happens offensively for either side. We pickoff another bomb at our own 16. For a quarterback, Middleton sure is a heckuva punter. Kenny Finch was reinjured and was replaced by Tommy Felkey. That's not good news for us at all heading into the Notre Dame and UCLA games. But, at least we know what we have in Felkey and he's gotten a bunch of reps this year. The wildcats are dropping a lot of Middleton's passes, so the inefficacy of the Arizona offense isn't entirely his fault. But we do pick him off again at our their 32 with about 5 minutes left in the quarter. Wideout Britt Wells had a big 21 yard run off the option and then Felkey hit TE Dustin Wynn from 6 yards out to make it 24-0. That's how the quarter ends. 4Q: Barring an unforseen offensive spectacle by the Wildcats, the only question left to be answered is can out D post another shutout. Middleton quickly answers that question with a 47 yard strike from midfield and then a 3 yard pass for a score. He's been trying to go deep all day and finally they caught one instead of us. 24-8 SC. They're only down two scores and Middleton tries to go deep again but Brad Knight picks him off at our 31. We're having difficulty killing the clock because they're just stuffing our run. We don't kill much clock but a reverse by Britt Wells for a big gainer and a trap by Alf Snyder finally open up the middle and Ike Daugherty pounds it in from 9 yards out giving us a 31-8 lead. That's how the game ends. They stuffed our run pretty good until the very end, when Spencer Farley got creative with his playcalling. the freshman wideout Britt Wells continues to show he's a key part of this team, able to make plays catching the ball and a couple of running plays a game. Kind of reminds me a little of Tim Brown from his days at Notre Dame. OLB Ken Kariya picked off two Wildcat passes and we picked off 6 on the day. We stayed away from turning the ball over ourselves, which is always good. We lost Kenny Finch for upto 5 weeks with his knee again - so I'm not exactly sure when he'll be back. That's not good news. USC 31 -- Arizona 8 PAC-10 (7-0) -- OVERALL (9-0) * * *
 WEEK 12vs. #1 Notre Dame (8-0) (ND -1) USC BCS RANK: #2 Really good news on the recruiting front this week. Jamie Battle, a defensive end from Zachary High School in Zachary, Louisiana finally made a decision and signed a letter of intent to play for Southern Cal next season. I think he's going to be a real difference maker down the road for this program. UCLA actually lost to Cal last week. What that means is a bit convoluted. If we beat UCLA, we win the PAC-10 as everyone else has at least one loss. If we lose to UCLA next week, and presumably Cal wins their last two conference games, that creates a three way tie for first. Head to head goes out the window, so I think best overall record would win the conference. UCLA is 9-1 right now and Cal is 7-2 (one of those losses is to us). Make a long story short: We should just win our last two games. Duh. Our recruiting class is full and I think we've brought in another top notch class of recruits. That's one thing I've been really good at from day one, even when we were prestige challenged, was finding kids with exceptional ability to come here. Now of course, it's a lot easier than it was then. We're a lot banged up this week and will be without QB Kenny Finch, who has only been able to play in four games all year. Code:
Everyone but Finch and FB Warren Gardiner will suit up. Well, we've got a mini-national championship game on our hands here - #1 Notre Dame against #2 Southern Cal. What i can't believe is that network TV isn't picking this game up. Bizarre how they make their decisions sometimes. The Irish are favored over us by a point. Our players don't like that one bit and hopefully will be able to use it as a positive motivator. The Fighting Irish run a Run & Shoot offense and Offensive Coordinator Rod Howe has been running that system for a long time, so it's finely tuned. They've got a good, solid quarterback in J.B. Loveless - 35 TD's/12 INT's - and he's got a bunch of talented receivers to throw to. Loveless has been sacked 29 times in 8 games, so we're going to try and put as much pressure on his as we can. They also have an excellent running back in Tyrell Meche, but he's only averaging slightly over 10 carries and 55 yards per game - these guys like to throw and throw and throw. I'll admit though, I'm a little leery of blitzing and leaving those receivers to run free. We've got some solid depth in our secondary, so I think given their propensity not to run so far this year, I'm going to go with a maximum amount of nickel and dime sets, play heavy man to man and try and contain their passing game that way. If they beat us with the run, well, it'll be out of character for them to try it, so we'll go with this and see how it works. Offensively we've shortened the playbook passing wise a little bit for Tony Felkey - not as much as earlier in the year, but enough so that we think we can minimize him making any mistakes through the air - which he has proven to be pretty good at avoiding. Hopefully it won't make our offense too one dimensional, but I think it's our best chance to win. GAMEDAY 1Q: This is a really big game, and I admit to being a bit nervous. I hope Felkey is up to the task. I'm going to be second guessed to high heaven over using Finch before he was fully healed if we lose. Man are they good. They hit a 47 yard bomb the first play, but our D stiffens inside the red zone and holds them to a field goal. We really are going to need to grind the clock down and keep them off the field. We fumble and turn it over on our own 18. Not a good start. A big sack by DE Floyd Jeffers keeps them from getting any more than another 3. 6-0 Notre Dame. Tony Felkey marches us down the field, mostly by passing the ball, but the Irish D stiffens and we settle for 3. 6-3 Irish. That's how the quarter ends. 2Q: Well our defense has been alright in containing them, really stopping them inside our red zone. We've got be a little more careful with the ball though. We have a nice drive to start off the second quarter and Tailback ike Daugherty takes the option pitch in from 22 yards out, SC 10-6. That was nice, we moved the ball well on the ground and through the air. Man this kid Loveless is good. He marches them right down the field, boom, bang, bing, but another key sack by Floyd Jeffers pushes them out of field goal range and causes a punt. Floyd has come up big so far today. We turn it over again, fumbling at our own 12 and they run it in for a score. ND goes up 13-10. Nothing our defense can do, it's our offense that is beating us. Talk about taking over the game, QB Tony Felkey just marched us right down the field pass after pass, then ran an option off tackle for 6 yards and a score, Southern Cal goes up 17-13. And that's halftime. Halftime notes: Our defense is playing great. We're in Loveless' face without needing to blitz, and we're containing their passing game for the most part - and as expected they haven't tried to run the ball much at all. Tony Felkey is on fire and playing a great game. But we've coughed the ball up too much - we're lucky to be up 17-13. Let's look for a better start to the second half. 3Q: We do nothing and the Irish start to drive, but yet again a crucial sack halts an Irish drive - this time it's redshirt senior NT Mel McWilliams. Our defensive line is playing out of their minds. Felkey orchestrates an 82 yard, clock killing drive, mainly by throwing the ball, and hits Britt Wells with a 12 yard scoring strike and we go up 24-13. Felkey has 197 yards passing - sheesh that's unheard of in our wishbone. He really is playing a truly great game. The quarter ends with USC up 24-13, but the Irish are driving and have a 3rd and 3 at our 22 as the 4th starts. 4Q: Our defense holds up again and Notre Dame settles for a field goal. Our lead is cut to 8, 24-16. Felkey hits Britt Wells on a 30 yard bomb to start the drive off. The kid is on fire. A big run by Wingback Alf Snyder takes us down to the Irish 13. We need a score here bad. We lose 3 yards and the Spencer Farley calls a trap and a huge block by RG Brian Burton springs Ike Daugherty for a 16 yard TD run. 31-16 Trojans. Man that was a big score - another 80 yard drive btw. Holy hell, Loveless comes right back with a 57 yard bomb and they're driving again. We can't keep them out this time and with 6:12 left we're ahead 31-23 - one score. Let's see if the kid can do it one more time. Tony hits a big pass play to Tailback ike daughtery for 29 yards taking the ball to the Irish 48 with 4:18 to go. The kid has ice water in his veins. Felkey just starts grinding the clock, run, run, then an option pitch to Wingback Alf Snyder who takes it 19 yards to the house and we go up 15, 38-23. Man that's frackin awesome. Psyche. Loveless comes right back hitting on a 33 yard bomb and is driving again when he heaves one into the end zone where Lawrence Abdul-Jabbar picks it off with 1:30 left. We run the clock out and that's it, USC 38-23 over the Fighting Irish. My God, what a shoot out. Loveless threw for 332 yards against us despite us doing everything we could to shut him down. Tony Felkey was absolutely lights out on the day. Felkey went 25 for 28, 25 for 28! He was on fire. The kid threw for 290 yards and a touchdown while rushing for another 41 yards and a score, while WR Britt Wells made 10 catches for 133 yards and a score. Our running game wasn't spectacular, but we did run for four touchdowns - 2 by Ike Daugherty. OG Des Connell and OT Nate Dillon did have a good day on the line, making 7 and 5 key run blocks respectively. Defensively we got to J.B. Loveless 4 times, two sacks by Floyd Jeffers. We got to the Irish quarterback just enough to stall a couple of key drives and keep us in the game. Boy does he have a rifle for an arm. A great win for us against a great team. One of the best, most exciting wins in my coahing career. USC 38 -- Notre Dame 23 PAC-10 (7-0) -- OVERALL (10-0) * * *
WEEK 13 MEDIA SNIPPETTS LA TIMES Week 13, 2021 What am amazing run Southern Cal is on, and the performance by redshirt sophomore QB Tony Felkey against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame was, in a word, amazing. But as they head into their annual match against their cross-city rival UCLA - again with the PAC-10 championship on the line and a possible chance at a third national championship in as many years - one has to wonder if SC Coach Bear Growlz rushed QB Kenny Finch back too soon. Finch will miss the UCLA game and his loss, notwithstanding Felkey's magnificent performance last week, could cost the Trojans a conference championship, a national championship, and a shot at making history. Was it worth it? We'll find out this week. # # #  RIVALS.COM USC MESSAGE BOARD Week 13, 2021 Poster: usC4eVr Message: Felkey's a way better QB than Finch dude. Look how he took out ND. Dude he's got skillz. Poster: Trojanman Message: I don't know what you're basing your opinion on 4evr, but there's no quarterback controversy. Ken Finch is far better than Felkey and Growlz was dumb to waste him in the Arizona game. He should have sat him against that worthless team of garbage. Now we play UCLA with an unpolished kid who can't throw his way out of a paper bag. Poster: southerncalchik Message: 25 for 28 is some paper bag. Poster: bruinz4life Message: USC SUKZ! UCLA RULES! WE'RE GONNA KICK YOUR AZZ!!!!!!! # # #  ESPN.COM Week 13, 2021 Could we be looking at the same national championship game for a third consecutive year? Right now Southern Cal and Florida are sitting at #1 and #2 in the BCS rankings - right where they have been the last two years. Wouldn't it be fitting that in order for USC to win a third consecutive national title, they'd have to beat the only team that has ever won three in a row? But first, the Trojans need to get by UCLA - a game that will be on national TV1 and will have every college football fan glued to the television. * * *
2021 BCS RankingsCode:
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-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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02-02-2007, 08:28 PM
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#195 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2021 Season (4th Qtr.)
 University of Southern California 2021 Season (4th Qtr.)  WEEK 13@ #6 UCLA (9-1) (PAC-10) *TV1* (UCLA -2) USC BCS RANK: #1 It always seems to come down to this game for us. This is my 14th year at Southern Cal, and I can't remember an unimportant game against UCLA - well I guess my first couple of seasons when we were really bad the game was just for pride. But since then, this game has more often than not decided the PAC-10 championship, and lately determined whether we get a chance to win the National Championship. It's going to be a tough game this year as we play at UCLA. I sure wish we had Kenny Finch for this game, but QB Tony Felkey has been on fire lately, so I am cautiously optimistic. Quarterly grades came out and I assigned some of the staff to work with the students that had D's or D+'s. I've saved some coahing block time for the end of the year just in case anyone is in danger of failing a course, but I hope we'll be ok regarding academics. No recruiting news this week as our recruiting class is full already. We are banged up again this week, with QB Kenny Finch and FB Warren Gardiner out. Tailback Ike Daugherty has been playing hurt all season but that hasn't stopped him from averaging 126 ypg and 4.9 ypc. He's a tough kid and really has impressed me. Code:
UCLA runs an outstanding Pro Formation offense. They have a brilliant offensive mind in Offensive Coordinator Burt Boyer and they'll be difficult to stop. The Bruins QB is Clarence Compton, who likes the short to medium passing game and has difficulty going deep. He's a solid quarterback, but not a superstar. Their leading receiver is out, and they're starting a very poor walk-on at the second receiver spot. So we'll likely double-team WR Deron Smith, normally their second receiver, but now forced into the primary role. We'll also play lots of man to man as Compton has trouble with the deep ball. We're not going to be able to overplay the pass however, because the Bruins have an outstanding Running Back in senior Xavier Lindsay. Lindsay gets the ball about 19 times a game and is averaging 90 ypg and 4.3 ypc. They don't seem to run enough to overplay the run, but just enough and the kid is talented enough so we won't be overplaying the pass. Compton has only been sacked 9 times in 10 games, the Bruins O-line has been doing a good job of protecting him. I think we'll blitz quite a bit and try and add some pressure to that provided by our D-line. We'll go with the normal setting to move to 4 downlinemen - goaline situations and such, but nothing out of the ordinary. We'll utilize more than the normal nickel and dime sets, but not extraordinarily so. I think this setup will provide us with the best chance to win. GAMEDAY 1Q: UCLA put together a nice 6 minute drive to start the game, but a key sack by DE's Floyd Jeffers and Wally Knight knocked them out of field position, forcing them to go for it and turning the ball over on downs. Those two really make a lot of big plays for us. Neither side gets anything going until near the end of the first, when Tony Felkey finds WR Britt Wells on a couple of big passes and Tailback Ike Daugherty takes the option pitch in for a score from 2 yards out. USC 7-0 and that's how the quarter ends. They've really shutdown our run. The only way we have been able to move the ball is through the air. Fortunately we're getting to Compton, already having sacked him twice - Austin Lew had the second sack forcing a punt. 2Q: We drive down the field, Felkey finally gets the option to work some, but we shank a field goal with 10:24 left in the half. Big missed opportunity there for us. Neither team can get anything going at all. UCLA's offense consists of Compton scrambling to avoid pass rushers and our offense - well, we really haven't had one. We make a key mistake with 3:14 left in the half, as Felkey completes a pass to FB Spencer Washington who then fumbles the ball at our own 35, Bruins recover. Not good. A big sack by DE Floyd Jeffers forced the Bruins into 3rd and long and redshirt senior ILB Walt Whalen picks off a Compton pass at our 23. That was a HUGE defensive stand. And that's how the half ends, Southern Cal 7-0. Halftime notes: The only thing working offensively for us right now is when Tony Felkey throws the ball. The Bruins are completely overplaying the run and shutting down our wishbone. We really need to get some kind of running game going in the 2nd half. Defensively our guys are playing a gem of a game. Compton is facing all kinds of pressure, we've sacked him 4 or 5 times already and hurried him a number of times. Literally, their best offensive plays have been Compton scrambles. We need to keep the pressure on and try and create some more turnovers. 3Q: They're really pouring the pressure on Felkey - and we're not real good at protecting him. The essence of our passing game is surprise, if they know a pass is coming we're in trouble and they can get to him. They've simply stopped our passing game by hammerring Felkey. He's getting pounded back there. Fortunately we're doing the same thing to Compton, as ILB Walt Whalen came up with a key sack to force a UCLA punt after a promising drive. No one can do anything offensively in the third - it's total domination by both defenses. But UCLA will start off the 4th with the ball at midfield. Our defense will need to come up big again. 4Q: A key sack by Walt Whalen and Floyd Jeffers knocked the Bruins out of field position and they go for it on 4th, turning the ball over on downs at our 31. Yet another big stand by Leland Shepard's boys. We have a promising drive snuffed out by a holding call and punt, UCLA takes over at their own 32 with 8:47 left in the game. We need the defense to stop them in their tracks. And they do, actually forcing them back 5 yards and we take over after a punt at our own 32 with 7:31 left in the game. Another score would be nice, but I'd settle for grinding the clock down too at this point. We can do neither as we committ two stupid penalties and they get a nice punt return and good field position, starting at their own 40 with 5:28 left on the clock. If we win this thing, it's going to be the defense that does so. Another big sack by ILB Walt Whalen forces yet another punt. We take over at our own 24 with 4:32 left on the clock. All we need is a first down or two and that'll be the game. FB Spencer Washington makes up for his earlier turnover and pancackes a linebacker and springs backup Tailback Jeff Thompson for a 66 yard counter play and we take the ball down to the 4. The Bruins D stiffens but we get a 3 which should be the final nail in their coffin as we go up 10-0 with 1:58 left. And it is, as we hold them and win a tough, completely defensive struggle, 10-0 over our arch-rival UCLA. Their defense just stopped us cold. We just couldn't get any points - well we got ten, but you know what i mean. The only thing working for us offensive all day was Felkey to Wells. Tony had a decent day passing despite being under constant pressure, going 17/26 for 196 yards and no turnovers, while Britt Wells continues to play exceptionally well for a freshamn, making 5 catches for 110 yards. We also had that one big run play at the end that led to the field goal that iced the game, but other than that, hats off to the best defense we have faced all year. Similarly, our defense is making a very good case for itself that it is the best defense in the nation. We sacked Compton 7 times, totally shut down both their passing and running games, and recorded our fifth shutout in 11 games. I'd be hard pressed to find a better defense than ours. ILB Walt Whalen had the game of his career, making 7 tackles, assisting on 4 others, recording 2.5 sacks and picking off a Compton pass. That's about as complete a game as you can have. Other defensive standouts were Safety Jared Esparza who made 8 tackles, and DE's Floyd Jeffers and Austin Lew who had 2 sacks each. It was a truly dominating performance by our defense, which played its best game of the season this week. This victory wins us our third consecutive PAC-10 Championship. Now we just wait and see what the BCS decides about where we'll be going to play our Bowl Game. USC 10 -- UCLA 0 PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) ***2021 PAC-10 CHAMPIONS***  * * *
WEEK 14 Off week. USC BCS RANK: #1 Coming off our big win over UCLA we're still at #1 in the BCS rankings, with Florida 2nd. Florida has a 12th game to play though, as they'll be playing for the SEC Championship. I'm not sure they can catch us though, as our BCS score is 5.73 and theirs is 10.51. Not impossible, but not likely. Virginia is 3rd in the BCS rankings and still has one game to play at 10-0. Their score is 12.21 so it's not impossible they could overtake Florida - again not likely though. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 15 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK USC BCS RANK: #1 Well, things have certainly gotten interesting. Virginia passed Florida this week with their win over Virginia Tech and is barely ranked #2 by 0.61 over Florida. But Florida plays in the SEC Championship Game this week, so I'm guessing a Florida win moves them ahead of Virginia. Allowing that 12th game must continually piss the Cavaliers off, as they keep getting shut out of a shot at the national title. But hey, Florida could lose, right? PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 16 Off week. USC RANK: #1 Florida narrowly beat Alabama 31-28 but the win wasn't enough to pass Virginia, who finally gets a shot at the national title. We remain #1, so we play 11-0 #2 Virginia in The Rose Bowl for the national championship. QB Kenny Finch will be healthy. But do we take the ball out of Tony Felkey's hot hands at this point? PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 17 MEDIA SNIPPETTSLA TIMES Week 17, 2021 Well they did it again. Coach Bear Growlz' Southern Cal team knocked off UCLA and won their third consecutive PAC-10 Championship and now have a shot at winning their third consecutive National Championship in The Rose Bowl. But it won't be against Florida again, this year it'll be against ACC upstart Virginia, which has been left out in the cold the past couple of seasons despite being undefeated. Now Virginia gets a chance to show they deserve playing with the big kids. For years and years Coach Growlz' Trojans have labored in the shadows of a superior UCLA Bruin football program. No more. The Trojans have shown, over the past three years, that they are not only the dominant college football team in Los Angeles, but the PAC-10 and perhaps all of college football. Not bad for a coach that had to endure 2-3 years of a website called "firebeargrowlz.net". Not bad at all. # # # ESPN NEWS Week 17, 2021 So Florida won't get a chance to stop the rolling USC Trojans from tying their consecutive national championship streak after all. Instead, standing in Southern Cal's way will be a gallant Virginia Cavalier team. Does Virginia have a chance? Let's not forget that Virginia isn't an upstart. They've played great football the past three years and have been just as deserving of a shot at the national title as SC and Florida. So this isn't some tiny school from a tiny conference that snuck into the championship game by some technicality. What we have looming here is a matchup between two very potent offenses - Virginia passes more and USC has the best rushing attack in the nation, averaging 219.9 ypg and over 4 yards per carry. More importantly however, The Rose Bowl will feature the undisputed two best defenses in the land. Southern Cal held their opponents to an anemic 5.4 points per game to lead the nation while Virginia was right behind them holding their foes to a woeful 6.7 ppg. USC also led the nation in run defense, allowing only 32.4 yards per game, and an average of 1.3 yards per carry. The Cavaliers had the 5th best run defense in the land, holding opponents to 52 yards per game and 1.8 ypc. That may give the vaunted Trojan wishbone some serious trouble come game time. Both team's pass defense was also stellar, with Virginia leading the nation by only allowing 116.7 yards per game through the air. In second? That would be Southern Cal, which allowed only 122 yards per game passing. And in an area most crucial in a contest of closely matched teams, it was again Virginia which led in Turnover Margin, with a triking +22. Right behind them? Tied for scond is USC with a +17 turnover margin. With defenses like these, we wonder if anyone will score an offensive touchdown at all. # # #  SPORTS ILLUSTRATED Week 17, 2021 Southern Cal upcoming national title game against Virginia leaves SC Coach Bear Growlz with a damned if he does, damned if he doesn't decision to make. Redshirt sophomore backup QB Tony Felkey has led the Trojans to the brink of yet another national championship. But starter Kenny Finch is healthy enough to play in the national title game. Finch was the starter in Southern Cal's national title win last year, and started the season off as the starter before going down with injury twice this season. But Felkey has played extremely well in his time as the starter. There's an old adage that you don't lose a starting job due to injury. That contrasts with the old adage that you dance with who brought you. The former clearly advocates the starting of Finch over Felkey, the latter Felkey over Finch. Putting all old sayings aside, logic clearly dictates that Coach Growlz should start the quarterback that gives SC their best chance at winning. But with the track record of Finch who has been outstanding, and the recent play of felkey, which has been equally as outstanding, we don't even know who gives them the best chance to win. What a terrible, terrible problem to have. * * *
2021 BCS RANKINGSCode:
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__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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02-03-2007, 02:09 PM
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#196 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2021 Season (Final)
 University of Southern California Trojans 2021 Season (Final) WEEK 17 MAJOR BOWL TIER Off week. USC BCS RANK: #1 Quarterly grades came out.Fairly displeased with grades this quarter, too many D's. Used up the end of my coaching blocks to assign tutors and such, but I'm not happy. With the schedule the players have, they should be getting C-'s at the worst. Florida passed Virginia is the BCS rankings this week - but the Bowl bids have already gone out. Pretty ironic as I think the shoe was on the other foot a year or two ago. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
WEEK 18 FOUR STAR TIER Off week. USC BCS RANK: #1 Colorado beat UCLA in the Hoosier Bowl 13-7. Five points to anyone who can tell me what "The Perfect Day" means to a Southern Cal fan. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0)
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WEEK 19 NEW YEAR'S TIER Off week. USC BCS RANK: #1 Notre Dame pounded Colorado State 41-18 in the Fiesta bowl while Florida lost to Iowa 27-17 in the Orange Bowl. PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-0) * * *
 WEEK 20NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME THE ROSE BOWL: vs. #3 Virginia (11-0) *TV1* (USC -3) USC BCS RANK: #1 11-1 Notre Dame moved into 2nd in the BCS rankings due to their strong performance in the Fiesta Bowl and the Cavaliers fell to #3. Virginia hiwever, is #1 in both the coaches and fans polls. We're #2 in both polls. The Irish's one loss? When we won the Golden Shillelagh this season in the Rose Bowl. Anyhoooo, we've got some football to play this week. Nothing like a 42 day lay-off between the end of your season and the championship game. But hey, I'm not complaining mind you. Just saying. The Virginia Cavaliers run an I-Formation offense. Their coordinator Bert White has been running it for 22 years, the team has it down pat. White is not known for being what you'd call an offensive genius however. Their Defensive Coordinator on the other hand is Dwight Gann, a very good tactician. The Cavaliers have an absolute stud at QB, a Georgia boy by the name of Adam Stone. Our scout says he has trouble avoiding INTS, but he only threw 5 picks out of 290 passes - so I think that's a bunch of hooey. He's been sacked 18 times, so I think some blitzing might put some pressure on him and stop some key drives. He's got a couple of decent wideouts, but nothing special over there. Virginia's main weapon is running back Danny Murphy. Murphy rushed for over 1500 yards and had over 900 yards receiving. He's going to be difficult to contain. Last year he was a 1000/1000 player - pretty amazing in 12 games. Ok, so here's what we've got. We know Murphy is going to hurt us - there's no real practical way to completely stop him. If we overplay the pass he'll run it on us and if we overplay the run Stone will just throw it to him. I think the solution will be to play the run and the pass equally, but use some 4 down-lineman fronts and stay away from nickel and dime packages altogether. I also think just lining up man to man will be the best way to contain him and hope our linebackers can contain him. I can't think of any other plan of attack that might work better - Murphy has a unique skill set that makes him difficult to play. But that's not what everyone really wants to know. What everyone really wants to know is who are we going to start at quarterback. There's never been a question in my mind though. Tony Felkey has played great for us, no doubt about that. But Kenny Finch is healthy. So Kenny Finch starts. You might ask why? And I'd say that's a pretty dmn good question. Felkey has the hot hand and has filled in superbly for Kenny. But when there's a national championship on the line, I want my best players on the field, not holding a clipboard. Kenny Finch is by far my best quarterback, so that's why he plays. If I lose, I want to know I lost with my best players. Code:
Do not be surprised to see Kenny Finch throw the ball a bit more than we usually do. I don't want to be too totally one dimesnional against these guys, so we'll throw a bit more with him back in the lineup. I just know this kid Murphy is going to drive me nuts all day. We better get to Stone and pound him so Murphy doesn't make a difference. GAMEDAY 1Q: First drive we got nothing. They return the punt to our 37. And the numbers on the scoreboard are purple. Never seen that before. Weird. First play, boom Stone to Murphy 37 yard scoring strike. Dah-yam. Penalties just kill our next drive. We're playing dumbass football right now. Our defense covers Murphy well, nice play by Safety Jared Esparza and we get good field position on the punt at our 42. Need to take advantage of this. I see why they're one of the top defenses in the nation - we can't do anything against them. However we do pin them back at their 15 with a punt. So maybe our defense can create a turnover. No turnover but we force another punt, again solid field position at our 39. We need to take advantage of this while we have the chance though. It isn't going to be this way the entire game. Kenny Finch hit WR Britt Wells with a big 31 yard pass play and we get some semblence of a running game going but our drives stalls inside the 10, so we settle for a Burt Givens field goal, 7-3 Virginia. That's how the quarter ends. 2Q: Right now Danny Murphy is chewing up yardage on the ground as the quarter starts. Not good. We finally stop him and they punt but now we're backed up to our own 14. We should have taken advantage of that really good field position we had. Now the shoe is on the other foot. We got nothing and the Cavs return the punt 76 yards for a score. We're in deep trouble, 14-3 Virginia. We exchange punts, but we're not getting any pressure on Stone at all. We have started to contain Murphy some, and our secondary is knocking down a lot of passes. But we've got to put some points on the board before the end of the half. They just ram the ball right down our throats with a clock killing drive and go up 21-3. That's how the half ends. Halftime notes: We're being completely outplayed in every phase of the game by a very good, a great team. This is by far the best defense we have played against this season. Offensively we've got nothing. Defensively we need to put more pressure on Stone and create some turnovers. And quick, or this game is getting out of hand fast. 3Q: And we do. NT Mel McWilliams makes a tackle causing a fumble which we recover at the Virgnia 34. Now we need to punch it in and make this a ball game again. We get nothing because of stupid penalties. We're not playing like a team that's been here before. Not at all. They drive the length of the field but miss a chipshot field goal. We need to take advantage of stuff like that, times a waistin. We get two dumbass false start penalties and they return the punt to our 36. God are we playing horribly. ILB Monty Garcia picks off a Stone pass in the endzone, keeping us alive. Barely. We get nothing. We've got 44 yards rushing with 3 minutes left in the 3Q. They've completely dominated us with their defense. Stone hits Murphy for with a 16 yard touchdown pass and it's 28-3. Our defense is just exhausted as all we seem capable of offensively are three and outs. Penalties put us in a 1st and 20 and Kenny Finch gets picked off and the Cavs take it to the house, 35-3. Ouch. The quarter ends with even more Southern Cal penalties. I'm absolutely befuddled. Not that we're getting an old fashioned ass-whuppin, these guys are damn good. But what's with all the penalties? Never, ever seen us play so undisciplined before. 4Q: 1:20 into the 4th quarter and we run our first option play. I think Spencer Farley fell asleep at the switch today. Finally had a good drive going, gets killed by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. We've beaten ourselves today as badly as Virginia has. They just finally show mercy and run the clock out against us. Danny Murphy gets my Heisman vote - he's the one player I couldn't do a damn thing about - but J.B. Loveless of Notre Dame wins it. Well no doubt I'll be second guessed about starting Kenny Finch at QB, but I don't think Touchdown Jesus of Notre Dame could have beaten the Cavaliers today. They whupped us and whupped us good. They held us to 88 yards rushing on the day - we held them to 82 yards rushing, but Danny Murphy had 1 rushing touchdown and 2 receiving. They returned a pick and a punt for a score as well. They whupped us in just about every area of the game. Hats off to them, they certainly deserve this national title. The Rose Bowl/BCS National Championship Game Virginia 35 -- USC 3 PAC-10 (8-0) -- OVERALL (11-1) * * *
2021 BCS RANKINGSCode:
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__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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02-03-2007, 10:43 PM
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#197 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2021 Season Summary and Review
 University of Southern California Trojans 2021 Season Summary & Review 2021 Season Review2021 definitely has to go down as another successful season for the Southern Cal Trojans. We won our third consecutive PAC-10 championship and our fourth since I have been here, and we went to the Rose Bowl to play for the National Championship for the third consecutive season. Our defense was outstanding all season long. Teams found they couldn't pass or run against us. We recorded five shutouts on the season - including one over our cross city rivals UCLA. Offensively we saw the emergence of freshman wideout Britt Wells as a gamebreaking playmaker. But we were hampered offensively by injury - losing our starting Fullback and starting quarterback for most of the season. Redshirt sophomore Tony Felkey stepped up and quite capably handled the signal calling duties in the absence of starter Kenny Finch and is in large part responsible for how successful a campaign we had this year. Tailback Ike Daugherty showed he was capable of being the lead back in a wishbone offense, but we did miss the durability and endurance of the graduated J.B. Wilson who was able to shoulder the load of 40 carries per game. With Daugherty, we just didn't have that capability. Our ofeensive player of the year though has to go to WR Britt Wells. He was an impact player from his first game as a Trojan and at times during the season when he exhibited his rushing abilities as well as his receiving talents, he reminded me of Tim Brown when Brown played at Notre Dame. With Wells being only a freshman, his future looks very bright. Defensively our player of the year has to be redshirt senior DE Floyd Jeffers. Floyd recorded 20 sacks on the season and was simply a game-changer on the defensive line. He ended too many drives to count at crucial points in ball games with a key sack or QB pressure. There were many other standout players on defense, but no one player made the impact Jeffers did with his play alone. While ultimately I am very pleased that we won our third consecutive PAC-10 championship and got to play for the national Championship yet again, I'll also admit to more than a little disappointment that we failed to win a third consecutive national title and that our 36 game consecutive winning streak was finally brought to an end. I realize our incredible run had to end sometime, but it was a disappointing end to an otherwise satisfying season nonetheless. What the future holds for me, I'm not at all certain at this point. I've been coaching 18 years - 14 at Southern Cal. I haven't informed the school I'll be returning or that I'll be leaving - simply because I haven't decided what I am going to do yet. I just need some time to think about what I want to do now that our run is over. But whatever I do, the future of Southern Cal football is indeed bright for at least the next four seasons. And that's what's important. * * *
 2021 USC Player AwardsCode:
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2021 USC Team SummaryCode:
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__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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02-04-2007, 02:41 PM
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#198 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2022 Winter Media Snippetts
2022 MEDIA SNIPPETTS THE SPORTING NEWS January, Winter 2022 College Football Notebook: Despite having yet another recruiting class ranked #1 in the nation by TCY Today, and despite having won three PAC-10 titles in a row, and also despite having played for the national championship for three consecutive years - winning two of those title games, the Southern Cal football program is at it's most unstable point in the last fourteen years - since Bear Growlz took over the football program. USC's Lead Scout Lester Stargell announced his retirement this week and a few days later Defensive Coordinator Leland Shepard announced he was also retiring from coaching. With Head Coach Bear Growlz' having yet to make a decision about whether he will return to coach the Trojans for a 15th season, the direction of the Southern Cal program - now the second most prestigious program in the nation (Excellent-98) - for the future is uncertain. Growlz has coached at Southern Cal for fourteen years, two years shy of tying the legendary John McKay for the longest tenure of a head Coach at SC. Prior to coming to Southern Cal, Growlz coached at tiny Keene State College in the Northern New England Athletic Association - starting that program at the small new Hampshire liberal arts school. Over the past fourteen years Growlz has become a fixture at Southern Cal, even having turned down the top job at Notre Dame - ultimately leading the Trojans to two National Championships and four PAC-10 titles - the last three of them consecutively. Growlz has taken USC to a postseason bowl for thirteen consecutive seasons and finished rated in the BCS Top 25 the past nine years. This season Growlz passed the legendary McKay's 127 for most games ever won as Head Coach of the USC football program. Growlz finished the 2021 season with 130 wins as the Southern Cal coach. Code:
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__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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02-04-2007, 04:28 PM
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#199 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2022 Preseason Media Snippetts (Winter)
2022 PRESEASON MEDIA SNIPPETTS (Winter)ESPN Sunday Coversation January, Winter-2022  Suzy Kolber (SK): Good evening, I'm Suzy Kolber and this is Sunday Conversation. I sat down this week and had a long, and rather frank talk with Southern Cal's Head Football Coach Bear Growlz. His candor was refreshing and enlightening. Let's go to the interview now. (SK): Coach, thanks for talking with me. Bear Growlz (BG): My pleasure Suzy. (SK): You've had quite a successful run at Southern Cal and almost won a third consecutive national championship. You must feel a tremendous amount of vindication after your first two years at SC. (BG): Those first two years were a long, long time ago Suzy. They were hard, lean years. There really wasn't much left in the cupboard when I took over. The fans had a lot of good reasons to be upset - and I was the representative of a once great program that had fallen into complete disarray. *nods* But you're right, winning two national titles and three straight PAC-10 championships has been very rewarding - it has made all these years of effort worth every moment of hard work, every hour of pratice or film study, all worthwhile. (SK): But you've also indicated this past season was personally disappointing for you - even though you won a conference championship and played in a third consecutive national title game. (BG): *nods and looks pensive for a moment* It was tremendously disappointing for me personally. I felt like we had more talent on the field - a better team - and we were simply outcoached in the Rose Bowl. I was very dissapointed and upset with being unable to find a way to stop Danny Murphy from beating us, and also disappointed in not finding a way to get our offense going to win a game that was very winnable. So yeah, I'd say 2021 was pretty disappointing for me - but I was never disappointed in our players. The kids on our team - great, great kids. I was - am - really proud of them. (SK): But you've lost games before. There were years and years when you couldn't buy a win against UCLA. What makes 2021 so different? (BG): *thinks for a moment before speaking* That's a really good question. I guess two things make it different in my eyes. First, I guess we just got spoiled by winning 36 games in a row. I mean, when you don't lose a game over a three year period... *pauses*...you know, you just...well...forget how to lose, forget what it feels like. You know? Then I guess the second thing is, I've lost a lot of games in the past. The losses that really gnaw at me are the games where I felt we had the better team, the most talented kids out on the field, and we just didn't get it done gameplanning wise for them. Losing to a team that's better than you, well that happens. Losing a game where you feel like you've been outcoached, or as a coach couldn't put your team in the best position to win, well, that's upsetting. Does that make sense? (SK): *nods in response to the question* It does. And you feel you were outcoached against Virginia. So that's what's so disappointing. (BG): *leans back in his chair* Suzy, I don't want to take anything away from those Virginia kids - they earned that national title on the field. They outplayed us in every aspect of the game. But I think 36 wins in a row, three PAC-10 championships in a row, and two national titles in a row, well, I was kind of cocky, kind of had the mentality that I had all the answers and this was going to be a coronation. We got crowned alright...*smiles and pauses*...but not in the way we - I - planned. (SK): So what's keeping you from coming back? Three national titles in four years wouldn't be such a bad thing, would it? *chuckles* (BG): Don't know if I have the hunger for it anymore. If I have the hunger I'll be back. If I don't, I won't. I just am taking a little time to decide whether it's a grind that I'm tired of or whether it's hard work I enjoy and a chalenge to get back on top where we belong. It's a state of mind kind of thing. (SK): That sounds very southern Californian coach. *chuckles and smiles* (BG): *laughs* I guess it is - and I am - these days. (SK): It's been reported you've been offerred other college coaching positions - including the very prestigious Syracuse and Texas A&M jobs. Any chance you'd leave Southern Cal for either of those jobs coach? (BG): *shakes his head no* If I coach college football this season, it'll be at SC Suzy, nowhere else. (SK): When you've put together a gameplan, you've got the players you recruited on the field, and it's out of your control and you're playing for a national championship or a big game like against UCLA for the PAC-10 title, what's it feel like? What goes through your mind at a time like that? (BG): Well Suzy, two things I guess. First, you do feel helpless. You've built the team, you've designed the gameplan, and now it's up to other people to execute and there's not much left you can do. That's what makes you - well at least me - so nervous at the start of a game. You ask yourself questions like; Have I done all I could to put the team in a position to win?; Did I forget something I meant to do?; Sometimes you even ask yourself, are you totally out of your mind putting together this gameplan and is it going to be a complete disaster? But then there's the feeling of - hrrm, don't really know how to describe it. It's almost like being God. You've got a grand design and have other people carrying out your plans and strategy - and someone else on the other sideline is doing the same thing. It's a tremendous feeling when you see perfect execution of what you've designed. It',s well, it's just awesome. (SK): Thanks coach, it's been a pleasure chatting with you. (BG): I've enjoyed it, thanks. -20-
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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02-05-2007, 02:06 PM
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#200 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Georgia
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2022 Media Snippetts (January-Winter)
2022 MEDIA SNIPPETTSESPN NEWS January, Winter-2022 Unnamed sources within the University of Southern California Athletic Department have told ESPN News that Head Football Coach Bear Growlz has signed an eleven year contract with the school that will for all intents and purposes, keep him at Southern Cal until he retires from coaching. More details as the story develops. -20-
__________________
-Beargrowlz [email protected] TCY Golden Scribe Winner - Bear Goes Home "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." --Thomas B. Macaulay |
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