What's up fellas? I'm ready for the fall practice reports that make it seem like we will go undefeated. Sometimes I kind of miss rivals.
Hey dudes I've got a pair of tickets to the Utah State game available for sale. Tickets are on the 35 or so, section 6 row 30 or so. You will also have a chance to sit with me, so that's worth the price of the tickets alone. I may have tickets available throughout the season to sell as well.
Losing out on him Bryce Dixon and Mixon sucked at the time. Who would have thought punching a woman in a bar would have been the tamest act of the three.
May I humbly request a change in the thread title to: Champs XI, or XII on the way, etc... We gotta have some positive vibes this year.
I hear you but it seems hard to find a positive right about now. If we show against the Tide (doesn't mean a win), I'm open to suggestions.
Schedule is just brutal. I'm still disappointed in Darnold not getting the nod. It would make a 7-8 win season easier to stomach if we could watch someone young grow behind center.
I don't agree. The admins care about every level of the university being excellent. But there is a movement to settle the program and move away from the drama induced regimes of recent past. Helton seems to be a place keeper until Swann picks his guy. Masina's allegations only serve to distance the "education first" BOT's from the program.
It's crazy how a team with so many five stars can suck so bad. Helton's got to be careful here. This is the type of loss that can break a team's morale and send them into a 4-8/5-7 death spiral. I think it's a near certainty we lose the last four games. If that happens I wouldn't be shocked if the wheels start to turn on Helton's future this year. Swann gonna be getting an earful from the boosters who have put up with mediocrity for close to a decade now. Should've hired Herman...
7-5 might be generous. Just can this small time staff at the end of the season and start over from scratch. Thank goodness for the Dodgers.
I think he would've. Now he's likely to go to Texas. Their boosters are no doubt watching Harbaugh's UM transformation with envious eyes. They'll be ready to give Herman whatever he wants in hopes that he can replicate the magic. LSU likely to be headhunting as well. Unless there's a radical change in direction very soon, our recruiting is gonna flop bad this year. That's the only thing keeping us afloat. One more wrong move and USC could disappear from the national landscape for 15+ years. It happened once, it can happen again.
15 is a stretch in this day and age. Yes, it might get worse before it gets better but the culture of football is too large to ignore. The university wants excellence at every level and they'll do what it takes to get it back, eventually.
Also, I believe that if we swapped rosters with Alabama, Saban and staff would still have beat us easily.
I hope you are right fish. My concern is that we keep doing things from within. We need outsiders in key positions to call out the bullshit. Helton was not here under Carroll but he was here with Kiffin and Sark. I'm not positive but I think it's still the same message and coaching style.
Is it really? We haven't been to a major bowl since '08. There's now increased competition in the conf that's unlikely to go away anytime soon. Our only hope is for the boosters to pull a Michigan and say we're ready to spend 7-9m. Lloyd Carr had to convince a few reluctant boosters and admin folks Harbaugh would be worth that kind of money. How many do you think are questioning the decision now? Had it not been for a fluke play in the MSU game and a few bad breaks against Utah, they would've went 11-1. Talk about changing a culture overnight.
100% agree. I wanted nothing more than a complete break from the Carroll tree on the last coaching search. Let's hope Swann thinks outside the "He gets USC" box on the next hire.
The lines have been the problem since the last few years of PC's reign. All of the five star CBs, WRs, QBs, etc. don't matter with weak lines.
Honestly, after reading this a bit more closely you could be right. My memory is colored by those great years that don't seem so long ago. That's largely due to me being an old fuck and thinking '08 was just a few years ago.
Not that you asked or that you care but... I think y'all are taking the loss a little hard. Our defense is gonna be really good this year and we've been hearing in camp they might be the best of the Saban era which if you've followed Alabama football in the past ten years you know how good of a defense it'd have to be to be talked about like that. I don't think anyone but veteran quarterbacks will be able to move the ball on us consistently and even then it'll be tough. And our defensive line is absolutely the best across the board of any in the country. First and second round picks guaranteed. Everyone on our two-deep is an absolute mauler when it comes to at least one of stopping the run or rushing the passer. As for our offense, y'all gave our o-line some trouble early which was pretty surprising. Had also been hearing they were going to be pretty solid. We ran the ball best on you when we'd worn your defensive line down but that's pretty standard and generally how we amass most of our rushing yards. Anyhow, I wouldn't be surprised if y'all made it a game at Stanford in a couple weeks. You've got some talent, just need to figure out how to make it work. Pretty tough baptism by fire for Browne but he'll be a better quarterback because of it. Also, this was the best Alabama team we've seen in week 1 in a few years. Far better than last year's championship team or 2014's Sugar Bowl playoff team. And, I like Helton. Seems like a good dude and good coach (in the sense that his players probably like and respect him). Being a successful coach is something else altogether but I'm pulling for him (even if it doesn't work out at SC).
Can't use that as an excuse anymore. Banner, Chuma, Mama, Viane, Brown, Green, Leonard, Gustin, et al were all highly ranked. There plenty of talent everywhere, more than any in the conf and yet we still suck. I know I'm going way back, but I've always felt there was a parallel to what happened to Miami in 02. We both lost heartbreaking title games and truly never recovered. Yes, in the years following we still had enough talent to win the conf or a BCS bowl, but the drive for excellence has been absent since. We coast on talent. We don't play disciplined football. Sanctions of course didn't help...
There are many many five stars in the OL and the front 7 of the D. They are experienced now. Not sure what the excuse is now aside from coaching.
Who is that coach for USC though? Part of the reason Harbaugh is perfect for UM is because of all his ties there. As for the game/season, USC has to peel off 2 wins in these next 3 games or beat the living shit out of Utah State and keep things close in the other 2. If they don't, it's gonna get ugly real quick.
Actually we're not. Our problems really go back to '05. This game is just the latest screwup in a decade of futility. We're at the place you guys were circa Mike Price. That '92 title was well in the rear view and there wasn't much daylight on the horizon.
Idk. It's staggering when you think of who we've potentially turned down in the past 2 years: Del Rio, Chip Kelly, Petersen, Herman, Whittingham, Sumlin, etc. There may be no one left. That's what's scary.
Don't get me wrong. I definitely think y'all are in a bad place and far below the standard you/I/we expect USC to be at. I just meant I don't think y'all will be as awful this year as you think. IMO you'll be bowling at the very least but what bowl I don't know. But still, yes, you need a major coaching and culture change to get back to the top. I don't know that there are but 2-3 coaches in the country that would be surefire at USC and they're all content and well paid where they are. But if it doesn't start trending that way under Helton this year then maybe y'all could get Herman or some other young up and coming star. I don't know that anyone can (read: will) offer as much money to a coach as Texas will but TAMU and LSU may also throw the bank at him. If anyone could compete though it'd be USC. I'm sure y'all have a whole bunch of money (and/or your boosters do) but maybe the California lifestyle appeals to him or his family enough that he comes out there. Who knows. Regardless, wish y'all luck the rest of the year.
Meh. Idk about "great." Didn't we barely survive Minnesota, Utah, AZ? Not to mention had we played Oregon again in the title we would've lost and been sent to the sun\alamo bowl...
How many of those actually interviewed, or were even turned down? A lot of those names were just floated by the media of who they should have targeted.
Honestly, good news for SC is that the rest of the Pac-12, especially the South, is white hot dogshit. Like, a level of suck that we have never seen before. Stanford and Washington maybe the only teams worth a top 25 spot. Even that may be generous
That's the point. Haden didn't conduct a rigorous search. He did interview Petersen, but had already decided on Sark. Del Rio supposedly put out feelers, but had just been embarrassed against the Seahawks IIRC. Sumlin and Chip supposedly let it be known through their agents they would be interested. Whitingham refused to "speculate on speculation."
Vander/Modevil, Ucla will win the south (barring injuries). Even if I'm wrong, so what? We have a culture prob. Winning the division last yr didn't fix it. Y would it matter this year?
If yall wanna keep this up so a few gorgeous beauties like Joseph Lewis will head our way that'd be good thx