It would be hard to imagine a significantly better start to the 2009 USC Football Season than what we got to watch today. The University of Southern California Trojans thoroughly dismantled an over matched San Jose University Spartan Team by the score of 56 to 3. If one were to be totally honest, one would likely have to admit that for a good portion of the first quarter there may have been some unpleasant thoughts circulating through Trojan Fans' minds. However, from the second quarter till the very end of the game, this edition of the Trojan squad looked simply awesome. The offense was methodical in its domination and the defense defied what one might have logically expected. Any time a team loses as much incredible talent on the defensive side of the ball as the Trojans lost to graduation and/or to the pros, one might expect a drop off. Trust me when I say, that was not the case today. This USC defense was quick, deep and aggressive. I have to believe the the SJS quarterbacks are simply happy to get out of the Coliseum in one piece.
One of the downsides to playing an over matched team is that it can be harder than one might prefer to draw certain conclusions. Classically, one might ask, "Is the USC offense that good or is the San Jose State defense that porous, or perhaps is the truth somewhere in the middle? " Is the tremendous depth that USC utilized today talented enough to play major minutes in all games or was today a fluke? Obviously, nobody can answer those questions with certainty, but one just gets the feeling that when it comes to depth, at virtually every position, USC has as much as just about any college team could ever hope to have in place, especially considering the scholarship limitations that now exist.
Coming into the game two huge questions that may have been on fans' minds were concerning the quarterback /offensive assistant head coach Jeremy Bates and conerning Matt Barkley, the first true freshman to ever start the season in the long history of USC Football. To my eye, Bates did a great job today. Admittedly, it took a while to see what he was going to do with the offense , but by the middle of the second quarter, it was obvious that he was not going to ask Matt to win the game by himself. Instead, Bates called a conservative, methodical game that eventually wore down the opponent, all the while, putting Barkley in position to easily get the ball into the play makers' hands without having to take many risky chances. And boy did that approach work to perfection. The offense ended up with some 620 yards with 23 passes and 45 rushing attempts. Although I don't have the exact statistics at my fingertips, it has not been all that often in the recent past that the runs outnumbered the passes by 2 to 1 with such a favorable end result.
As for the running game itself, what more could anyone ask to see? One might wonder if there is a team anywhere in college football with more talent on one team? It certainly is not a stretch to say that any one of five or six of the tailbacks at USC could be stars at other schools and run for upwards of 1500 yards if he were the featured back. As it is , today we got to see Joe McKnight average a mere 10.3 yards per each of his 14 carries whereas Mark Tyler averaged 14 ypc and Allen Bradford, a guy who finally got some prime time, meaningful carries average 13.3 yards per carry. The purpose here is not to single out any one back, or to slight another by leaving his name off. Rather, the point is far more simple. USC is loaded at running back and if one guy should go down, there is a whole bevy of capable guys right behind him, quite ready to pick up the slack.
And what can anyone say about Matt Barkley? It would be dishonest not to admit that I am a huge Aaron Corp fan and I am sorry that he got hurt and has been passed up by Matt. On the other hand, as is the case with most die hard fans, I simply want SC to win the games, you know, like every single one of them. I could not have asked for a more impressive, steady and reassuring performance by a new quarterback, a guy who happens to be a true freshman, to boot. Not only did Matt Barkley hit of 15 of 19 for 234 yards, but he was not intercepted. In fact, he never came close to throwing a pick. Ironically,on two of the passes that he threw that looked "BAD", ie that sailed way out of bounds, I believe Matt made two of his better decisions of the game. Instead of forcing balls into coverage, he simply launched the ball out of bounds which is exactly what the coaches had hoped he would do under those conditions. And something that might not have been obvious to all is that the USC receivers, at least the secondary guys, were wide open all the time. It seemed like the offense was designed for Matt to have relatively no trouble hitting guys who could then do something with the ball for major YACs. (yards after catches).
As for the receivers, the one striking part feature that I noticed is that they CAUGHT THE BALL. That might sound like a dumb thing to post, but I would urge each reader to think back over the years since Pete Carroll has arrived. How many times, especially early in the season, did the guys get nice passes that they simply dropped? And what might make the receivers happy, as well is that the ball was spread around quite nicely by both Matt and then by Aaron in his mop up roll. Ten different guys caught passes. That is what defines balance, at least to my way of thinking. Damian Williams and Anthony McCoy were particularly impressive with the ball after the catch, though McCoy had some trouble holding onto the ball. Similarly, Havili and even Shoemate knew what to do with the ball once they caught it as well.
The offensive line came to play some serious ball. Now, once again, one has to put this into perspective. San Jose State is not on par with an Oklahoma or Ohio State, but Coach Tomey is a known defensive minded guy with a proven track record. It should also be noted that this was also somewhat of a makeshift oline as well. Starting center Kris O'Dowd was with his knee injury and potential starter Nick Howell was also still hobbled by his ankle injury. Yet, despite all that, the SC Oline was awesome. Barkley was sacked only once and the ground game put up some 340 net yards rushing. For large chunks of the second half, we got to see the young studs on the line. Guys like Matt Kalil, Khaled Holmes, and even Abe Markowitz got some major minutes and seemed to hold their own. I would also like to note that the running game seemed especially potent when the left side of the line consisted of Charles Brown and Butch Lewis. That duo was really potent. We also got to see some excellent blocking from the various tight ends that were in the game for much of the time.
Any time a team such as San Jose State nets only 115 total yards in a game, it does not take a leap of faith to assume that either that unit is lacking and/or the defense that it faced is awesome. In this case, I suspect there are some deficiencies in the Spartan attack, but this SC offense is lights out. I felt before the season ever started that the middle linebacker position would be stronger this year than last, even though SC lost Rey Maualuga to the Bengals. Nothing I saw today has changed my mind. Finally healthy, and finally getting his shot, Chris Galippo did not disappoint. He did not overrun play after play and he got no personal fouls. Malcolm Smith was all over the place and although lighter than Brian Cushing, Michael Morgan is FAST, really fast. The defensive line was relentless and deep. Derek Simmons and DaJohn Harris both saw major minutes and both played some serious ball. It was nice to see Fangupo come barreling through and the defensive ends were also quite busy. What does it say about a team's depth when at the end of the game, at a time when the backups are in, USC had guys named Nick Perry and Devon Kennard in the game. For those who don't follow recruiting religiously, all I can say is that both were national recruits and amongst the best in the nation over the past two years in high school ball. And that is the kind of talent SC now has in back up rolls for their defensive units. For those expecting this defense to miss a beat due to the unbelievable talent lost to the pros over the past two years, forget about it. This team is still loaded, perhaps more than ever before. And oh by the way, the defensive line was missing two starters, or co-starters, guys named Averil Spicer and Armond Armstead. What other team in America could lose them from this year's team and still be as tough as the current USC defensive front seven.
As for true freshmen that saw time, there were Devon Kennard, Jarvis Jones, TJ McDonald, De'Von Fournoy and that other guy, Matt Barkley. There were also a number of redshirt frosh who got in such as Curtis McNeal, Brice Butler, Nick Perry and Abe Markowitz at center. This team is deep and loaded with young talent, that is a certainty.
As for the negatives, well there were a few. Joe McKnight did put the ball on the ground again and so did Anthony McCoy. We all know that Coach Carroll says it is all about the ball and SC did not win the turnover battle today. Each team lost two fumbles. SC did have what has seemingly become the obligatory personal foul but then again, perhaps one should not be surprised with a defense that is as aggressive as the Trojans' defense. The punter averaged only 34.7 yards on six kicks, but he did not have any kick blocked and that is a good thing. Some of the fans might feel that not seeing Matt Barkley really use that big arm of his to stretch the field is a negative. Personally, I do not. Although it might be exciting to see, it was simply not necessary. Similarly, it did not give Ohio State too much insight as to whether or not the Trojans can actually do it. Maybe some think that without Ron Johnson, SC does not have a guy who can stretch the field. Yes, they do. They have a few who can and my strong hunch is that sooner or later, in good time we will see it happen. But then again, if SC can win by running the ball and passing the ball with shorter routes, why complain?
It is obvious that not much has been said about the special teams except for the average on the punts. That is probably a good thing. There were none of those blocks in the back that so many of us had almost come to expect and things seemed to function smoothly. We never saw the field goal kicker and all the PAT's were good. I guess we will just have to sit and wait to see how it plays out, but so far, so good.
Now what? Well, next week USC has a huge road game against the Ohio State Buckeyes. OSU had some issues with Navy today, but perhaps they were looking ahead to the big game next week against that little team from Los Angeles, the one known as the University of Southern California Trojans. It is a daunting task for a true freshman to lead a team against Ohio State in Columbus at the Horseshoe. Maybe SC will be in deep---but you have to know that I don't believe that for one second. Frosh quarterback or not, I think USC will be well prepared and more than up to the challenge. From what I have seen from Bates and Carroll, the game plan will be in place that will give the Trojans their best chance to come away with the Win. I don't know for sure how Matt Barkley will react, but nothing he did in his first college game today makes me doubt him. The Trojans will have to try to contain Terrel Pryor and at the same time, move the ball themselves. Last year is history and as we saw in the Boise State-Oregon debacle, the revenge factor is not a cure all by any means.
I thought SC was well coached last year, but the addition of Bates, Snyder on special teams, and Jethro Franklin on the dline has really given the edge to SC over just about all comes when it comes to coaching.
One of the downsides to playing an over matched team is that it can be harder than one might prefer to draw certain conclusions. Classically, one might ask, "Is the USC offense that good or is the San Jose State defense that porous, or perhaps is the truth somewhere in the middle? " Is the tremendous depth that USC utilized today talented enough to play major minutes in all games or was today a fluke? Obviously, nobody can answer those questions with certainty, but one just gets the feeling that when it comes to depth, at virtually every position, USC has as much as just about any college team could ever hope to have in place, especially considering the scholarship limitations that now exist.
Coming into the game two huge questions that may have been on fans' minds were concerning the quarterback /offensive assistant head coach Jeremy Bates and conerning Matt Barkley, the first true freshman to ever start the season in the long history of USC Football. To my eye, Bates did a great job today. Admittedly, it took a while to see what he was going to do with the offense , but by the middle of the second quarter, it was obvious that he was not going to ask Matt to win the game by himself. Instead, Bates called a conservative, methodical game that eventually wore down the opponent, all the while, putting Barkley in position to easily get the ball into the play makers' hands without having to take many risky chances. And boy did that approach work to perfection. The offense ended up with some 620 yards with 23 passes and 45 rushing attempts. Although I don't have the exact statistics at my fingertips, it has not been all that often in the recent past that the runs outnumbered the passes by 2 to 1 with such a favorable end result.
As for the running game itself, what more could anyone ask to see? One might wonder if there is a team anywhere in college football with more talent on one team? It certainly is not a stretch to say that any one of five or six of the tailbacks at USC could be stars at other schools and run for upwards of 1500 yards if he were the featured back. As it is , today we got to see Joe McKnight average a mere 10.3 yards per each of his 14 carries whereas Mark Tyler averaged 14 ypc and Allen Bradford, a guy who finally got some prime time, meaningful carries average 13.3 yards per carry. The purpose here is not to single out any one back, or to slight another by leaving his name off. Rather, the point is far more simple. USC is loaded at running back and if one guy should go down, there is a whole bevy of capable guys right behind him, quite ready to pick up the slack.
And what can anyone say about Matt Barkley? It would be dishonest not to admit that I am a huge Aaron Corp fan and I am sorry that he got hurt and has been passed up by Matt. On the other hand, as is the case with most die hard fans, I simply want SC to win the games, you know, like every single one of them. I could not have asked for a more impressive, steady and reassuring performance by a new quarterback, a guy who happens to be a true freshman, to boot. Not only did Matt Barkley hit of 15 of 19 for 234 yards, but he was not intercepted. In fact, he never came close to throwing a pick. Ironically,on two of the passes that he threw that looked "BAD", ie that sailed way out of bounds, I believe Matt made two of his better decisions of the game. Instead of forcing balls into coverage, he simply launched the ball out of bounds which is exactly what the coaches had hoped he would do under those conditions. And something that might not have been obvious to all is that the USC receivers, at least the secondary guys, were wide open all the time. It seemed like the offense was designed for Matt to have relatively no trouble hitting guys who could then do something with the ball for major YACs. (yards after catches).
As for the receivers, the one striking part feature that I noticed is that they CAUGHT THE BALL. That might sound like a dumb thing to post, but I would urge each reader to think back over the years since Pete Carroll has arrived. How many times, especially early in the season, did the guys get nice passes that they simply dropped? And what might make the receivers happy, as well is that the ball was spread around quite nicely by both Matt and then by Aaron in his mop up roll. Ten different guys caught passes. That is what defines balance, at least to my way of thinking. Damian Williams and Anthony McCoy were particularly impressive with the ball after the catch, though McCoy had some trouble holding onto the ball. Similarly, Havili and even Shoemate knew what to do with the ball once they caught it as well.
The offensive line came to play some serious ball. Now, once again, one has to put this into perspective. San Jose State is not on par with an Oklahoma or Ohio State, but Coach Tomey is a known defensive minded guy with a proven track record. It should also be noted that this was also somewhat of a makeshift oline as well. Starting center Kris O'Dowd was with his knee injury and potential starter Nick Howell was also still hobbled by his ankle injury. Yet, despite all that, the SC Oline was awesome. Barkley was sacked only once and the ground game put up some 340 net yards rushing. For large chunks of the second half, we got to see the young studs on the line. Guys like Matt Kalil, Khaled Holmes, and even Abe Markowitz got some major minutes and seemed to hold their own. I would also like to note that the running game seemed especially potent when the left side of the line consisted of Charles Brown and Butch Lewis. That duo was really potent. We also got to see some excellent blocking from the various tight ends that were in the game for much of the time.
Any time a team such as San Jose State nets only 115 total yards in a game, it does not take a leap of faith to assume that either that unit is lacking and/or the defense that it faced is awesome. In this case, I suspect there are some deficiencies in the Spartan attack, but this SC offense is lights out. I felt before the season ever started that the middle linebacker position would be stronger this year than last, even though SC lost Rey Maualuga to the Bengals. Nothing I saw today has changed my mind. Finally healthy, and finally getting his shot, Chris Galippo did not disappoint. He did not overrun play after play and he got no personal fouls. Malcolm Smith was all over the place and although lighter than Brian Cushing, Michael Morgan is FAST, really fast. The defensive line was relentless and deep. Derek Simmons and DaJohn Harris both saw major minutes and both played some serious ball. It was nice to see Fangupo come barreling through and the defensive ends were also quite busy. What does it say about a team's depth when at the end of the game, at a time when the backups are in, USC had guys named Nick Perry and Devon Kennard in the game. For those who don't follow recruiting religiously, all I can say is that both were national recruits and amongst the best in the nation over the past two years in high school ball. And that is the kind of talent SC now has in back up rolls for their defensive units. For those expecting this defense to miss a beat due to the unbelievable talent lost to the pros over the past two years, forget about it. This team is still loaded, perhaps more than ever before. And oh by the way, the defensive line was missing two starters, or co-starters, guys named Averil Spicer and Armond Armstead. What other team in America could lose them from this year's team and still be as tough as the current USC defensive front seven.
As for true freshmen that saw time, there were Devon Kennard, Jarvis Jones, TJ McDonald, De'Von Fournoy and that other guy, Matt Barkley. There were also a number of redshirt frosh who got in such as Curtis McNeal, Brice Butler, Nick Perry and Abe Markowitz at center. This team is deep and loaded with young talent, that is a certainty.
As for the negatives, well there were a few. Joe McKnight did put the ball on the ground again and so did Anthony McCoy. We all know that Coach Carroll says it is all about the ball and SC did not win the turnover battle today. Each team lost two fumbles. SC did have what has seemingly become the obligatory personal foul but then again, perhaps one should not be surprised with a defense that is as aggressive as the Trojans' defense. The punter averaged only 34.7 yards on six kicks, but he did not have any kick blocked and that is a good thing. Some of the fans might feel that not seeing Matt Barkley really use that big arm of his to stretch the field is a negative. Personally, I do not. Although it might be exciting to see, it was simply not necessary. Similarly, it did not give Ohio State too much insight as to whether or not the Trojans can actually do it. Maybe some think that without Ron Johnson, SC does not have a guy who can stretch the field. Yes, they do. They have a few who can and my strong hunch is that sooner or later, in good time we will see it happen. But then again, if SC can win by running the ball and passing the ball with shorter routes, why complain?
It is obvious that not much has been said about the special teams except for the average on the punts. That is probably a good thing. There were none of those blocks in the back that so many of us had almost come to expect and things seemed to function smoothly. We never saw the field goal kicker and all the PAT's were good. I guess we will just have to sit and wait to see how it plays out, but so far, so good.
Now what? Well, next week USC has a huge road game against the Ohio State Buckeyes. OSU had some issues with Navy today, but perhaps they were looking ahead to the big game next week against that little team from Los Angeles, the one known as the University of Southern California Trojans. It is a daunting task for a true freshman to lead a team against Ohio State in Columbus at the Horseshoe. Maybe SC will be in deep---but you have to know that I don't believe that for one second. Frosh quarterback or not, I think USC will be well prepared and more than up to the challenge. From what I have seen from Bates and Carroll, the game plan will be in place that will give the Trojans their best chance to come away with the Win. I don't know for sure how Matt Barkley will react, but nothing he did in his first college game today makes me doubt him. The Trojans will have to try to contain Terrel Pryor and at the same time, move the ball themselves. Last year is history and as we saw in the Boise State-Oregon debacle, the revenge factor is not a cure all by any means.
I thought SC was well coached last year, but the addition of Bates, Snyder on special teams, and Jethro Franklin on the dline has really given the edge to SC over just about all comes when it comes to coaching.
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