The Triumphs of Troy, Open Thread

I didn’t expect the Coliseum to be game ready. But I expected it to be scrimmage ready. And it was not Saturday.

Look at the pictures below: Nails coming out of the ground. An electrical cable going through the seats.

But the real problem was the audacity to screw over the fans by keeping the tower closed to the general public. Inspections and permits should have done well before Saturday.

Quite a few fans said they came just to see the tower. USC says it will have a tour on another day. When?

The tower was actually open to suite holders. But workers said there were only a few elevators operating. This made it difficult to get up-and-down the tower and made it an adventure to get from the bottom to the top.

One fan told me all the men’s restrooms were closed on his level of the Coliseum. There were also not a lot of concession options.

There wasn’t even a bottle of water available anywhere besides the ground floor. This meant some fans had to go down from the fifth floor to the ground for a bottle of water.

Oh, and water cost $5 a bottle.

Finally, USC announced the crowd size at 10,000. No way. USC was lucky if 7,000 attended.
 
Remember when USC decided they didn't have the talent to play man up smashmouth ball and went to the air raid

I member
 
Helton won’t make it past October. Fired after the loss at Nd or colorado
Click to expand...

VPMVP5.gif

 
Below is what Petros Papadakis said today.

Excerpt: “They are so afraid of playing Sears. It is so plain to see how desperately they don’t want this young guy to be featured at all. … How about the guy that balled in an actual Pac-12 game? He is a fouthh string guy?! . . . (Daniels) must be protected politically by the depth chart.”
 
Imagine the punch in the stomach it must have been for Jack Sears and Matt Fink on Tuesday to find out they could not even beat out true freshman Kedon Slovis.

I’ve heard Helton wanted to make Slovis No. 2 for two weeks but I’m not sure how it helps the team. Did he win the back-up job by going 7 for 17 in the first Coliseum scrimmage with an interception? He performed better in the second scrimmage but his several deep passes were underthrown.

It doesn’t matter because Helton wanted him to be the back up.

Why do I say I’m not sure it helps the team? Because in the first half of the season, there is a pretty good chance JT Daniels will beg out of a game for whatever reason. At that point, and against many of those teams, why would you insert a true freshman who threw at least six more interceptions in training camp than Sears?

Sam Darnold threw no interceptions in his true freshman training camp and that was without a spring like Slovis.

Helton could have had No. 2 in his head and started giving him mop-up in games later in the season. But the players want to win games and if Daniels goes down, they want Sears (or Fink).

Graham Harrell told the quarterbacks and media that leadership was a big factor in picking a starter. How much could a true freshman really show in 30 practices?

The truth is the coaches talk out of their backside and then choose whoever they want. Helton sent a message to Sears and Fink on Tuesday that they have no future at USC.

If he believes that, no problem. But it doesn’t help the team. And he might pay the price if his golden child gets hurt early in the season.

Remember, Helton is the quarterback guru who picked Max Browne over Darnold and said Daniels was the best quarterback he ever saw in high school.
 
USC’s run game had horrible statistics in the Fall Showcase scrimmage, amassing 17 yards on 15 carries by running backs. Offensive line coach Tim Drevno didn’t seem too bothered by the effort and neither did the offensive line’s most veteran starter.

“You play a defense who knows the same plays that you run for three weeks, you know, stuff happens,” left tackle Austin Jackson said. “We'll be okay.”

Jackson said the offensive line made some errors with pre-snap calls that he believed were a product of learning a new offense, but said the line worked on communication early in the week to help correct the issues.
 
Did you go to the scrimmage? If you did, you learned a lot.

Here’s what I heard from fans and also thought myself:

- The secondary was atrocious. I can’t recall too many plays where the cornerbacks were in a position to break up a pass or do anything positive. The wide receivers were always open. USC is young at cornerback but this was one of the worst group efforts I can recall in a fall scrimmage situation.
- This is going to be a season-long problem.
-Not only were receivers open, there were a lot of pass-interference penalties.
-The running game was almost non-existent. USC’s QBs could pass at will but the run-blocking was subpar and it didn’t seem like USC was committed to running, a complaint I told you I heard about Graham Harrell at North Texas. The pass blocking was better.
-A highlight was punter Ben Griffiths‘ 58-yard kick. I guess he will be a team star this season.
-Frankly, I didn’t see any super-dynamic aspect to this offense but it was just a scrimmage.
-What about the quarterbacks? All of them had their moments. Freshman Kedon Slovis completed the most deep passes but a lot of them were underthrown and completed because the coverage was so bad.
-The funniest play was when the ref signaled JT Daniels was sacked before he released a deep pass. Of course, the pass was caught for a TD over two defenders, so Clay Helton signalled to the ref to count it as a touchdown anyways. Wonder if he would have done that for Matt Fink?
Click to expand...

sounds like doogcourics doesnt understand the mess sark left, gonna take tim to clean it up.
 
So second string Jake Haener is transferring, but 3rd string Jack Sears is not?

Ok.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top