On February 20th at the Nokia Theater at L.A. Live, Will Ferrell and friends will be putting on a comedy show to benefit Coach Carroll’s charity A Better LA.
The Trojan’s most dynamo player (in my humble opinion), Damian Williams, is no longer wearing a protective boot on his injured ankle. Williams will not practice tonight or tomorrow but he will try to run on Monday to test his ankle. Hopefully he will be back in time for FUCLA. We will update you as soon as we learn more.
Since it is such a slow news day in the land of Troy, how bout a little song girl love.
The USC men’s basketball team (1-0) defeated UC Riverside (0-2) 77-67 at the Galen Center last night. Senior Dwight Lewis led the way with 22 points. Nikola Vucevic and Marcus Simmons each had 18 points. The Trojans only played seven players last night because of injury and eligibility issues.
The Trojans next game is on Saturday November 21st at 5:00 p.m., against Loyola Marymount at the Galen Center.
Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh said in his weekly press conference that going for a 2-point conversion when his team was leading 48-21 with only 6:47 left in the game “wasn’t personal.”
"We were just trying to win a football game. ... The only reason we went for two was we really thought we could get it."
When asked if it was a strategic decision, Harbaugh responded:
"Yeah, exactly. ... I've been reading some people's opinion that somehow this is something personal with coach [Pete] Carroll. That couldn't be further from the truth. There was nothing personal. I'm not trying to make any enemies. Life's too short for that. The way our relationship has been is it's been very competitive. And I really enjoy especially pregame with Pete Carroll. He's very loose. He's funny. We kind of yuck it up before the game. We kind of always end it with 'time to go to war.' And then you go out and try to gouge each other's eyes out. You do the same thing in recruiting. It's great competition. But these games are decided on the field by the players. We enjoy watching it. We enjoy being a part of it. From my end, and I'm pretty sure from Coach Carroll's end ... from my end, it's nothing but respect for him and his program. Certainly there's nothing personal involved in this."
This story is a getting a little blown out of proportion. Harbaugh is never going to say publicly, “yeah it was personal, we wanted to run the score up on the Trojans to send a message to their players, coaches and fans.” Whether Harbaugh was trying to send a message or not to Pete Carroll, one thing is for sure, the Staford vs. USC game is becoming a great rivalry. Mark your calendars, next season the Trojans plays Stanford in Palo Alto on 10/09/10.
The USC men’s basketball team kickoff their season tonight against UC Riverside at the Galen Center. There is a 2-for-1 ticket deal for tonight’s game. To purchase tickets, click here.
The headline of the last Skinny was “It All Comes Down to the Running Game” and boy did it ever. Toby Gerhart and Stanford ran for 325 yards while thoroughly outplaying USC in every phase of the game in a 55-21 blowout of the Trojans. It was the most points ever given up by USC in the Coliseum and after 28 straight victories in November under Pete Carroll; the Trojan program is clearly out of sync.
Before we get into some of the issues that are plaguing the Trojans, USC fans must tip their cap to Jim Harbaugh and the Stanford program. Harbaugh inherited a program that was 1-11 in 2006 and in his third year he has Stanford in a position to possibly go to the Rose Bowl. In the last two weeks, Stanford scored 106 points in victories over Top 10 teams and physically beat up the opponent. Harbaugh did exactly what Pete Carroll did when he came to USC. He loaded his staff up with experienced and hungry coaches and has given his players every opportunity to excel.
After seven years of “always competing” and finishing stronger than anybody, the Trojan program is in peril. USC only has 3 losses and you don’t want to overreact but the way the Trojans have lost and the fact the Trojans could easily have 5 or 6 losses at this point is very concerning with the amount of talent they have.
The issues can be addressed and the ship can be turned in the right direction but if you truly want to Win Forever you have to continually evolve, innovate and not let ego get in the way.
Discussion points for the water cooler and IM chats:
1- No Hunger- With seven consecutive AP top 4 finishes and ending the season with a bowl win 6 of those 7 years, the Trojan program and its fans seem to be living on its accomplishments of the past. The program seems to have forgotten how bitter losing can taste and do not play with the attitude “WE MUST WIN THIS GAME”.
An example of that was clear when after suffering one of the worst losses in USC history, some players were seen after the game smiling, laughing and carrying on like it was no big deal. Like some of the "new” LA fans that have joined the bandwagon the past 5 years, I wonder if some of the supposed “5” star recruits just wanted to be along for the ride and not put the necessary work in to become a high caliber player. When you’re the top dog with everyone gunning for you, especially with a young team, you have to outwork everyone else.
(lack of depth/experience, coaching attrition, Pete's focus after the jump)
One good thing that came out of this weekend is that Stafon Johnson spoke for the first time since his horrific weight room accident.
Johnson repeated the same words that his late grandfather said to him before he died:
"God has a plan. Run, Stafon, run."
It has only been three months since Johnson crushed his throat while bench pressing before practice, but along with speaking in a soft voice, Johnson can also eat solid food and swallow. Johnson no longer has a feeding tube in his stomach or tracheostomy tube in his throat, both have been removed.
Dr. Ryan Osborne said of his recovery:
"Due to a gladiator-type mentality toward his outcome ... he has regained the ability to swallow."
Keep fighting on Stafon and we will keep you in our prayers.
Whatever happened to saying, "I love you mom," when they put a camera in your face. The worst thing about this video is that these two clowns are seniors and we won't get a chance to against them next year.
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