As far as the fans are concerned, the brunt of the blame for USC’s offensive inconsistencies falls on coordinator Steve Sarkisian.
Sarkisian says he doesn’t read the often-nasty message-board posts and that the criticism doesn’t bother him. But he does review his own work after every game and regularly finds fault with a handful of his calls.
“Whether we score 66 points or we score 17 points, I look at every call, upside down and inside out, to see if I would have done something different here or there,” Sarkisian said Tuesday. “Inevitably … there’s anywhere from five to seven plays that I would change. That’s not necessarily the same five or seven plays that other people would change. But I would.”
Sarkisian is in his second season as USC’s primary play-caller. His offense ranks 14th in the nation in yards per game (456.6) and 13th in points (38.0) but sandwiched a pair of subpar performances around a 69-point outburst at Washington State. The Trojans scored a season-low 17 points last week at Arizona. Two weeks before that, the offense committed five turnovers vs. Arizona State.
Asked if he has found the offense’s erratic play frustrating, Sarkisian said: “It’s not frustrating. I think we’ve got a nice offensive football team. We’ve played some really good football games this year. We’ve also struggled at times. Hopefully we can work through those issues of why we have struggled … and find ways to fix those problems quicker than later.”
Related links:

Leave a comment