Okay, fess up, which of you guys facialized FGF with this?

Dec 18, 2014, 1:46 AM

https://southcarolina.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=1825&tid=207916360&mid=207916360&sid=1017&style=2

Just an outsiders 2 cents (long)
First of all, let me say that personally, I LOVE the fact that USC is having tough times. If I could, I'd raze the entire University and salt the ground so that nothing would grow there ever again. My hatred however, doesn't stop me from looking at your program objectively. I certainly don't have an insiders knowledge or even follow the program as closely as the die hard fans do. Still, I do try and take in most of your games when I can and follow the team casually during the off season. Here are my two cents on the state of your program:

1. USC has a ton going for it right now. SEC money and an Administration that knows what it's like to have a successful football team and is putting money into facilities and improvements. A rabid fan base that's clamoring for more success and 4 or 5 years of top 20 recruiting classes sitting on campus right now. Even though your current recruiting class is taking some hits, I don't think you'll slip out of the top 20. That's a great formula for long term success.

2. SS made a really bad mistake with that 2-3 years left statement. There's no spinning that. Spurrier is the face of the program and when he says that he's hanging it up, that's going to have an effect. The truth of the matter is that NO coach knows how many years he has left. If Saban himself pulled 3 straight losing seasons at Bama, he'd be out on his ###. But you can never say that out loud. It would have been smart to quickly "clarify" those statements and say something like "I was just speaking off the cuff to a reporter... I feel like I could coach another 10 years". Even now, I'd think that there'd be some value in SS doing something like that. Word is that USC is getting KILLED on the recruiting front with that by every staff. I know that Clemson has used it on Fields for sure. He wanted to play for SS. Now he's not going to have that and that gave Dabo and company a lever to use against you.

3. Offensively, you guys seem fine. Setting SEC records and scoring almost 40 a game is getting it done. I get that Thomas isn't Shaw, but you had plenty of play makers on offense.

4. Defensively, not so much. Still, I'm not so sure that coaching change is definitely the answer. From my view point, your CB play seemed OK. Not great, but OK. Safety play seemed problematic, but not terrible. You LB corps seemed pretty good (especially after you got the 2 best ones on the field at the same time... not smart of the coaches not to do this in the spring). The DL was your real problem. These guys were just plain bad. When I pulled up your depth chart, I figured out why. You've got one senior and I think 2 juniors on your 2 deep. You are starting a freshman and a sophomore at DE and have another freshman and sophomore backing them up. That's a recipe for disaster. Sure, you can get some play from underclassmen in the trenches, but to ask those guys to play entire seasons there is not reasonable. They haven't been in the program long enough and they just break down over the course of the season. And I think that's what you saw. Not really bad personnel per say, but just being in a bad spot. As an example, the Clemson defensive line that #### raped you this year was the same one that you pushed all over the field 2 years ago. The only difference was 2 years in a college program. We all know that the DL is going to make or break a defense. If you can't defend the run up the middle and get pressure on the QB, things are not going to go well for you.

5. I do think that SC has had a run of talented players over the last few years like we haven't seen in some time (if ever). Most of that elite talent went to USC (Lattimore, Clowney, Gilmore, Holliman, Jefferies, Ellington) and USC got some absolute beasts as under the radar guys as well. Bottom line is that you can't lose that kind of talent and not expect to take a step back. The fact is that you've been recruiting very well, but most programs don't simply reload DE after losing Clowney. I think the same is true across the defense. You haven't replaced Gillmore, Holloman, or Swearenger (sp) with equal talent. And you can't. These guys should have been 5 star guys out of HS. They were that talented. Even though you replaced them with GOOD players.

6. With respect to 5, I think that there's a tendency to to think "we'll be fine" after a great player(s) leaves. Plenty of Clemson fans thought that Stoudt could be BETTER that Boyd and the offense wouldn't miss a beat without Sammy. It's true that there's no shortage of talent on Clemson's offense, but you don't replace the best at a position in school history and experience no drop off. I think that you guys fell into the same kind of thinking. Even rational fans do this b/c we WANT to believe that our programs are going to be fine.

7. Finally, with the loss of talent above, I think that you were over rated at the start of the season. No way you were top 10, but I do think you were and are top 25 (maybe even top 20). I think that some of the USC players (and maybe coaches too) spent too much time over the summer reading their press clippings. Everyone: fans, players, and coaches seemed WAY too comfortable in fall camp. It reminds me in retrospect of Clemson's 2008 squad that got torched by Bama in the opener. Supposedly a great team, top 10 preseason. Well, not so much.

In closing, I'd avoid knee jerk reactions. Looking back over the last few years USC has won some games that it probably shouldn't have. I'm not talking Auburn luck or anything, but you've managed some W's in games where I thought you were clearly outplayed. The opposite happened this year. You were clearly better than Mizzo, Kentucky, and Tenn and just pissed those games away though really bad play and coaching decisions. I thought you should have won at Auburn as well. This team could EASILY have 10 wins instead of 6 in spite of a pretty poor defense.

Frankly you just had a bad season (no matter what happens in the bowl). But I'm not sure that cleaning house is in order. More like tweaking the system. Tanner needs to jerk a knot in SS and tell him to fix that fax pas and hit the recruiting trail. SS is clearly one of the best coaches of all times, but everyone needs a foot in the ### once in a while when they get too complacent. Seems like about time to me. Maybe you need some assistant changes... not sure here. But if my opinion about your defensive weaknesses are true a different staff is not the answer. The defense should be better next year as a result of maturity on the DL. Your staff will benefit from that whether it's a new staff or an old one.

So there are my objective thoughts. I do wish the worst for you. I hope that Clemson can steal Fields (he looks like a stud) and that UGA can flip Key. I hope that your entire class implodes and someone throws a bucket of water on Spurrier and he "melts away". Hopefully you will revert to a mediocre program that occasionally goes 0-12. I doubt that happens though as you have become too good a program to simply vanish.

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Okay, fess up, which of you guys facialized FGF with this?

It's a great post... I happened to be on there

The most important part was the closing statements..

Don't forget Connor Shaw..

it wasn't me. the person that wrote that piece was WAY too

It was much too kind....

If I were a betting man,

Maybe, but you gotta LOVE these two parts:

TigerBoard POTD