“I am sick, this doesn’t really feel like a win." Cameron Smith

Yes, Cam. Thank you.

There are lots of things that could be said about technique and tactics and the like. But sometimes getting in the weeds just makes no sense. You don't analyze note-for-note Roseanne Barr's national anthem performance -- what's the point?

Arizona is not a good football team with Khalil Tate healthy. With a half-crippled Tate, Arizona is awful. Yet playing against a completely over-matched opponent, USC:

• Had 18 penalties
• Had 3 turnovers
• Allow Zona to score the last 20 points of the game
• Went 6 straight series in the second half without a point against a very poor defense
• Had a game that should have been 41-7 or so, with the second and third string playing the entire 4th quarter, instead come down to an onside kick.

This is not an isolated bad game. This is not Pete Carroll losing one WTF game every year. It's not Dabo Swinney almost losing at home to Syracuse. It's week after week after week of undisciplined, uninspired, ugly football. It's almost unwatchable at times. And I suppose the good news is that because USC has made itself almost irrelevant to the rest of the college football world, at least nobody is watching.

"We look like one of the most undisciplined teams in the country, and it kills me. I'm tired of coaching an undisciplined team. I don't want to be the only one who won't put up with it. The team has to not put up with it."

Quote from Clay Helton? No. Scott Frost. Here's a quote from Clay Helton: "“We played a good game tonight."

No, coach. You did not. Again.

If you want to blame the players -- if you want to say that these kids, who were almost all blue-chip recruits that every program in the country wanted -- and if you want to conclude that they just don't have any talent, go ahead. Sure, it's possible that all of USC's blue-chip recruits fooled everybody in high school and somehow, some way, USC always seems to land a collection of guys that can't play even though everybody wanted them, whereas the other programs that recruit like USC actually get the real-deal blue chippers, then you can believe that. If you are capable of believing something so bereft of evidence, I can't change your mind.

If you can watch last night's game, and the four before it, and most of the games last year, and believe Clay Helton is building something and that this program has strong, competent leadership, I don't know what to tell you. If you can watch the product USC puts on the field these days and still think Helton and staff know what they're doing, I can't help you.

If you think USC is giving these players what they signed up for instead of cheating them with poor coaching that not only robs them of the joy of the success they could be having but also jeopardizes their future career prospects, I don't know what to say.

All I know is USC looks more like a Paul Hackett-coached team every week, and the reason for that seems pretty obvious.

 

Everybody can say what they want to about the last two wins but the fact is that they were wins - and as we saw WSU took care of Utah which puts the Trojans right where they need to be going into the bye week in terms of the Pac-12 South - Colorado, Utah, ASU on the horizon with two of those three played in the Coliseum.

Let's see what happens in two weeks against the Buffs at the Coliseum - Fight On!

 

Memo to Cam:

If you’re legitimately upset, start showing some serious leadership and start demanding more from your team! Get pissed off and chew some people out. You need to be the guy.

 

Very well articulated, Arhedge. I agree with you 99.999%. That game should NEVER have been close.

I agree. He is the most consistent player. He and Gustin should just take over that defense. Get that #15 involved as well. He can hit!

 

Actually Helton needs to be the guy. Helton is getting a lot of money to be the guy. Smith recruited to play linebacker. Helton paid to lead the team.

 

If SC somehow manages to win the P12 South (which is a REALLY bad division) they are going to be thoroughly embarrassed by whomever wins the north. There is no improvement with this team week-to-week. It is scary how clueless Helton really is. I genuinely wanted him to succeed as he is a class act as an individual. It is now painfully obvious that he cannot coach at this level.

 

its easy to say a win-is-a-win. but how many a "win-is-a-win" moments--without any noticeable improvement from week to week, year to year--must we endure for changes to be made?

 

So he should chew out Helton then?

 

Those, as a few say “A Win Is A Win” types are in the future going to be very lonely in an almost empty Coliseum.
Football is officially back in LA

 

Somebody with access should. Why does it feel like he's climbing into a mental clamshell? I mean, how hard is it to fix our freakin' snapping issue - one issue - one player!

 

I wish I could say that you are wrong, but I can’t.

Win or no win, we simply do not look good at all. And it is indeed frustrating.

 

No because every game is becoming a WTF game lose or win. At 24-0 I went to sleep figuring a possible blowout. This is becoming intolerable.

Of course, I'm comforted in knowing that because Alabama is winning too much the NCAA will surely investigate them and find them guilty of all sorts of ingenious infractions. /s

 

It’s like Saban says. Doesn’t matter if you win or lose. What matters is the process and how you got there. If that process isn’t sound, it doesn’t matter if you win. If it’s sound, losses are ok. Our process definitely isn’t sound.

 

Last night, frankly, shook my faith in USC as a finesse team. Even with our baked-in finesse DNA, it should have been a blowout. Frightening .

 

This couldn’t be more wrong. Nothing Cam could do would overcome how bad Helton and his staff are.

This comes from the top down, it starts and ends with Helton, not Cam Smith.

 

I did the same only I went to sleep at half time. Got home from hunting elk for 3 days and couldn’t keep my eyes open.

I’d be lying if I said I woke up at 2:00 am checked my phone and actually expected a 45-10 game.

24-20 is about right.

 

I don’t call out college players but I am now, since he himself opened the dialogue.

Cam Smith played like shit in this game. He didn’t even get his uni dirty. He has a lot of fucking nerve bitching about this game because he barely broke a sweat. Go ahead, run the tape, isolate on him. Watch. I did, virtually every defensive play. He deflected one poorly thrown ball in the 2nd half even though his guy got behind him. He didn’t stop a run, make a tackle, cover a receiver. He didn’t even sprint to a play. He was chasing every play, slowly, never got in the backfield, got manhandled by blockers, never made a one on one tackle, in the plays i reviewed.

He should shut his trap and start making plays.

 

Almost everything you say is rubbish.

You say you don't like to call out college players, but you make an exception ... to tell Cam Smith to "shut his trap"?

Cam didn't call out his teammates. He didn't criticize his coaches. He expressed his disappointment in what was, to any reasonable observer, a grease fire of a game. He's not allowed to do that? It shows a lot of f'in nerve to say it was a bad game?

And, as usual, you're wrong on the substance. "He didn’t stop a run, make a tackle, cover a receiver. He didn’t even sprint to a play." All of this is ridiculous, of course. Cam did in fact stop runs and make tackles. He led the team in tackles. As he usually does. And he made some very nice plays. On Arizona's 8th offensive play, Cam fills the hole and blows up a blocking back in what would otherwise have been a successful offensive play. Does so again on play #24. On plays 31 and 32 Cam corrals Tate nicely to end Arizona's series. Another good play for Cam on a running play on play 43.

Fly, there may be something in this world that you know. There may be a subject about which you can intelligently share thoughts, maybe even thoughts that would have some value to those around you.

But football is not that thing. Your ignorance of the game is outdistanced only by your belligerence to those who disagree with you.

In this case, Cam Smith probably isn't the one who needs to shut his trap.

 

So you went thru and found 5 plays for the entire game where he made some type of play and called that a great game? You were the one that used his comments to trash the coaches, not me. He is a senior MLB with supposed NFL talent (“we have way more talent than every team but Alabama”)and he made no big plays against a weak AZ team. Is he concussive like Rey Maualuga? Does he blanket receivers and chase down RBs in the backfield like C Matthews?

If a player wants to win a game big, make big plays that change the course of the game. He is a senior player with experience and he should be setting an example for other players by being at the center of game changing plays.

If he is going to complain about the outcome of a game he should start with his own performance. One thing I will say is that for some damn reason a lot of SC kids think if they just show up, SC will win. They rarely call themselves out for a poor performance. It is that “4 star, 5 star mentality of royalty” that so many SC player assume. They dont lift weights apparently, they don’t get set mentally prior to a game, they don’t tackle well because they all think they are better than everyone else because they got stars by their names.

Anybody that played team sports knows you get your toughness and drive to excell from your buddies on the team, not coaches yelling and screaming. The S and C coach cannot force kids to lift and train. Your buddies make you lift and train.

 

My point is simple. Cam Smith is a great Trojan. He's a team captain, a 4-year starter, he's tough, dependable, smart, and productive. This program has some serious problems; Cam Smith is not one of them.

But because his statement doesn't square with your tired agenda, you lie about his performance ("He didn't stop a run, make a tackle....") and say that he should "shut his trap." Your post was garbage.