Guerrero is a horrible AD for the many reasons listed in this blog, but for me, Guerrero is just a byproduct of the culture at Ucla when it comes to athletics. Things have been done a certain way for half a century and things will continue to be done that way no matter what.

It’s kind of like Ucla is the old PAC 10 and Dan Guerrero is Tom Hansen. Hansen would not change the way he did things. He refused to unlock the value of the conference because he thought it was in bad taste. When Larry Scott came in, he not only brought new ideas, he rebootedthe organizationand it’s way of thinking.

Ucla needs a reboot in its athletic department. It goes deeper than Guerrero. We need to change the entire organization and bring it into the 21st century. The entire place needs to be tented and a new team needs to be brought in.

Yes, fire Guerrero. But also fire Field and all of the other Donahue leftovers from an era that is long gone.

Hiring a guy because you “hope” he will be like Cheaty is not a strategy. It is closer to a last ditch effort to grab at straws hoping against all hope that everyone in the entire world is wrong about him. That is no way to operate a modern athletic department.

Morgan Center has turned into Grey Gardens. There are hoarders locked inside with piles of garbage. We need professional help.

Bumped - Great points by Karl II, and not the only ones that Southern California is missing - BN eds

USC fans constantly complain about supposedly overly harsh penalties and unfairly losing the appeal.  Well, I am sick of hearing it.  Below are the arguments I hear the most and the reasons why I humbly believe they are wrong.

The sanctions are not fair. The athletic director, coaches and current players were not even at the school when the alleged violations occurred.

There are two problems with this argument.  First, the reason the school hired a new athletic director and coaches is because the last regime did such a piss poor job on compliance.  Pete Carroll jumped ship when he found out significant sanctions were coming down and Mike Garrett was fired for being arrogant and incompetent in his handling of the whole affair.  The new administration is a direct result of the bad behavior, not some unrelated coincidence.

Second, and more importantly, the timing of the imposition of sanctions is primarily due to the ineptitude/lack of investigative authority of the NCAA and USC’s early embracement of a tactic of non-cooperation.  The NCAA investigation lasted about four years.  Since the NCAA has no authority to compel testimony or production of documents (at least with respect persons who are not employed by member institutions), it had to sit on the sidelines and wait for evidence to be drawn out in the Bush civil litigation.  If USC was truly concerned about sanctions affecting players who were “in elementary and junior high school” when the infractions happened, then USC should have opened the Kimono and let the NCAA have unfettered access to all relevant evidence, including former players and agents.  I know-USC has no formal control over former players and agents (see above).  But it does have informal control.  USC lets former players use practice facilities, attend school functions, come back to school for their degree, stand on the sidelines during games, etc.  USC also gave (or used to give) agents significant access to facilities and players.  Threatening to take away these privileges at best would have led these people to sit for depositions or answer discovery and at worst would have shown the NCAA USC was doing everything it could to cooperate (even if these third parties continued to refuse to cooperate).

Instead, USC provided the minimum amount of access possible, and Reggie Bush and his lawyers stonewalled until a settlement was reached.  I don’t fault Bush in this regard-that is what many defendants in litigation choose to do.  USC, however, took the wrong approach.  An organization facing a governmental or regulatory investigation will always get the most favorable outcome by cooperating early and often throughout the investigation.  The appearance of cooperation in the eyes of the investigators is probably the single most important mitigating factor when discretionary decisions are made by investigators during an investigation.   USC blew that part of it and is at least partially responsible for the lengthy process.

Continue reading this post »

You may have heard that Lil Romeo is vacating his spot at the end Trogan bench.  You may not know, however, that in his short time at SC, Lil Romeo accomplished quite a bit.  Here is just a partial list of his notable achievements:

     -Personally funded the brown paper bag filled with money out of his own allowance.

     -Officially changed his nickname from "Lil Romeo" to "And One" (as in DeMar DeRozan and one).

     -Proposed a plan to "lower" the Co$tco Center and add 22 inch spinners on each corner. Ultimately rejected by
      President Sample.

     -Led successful campaign to rename the lines painted on the streets from the nine o back to frat row "The Percy
      Miller Trail of Puke and Urine" (the lines are there because SC students are too dumb and drunk to find their
      own way home).

     -Penned a new song about his experience at ole SC. Here is a sample verse:

     -Family funded the "Garrett-Carroll Head in the Sand Scholarship", awarded annually to the freshman who
      cheats on his or her entrance exam in such a way as to allow the coaches and headmaster at his or her high
      school to deny any knowledge of the malfeasance.

     -Led an initiative to officially name the restroom in the men's locker room at Co$tco Center. It is now
      known as the "Master P".

     -Family also funded a tenured position for the study of theories of plausible deniability in modern regulatory
      environments.

     -Lead donor in fund drive to establish a legal defense fund for SC athletes who "stray" called the Trojan Trutanich
      Ubiquitous Rehabilitation and Defense fund, or Trojan T.U.R.D. for short.  Need is so high that the fund is now
      over $20 million.

     -Most importantly, is leading the lobbying effort at the NCAA to reduce penalties for infractions that occur more
      than two years before sanctions are handed down by the NCAA.  And One has seized on, and is attempting to
      advance, the argument made by dumbshits like Rod Gilmore who say things like, "Who cares . . . that happened
      six years ago."

He has much to be proud of.

Bumped. Right now the Chow bit is only coming from ESPN's Shelly Smith, who is probably the biggest Trojan honk on ESPN (west of Mississippi). There has been no confirmation from any other news outlet yet and nothing from UCLA yet. GO BRUINS. -N

Apparently Lamey would not go to SC unless Chow was on board.  At least according to Shelley Smith on ESPNEWS:

In another part of the blockbuster staff changes, a deal is being finalized for longtime offensive coordinator Norm Chow to return to the Trojans in the same capacity, sources close to the school told ESPN's Shelley Smith.

The current UCLA offensive coordinator held that position with USC from 2001-04. He was also the coordinator at Brigham Young from 1973-99, at NC State in 2000 and with the Tennessee Titans from 2005-07.

Unfortunately, the staff is looking so good that it does not matter how big a doofus Lamey is.  Chow must really hate Neu to do that.

UPDATE (N): I'd be careful about believing everything coming out SC's mouthpiece aka Shelly Smith. A little history on Chow and Kiffin's relationship from Scott Wolf back in January of 2008 (emphasis added):

Things reached a head in January of 2005. Carroll, Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian met in Mobile, Ala., at the Senior Bowl and talked about a plan to bring Sarkisian back from the Raiders, where he was an assistant and kick Chow into the job of assistant head coach.
They also discussed removing playcalling duties from Chow.
Chow told friends recently he was "hurt" and "upset" and thought he was being forced out.
"I think they wouldn't mind if (Chow) left," said an associate of Carroll and Chow. "I think it's about ego and maybe they are tired of Norm. They don't need him anymore."
Now, to be fair, Chow could also be aloof and paranoid at times and his quiet demeanor is not the type of personality Carroll seems to prefer on his coaching staff.
With all of this going on, Chow was offered the Titans job. After he took the job, some other things happened between involving Chow and Kiffin, but I'll go into them another time. Meanwhile Chow no longer speaks to Sarkisian, feeling he was betrayed by his former protege.

So before we believe this story let's wait to hear from Chow first. GO BRUINS.

UPDATE II (N): Brian Grummell from AOL, who is a noted Trojan shill (who once hailed Petey as a "physical genius") anxiously jumps on Smith's Chow "report," as does Scott Wolf. More updates after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Bumped. Posted on November 15. GO BRUINS. -N

Before going out and getting shalacked by a mediocre Ole Miss team, Lame gave an interview that aired on CBS.  When asked about the arrest of three of his players for an alleged armed robbery, Lame brought up a really good point. He said:

We've been here for 11 months and this is the first incident we have had.

So true.  I mean, Lame has bad mouthed an SEC coach who has actually won something; told a recruit who was leaning toward South Carolina that he would end up working at a gas station if he went to play for Spurrier; promised to sing rocky top at the Swamp before even playing a game, let alone winning one; was publicly reprimanded by the SEC (twice); and forced Tennessee to self-report recruiting violations.

But guys; c'mon.  This really is the first time in the entire 11 months (it's almost a year for God's sake) that any of his players have been arrested for armed robbery.  Lame is a saint compared to other coaches.  Kiffin should not be singled out for punishment, he should be celebrated with mad props by upstanding celebrity role models.

Just don't ask The Ogre, though.  He states the Kiffin philosophy on recruiting in a pretty straight forward fashion:

We're not angels and we're not going to recruit a bunch of angels.

You can see more Ogre gems here.  It actually tells you a lot about Lame and his band of thugs. Here are the other quotes I liked:

"We have 20 commitments right now. We plan to sign a full class and more. I'll sign a 100 if they let me. I don't think they will. We have a lot of guys interested in us."

On head coach Lane Kiffin's brashness: "People would love for you to be quiet and stay put and let the powers that be be the powers that be. You've got to go out and you've got to attack. That's our philosophy."

On the response from prospects to the helicopter [note: gee, I wonder where he came up with this idea?] flying Kiffin in: "The players loved it. When you bring Coach Kiffin somewhere it's like bringing Elvis. People are just attracted to him. They love him."

By the way, how funny is it that Ole Miss beat Lame and the Ogre with players recruited by the Ogre himself.

Bumped. From March, 2009. GO BRUINS. -N

Our old friend Lame Kiffin continues to insert his foot firmly in his mouth on a daily basis as he tries to survive in the SEC.  We start out with recruit Alshon Jeffrey telling us about his experience with Master Cheatie and Cheatie, Jr. when Jeffrey informed them that he had decided to go to South Carolina:

As Southern California's Pete Carroll and Tennessee's Lane Kiffin, along with their assistants, did their best to make a final pitch to Jeffrey in the wee hours of that morning, Jeffrey made sure their conversations were on speaker phone. Mack [note: a player on his high school team] was sitting there listening, too.

"It's a whole different level, and these guys don't give up easily," Wilson said. "I don't blame them. It's what they do. It's how they put bread on their table."

Because he'd been committed to Southern California for so long, Jeffrey said he did inform Carroll that he planned to sign with South Carolina. The Trojans had tried to put the squeeze on Jeffrey earlier in the recruiting process and told him that they were going to pull his offer unless he agreed not to take visits anywhere else.

To make a long story short, Jeffrey took his visits to South Carolina and Tennessee, and the Trojans never quit recruiting him.

"He tried his best to talk me out of it, but my mind was made up," said Jeffrey, who still refers to Carroll as "Pete."

Nice to see that Cheatie is only interested in what is best for the kids.  Hard to imagine, but it gets better:

Kiffin was equally dogged. But when it was obvious that Jeffrey wasn't going to Tennessee, Kiffin took off the gloves.

According to Jeffrey and Wilson [note: Wilson is Jeffrey's high school coach who listened to the call on speaker phone with Jeffrey and Mack], Kiffin told Jeffrey that if he chose the Gamecocks, he would end up pumping gas for the rest of his life like all the other players from that state who had gone to South Carolina.

Jeffrey was doing his best to stay awake at that point, but that comment from Kiffin woke him up. He clearly hasn't forgotten it, either.

"He said it, but it's not worth talking about," Jeffrey said.

Wilson was a little more diplomatic. He wrote it off as Kiffin pulling out all of the stops and simply not wanting to concede defeat. Wilson acknowledged that's about as negative as it got that morning.

"It was his last resort. That's all it was," said Wilson, who also attended high school in South Carolina. "When you get pushed against the wall and your back is there, you're going to come out with something. You should have heard coach Carroll. He was wide awake at 3 o'clock in the morning. Remember, he was on West Coast time and fighting to get Alshon to the very end.

"But the war was over at that point."

Stay Classy, Lamey! You too Cheatie Peetie!  Hey, here is a tip: when a kid is on speaker phone, always ASSUME OTHER PEOPLE ARE LISTENING TO THE CALL!.  Genius!

Of course, Lame denies he said that.  With such detail and other witnesses around to hear the call though, what little credibility Lame had left is just about gone.

Kiffin is in so far over his head, it almost isn't even fair.  The Ole Ball Coach must even feel sorry for him, because he hasn't commented on Lamey's ill-advised statements (at least as far as I know).

I hope he ends up getting something out of Al Davis, because it is pretty obvious this guy will barely survive the off-season in the SEC.  Forget about the regular season.  He is toast.

Don't worry, Lame.  At least nobody can say you don't have a hot wife:

"I am as surprised as anyone that she would even date me, let alone marry me."

Bumped. Posted in February, 2009. GO BRUINS. -N

Continuing the enlightened coaching philosophy of his mentor Cheatie Peatie, Lane Kiffin publicly disparaged Urban Meyer to a bunch of UT boosters at a signing day party for calling a recruit while on a visit to Tennessee. 

Now, let's forget for a moment that Urban Meyer has had success everywhere he has coached (won 2 national championships at Florida, made Utah a non-BCS beast, etc.), while Little Laney has failed when not in the shadow of Cheatie.

No, it turns out Kiffin was wrong (as usual).  Meyer did not cheat.  It is perfectly permissible under both NCAA and SEC rules for a coach to contact a recruit during a visit to another campus if it is during an open contact period (as was the case here). 

Not only was Kiffin wrong, but it was Kiffin who violated an actual SEC rule when he bad-mouthed another SEC coach in public.  Now poor little Lane has to apologize and see if the SEC further sanctions him.  Once a Trojan, always a Trojan.

Classic Cheatie Peetie tactics.  I think Lane deserves a nickname worthy of Cheatie Peatie.

Bilkin Kiffin?  Little Laney (can't do anything without his daddy)?  Insane Lane?

Note: recreated from a comment by request.

I heard that Garrett, Cheatey, Trutanich and Schenter had a conference call to discuss damage control. They quickly decided to come up with an explanation for USC Marketing. My friend works for AT&T and surreptitiously recorded the call. He would not let me release the actual recording, but I did transcribe it. Here it is for the first time anywhere.

Cheatey: (having participated in similar fire fighting exercises on numerous occasions made a suggestion) Hey I know. Let’s say it’s an acronym for something.

Garrett: A who’s what's it now?

Trutanich: Damn it, Mike. You don’t know what an acronym is? An acronym is a group of letters where each is used as the first letter of a different word. You know, like “USC” stands for University of Southern California?

Garrett: I still don’t get it.

Trutanich: Jesus, where did you go to colle . . . oh wait. Never mind Mike. Just try not to speak for the rest of the call while us grown ups try to figure out what to do.

Garrett: (sticking thumb in mouth) Okay.

Cheatey: (while pursing his lips and with determination.  Think Will Ferrel as George W. Bush) How about Ultra Sexy Carroll?

Trutanich: That’s good, but it may lead to more questions about the live-in coed.

Cheatey: Got it.  GREAT comment, Tru!  It's at times like this when I love you more than my whittle Mattey Whattey.  He's so cute I just want to eat him up!

Schenter: I know. Unscrupulous Stab for Cash?

Trutanich: Again, guys, we are not going for accuracy. We are trying to come up with something that will allay suspicion, not increase it.

Cheatey: (this time pursing his lips and squinting his eyes)  Dudes, I've got it: Unquestionably Sexy Carroll.

Trutanich: (speechless.  looks down in disgust.  muttering to himself).  Why didn't I go UCLA?

Schenter: Untimely Statement on Corruption?

Cheatey: (somewhat sheepishly) Undeniably Sexy Carroll?

Trutanich: It’s official. You are all morons. How do you eat and walk straight, let alone coach a successful football team? Wait. I’ve got it. (directing the next question to Schenter) Have you ever been to China?

Schenter: There was one?

Trutanich: (large sigh and long pause) For God’s sake, just say it stands for United States China and claim to be working on some general marketing plan for an unnamed product or service to be sold or marketed in the United States and China. Make sure to explain it in an email because if any reporter worth his salt verbally asks you questions, you will never be able to handle it.

Why do bad things keep happening to people at USC?  It's not because they aren't good people, is it?  Oh.  Wait.

In an unusual twist, the lawsuit claims that USC was negligent because the university provided the vehicle to Watson and "was aware of or should have been aware of [his] addiction to prescription pain medications." Valentin further alleges that USC's own doctors knew about Watson's addiction and prescribed him with excessive pain medication.

Maybe USC doctors also treated Michael Jackson at the end.

I have mole deep under cover in the SC athletic department.  Let's call him ArrettGay IkeMay. 

According to my source, here is the short list of candidates to replace Timmeh (in no particular order):

Percy Miller
Matt Leinart
Elliot Spitzer
Brennan Carroll
Mark Furhman
OJ Simpson
Randy "Duke" Cunningham
This guy
Reggis Bush, Sr.
Rodney Guillory
Mike Brown (former head of FEMA)

Continue reading this post »

A lot of people have been posting predictions on how SC* fans will attempt to rebut the building allegations.  Well, I thought it might be fun to look at a few.  As it turns out, the actual postings by Cal Southern fans are funnier than the predictions. Look at the comments to the OC Trojister blog article on the interview with the Yahoo reporter. As TJ Simers says, these people live among you.

Here are a few of the unedited gems (with spelling errors and all!):

The "Yahoo is written by non-credible yahoos defense:"

When has Yahoo Sports reporteers ever been rigth on a story? Give me one thing they were ever correct about prior to anything coming from CNNsi or ESPN or even FOX sports? NOT ONE Thing.
When you talk about the Rodney Guillory situation, didn’t USC ask the NCAA to do their own investigation prior to OJ signing or playing at USC and the NCAA Cleared OJ to play? YES they did.

The "they were dirty before they got here defense:"

Sorry, but this is complete BS. The reporter’s assertion that USC facitated and somehow introduced these relationships is incredibly false. These people were close with the atheletes independently of being visiting them on campus or calling them on their cell phones one they were at USC. Rodney Guillory sank his claws into OJ Mayo long before he was even recruited by USC. The Bush family got involved with Reggies’ handlers through existing personal relationships the father had. Michael, please call the Yahoo reporter on this assertion, which it is so incredibly false, it defies belief and obviously calls into question the credibilty of the reporter. You can argue that USC should have been much more concerned about these apparrent relationships and done a more thorough investigation, but to sugggest that the "access" enabled these relationships is ludicrous.

This one is vital because it assumes that a player’s misconduct can not be imputed to a university, regardless of the university’s action or inaction.

The "everyone is lying but us defense:"

And, Louis Johnson is a convicted felon for cocaine, a failed sportswriter, a wannabe Guillory hoops runner, and he is writing a book. Louis Johnson has no credibility whatsoever. And, he did not witness the purported event. It is hearsay from a felon with a motive.

The "$1K asking price is way too low defense:"

Does anyone really believe that if OJ Mayo was for sale, that $1k would be the asking price? You cannot be serious. The Yahoo report is ludicrous.

The "you’ll never prove it so it didn’t happen defense:"

I find the line of reporting to be extremely distasteful. Floyd giving $1,000 is something that is never going to be proven or disproven, so the theory that Johnson is telling the truth out of perjury prosecution is weak. It comes down to he said-he said.

In the mean time, Tim Floyd’s reputation and USC’s reputation take a beating simply because this pseudo news is so widely reported.

I should think that to demonstrate lack of instutional control, NCAA would want multiple, provable offenses, within the same time period and within one sport. They are not there yet, and I doubt they will be! Fight on!

I especially like the comment about Floyd’s and SC*’s reputation taking a beating. Nice touch. Exactly what is the reputation of a coach who: hires players’ fathers, hires aau coaches, gives scholarships to unqualified posers as part of package deals, and regularly takes players from diploma mills? 

I know.  Let's ask Gregg Doyel what the mainstream media thinks of Timmeh.

As I learned very early in Con Law: the truth is an absolute defense to defamation.

* Originally posted in a comment, but moved to a fanpost with some edits.

The Cal Southern tradition is being carried on proudly in Tennessee by Lame Kiffin and his pitbull Eddie Ogre.  If you aren't (like) Cheatie, you're not trying!:

The Tennessee athletic department said one violation occurred when nine prospects on an official visit to the school participated in a mock press conference at Neyland Stadium's media center.

Another violation occurred when a fog machine was used as a recruit entered the field at Neyland Stadium during his official visit on Jan. 9.

Poor Lil Lamey started out last week calling out Urban Meyer for recruiting violations.  One week later, Lamey has been exposed for being a moron for wrongly accusing Meyer in the first place and sanctioned by the SEC for making false allegations.

Now Lamey has screwed things up at UT so badly that UT is rushing to report even minor violations before they are exposed by other SEC schools.  Even The 'Ole Ball Coach is piling on Wanna Cheatie:

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier questioned whether Kiffin broke rules by contacting a recruit before being cleared by the NCAA to do so. Kiffin assured fans that he had been notified by the NCAA that he was cleared before making his first phone call.

Welcome to the SEC!  Papa Cheatie and the look-the-other-way Pac 10 office are nowhere to be found!

To say that Lamey and The Ogre didn't know these things were violations is laughable.  When in doubt, go back to what you learned from your mentor, and I think we all know what Wanna Cheatie learned from Master Cheatie!

Next thing you know, Spurrier will be telling everyone that you can't spell R&L Carriers Bowl without "L"ane!