SB Nation User Blog: anh_sc79

Few questions for UCLA fans reg PC's decision and 4th down "etiquette"

anh_sc79 — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:49:29 -0000

This is not an instigation to engage in flame wars, name calling and other non-sense. This is an honest attempt to engage in civil opinion sharing.

I want to ask UCLA (including BN regulars with whom I exchanged some non-pleasant name calling - promise won't happen in this post) and other non-USC fans several questions. I will provide my thoughts as a dialogue starter.

1. What should have Pete done after RN timeout?

Here is my brief take:

- Rick's TO was "game on" indication

- Kneeling 2 more times and punting the ball and possibly allowing the Bruins to score would be a major negative for PC because

* RN will claim that 21-14 is an indication of how close UCLA is and the gap is closing

* RN will claim UCLA fights to the end..

* UCLA's gain is USC's loss. No question about it

- Thus a "game on" responce was needed.

- Short pass would most likely not work because UCLA was stuffing the run and covering short passes.

- Perhaps "catch and fall on 1 yard line" might have been an alternative, but I am sure the media would find a way to negatively spin this as well

- I didn't really like the celebration, but perhaps Bruins obvious frustration (as evidenced by PAT penalty) really fueled the Trojan sideline

So overall, I think it was a right call with some reservation about the celebration

2. In your opinion, what is the proper "4th down, up by double digits in 4th quarter" etiquette?

A poster on BN posted a list of 4th down attempts in PC era. While applaud his solid research, I believe he left out few instances of really rubbing it in (70-17 pass by McDonald vs Arkansas - and since I hate the SEC, f*ck'em :) ) while presenting some 4th down attempts that were totally justified as classless.

My general take that it is better to go for 4th down conversion than kicking a field goal in this situation. Haters will always find a way to spin it (Urban Meyer kicked a FG vs Miami last year... everyone in Miami was pissed. What if he called a simple run play and scored?). If backups are in the game and simple run down the middle is called, there is nothing unclassy about it. It's better than kneeling on 4th down and telling the opponent "hey you suck so bad that we don't even want to run a 4th down play because your sorry ass can't stop us". So examples like this:

Up 52-7 with under 4:00 left against UCLA, 4th and 10 at UCLA 50 Matt Cassel (USC) rushed up the middle for 1 yard; turnover on downs and Up 45-0 with under 6:00 left against Arizona, 4th and 2 at ARIZ 25 David Kirtman (USC) rushed up the middle for 3 yards

are totally foolish because you have a backup QB or backup FB (not even a RB!!!) running up the middle.

So everyone who has an opinion on this matter, please share and lets keep it civil

Yet another moron (Richard Cirminiello of CFN) makes a stupid comment

anh_sc79 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:44:49 -0000

I guess it doesn't take much brain power to be a writer for an online sports media... How else you can explain the poorly researched stupidity that's coming out in many places? Richard Cirminiello of CFN writes:

However, what was Pete’s point with just 44 seconds remaining? The game was in hand, and if anything, he might have risked a sack and a turnover by dropping Barkley back in the pocket. Take a knee, shake a hand, and move on to next week’s regular season finale with Arizona.

What? Take a knee? What a great idea, Richard. But if you bothered to spend 2 minutes researching the issue before writing this non-sense, you'd realize that Barkley did "take a knee" to "shake a hand, and move on to next week's regular season finale with Arizona".

Hey, for the sake of an already contentious rivalry, Carroll’s odd choice of play-calling isn’t the worst thing, right? It makes for good copy, gets the fans in Los Angeles frothing at the mouth, and generally raises the overall hostility level between the long-time rivals. However, from a tactical perspective, I just don’t understand the move.

May be if you had half-a-brain to explore the issue carefully, you'd understand what really happened.

Calling out Andy Staples

anh_sc79 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:27:47 -0000

Yet another dumb post without using a "grey matter" called brain... Andy Staples of SI wrote:

Up 14 late Saturday, Carroll allowed quarterback Matt Barkley to throw a 48-yard touchdown pass to Damian Williams with 44 seconds remaining. Sure, UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel had just called a timeout, but USC could have handed off until the clock expired.

Andy - I am calling you out and asking you to show factually, how USC could have handed off until the clock expired if they had 2nd and 11, 54 secs on the clock and 2 UCLA timeouts. A conservative run play that gains 2-3 yards takes about 5 secs off the clock. So you are talking 4th and 5/6 with ~40-45 secs left. If USC goes for it on 4th down and doesn't get it, clock goes to 40 secs and UCLA ball. If USC punts, ~35-40 secs left while UCLA fields the punt.

I dare Andy Staples to show me what's wrong with my logic considering SC's mediocre running game and UCLA with 9 man in the box. Until then, I will just conclude that he just doesn't have the brain to figure it out - a typical "speak first, think about it later" clown.

Lastly, anyone bringing up Harbaugh (I personally had no problems with it, but some did), understand the difference between "unprovoked" and "provoked". Ricky instigated it and got what he deserved. Should have let the clock roll or be ready to bring your "A" game for 60 mins

Sorry Plaschke, but you need to check your math

anh_sc79 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:41:17 -0000

Yes, it was only the first of UCLA's three timeouts, meaning if USC kept taking a knee, Neuheisel could have kept calling them and eventually gained possession of the ball with about two seconds remaining.

Down two touchdowns with two seconds left.

Bill Plaschke needs to think before writing. Clowns who'd try to bash Pete saying that UCLA had no chance of doing anything with 2 secs left would quote Bill.

Lets do the math: 3 time-out's, 54 seconds left. 3 kneels would only take 6 secs off the clock (2 secs after 1st kneel). Add 6-10 secs for the punt and you have 40 secs left with a punt in the air. It's not easy but stranger things happen in football (did you see Case Keenum pull it off in a minute down 2 scores?)

So one more reason why Pete did the right thing after Ricky wanted to play ball.

Let's see if Mr "This is Bruin Town" will admit his inaccuracy (just sent him an email)

Pac-10 is good but also hurting itself

anh_sc79 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:26:35 -0000

Pac-10 is good but also hurting itself

Interesting article, but we've been talking about this for how long.. 2 years? We backed up with lots of data and analysis. Glad that the rest of the country is catching up... LOL

Arizona coach Mike Stoops took a question about the conference's competitiveness and turned it into a plea for the league to cut back to eight games, something the league's coaches discussed last spring.

"Nine conference games doesn't do anybody any favors,'' Stoops said. "When you're playing an extra conference game, just do the math — half the teams are going to have another loss.''

UCLA Dad Theriot is spinning his way out of Facebook fiasco

anh_sc79 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:10:40 -0000

So by now you all probably heard about Mr. Theriot and his thoughts on "Coach" Rick Neuheisel.

After some thoughts (or I imagine heavy dose of insults from likes of Mushroom and calls from UCLA AD), Mr Theriot is telling the world that it was some freaky hacker that posted those negative comments:

I am Brian Theriot and a loyal Bruin. My Facebook was hacked over 13 times in 72 hours with my password being randomly changed then sent to me via email on a reset code.

My facebook is very fun for me and my family but not given to comments or statements that were posted on it over the weekend. I have, as an NCAA Champion and UCLA Captain, a devoted love to UCLA Football And Track. I am a big fan of Coach Rick and the direction of the program.

In no way, shape, or form do I agree or condone what was put on my facebook.

And, for anyone that would like to speak with me personally.... My last post on my facebook prior to this mess was about my favorite.....Brett Favre.

I have spanked the Register and asked for a retraction. Frankly, I am just a dad riding out four more games and enjoying a great UCLA experience. Nothing more and nothing less.

Gee Mr. Theriot, you telling some crazy hacker hacked your account 13 times in 72 hours?? You believe we're really stupid? So you get password change notification and you do nothing? LOL. That's good spin, sir.

Here is where your post doesn't make sense: "My last post on my facebook prior to this mess was about my favorite.....Brett Favre.". According to OC Register blogger, there were posts criticizing "Coach" RN before and after your post about BF.

Adam Maya actually grills him on it:

Maya: There were multiple posts on your Facebook page attacking the program, beginning Saturday night and continuing through Monday morning. In-between there were multiple posts on Brett Favre and Halloween photos, which have not been removed. If you posted those, you would have seen the comments from Saturday night, which were still on your page as of Monday. Are those your posts from Sunday?
Theriot: “I’m a big Brett Favre fan. My last post I think was about 5:20 p.m., Sunday.”

Maya: Right. And the posts attacking the program came before and after that. The first ones were from Saturday evening, shortly after the UCLA-Oregon State game. The others came on Monday morning. You’ve admitted you posted Sunday. So if someone else wrote these posts on Monday, what about the posts from Saturday?
Theriot: “Those aren’t me. I don’t attack the program. I’ll be honest with you, do I disagree with the use of my son? Yes, but that’s irrelevant. That’s no reason to attack the program. In the midst of all this (on Monday), I was communicating with Bob Field, the associate athletic director, about the situation with my son.”

Maya: OK, but I want to make sure we’re clear on this: There were comments on your Facebook attacking the program on Saturday night. You said you posted the Halloween photos and comments on Brett Favre on Sunday. Did you write the comments from Saturday night?
Theriot: “I was in Corvallis. How would I do that?”

Maya: You still could have easily logged into a computer. You could have even done it from your phone.
Theriot: “You think I’m going to do that while I’m having a good time when I’m in Corvallis on Halloween night? There’s no time for that.

“Look, this is a newsworthy story. But I’m a true blue Bruin. I love the program and I love Rick Neuheisel. It’s not a big deal, but this thing steamrolled and now it’s in USA Today. I got hacked and that’s it. No big deal. Certainly I have differences as a parent but every parent does. I can’t win that battle. I’m not mad at anybody.”

Haha. So apparently the guys posts on his Facebook, sees 13 notifications of password change and doesn't notice the mess. Yeah, right... Looks to me, and few more CF fans (mind NON-USC fans, including some non-Mushroom worshipping readers at Ruined Nation), that Mr Theriot is just in "spin" mode. He looks incredibly bad in the eyes of UCLA AD and fellow Bruins, so he makes up a story on evil hacker.... Do you actually believe that??? Unless you are Mushroom-minded inbecile, you shouldn't.

Priceless "shyt" from "out of countrol" OC (aka Randall Carroll)

anh_sc79 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:00:45 -0000

Stumbled upon this. For thos who don't know, The OC stands for Outta Control. It is Carroll's nickname - http://usc.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=886458

The first gem is here:

So if my translator interpreted this correctly:

1) Norm Chow is black

2) Randall is not happy with him

3) NC doesn't trust RC or RC doesn't trust NC...

4) Same "shyt" (losing?) is getting tiresome for RC

5) Like every Bruin, he was paying more attention to USC - ND game than UCLA game

6) He is whining about this to Ditrich Riley, who probably won't go to UCLA now

More priceless stuff from OC:

More "shyt" from OC

1) RC doesn't like school

2) RC realllllllllly doesn't like schoool

3) RC really reallly realllly realllly doesn't like school

But wait, I thought they were all Rhodes scholars in waiting, or at least that's what Mushroom told me...

UPDATE: Looks like RC is not getting any punishment for that "shyt". Just like Nikola Dragovic (or whoever it was), it was just a misunderstanding. From UCLA blog

After a meeting between freshman wideout Randall Carroll and offensive coordinator Norm Chow about the contents of a somewhat controversial Twitter post by Carroll to St. Francis of La Canada recruit Deitrich Riley, Neuheisel said that Carroll would not be punished.

This, after redshirt freshman cornerback Aaron Hester expressed his frustration about the handling of his return from a broken leg.

"In the midst of a four-game losing streak, there's gonna be frustration," Neuheisel said. "That's a natural byproduct. What we have to do is channel that frustration in a positive way. With respect to Aaron Hester, certainly he understands that coming off a broken leg we can't just rush him into the starting lineup. Maybe on that particular day, he didn't understand. If communication needed to be more thorough, I'll certainly take the responsibility.

"With respect to Randall, I think it's just an oversight with respect to the technology. I don't think it was intended for a public forum. He and Norm have talked and cleared the air."

UPDATE 2: Looks like the Bruin team is united and buying "Coach" RN's philosophy... NOT!!!

Here is another twitter gem from Chrstian Ramirez (yeah yeah I know about Gable, but he never tweeted the whole world about the injustice). Funny "shyt"

Too bad "equipment people .... tag football" doesn't count

anh_sc79 — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:16:15 -0000

Too bad "equipment people .... tag football" doesn't count

BE REAL: It seems most posters on this blog hate USC. What are your feelings about 'SC?
KEVIN CRAFT: I don't think any Bruin likes the Trojans. If we're playing them in badminton, I want to see us win. Our equipment people play them every year in tag football and from what I hear, we usually win it. So...I'mmmm just sayin...

Something terrible happened to Stafon Johnson

anh_sc79 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:14:10 -0000

Something terrible happened to Stafon Johnson

Hopefully nothing serious, but pray for Stafon
Speedy recovery and best wishes

A critical look into UW loss

anh_sc79 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:39:22 -0000

After fuming the whole weekend, I finally decided to put my thoughts together. I posted few comments on WeAreSC.com forum, but I want to present a comprehensive look into UW debacle and the negative vibe around the program. A healthy critique never hurts, especially coming from a big time fan.

I won't get into how much I love what Pete has done for the program and accomplishments. Yes, 118 other programs would die to have this kind of success. But this loss really hurts. I got over Texas loss fairly quickly. I even somewhat got over losses to Oregon and 2 losses to Oregon State. But a loss to UW, UCLA and Stanford really hurt. It really hurts to lose to a program that has no business of being within 21 points if the talent on SC's roster is properly developed and utlized. I can understand losing to Ohio State, Cal or even Notre Dame (EDIT: to clarify, I am talking about 2009 Cal, OSU or ND, not 2001 or 2003 Cal). But not UW nor 2006 UCLA nor 2007 Stanford.

Let's not forget, Bobby Bowden also had tremendous success in 1990s. But FSU's inability to maintain discipline and develop players (despite playing in weak ACC and Florida being mediocre in early 2000s) eventually led to a freefall.

My main "fuming" points are as follows:

1. PC's stubborn decision to ignore special teams recruiting. Year after year, the special teams remains a problem. True, PC hired a special teams coach. But Schneider can't make a weak punters leg stronger. SC lucked out with Buehler, but aside from Buehler, we didn't have an impact kicker or punter forever. Danelo (RIP) wasn't a game changer, none of the current kickers are, and O'Malley is simply atrocious. You can check the punting average across the nation here. Well, what's the solution? You don't have to go far - look across the town. UCLA recruited their current kicker (Forbath) when another excellent kicker (Medlock) was approaching the end of his outstanding college career. Their current punter (Locke) was recruited as another solid punter (Perez, who was impactful during the 13-9 upset) was an upperclassman. There is no reason Pete can't plan out succession plans for kicking, long snapping and punting positions. It's very simple - recruit an elite specialist once in 4 years and if it means 1 less all-american RB, so be it. Matt Darr is coming next year, but it won't help our miserable punting average this year.

If anyone can name more atrocious punting in the Pac-10, please point me to that program.

2. Failure to clean up the penalties. Year after year, SC remains one of the most undisciplined teams in the country. What hurts the most, the penalties come at the worst time possible. With all the talent we have on the roster, it would not hurt one bit to bench anyone for a stupid, undisciplined play. Mindless penalties are becoming an important factor with struggling offense

3. Program's founding stones are becoming empty slogans. How many times we've heard about "it's all about the ball", "Competition Tuesday", "Turnover Wednesday"? Unfortunately, this is becoming nothing but a empty slogan. Prove me Pete, that it's all about the ball. Bench McKnight, Bench Stafor like you benched CJ Gable. If it's all about the competition, where are the practice and spring football all-americans during the gameday?

Paragon summed it up nicely:

I Love PC but I am tired of hearing how great guys do in practice only to see them languish on the bench.

If they are so damn good then get them into the game!

Pete had no problem saying that Flournoy (sic?) needed to learn the playbook or that Mustain is behind the others QB's in his development so why not tell us why the other guys are not cutting it?

Of course that opens up a whole other Pandora's Box...if they aren't that good they why did we recruit them...

Just my .02

4. Offensive talent development. I have no problem with what we're getting out of the guys on the defensive side. If you need a proof, check the NFL box scores from last weekend and see how dominant our x-defensive players are as 1st and 2nd year rookies (LoJack, Cushing, Maualuga, Rivers, TT). However, besides the OL, the talent development for WR, TE, and QB position leaves a lot of room for improvement. The RB position is hard to judge because none of the RBs gets sufficient amounty of carries.

But lets focus on WR position. Looking at the WR position I see a fair amount of highly recruited WR's on our roster (I am not even mentioning VH who left for Cincy). However, none of them became impact players ala DeSean Jackson, Percy Harvin, Julio Jones, A. Benn, Michael Floyd or AJ Green. Moreover, the guys who got away (Adams to Arkansas, Charles to UGa, Jeffrey to SCar) are becoming impact players as true or RS freshmen. What's the matter?

Here is an interesting take from GarryP at WeAreSC:

Q: Garry, since you mentioned that plenty of receivers were recruited ahead of guys like James Johnson [UW WR who led the team in receptions last weekend - anh_sc79] and also considering the fact that guys who got away like Orson Charles, Adams (Ark), Julio Jones, DeSean Jackson, AJ GReen, Percy Harvin, A. Benn become instant difference makes, is it fair to say that talent development (or proper utilization) at WR position hasn't been great since Steve Smith / Jarrett era?

A: This year will tell a lot about WR development, no doubt about that. Last year we got away with a trio of Damian, RoJo and PT as Patrick may not have been the All-American some predicted he would be but he did have a solid SC career. RoJo has developed into a nice threat but the shoulder injury has really been a blow to the team so far. I think Damian is our most polished, all-around receiver since Steve Smith.

That leaves a lot of guys who have been on the roster for a while and should be ready to go. Ausberry, Patterson, Butler, Carswell, Cameron. So far the results from this group have been minimal and you can point to play calling, inexperienced QB, game situations, etc as reasons for that so far this season. At some point, however, you need to look at players who have been in the system and expect them to perform. If they don't, then it is time for some questioning as to why that isn't happening.

What about Blake Ayles as a #1 TE?

Now lets touch the most contentious issue - the QB position. Behind Matt Barkley we have 2 5 star recruits (Aaron Corp, Mitch Mustain) and a solid HS QB in Garrett Green. If Aaron Corp's performance last week is any indication of his development, I must ask the coaching staff: "What the hell have you guys been doing all this time with the super recruits"? I don't buy the inexperience factor. Jevan Sneed, Ryan Mallett, Tate Forcier, Tim Tebow, Tony Pike, Taylor Potts - the list goes on and on - are perfect examples of what talented QB mentors do with solid talent within short period of time. The lack of QB development totally falls on coaching staff. I always been an advocate of inserting backups early in blow outs. Yet our 1st string QB always remains in until the end of the 3rd quarter. The backups never get meaningful time to test themselves in the real game situation. Some may say, that Aaron Corp doesn't fit our system or he simply sucks. To first group, tell me why Aaron was recruited if he never fit? To the second group, I am going to point to GarryP's article on WeAreSC:

Quarterback Matt Barkley, fresh off leading a dramatic last minute drive last week, was also sidelined with a shoulder that simply wasn't ready to go. In his place, we entered the game with Aaron Corp. Not to worry, I thought, as up until a few weeks ago Corp was scheduled to be our starter and he would surely take advantage of his opportunity to show what he is made of. That didn't turn out to be the case. I've had a chance to cover Aaron Corp a lot over the years, primarily during his career at Orange Lutheran, and the player we saw yesterday did not resemble the guy I've seen in the past. Aaron Corp is a good quarterback folks. It's just a shame this might be the game people remember him by because it was clearly not his best effort. He seemed timid, unsure of himself and he made some poor decisions. That is not the player who was named California State Player of the Year. Again, I don't know what went wrong but it certainly did go wrong for Aaron on this day. In fact, his 110 passing yards were the lowest performance by a quarterback in the Pete Carroll era.

Which brings me to the next point

5. Playcalling needs to improve. I know some of you don't agree with me here. Paragon wrote that "playcalling is overrated", but I respectfully disagree. I firmly believe that playcalling must adjust to certain players strengths and weaknesses. It's hard to run a system that doesn't take advantage of what the player is capable of doing.

Aaron Corp will never have Matt Barkley's arm, but MB7 will never have AC15's mobility. I didn't see a single naked bootlet, no zone read options to take advantage of Aaron mobility. Not once did Bates called a deep throw downfield (put max protection if you are worried about a sack). The play calling is unimaginative with zero creativity.

You can only go so far with talent and poor playcalling. Several pundits and posters mentioned that a common denominator behind conservative playcalling by various OC's was Pete Carroll. I believe there is some merit to that. Play calling must be creative, not dumb. No one asks for a trick play on 4th and inches when you have a tall, strong QB behind All American OL, just sneak it. But once in a while, use an end around, reverse, flea flicker... Keep defenses honest.

Pete needs to let an experience college OC run his offense. Note I said college OC, not any OC. NFL offensive strategy is built on assumption that the other team is equally talented (more or less - at least the difference between the Steelers and the Lions is not as big as the difference between Florida and Florida International). That's not the case in college. Look what experienced OC such as Gus Malzahn did to Auburn's pathetic offense.

UW's defense is no 1984 Chicago Bears. Nate Enderle of Idaho passed for a lot of yards just a week ago. I watched the game and you can go vertical (or deep) on them. Especially when you have a 6"4 WR on a 5"9 true freshman. Play to win, not to prevent a loss.

This loss hurts. For the first time in the last 5-6 years the Trojans didn't serve crow to a trash talker. Every pundit on earth put the Trojans on the upset alert and yet we blew it. It pains me to say, but we lost a race with a full garage of Ferrari's to a 1970 VW bug.

Some things must change to avoid this crap again in future.