Déjà Vu For USC at Utah

While I’m excited to wear my FIRE WILCOX t-shirt to the Cal game in couple Thursdays, I feel like my anger might be misplaced.  Steve Sarkisian has completely lost the USC fanbase.  The level of coaching ineptitude being discussed at my airport gate in Salt Lake City was staggering.  Everybody I talked to had a different hateful take on a separate, awful Sark’s decision.  The most egregious coaching mistake I’ve seen since the ASU debacle was the 3^rd Down & 2 late in the game.  Given the 25 mph headwind, kicking a 45 yard field goal was clearly out of the question.  Anyone that doesn’t understand that doesn’t understand physics.  Since we were clearly in 4 down territory, you have to run the ball on 3^rd down, not only because you just should, but also because you have to make Utah use their last timeout.  This is elementary school game/clock management, and Sarkisian clearly doesn’t have the brainpower to understand any of this.  I’ve literally seen children understand the clock in Madden better than Sark.  He’s fucking dumb.  Instead, Utah was given the ball back with a timeout they never should’ve had, making it even more difficult on Wilcox’s gassed defense by not only needing to guard the sidelines.  Don’t take this in any way as me giving Wilcox’s laughable prevent defense a pass.  He’s so unbelievably in over his head, it’s truly hard to put into words.

The officiating was predictably terrible.  The officials allowed the lateral on the second play of the game to continue without a whistle, granting them a touchdown that was unable to be overturned by a replay they didn't have.  But to all of our great surprise, the officials blew Adoree Jackson’s forced fumble and recovery dead instead of watching his 2nd 100+ return TD of the game.  Funny how that works.  Leonard Williams and Scott Felix were tackled no less than 3 times each, but Utah did not have a single solitary holding penalty versus USC’s stout defensive line.  How’s that possible you may ask?  It’s simple – Fuck USC and the horse they rode in on.  The screengrab above of Utah’s final touchdown with 8 ticks left, and it was a carbon copy of the play Notre Dame got flagged for last week.  I wouldn’t have thrown a flag on either play, as these rub routes happen all the time.  But it still needs to be pointed out that he is clearly illegally blocking before the ball is out.

And now for the Sarkisian apologists. My buddies and I have a group chat about USC Football, and I am seriously considering disbanding the group (I’m the admin) after the excuses being thrown around. Comparisons to Pete Carroll’s 6-6 first season are comical to me. Not only did USC progress throughout the 2001 season, but Carroll had far inferior athletes. We also came out and played better in the 2nd halves throughout that season. How’s your confidence coming out of halftime this season? Sark’s team has regressed to the point that players like George Farmer are left at home for bitching about play-calling and lack of playing time. Can you blame him? Telfer was wide open the entire game, and he was only targeted once for 21 yards. I shudder to think of the 700 yards Connor Halliday is going to hang on Wilcox next Saturday. Leach is going to pick our young secondary apart even worse than Arizona State’s backup already did. On an unfortunate note, left tackle Chad Wheeler tore up his left knee, but now I don’t have to worry about him hauling ass from this dumpster fire of a coaching staff. Small victories.

And putting a GoPro on a bottle of Fireball at a wedding is genius.  The fake swigs make me laugh.