The Netglow File: Forgetting How to Win. The USC Case File

“you and all your fellow quackers know that that PAC 12 championship you win will have a big fat * next to it.” – @tlamb29 commenting on the UO prospects for winning their 3rd conference title in a row

Giving him all credit for his intended meaning here, he must by implying that there will be an asterisk. That asterisk standing for “Lost to a team that finished with the third-best overall conference record.” Undoubtedly he also intends to insist that USC’s record for this year will also have an *, meaning “lost to a .500 Arizona State and North runner-up Stanford.”

Forgotten how to win, forgotten how to read conference standings.

Highlights of first playoff game

Highlights of his first playoff game

Link

To Dominic,
I will not take your comments personally, as they are quite broad, sweeping generalizations.
I am a USC alumnus who is quite irate with the NCAA Committee on Infractions. While I am certain that there are more than a few University of Oregon alumni who are filled with dark-sided anger directed at USC, I can say that I have no such animosity to the University of Oregon.
In fact, as you are probably aware, many thousands of ex-Southern Cailfornians have moved to Oregon and Washington in order to gain the feel of the Pacific Northwest.
So, no, there is no animosity towards our PAC-12 brethren. In fact, USC has agreed to revenue share with Oregon through the conference. USC did not play monetary conference games like the Texas Longhorns in the Big12 played against Oklahoma. I truly do root for the other PAC-12 teams when they are doing well.
I was rooting for Oregon when Oregon played LSU.
I root for PAC-12 teams when they are in non-conference play.
After all, it does not help PAC-12 competitiveness when ASU, UCLA, USC, or other PAC-12 schools get clobbered by SEC or other conferences.

USC is not even a big rivalry for Oregon. We, frankly, were not competitive with Oregon for many years. Do you disagree?

Therefore, when USC gets a win in Oregon, it’s a big deal. Some of the freshman on the field were in middle school that last time that USC actually beat Oregon in Oregon. So, it’s been a recently rare event.

Recall a while back when USC had not beaten Notre Dame for something like 10 years and UCLA for something like 8 years (I’m sure other Trojan fans will be able to cite the exact number of years), but the point is that huge winning streaks are a sign of tremendous success in a program. Chip Kelly has that record.

I was at the LA Coliseum when Pete Carroll’s streak ended against Jim Harbaugh and Andrew Luck 2 years back. That was a very quiet night as the fan base walked out of the Coliseum. But, hey, it wouldn’t be the game that we all love without those kinds of nights to balance the victories in the Rose Bowl, at Notre Dame, or at the Farm.

The USC v. Oregon competition is a great one.

We should be proud to be a part of it, even if we are not on the field.

You have a great blog and I enjoyed reading it over the last few weeks.

Best wishes to Oregon and win in the Rose Bowl!
Let’s face it, if the one of the other teams show up, PAC-12 could lose in Pasadena.

I might even be willing to show up at the Oregon tent with few illicit beers if you come down to LA next year.
I’ll be checking in at other times as Oregon handles the post-season.
Oregon’s team is really fierce and LSU was smart not to schedule Oregon now.
After all, the LSU AD schedules Ole Miss and Alabama schedules Georgia Southern in Week 12 on purpose. If LSU v. Oregon happened now, it would be an entirely different match.

The PAC-12 officiating was really awful last night.
I don’t know if ATQ readers were reading my postings over at Conquest Chronicles, but I’ve been really irate with the poor consistency and poor quality of the field judging.
There were a bunch of calls which were overturned by the booth.
Having that number of calls overturned during one game is really bringing me to question why the field judges see such different things.
More importantly, I am also watching the ball spotting at each play and how the field umps move the markers too.
Larry Scott fined Lane Kiffin a few weeks ago when Lane called the PAC-12 on the bad officiating.
I have to say that the officiating in Oregon and at the Farm (during the Stanford v. Oregon game) was nothing to be proud of. I mean what the heck was going on with the Stanford game and play clock synchronization during that fourth quarter run?

Lane Kiffin called the PAC-12 on our Monday AM conference call. Larry Scott fined Kiff $10,000 for saying that the officiating was questionable at the end of one of our games.

Larry Scott was obviously not in the house. I was in the house at the Coliseum. Let me tell you guys, if you thought the clock management at the Farm was bad, I have seen some really unbelievable officiating at the Coliseum.

We had one field ump calling us “South Carolina” during the Syracuse Game.
We had another ump respot a 5 yard penalty as 2nd and 7 when it should have been 2nd and 15! Plus, I’ve seen plays (i’m in the end zone of the Coliseum) right in front of me where the ref’s completely blew the calls on the field and had them turned over.

It might be a good idea for the fan base to start tracking who these field ref’s are and the number of calls over turned per game.

On Conquest Chronicles, I have openly criticized Larry Scott and the PAC-12 for not doing more to insure the consistency of PAC-12 officiating. With all the media money supposedly coming in, you would think someone who start stepping up the quality of the officiating.

It’ll be interesting to see where this series goes in the years to come. Sanctions will hinder USC eventually but it might be a while before the impact really lands. Barring unfortunate NCAA business, Oregon isn’t going anywhere. Right now, and especially looking ahead, each team is the class of their respective divisions. This could develop into a true heated Big Deal rivalry.

I applaud the Ducks on a great season. Ya’ll had a tough schedule. However, get ready for the Tide to roll over LSWHO.

As a life long Trojan fan, and 2nd generation Trojan, I kinda agree. I was pretty shocked during the Stanford game when the announcer reminded everyone to stay off the field if we happened to win.

SC doesn’t storm the field and tear down goal posts. We aren’t Florida International beating Alabama.