By Gary Montgomery, BVN Sports Editor—
As I watched a very quiet crowd of disheartened Trojan fans shuffle out of the coliseum after witnessing a thorough beat down of their team, I couldn’t help but ponder the previous years’ events and how USC slipped to this very painful point. A 34 point home loss to the smart guys from the Bay Area. Stanford scored 55 points on Saturday, the most ever scored against a USC team.
“We don’t know where to put it (the loss) but the obvious thing is that we got our butts kicked today,” said Pete Carroll. We have to find a place to put it, get better and move on. We still have a lot of work to do.” Carroll’s long and somber press conference revealed even more about the circumstances leading up to Saturday’s debacle.
“I was scared coming into this game. We knew what they could do and we knew that we could only do so much, and if that didn’t work we’d be in trouble,” continued Carroll When Mark Sanchez walked to the podium late last spring and announced his decision to forego his senior season and head to the NFL many thought Pete Carroll’s seeming lack of support for Sanchez’s decision was unfair. Sanchez was the first signal caller to leave Carroll’s program early.
Weeks before reaching a decision, he and his coach discussed the potential risks and rewards of moving his game to Sunday afternoons. Carroll went so far as to say publicly that Sanchez wasn’t ready. The flaming heads of talk radio and most media pundits jumped all over Carroll ambivalence.
The fact is Carroll was never really worried about Sanchez’s ability, he was fast forwarding ahead to the upcoming season.
And there was an inevitable truth that kept starring him in the face. He knew that for all of the talk about USC being Three deep, that he didn’t have a starting quarterback ready to pickup Sanchez’s duties.
Knowing that without a well prepared quarterback to run his offense, he would be unable to protect his inexperienced defense. He also knew that turnovers and the lack of offensive production would be his teams undoing. Carroll’s deeper understanding of his team’s eventual plight overcame his usually cheery and energetic persona.
When true freshman, Matt Barkley emerged as the starter, things seemed to be in relatively good shape. The Trojans went to Ohio State and beat the Buckeyes in arguably one of the toughest places in the world to play. The offense wasn’t overpowering but it was efficient and limited its mistakes.
After an explicable loss to Washington and a warm-up game with Pac-10 bottom dweller, Washington State the Trojans went to Berkley and beat a nationally ranked Cal team 30-3, with a Heisman hopeful in the backfield. The win over at Cal was big and seemed to signal an opportunity for fans and supporters to relax, things would be ok.
Losing to Washington was not too disconcerting since USC has developed a pattern over the last few seasons of dropping a game to an underdog.
The Oregon game began the official uncloaking of the Trojan mystique. The Ducks offense dominated USC. And completely overpowered them in the second half of the game.
Unable to move the ball or sustain any offensive production, USC’s defense was a sitting duck.
After Oregon, the USC defense was road kill for Jim Harbaugh’s Stanford Cardinal team. Harbaugh’s ‘Big Ten’style of powerful downhill offensive play rolled right over USC. Powered by former Norco star Toby Gerhart the Trojans had no chance. Gerhart, Riverside County’s all-time rushing yardage leader ran for 179-yards on 29 carries and scored three touchdowns.
“They deserved it. I can’t hate on them. It’s all good for them,” said USC senior safety Taylor Mays. Offensively, everything that USC couldn’t afford to have happen to them, did. Matt Barkley threw three interceptions and passed for only 196 yards. The offense couldn’t protect the ball and left the defense exposed. Other than its rivalry game with UCLA and a likely midlevel bowl appearance, the excitement is over for USC fans. But they should be optimistic about the future. With a full season of experience behind him, Matt Barclay is going to be really good and you can bet that Pete Carroll will reload and get the Trojans back on top.
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