Category — USC

Plenty of good reasons why quality coaches such as Shaka Smart, Gregg Marshall and Brad Stevens refuse to bolt their humble surroundings for high-profile jobs like UCLA. Besides, would you really want to work for Dan Guerrero?
The SportsFan Journal

Where’s Arte Moreno? Magic Johnson?
The usual suspects such as Roger Goodell, David Stern and Bud Selig are among a list of the 50 most powerful people (only 3 women) in sports. But Ed O’Bannon? That’s right. The former UCLA star could change the landscape of college sports with his suit against the NCAA.
SI.com

USC finally pulled the plug on the Kevin O’Neill era. O’Neill was in his 4th season as head coach, compiling a 7-10 mark so far. Overall, he was 48-65 at USC.
We’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. USC AD Pat Haden apparently looked the other way, at least until today, regarding O’Neill’s lengthy history of verbally abusing his players, his legendary outbursts and his occasional clashes with fans. In 2011, an altercation with an Arizona fan at a bar during the Pac-10 Tournament earned O’Neill a 1-game suspension.
So it’s our guess that something else must have triggered O’Neill’s dismissal instead of his inability to coach.
Many Trojan fans, though, believe Haden fired the wrong coach. They’re still screaming for Lane Kiffin’s head to be delivered on a platter.

Unlike a lot of folks, I sometimes appreciate the sarcastic style of L.A. Times columnist T.J. Simers. After all, for almost $200,000 a year, what’s better than investing in a writer who makes a living tearing sports figures to shreds?
Still, I’m trying to grasp why Simers decided to hold hands and watch last night’s BCS train wreck with embattled SC Coach Lane Kiffin, more than a week after Kiffin was labeled the “Unabomber” with that hoodie and forgettable performance in a loss to a horrible Georgia Tech team in the Sun Bowl. Come on T.J., you going soft on us again?
Simers doesn’t even ask Kiffin about the recent wave of recruits who have decommitted to USC. All we get is another tearjerker about how Kiffin is sorry he screwed up the Trojans, college football’s preseason No. 1. Try telling that to many of the SC faithful who are calling for his head.
It’s also hilarious that the 2 most divisive figures on the L.A. sports scene, Kiffin and misguided Lakers’ owner Jimmy Buss, get the softball treatment from the hardest hitting columnist in L.A.
What’s up with that dude?

Spotting Notre Dame 10 points was kind of the oddsmakers.
Maybe we should let the SEC settle the national championship in its title game. Or maybe the powers that be should have scheduled a ‘Bama-A&M rematch and we wouldn’t have been subjected to the beatdown we witnessed Monday night.
Oh well. Some of us thought it would be a great game before the end of the 1st quarter.
Our final top 15. Read ‘em leap.
1. Alabama (13-1): St. Nick is 4-0 in national championship games. Any questions?
2. Texas A&M (11-2): Despite not winning it all, Johnny Heisman and Aggies indulged in a little bubbly after national title game.
3. Stanford (11-2): Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit kept pitching Oregon’s case, but maybe they missed the Cardinal-Ducks outcome.
4. Georgia (11-2): Suicide hotline.
5. Ohio State (11-0): We won’t kiss Urban’s rings like Brent and Herby, but it would have been interesting to see how Buckeyes would have fared.
6. Notre Dame (12-1): Bartender, another round and double the Irish whiskey.
7. Oregon (12-1): At least it got its coach to return.
8. South Carolina (11-2): How about we hand the Heisman to Mr. Clowney now?
9. Louisville (11-2): Dee Dee Bridgwater only 1 better than Teddy.
10. Kansas State (11-2): Baylor fans might object, but…
11. Clemson (11-2): Les Miles found out orange sunshine is more powerful than grass.
12. Florida (11-2): “Only the Strong Survives.”
13. LSU (10-3): Pretenders.
14. Florida State (12-2): Still trying to figure out how a horrible Georgia Tech team can within 6 of the ‘Noles. Northern Illinois would like to know too.
15. Boise State (11-2): A little Bronco Billy for our cowboy friends.

We’d add San Diego State to the list, but we like the ones listed as the top 16 watchable teams in college basketball. If UCLA had a coach with an uptempo offensive scheme, it too would make the cut.
Deadspin

Apologies, we’re extremely late getting around to this.
You’ll just have to take our word about us getting the 1st 2 right. Utah State over Toledo was a no-brainer, but Arizona made us sweat in a come-from-behind victory over Nevada.
The rest of the story.
Poinsettia: San Diego State over BYU
Beef O’Brady’s: Central Florida over Ball State
New Orleans Bowl: Louisiana-Lafayette over East Carolina
Las Vegas: Boise State over Washington
Hawaii: Fresno State over SMU
Little Caesars: Western Kentucky over Central Michigan
Military: San Jose State over Bowling Green
Belk: Cincinnati over Duke
Holiday: UCLA over Baylor
Independence: Louisiana-Monroe over Ohio
Russell Athletic: Rutgers over Va Tech
Meineke Car Care: Texas Tech over Minnesota
Armed Forces: Air Force over Rice
Pinstripe: West Virginia over Syracuse
Kraft Fight Hunger: Arizona State over Navy (sorry Uncle Jack)
Alamo: Oregon State over Texa$$
Buffalo Wild Wings: TCU over Michigan State
Music City: Vandy over NC State
Sun: Georgia Tech over USC
Liberty: Tulsa over Iowa State
Chick-fil-A: LSU over Clemson
Gator: Mississippi State over Northwestern
Heart of Dallas: Okie State over Purdue
Outback: South Carolina over Michigan
Capital 1: Georgia over Nebraska
Rose: Stanford over Wisconsin
Orange: Florida State over Northern Illinois
Sugar: Florida over Louisville
Fiesta: Oregon over K-State
Cotton: A&M over OU (keep the hate mail coming)
BBVA Compass: Ole Miss over Pitt
GoDaddy.com: Kent State over Arkansas state
BCS title game: Notre Dame 17, ‘Bama 14.
Cheers!

The college football bowl season is upon us and what better source for your gambling needs than our good friend Jason Feirman (aka the Sports Prophet1). We’ll unleash our picks before week’s end, but if you need to put your money down…
Route4Sports

Did we mention Lane Kiffin? Didn’t think so.
Mike D’Antoni is taking a beating and you know well what we think of “Has” Ben Howland. Vinny Del Negro isn’t the greatest either, but sometimes good teams cover their inefficiencies on the bench.
Which brings us to USC’s Kevin O’Neill, the worst of them all. And that’s saying something considering how bad Howland is.
But we won’t waste our breath on O’Neill. Fortunately, the wonderful Evan Barnes blew him out of the water.
Rant Sports

I laughed when a string of lily white sports-talk radio hosts recently raked former Colorado Coach Jon Embree over the coals for stating the obvious after he was fired as head coach.
“We don’t get 2nd chances,” Embree said, speaking of black coaches. “We get bad jobs and no time to fix it.”
Do you really have to be a black man to know Embree speaks the truth? Or is this another case of the white sports media being misinformed and burying its head in the sand again?
It never ceases to amaze me the number of idiots preaching nonsense from the idiot box (is that you Jesse Palmer?) and even more so on talk radio. It seems the sports media isolates itself from reality and the rest of society. They seem to run with that crowd that repeats ad nauseum how we elected a black president to a 2nd term, so isn’t that proof racism is dead and gone?
Uh, no.
Sporting News