Hawaii Postmortem

A little late for this, I know. But hey, I'm a busy dude.

My first reaction to last night's Trojan victory? USC should replace Fresno State in the WAC next year. The defense will fit right in.

Or, in simple Frankenstein terms...offense...goooood....defense.....baaaaaaaaad.

I'm not going to completely overpraise the offense, because let's face it, Hawaii sucks. Matt Barkley looked very sharp and threw 5 TDs. Marc Tyler looked like a more nimble Stafon Johnson and was vastly superior to Allen Bradford and C.J. Gable, who both looked indecisive at times. Ronald Johnson's put on some weight, and if he can stay healthy, will have a great year as the number one receiver. True freshman Robert Woods, starting across from, looked great, as well. Spectacular even, considering he's a true frosh.

I could talk about Kiffin going for three 2-point conversions, but what's the point? He's evil. I'm a USC alum and admit, by hiring him, we've basically become the college equivalent of the Raiders. Big, cartoony bad guys. Kiffin should grow a dastardly moustache he can twirl menacingly whenever we draw a late hit penalty.

Continuing a trend from last year, the defensive back seven were terrible (and the front four only so-so). Who's doing the teaching here? Apparently no one's ever told the players about the whole 'not looking for the ball and running into receivers will always, ALWAYS, get you flagged.' thing. And yeah, the tackling was horrid, but what do you expect when you don't do that in practice. Again, explain to me why Denard Kennard (funny name) is playing the Derrick Brooks part in this defense and not Chris Gallippo? At least Gallippo can make plays.

In the end, USC surprised on both sides of the ball. All I had read and heard was how much further ahead the defense was in practice. How the offense couldn't get anything going against the defensive starters. Funny. If the defense doesn't shape up, the Trojans will have to score 30+ a game to win (and 50+ to beat Oregon).