Bush Paves the Way for Henderson?

Mrs. Kiffin? Toothpicks don’t excite me.

Oh please.

Also, hadn’t realized that Sean was short for Seantrel. Cool.

Wait. UC Davis is on prohibtion? Does that include the oenology department?

Cause those cult cabs and pinots ain’t gonna grow themselves. And daddy needs his mailing list offerings to arrive on time.

Perhaps it’s all a coincidence, but Seantrel just got his ACT score this past week. Without a test score, a recruit is ineligible to sign with any school. I’m wondering how much of this was just a smokescreen on Henderson’s part.

I think you’re right on point number 2. They were pretty mediocre last year but that’s still the most talented roster in America.

I guess in a tough housing market it took longer to get the money to buy him a house for him and his family or USC had to do a better job of hiding the funds for their new USC recruit. I wonder if the Bush family still own the house. They may have returned it to USC for a donation too which USC gave to them in the first place. Perhaps they sold it to the new USC recruit. I wish Bush played for buffalo in the snow…

One motto for bush in college. May have got the heisman but sure could not beat Texas. Again, thanks Vince. We will get another championship soon. Every year Texas is in the hunt for the BCS champ game. Mack Brown is a first class coach. He built the program in the right way. Took longer than what the alumni wanted but it has arrived.

Big Booty Ho’s!

BigDuke,

You, as usual, are correct about the ACT score. However, that he decided to continue with his commitment to USC this late in the process and this close to an anticipated NCAA ruling is probably the bigger story. He had an out and still decided on USC. Just wondering aloud if he knows something we don’t.

Oh good, W-Horn/yawn/tree/tophat/root is back.

Banks aren’t lending out money to just anyone. It took a booster with impeccable credit to secure the loan for the Henderson’s new diggs…..

Here’s too skinny….

http://slog.thestranger.com/files/2006/08/nicole-richie-beach-01.jpg

I have a hard time taking anything a dirty recruit or his shitty dirty father says seriously. They knew all along that USC was under investigation. What these dumbasses didn’t know was that they couldn’t sign an LOI without having taking the ACT or SAT. The holding off of the signing, after planning to sign on signing day, had nothing to do with USC.

USC has a ton of talent, but they, again, lost a ton of it after the 2009 season. They will not be playing for the national title this year and they’re unlikely to play for the PAC 10 title either. I’d actually be interested in seeing Bateman or anyone else make a case for why they’ll be anything other than 9-4 next year with something besides “TALENT!!! USC!! PAC 10!”. It would be a fun discussion.

Kiffin’s father is a great coach, but the rest of that staff isn’t. Orgeron and Kiffin are both good, dirty recruiters and mediocre to poor gameday coaches.

With USC under this big top tent, there is nothing to sweat. They are going to slowly slide back into the quagmire of CFB mediocrity until Carroll is fired from Seattle in a few years and has a triumphant return as a savior in Los Angeles.

Layla? But, I thought Lane Kiffin was the Sexiest Woman Alive.

This could have been planned all along by both sides, knowing that each has nothing to lose and something to gain. By making it seem as though the Hendersons were seriously concerned with USC’s future status, it deflected attention from the fact that Seantrel had yet to qualify or that he himself was bought and paid for. USC goes along with the plan knowing that once Seantrel eventually goes follows through on his commitment and states publically that he will be signing with USC, USC gets a tremendous publicity boost, not just for recieving a commitment from a top 10 player in the country at a slow time in CFB news but that everyone knows (other recruits, people who follow this stuff, ect.) that Seantrel’s signing reflects well on USC’s pending NCAA status. Both sides benefit from the timing and nature of the announcement.

CTJ,

Always impassioned. I agree with you that his delay had to do with not being eligible to sign rather than awaiting for the smoke to settle. However, the point is not with motive but with opportunity. Maybe the kid and his family don’t know anything and just trudged along with his planned signing. However, if they did understand or think they understand the issue more intimately and still chose USC, then that’s interesting. A number of teams would take this kid right now if they could, so his options don’t appear limited.

As far as USC’s prospects for next year and beyond. It appears you have little faith in Kiffin and company and I can understand that. He hasn’t experienced any real high level success as a head man. I still think they’re the class of the PAC10. They will be able to recruit with the best of them and I think Kiffin’s staff is competent enough, particularly Papa Kiffin (DC), John Baxter (a pretty good ST coach), and Todd McNair is a decent RB coach. I actually think Kiffin is a better than average QB coach as well. If you can make Jonathon Crompton even semi-competent for half a season, then you’ve accomplished something. Not in love with John Morton but Kiffin will be the OC anyway.

Next year, there OOC schedule is fairly manageable. Brewster’s 85 ain’t scaring anybody. UVA sucks, Hawaii isn’t scary w/o Jones. ND is well, ND. Not a big change, USC has been nasty OOC anyway. So has the Pac10 improved that much this year? USC gets a now weakened Oregon at home w/o Masoli. They get Cal and Az State at home along with UCLA being an away game.

Toughest games are Stanford, Zona, and OSU on the road. All have warts. OSU’s will have a new QB and is weak on defense, specifically LB. Zona has more new coordinators then returning front 7, losing lil’ Stoops and Dykes. Stanford is tough and will be a lot of fun, but their secondary is still a mess. I can see that being a shootout. USC will still be more talented than any team they play, regardless if you want to hear how about it or not. I’m sure we could go through the schedule game by game, but I just can’t see more than 2 or 3 losses with a healthy Barkley. And if things break right, they could be 12-1.

USC should still be quite potent on offense with Ronald Johnson, Kyle Prater (who should make an immediate impact), a plethora of RBs. They need to sure up the right side of their line but Kalil is very talented and has good bloodlines. I’m certainly not a PAC10 expert, but I think they have an excellent opportunity to take advantage of a year where Texas, UF, Oregon, and others are breaking in new QBs. Bama’ is still the team to beat and tOSU is set up nicely if Pryor is healthy. Boise St lurks if they can beat if they can get by Tech the first game of the year….Oh, and don’t forget TALENT! USC! AND PAC10!

Kiffin’s father is a great coach, but the rest of that staff isn’t. Orgeron and Kiffin are both good, dirty recruiters and mediocre to poor gameday coaches.

How important is that in college football? How good of a gameday coach is Mack Brown? Greg Davis?

Orgeron is actually a damn fine defensive line coach, CTJ’s pronouncement’s from the mountaintop notwithstanding. Seeing as how he’s not even a coordinator, how much gameday coaching will he be doing?

We have officially gotten to the point where Kiffin is significantly underrated as a coach. You should basically ignore the whole Raiders debacle. Didn’t Nick Saban go 1-15 in the NFL? Kiffin did about as well as could be expected last year at Tennessee.

Mr. Bateman – First let me say I’m not trying to be an asshole or pick a fight. This is a great column and great fun to read.

Re this:

I think Kiffin’s staff is competent enough, particularly Papa Kiffin (DC), John Baxter (a pretty good ST coach), and Todd McNair is a decent RB coach. I actually think Kiffin is a better than average QB coach as well.

I guess I’d ask why you think you are qualified to comment on the acumen of some team’s ST coach or why Todd McNair is a good RB coach? Again, I’m not implying you aren’t qualified.

Just curious, have you followed him with some level of acuteness? I am a huge college football fan and I couldn’t have told you who coached RBs under Lane Kiffin at USC.

Again, my point here is not to call you out but more just find out how/why you feel you can discuss the USC staff with some level of expertise.

Raoulduke,

Don’t be a tool. I kid, I kid. Who’s said I was qualified? Last time I checked this is the internet and everyone who can type can offer an opinion. Shit, half the folks offering up opinions on this blog and most sport blogs have no clue what they’re talking about, but they’re damn entertaining. Ha, ha, ha. Still, your question is a fine one. I try and only offer up an opinion on subjects that I can speak halfway intelligently about (that’s mighty debatable in itself).

I offer no expertise other than what I experience, see, or research and even that’s shaky. I will say that my sports fandom journey has allowed me to stay true to my Texas roots but to experience the sports arena on both coasts, including spending some time in Arizona, which is relevant.

Specifically, I heard about John Baxter back when Dick Tomey joined the staff. I spent some time in AZ and was a faux Wildcat fan if not cheering for Texas for a time, so I was a fan of Tomey. Baxter coached under Tomey. He’s coached under Pat Hill for the last dozen years or so and is widely regarded as one of the best ST coaches in the nation. You know when you see that stat about how many blocked kicks Texas has since Mack’s come on board and they show the graphic and it’s us, Va Tech, and in the aughts Fresno State is right there. He’s very good. He’s also been rumored about for NFL jobs from time to time including the Cowboys a few years ago. I’m a Boys’ fan. He got named a couple of months ago.

Todd McNair was the RBs coach when we played USC in the Rose Bowl. If you followed USC that year, he got all kinds of credit (deserved or not) for his handling of Bush and White and keeping both happy and that’s where I first heard of him as a coach. He’s probably a better recruiter, where he’s considered excellent, than coach. However, USC has consistently had good RBs and recruited extremely well at that position. Know thy enemy and I guess I’ve always considered USC more of a threat than most Horn fans. His lack of promotion to a coordinator position probably gives you an idea that he’s a better position coach than X and O’s guy. I’ve followed their program from afar for a little while. Besides, if you ever won Tecmo Super Bowl with Christian Okoye and the Kansas City Chiefs, then you know who Todd McNair is.

I’m sure some asshole will call me full of shit. Why the questions? And why so specific?

In my expert opinion, I think that Garrett Gilbert was better coming out of HS and will continue to be better than Barkley going forward….Now someone give me ten dollars…

People expecting USC to lose a lot (or improve a lot) under Kiffin are going to be dissappointed. He’s basically a clone of Pete Carroll – great recruiter, mediocre field coach dependent on his assistants.

His main asset over Pete is that his father happens to be one of the best defensive minds in football and has no aspirations to be a HC or go to back to the NFL unlike every decent coordinator Pete ever had.

All fine answers, PB. Like I said, I had no idea who they were but clearly you do.

Keep up the great stuff.