Arizona 21-USC 17: How Far The Mighty Have Fallen

In the wake of yet another abysmal effort on the part of the once mighty USC Trojans, several thoughts occurred to me.

I wrote an article after USC was demolished by Oregon where I stated that the Trojans “just weren’t very good.”

Let me amend that.

The Trojans are mediocre and getting worse by the week.

This team isn’t awful by any stretch of the imagination but I am almost completely certain, assuming they aren’t playing teams even worse than they are, like Arizona State and UCLA, in other words, “decent” teams like Arizona, they would lose more than they would win.

How far the mighty have fallen.

Like most of the USC faithful, I was sucked into the early season mirage of this edition of the Trojans being a quality team.

And I, like everyone else, was dead wrong.

There is just no getting around it.

This team is not good. Note that I have removed the “very” from my earlier assessment.

Even the 8-4 record is misleading.

If the season were to start today, I would not be in the least surprised if USC couldn’t even manage a .500 record.

Now, I know many of you will say I am going to extremes.

And perhaps you are right.

Maybe I am measuring this years Trojans by meeting the expectations of those in recent years gone by.

And maybe that is both unfair and unrealistic.

That is the price this years Trojans will have to pay when years of excellence are measured against a team that has continually gone backwards for the last seven games.

And today put the finishing touches on an embarrassing second half of the season.

On a day when the Trojans said goodbye to 19 seniors at home, they couldn’t even muster a victory against a marginal Arizona Wildcat team that was playing without their best tailback, Nic Grigsby and a quarterback playing with one good hand.

Thanks for showing up guys.

But that is about all you did.

I also wrote an article this week questioning whether or not offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates would leave for the NFL.

Now I am holding the door for Mr. Bates.

And don’t let it hit you on the way out.

Bates continued today what he has done all year long.

Calling pass plays when the run was working and running when he should pass.

Memo to Jeremy Bates: You set up the pass with the run in a pro set offense.

Not the other way around.

Meanwhile, Matt Barkley, a true freshman, continues to play like one.

But I can’t fault him when his offensive coordinator can’t figure out when to run or when to pass.

I just hope he hasn’t ruined Barkley for the coming years.

Yes, I understand that these are words of negativity and that I could be logically labeled an abject pessimist when it comes to this years Trojans.

Which brings me to my final thought.

This hasn’t been the greatest year for me.

I am coming off a year where my fiance and I broke up and, as a teacher in California, I have been laid off for the entirety of 2009.

So, in my spare time, of which I have plenty of lately, I decided to turn to two of my passions and combine them in one glorious package that would ease my blues.

Writing about my beloved USC Trojans.

Who knew that this would be the year that they would fall on their face?

So please 2009, end and lets let 2010 be a banner year for both myself and the Trojans.

I promise to try real hard to do better.

How about you USC?