USC Football: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It

USC fell to the Arizona Wildcats Saturday afternoon, 21-17. With that defeat, the Trojans fell out of the Top 25 for the first time since 2001 (actually finishing No.24 in the final BCS rankings) and are just fortunate enough the USC name is big enough to keep them in a bowl game taking place after Christmas Day.

How did it get to this point?

How did a program, heralded as recently as early this season as possible the nation's greatest program, fall to the middle of the Pac-10?

Is it the inexperienced defense? The obsession of head coach Pete Carroll to start true freshman Matt Barkley? The rest of the conference closing the talent gap? The turnover in the coaching staff?

All of these answers have been put forth to rationalize the sudden mediocrity of the Trojans.

While all of those answers have some validity, the clear picture being shown to us by this year's USC football team is that there are fundamental flaws across the board. Flaws which, if not corrected, will consistently keep the Trojans playing second fiddle in the conference, even if they continue their run of high-ranking recruiting classes.

It's important first of all to look back on the so-called dominant years of USC football, especially 2003-2005, when USC won two national championships and was a Vince Young touchdown run from a third.

USC could have easily lost four games in either 2004 or 2005.

Take 2004 for instance. USC had to hold on to beat an awful Stanford team 31-28, needing a Reggie Bush punt return to set up the go ahead touchdown.

The Trojans defeated Cal 23-17, a fourth down stop deep in USC territory being the difference as Aaron Rodgers had a record setting day in the Coliseum.

The season closed out featuring an eight point win at an average Oregon State (the famous Reggie Bush punt return in the fog) and a five point win over UCLA (where Drew Olson and the Bruins had the ball with a chance to win and USC needed a then-career high 204 ysds rushing from Bush to secure the victory.)

Any and all of those above games could have been USC losses. The difference being the Norm Chow-led offense knew how to get the ball to its playmakers in key situations.

Even the offensively dominant 2005 squad, which dropped 70 points on Arkansas and was held to no fewer than 34 points, could have been 9-3 if a couple of balls had bounced differently. Everyone remembers the "Bush Push" game, but do not forget the Trojans trailed Arizona State 21-3 on the road at the half and USC had to fight to hold off underdog Fresno State 50-42.

While there have been issues this season with the defense, the kick return team never gets a big return, and the Trojans can't kick a field goal longer than 40 yards; the total inability to get the team's best playmakers the ball in a position to make plays is why USC finished the season 8-4, instead of continuing their string of BCS bowls.

Hindsight is always 20-20 and Trojan fans should have got their first clue when new play-caller Jeremy Bates mentioned early in spring practice how hard it was to learn the offense. Clearly college offenses have become more complex with time, but it was not that long ago Pete Carroll touted the ease of learning the USC offense when Norm Chow was coordinating. An example of this complexity is Mitch Mustain admitting it took him two years to learn the USC offense.

Those Chow-led offenses didn't seem to have a problem scoring.

A basic tenet of offensive football is getting the ball to your athletes in space. USC used to do this in many ways. They would get the ball to wide receivers Mike Williams, Steve Smith, Keary Colbert, and Dwayne Jarrett on quick slants and seam routes, and when defenses inevitably backed off, used the bubble screen.

Chow would frequently motion out Reggie Bush as a wide receiver where he was unguardable, or have him run pass routes over the middle out of the backfield.

And you could always count on a powerful running game, whether it was Justin Fargas/Sultan McCullough in 2002, or the famed Bush/Lendale White "Thunder and Lightning" backfield.

What was the Carroll-Bates plan this year? Honestly, I could not tell. I have heard the coaches compare Joe McKnight to Bush, and he had a successful year, going over the 1000 yard rushing mark. But how often did it seem that every sweep, stretch run, or swing pass he got was to the short-side of the field? Rarely did he ever line up or motion out to wide receiver.

How often did it seem that the only routes the wide-receivers ever ran were bubble screens and fades? Where were the three-step drop and let it fly pass plays?

USC supposedly has NFL-type talent at the wideout position. Heck, Damian Williams will probably leave early for the league, but why did we never see the athleticism of Williams, Ronald Johnson, David Ausberry, (pre-injury) Brice Butler, Travon Patterson, etc. ever get the consistent opportunity to use their speed where they could do damage?

Matt Barkley gets a ton of blame for his high number of interceptions, but be honest, did Pete Carroll and Jeremy Bates ever give him the opportunity to be successful with easier throws such as regular crossing routes, seam routes, or rollouts? No. Carroll/Bates kept calling out routes where defensive backs with much less athletic ability were able to use the sideline as a extra defender, or bubble screens with cornerbacks in tight coverage.

Think about the pass routes out of the backfield I mentioned earlier. Remember the Ohio State game when plays over the middle to Joe McKnight were the hallmark of the game-winning drive? Does anyone remember McKnight ever catching a pass over the middle this season?

The other issue I have with Pete Carroll's Trojan offense is the need they feel to get the ball to so many athletes. The coaching staff has, for three years now, been juggling how to get the ball to its stable of running backs; Stafon Johnson, Joe McKnight, Allen Bradford, and CJ Gable. (Not to mention the two who transferred, Emmanuel Moody and Broderick Green.) Then there's the struggle to find room on the field for seven different wide receivers.

Remember when the only two running backs were Bush and White?

Remember when the only two wide receivers for two years seemed to be Jarrett and Smith? Heck, the third wide receiver during the '05 season was often walk-on Brad Walker, infamous for being the guy Bush tried to pitch the ball to in the '06 Rose Bowl.

The offense played one tight end, Dominque Byrd, with Fred Davis occasionally backing up. This year, Carroll/Bates tried to balance three.

It just seems to me that instead of getting the ball to the top three or four players on a consistent basis, Pete Carroll feels he needs to keep his stockpile of five-star talent happy.

Compare 'SC offensively with Oregon. Sure, the Ducks spread the field, but the ball is for the most part in the hands of four people.

For that matter, look at Oregon State. 90 percent of the time the ball is going to the same family, either James or Jacquizz Rodgers. And beside Toby Gerhart and Andrew Luck, quickly name me one more Stanford offensive player. Yet both the Cardinal and the Beavers finished ahead of the Trojans in the Pac-10.

Sure, the USC defense has flaws.

Taylor Mays playing safety in punt return formation. Not to mention his inability to break up passes. I know everyone loves the after first-down catch jarring hit and the stare down, but what does it accomplish?

Eversen Griffen diving down the line of scrimmage while the quarterback rolls out around him. Where does he think he's going while Andrew Luck keeps running outside of him for a first down or touchdown. Dude, your job is not to stop the dive play, but containing a quarterback once would be nice.

And those two are supposedly the top two defenders on this Trojan team.

This defense, however, only gave up an average of 20.4 points per game.

Shouldn't this amazing collection of talent be able to score more than 24 points per game.

The USC offense used to be great when Pete Carroll focused on the defense and left the offense in the hands of Norm Chow. Since Carroll began inserting himself into the offense, first with Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin, now this year with Bates, the offense has been steadily going downhill.

It's past time for one of the five most recognizable programs in college football, to not shortchange itself on the offensive side of the football.

Go get a top shelf coordinator, let him implement his system, and get out his way.

Then Coach Carroll, you can spend your time figuring out how to stop the spread.

You can follow my random thoughts on the sports world on Twitter at @plh55.