USC Football's Defense: Coming to Their Defense

What on earth is wrong with the USC defense?  Obviously, it must be the coaching. Right?

The staff needs to overhaul the entire defense.  Right?

Lane Kiffin needs to lay down the law to his father, Monte Kiffin, the Trojans' defensive coordinator and designer of the Tampa 2.  Right?

Well, don’t take my word for it—let’s turn to a real expert: Bill Plaschke with the Los Angeles Times.

Saturday night Plaschke wrote: “They (USC) need to tank the new Tampa 2 scheme. They need to discipline the kids who can't keep their penalties to themselves. A week after they discussed tweaking the approach, Lane Kiffin and defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin need to have an even longer father-son chat.”

Great advice, Bill.  You and ESPN Radio’s John Ireland should head down to Pat Haden’s office and demand that he hire both of you as defensive consultants.

Yeah, sure.  Let’s tank the Tampa 2.  And what would you put in its place?  Maybe you would scrap Monte Kiffin as well.  Why not?

Well, the Trojans have lost two in a row to Washington and Stanford, so maybe you could use their defensive schemes.

After all, Washington has only given up 871 yards the last two games and the Stanford defense, well over a thousand.

Strange, isn’t it?  No one is calling for Nick Holt to tank his defensive schemes or get out of Dodge.  The same with Vic Fangio at Stanford.

Could it be that those head coaches realize that offenses are really good from top to bottom in the Pac-10?

Speaking of which, Bill, did you happen to notice that lowly Washington State put up 336 yards and 23 points on Oregon, the No. 2 team in the AP and USA Today polls?

Maybe you were impressed with the Cal Bears holding UCLA to a mere touchdown.  Forget the fact that Nevada scored 52 points against them.  It must have been an off day, allowing 500 yards to a WAC school.

But I will give you this much, Bill.  It is a coaching problem—but not with Lane Kiffin’s staff.

No, I won’t harp about the NCAA sanctions and how they have really hurt the depth on the entire USC defense.

No, I won’t dwell on the fact that USC held a powerful Stanford offense to just 14 points in the first half before caving in due to fatigue in the second half.

No, I won’t place the porous defense on the front for having practically no depth at all with Christian Tupou out for the year, Wes Horton battling a back injury and Nick Perry limited with a high ankle sprain.

Of course, the same is true with the linebacker corps.  Malcolm Smith went out with a knee injury and had to be replaced by Shane Horton, a converted safety.  But that should not matter, should it?

USC also graduated their entire starting secondary and had to replace them with Shareece Wright, a senior who had only started three games, along with a redshirt freshman and a true freshman.  But that should not matter, either.

I will also concede that a father-and-son coupling on the coaching staff has really destroyed the Trojan defense.  But the Kiffins are not the problem.

The problem occurred when Lane Kiffin left Pete Carroll’s staff to take over the Raiders.  Carroll hired his son, Brennan, to replace Kiffin as USC’s recruiting coordinator.

Not only did the staff at that point under-recruit but, even worse, concentrated on the skill positions at the expense of the defense, namely the front seven.

Each year they had an extra four or five spots that could have been filled with a couple of linebackers and offensive and defensive linemen.  Or how about a placekicker?

As a result, the Kiffins came in and found the cupboard bare on the defensive side of the ball and even a little shaky on the offensive line and at fullback.

With Abe Martinez done for the year and D. J. Shoemate gone due to the sanctions, that offense might look almost as disjointed as the defense should anything happen to Kris O’Dowd or Stanley Havili.

As far as discipline, what do you suggest that Lane Kiffin do with Chris Galippo?  Send him to his dorm room without any dinner?

The kid made an honest mistake.  It was hard to hear the whistle in that stadium.  Doug Baldwin was still moving his feet and trying to get out of Shane Horton’s grasp.  He wasn’t on the ground.  Baldwin was still straight up on his feet when Galippo hit him.

Of course, you conveniently forgot to mention Andrew Luck’s helmet-to-helmet hit on Shareece Wright, which wasn’t flagged.

Or maybe the Pac-10 should send the officials to their room without dinner for not starting the clock immediately when the chains were set after Allen Bradford’s first down and again on the kickoff return.

Then again, maybe I should be sent to my room without dinner for coming to the defense of Monte Kiffin and USC’s much maligned defense.