USC Football: The 12 Biggest Enemies of the Trojan Football Program
They lurk around every corner. Just ask any ardent USC football fan.
Nefarious individuals and institutions, all dedicated to one mission...doing everything in their power to topple the men of Troy.
Some attempt to do it on the gridiron, others do it on the streets or in the courtroom.
But regardless of the location, the mission is the same: Bring down USC.
Oh, they won't admit it, of course. In fact, some will tell you that what they are doing is "for the good of college football." Others do it for the money, but the end result is the same: Destroy the Trojans.
Is this just the paranoid ramblings of a deeply disturbed Trojan fan or is there merit to this theory?
You decide.
No. 12: Mike Riley (Oregon State)
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Okay, forget the fact that since 2005, USC is only 3-3 against Riley and the Beavers.
Or that in 2008, OSU handed the Trojans their only blemish in an otherwise perfect season.
And everyone who follows the program knows that Corvallis, Oregon, is only a tad north of hell in terms of the terror it brings to the Trojans when football venues are discussed.
Forget all that.
What really rankles Trojan fans is that he has had the temerity to do all of his damage to USC after turning down Trojan overtures asking him to become their next head coach.
And not just once, Riley has turned them down twice.
There will be no third time Mike.
No. 11: Southeastern Conference (SEC) and Its Fans
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Until 2009, the banter between Trojan fans and those of the SEC was both voluminous and venomous.
Sticking like a craw in their throats, fans of the Southeastern Conference had to swallow the braggadocio of the followers of USC, all the while claiming that "fill in the name of the hot SEC team at the time here" could beat the Trojans if only it had a chance.
Meanwhile, USC fans could point to the Trojans' record against the SEC since 2002, smugly mention that the Trojans are 4-0 since that time, and, oh, by the way, in 2005, USC beat Arkansas, 70-17.
Now USC has fallen on hard times, and fans of the SEC are getting their revenge in the chat rooms.
Maybe one day, one of the vaunted teams can give them something to feel good about on the field of play against the Trojans.
No. 10: Lou Holtz
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Yeah, I know many think that Lou Holtz is just a doddering old fool who spends a good portion of his free time sticking his foot in his mouth, especially when singing the praises of Notre Dame football.
And yes, he is just a talking head for ESPN, reduced to being verbal fodder for the much more astute Mark May who sits alongside him for "College Game Day" at the network.
But the man is a USC HATER!
Perhaps, he is wallowing in the bitterness of what was an eight-year reign of superiority (until last year) by the Trojans over his beloved Fighting Irish or maybe the roots of his hatred for all things "Cardinal and Gold" run much deeper.
Whatever the case, make no mistake about it, Lou Holtz is now, and will always be, an enemy of USC football.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
No. 9: Brian Kelly (Notre Dame)
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Okay, so a one-game winning streak doesn't make a dynasty.
Having said that, Brian Kelly has done something that his recent predecessors were unable to accomplish.
Namely, beat USC.
After winning eight in a row, USC finally fell to the Fighting Irish last year, thus propelling Kelly to a somewhat lofty status in South Bend, Indiana.
So a one-game winning streak against USC makes Brian Kelly a viable enemy of USC?
In a word...
Yes.
No. 8: Chip Kelly (Oregon Football)
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The second part of our slide show featuring a "Kelly" is also the one that profiles a greater nemesis to USC than Notre Dame's Brian.
At 2-0 against USC with a very good chance to extend that to 3-0 this year, Oregon's Chip Kelly has been an embarrassing thorn in the Trojans' side since he took over for Mike Bellotti in 2009.
Featuring a frenetic, fast-paced offense and a high-energy defense, Kelly has engineered blowout wins both home and away and likely should occupy a spot higher on this list.
No. 7: Rick Neuheisel (UCLA)
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Yes, I know that Rick Neuheisel and his UCLA Bruins have been the picture of futility since "Slick Rick's" stint as head coach in Westwood began.
This is especially true of his record against USC, where the only sign of improvement came in only getting beat by 14 points last year.
Hardly the resume of a bitter enemy.
Still, it is UCLA who resides scant miles up the road from the Trojans, and Neuheisel and his staff are out there everyday fighting USC for the best recruits in the southland.
So that must count for something and validates his inclusion in this list.
Doesn't it?
No. 6: Jim Harbaugh
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Trojans fans don't need anyone to remind them of what a pain in the "you know what" Jim Harbaugh was for USC when he was the head coach at Stanford.
From the notorious "whats your deal?" game when Harbaugh ran up the score against Pete Carroll's Trojans to last year's heartbreaker at Stanford, Harbaugh was a constant problem for the men of Troy.
But Harbaugh isn't at Stanford anymore, having left for the NFL to coach the San Francisco 49ers.
So why is he on this list?
Because old habits die hard, and Harbaugh couldn't resist yet another shot at the Trojans.
This came in the form of hiring away USC's respected receivers coach and passing game coordinator, John Morton in the offseason.
On behalf of Pete Carroll (who Harbaugh and his 49ers will face a minimum of two times a year should the NFL resolve its problems) and USC fans everywhere...
Screw you Jim Harbaugh. :)
No. 5 Yahoo Sports
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Wait, a news outlet that was simply doing its job in investigating USC makes the list of enemies of the program? Really?
Oh, hell yes!
Look, do you think Nixon thought Woodward and Bernstein were his bosom buddies after they broke the Watergate scandal? No, and they were just doing their jobs too.
So, am I equating USC fans with a paranoid ex-president?
In the tradition of the Watergate trials:
I refuse to answer that question on the grounds it may incriminate me.
No. 4: Lloyd Lake
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In this mixed up world of slush funds and "hush money," an ex-felon turned sports marketeer named Lloyd Lake makes this list of enemies of the USC football program.
Lake, who provided the money to Reggie Bush and his family and also gave the disputed testimony to the NCAA (more on them later) that was the basis for the sanctions imposed on USC, will always be a villain to the Trojan fanbase.
In fact, there was no question whether this guy would make the list, but rather, just how high in the rogues gallery he would be placed.
Make no mistake about it, Lake is an enemy of USC and their football progam.
But is he a bigger enemy than...
No. 3: Reggie Bush and His Family
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Sometime ago, I published a slideshow at Bleacher Report titled, "The 50 Greatest USC Football Players of All Time."
In that slide show, I named Reggie Bush the seventh greatest Trojan in the history of USC football.
Think about that for a moment.
The seventh greatest Trojan of all time now resides third on this list of enemies of the program.
How far the mighty have fallen.
Bush (and his family) makes the list not only for accepting the under the table money from Lloyd Lake, a transgression that could have made the list on its own but also for stonewalling the NCAA and allowing USC to twist in the wind during the investigation.
If Bush had been forthcoming instead of doing everything he could to hide the truth from the NCAA, perhaps the Trojans wouldn't have suffered such a harsh punishment from a vindictive and angry governing body of college athletics.
So what about Bush and his inclusion on the list of all time greatest Trojans?
That slide has now been vacated.
No. 2: Paul Dee (NCAA's Chairman of Its Committee on Infractions)
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A little history lesson here:
Before Paul Dee became the NCAA's chairman of its committee on infractions, he was the athletic director for the University of Miami.
Under his watch, the NCAA sanctioned the Hurricanes in 1995 for 80 players who falsified Pell grant information resulting in over $220,000 being secured for federal grant money that should have never been paid out.
That's not all.
In addition, over $400,000 in improper payments were paid to football players and mandated drug testing was ignored.
Nice resume and apparently good enough to secure Dee's employment with the governing body who sanctioned his program in the first place.
Now, in a model case of the pot calling the kettle black, Dee has the gall to sit in judgment of USC.
What's worse, he ran a shoddy investigation and jumped to convenient conclusions based on extremely suspect testimony from the former felon, Lloyd Lake (No. 4 on this list).
What does all this make Paul Dee?
No. 2 on this list of enemies of the USC football program, of course.
No. 1: The NCAA
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The litany of injustice against the Trojans by the NCAA or their offshoots is decades long.
You can go all the way back to former Trojan great, Jon Arnett, and find some really crappy rulings that adversely affected USC.
In Arnett's case, a ruling was handed down that he had violated an improper benefits rule when he accepted a job from a booster that was approved by the conference's own rules.
The so-called "violation" cost Arnett a six-game suspension and a likely Heisman Trophy.
Now let's fast forward to this decade.
There is no disputing that Reggie Bush and his family received improper benefits. Even USC doesn't argue that.
What is being argued, and what the NCAA has done everything in their power to prove, even to the exclusion of proof itself, is that the Trojans knew that Bush was receiving these benefits.
Basing their entire case on two explainable phone calls and the testimony of Lloyd Lake (did I mention that this guy is a former felon?), the NCAA laid the hammer down on the Trojans, and in doing so, levied some of the harshest penalties in the governing bodies' history.
And to make matters worse, it took the NCAA more than five years to come to its shaky conclusions.
That is far too long to leave any program hanging in limbo.
And that is why the NCAA is No. 1 on this list of the enemies of the USC football program.
Conclusion
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There you have it.
A dozen enemies of USC's football program and a list of people or institutions that to one degree or another have created much angst for the followers of the men of Troy.
Some are just good at what they do, like Oregon's Chip Kelly, while others must have a lot of trouble shaving in the morning having to look at their image in the mirror.
While it may be a case of sour grapes that motivated this list, each and every one of the members that resides in it belong there.
For the Trojans, those on this list who they can meet on the gridiron can be easily removed simply by returning to the form that made them one of the very best programs in the country not so long ago.
For the others, USC and their fans can only hope that karma finds a way to even the score out sometime in the future.
In the meantime, USC fans hope they all go straight to...you know...
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