USC Trojans

Inspired by Florida's "#ComePlayWRFortheJoker" campaign, our recruiting writers looked at other ways schools can sell themselves on the trail. Here's a look at recruiting pitches for the Pac-12:

Arizona Wildcats
What they're selling: Rich Rodriguez's offensive system worked wonders at West Virginia and introduced the nation to Denard Robinson at Michigan. In 2012, the explosive offense scored at least 34 points in 10 of the Wildcats' 13 games.
What they're missing: The Wildcats don't have the Territorial Cup, which went to Arizona State following a 41-34 victory last season. If Arizona is going to climb the Pac-12 ranks, it'll need to win at home and lock up local talent over the Sun Devils.

Arizona State Sun Devils
What they're selling: There's a new attitude at Arizona State, as Todd Graham took the Sun Devils from the most penalized team in the country to one of the least penalized in just one year. Installing that discipline and accountability has been a major selling point for recruits signing up to play with Graham.
What they're missing: The Sun Devils won their final three games of the season for the first time in more than three decades, but losses to UCLA and USC leave them looking up at the Pac-12 South leaders in the battle for national prominence.

California Golden Bears
What they're selling: One of the top public universities in the world, Cal will always be able to pitch its strong academics to recruiting. The new facilities and revamped California Memorial Stadium will help accentuate the package with a pretty bow.
What they're missing: Coach Sonny Dykes has recent Pac-12 experience, but his three years at Louisiana Tech took him completely out of the minds of West region recruits. In-state recruits, essential to Cal's recruiting success, are unfamiliar with what Dykes' systems look like in game action, although the Golden Bears will have a chance to make several statements this fall.

Colorado Buffaloes
What they're selling: The Buffaloes need playmakers at a multitude of position on both sides of the ball. Playing time and the ability to make an instant impact are certainly on the table for Colorado recruits.
What they're missing: Colorado was two points away from a winless season in 2012 and has very little on-field momentum heading into 2013. The Buffs have just four wins in two years in the Pac-12, and until that changes, it'll be difficult to win significant recruiting battles.

Oregon Ducks
What they're selling: The noisy uniforms and noisier Autzen Stadium provide the flash, but there is plenty of substance in the fast-paced offense the Ducks run. It's unlikely that will slow down under new coach Mark Helfrich.
What they're missing: Mostly obviously, they're missing Chip Kelly, which has left a slight cloud over how the program might change direction or continue unaltered under the new staff. But the possibility of looming NCAA sanctions means the Ducks can't sell completely smooth sailing to recruits in this class.

Oregon State Beavers
What they're selling: The Beavers can sell credibility, not just on the field, but with the coaching staff as well. Mike Riley and his staff have proven they can win in Corvallis and year after year, the Beavers' coach comes across as incredibly genuine to recruits.
What they're missing: In state, Oregon State is the decided underdog when it comes to flash and national appeal. The Beavers aren't often referred to as a "dream school" by recruits, so there is rarely a sure-fire commitment for coaches when they go out of state.

Stanford Cardinal
What they're selling: Arguably no school in the country has the combination of academics and athletics of Stanford. When you're recruiting student-athletes, that's a good place to start.
What they're missing: Despite the recent success, Stanford is never going to be able to put together the game-day atmosphere of some of its Pac-12 competition, including Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington.

UCLA Bruins
What they're selling: Jim Mora's staff has Southern California buzzing about the new direction UCLA is headed. That's a good thing for the Bruins, who have climbed out of the shadow of USC.
What they're missing: The Bruins had a chance to completely pass USC, but dropped their final three games of the season. There is still a question about whether they've jumped the Trojans for good and until that is settled on the field this season, the Trojans will likely get the benefit of the doubt, regionally and nationally.

USC Trojans
What they're selling: No Pac-12 program can fall back on tradition like USC. And now with the John McKay Center, old school meets new school in a much-needed facility upgrade.
What they're missing: Rumblings about Lane Kiffin's job security began after a 10-point loss to UCLA, grew louder after a loss to Notre Dame and became deafening after a Sun Bowl loss to Georgia Tech. Despite athletic director Pat Haden throwing his full support behind the coach, recruits and their families are having difficulty believing Kiffin and his staff are there for the long haul.

Utah Utes
What they're selling: Offensively, there is plenty of intrigue as to how co-offensive coordinators Dennis Erickson and Brian Johnson direct the attack. Overall, there is still the memory of what Utah was able to accomplish as a BCS spoiler in 2008, and Kyle Whittingham hopes to spark some of that magic in the Pac-12.
What they're missing: In two years, the Utes are below .500 in the Pac-12 and missed out on a bowl game last season. At this point, it's still an uphill climb in terms of convincing recruits they can cause an upheaval in the conference standings.

Washington Huskies
What they're selling: It's tough to find a coaching staff with more energy on the field or recruiting trail, starting with head coach Steve Sarkisian and moving to every assistant coach on the staff. It's a young group that relates incredibly well to recruits.
What they're missing: The Huskies have yet to win eight games in Sarkisian's three years in Seattle, so hitting that number would be a big step toward proving there is some growing on-field momentum.

Washington State Cougars
What they're selling: Mike Leach is still one of the most interesting personalities in college football, and despite some stumbles in his first year at Washington State, recruits are still interested to see what the Cougars can do this fall in his second year.
What they're missing: The Cougars need wins and they need them now. Washington State hasn't posted a winning record since 2003 and when it comes to on-field performance, it simply can't compete with a majority of Pac-12 teams.

The USC Trojans 2013 schedule has been released with the Trojans playing seven home games, a pair of Thursday night games and one Friday night game.

The Trojans open the season in Hawaii with a road trip to the islands that is always popular with USC fans. The next three games are at home in the Coliseum against Washington State, Boston College and Utah State. For a USC team that will be breaking in a new quarterback, this initial stretch of the season offers a tremendous opportunity to get things started on a good note. Both Hawaii and WSU struggled last year with new coaches, while BC and Utah State will both be breaking in new coaches in 2013.

The Arizona schools are next -- first comes a road game in Tempe against Arizona State and then the Trojans host Arizona before the annual trip to South Bend to face the Fighting Irish. It’s safe to say that the Notre Dame rivalry game will be a high-profile matchup.

The Trojans then come home to face Utah and then hit the road for back-to-back games against Oregon State and California. The game against the Beavers will be a rare Friday night contest, while the Cal game means a continuation of the Northern California weekender experience.

Next up is Stanford at the Coliseum for Homecoming weekend, and that should be quite a setting. The Trojans will then hit the road one final time for a matchup against Colorado before returning home for the regular season finale against UCLA.

The Pac-12 title game will be held on Saturday, December 7 at the stadium of the division winner with the best conference record.

2013 USC FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 29 (Thurs.): at Hawaii
Sept. 7: Washington State
Sept. 14: Boston College
Sept. 21: Utah State
Sept. 28: at Arizona State
Oct. 10 (Thurs.): Arizona
Oct. 19: at Notre Dame
Oct. 26: Utah
Nov. 1 (Fri.): at Oregon State
Nov. 9: at California
Nov. 16: Stanford
Nov. 23: at Colorado
Nov. 30: UCLA

.500 -- It's not great. It's not bad. It's just sort of there.

1.000 -- Perfect. As good as it gets.

0.00 --- Doesn't get worse than a Blutarsky.

.667 --- Above average.

A 4-4 final record was lower than expected for the Pac-12 this postseason. A perfect record in the two BCS bowl games was outstanding, yet going 0-3 against other BCS conferences (outside of the BCS games) is disappointing. And the 2-1 mark against non-BCS conference teams is just so-so.

Any way you choose to crunch the numbers and winning percentages (or losing percentages, for that matter) from the Pac-12 bowl season, you're bound to reach the same conclusion. Some good, some bad.

Hopes were high when the bowl matchups were announced -- and there was even some talk of the Pac-12 running the table with a perfect 8-0 mark. After all, Pac-12 teams were favorites in seven of the eight games. But Arizona's New Mexico Miracle should have been a harbinger of things to come. We rejoiced at the final-minute heroics. But in that jubilation, one simple fact got lost: It ain't going to be easy.

From Washington's comeback-turned-fourth-quarter-cough-up to the inadequacies of UCLA, Oregon State and USC (of which there are many that can be debated), the Pac-12 didn't always put its best foot forward.

We saw some of Pac-12 teams out-played, out-coached and out-classed.

And yet we also saw the conference at its best. We saw an explosive Arizona State team cruise to victory over Navy; a punishing Stanford defense doing exactly what it does best in the Rose Bowl; and Oregon's speed in the Fiesta Bowl -- so fast that it proceeds itself when it proceeds itself.

December 2012 through January 2013 saw the Pac-12 at its worst. And its best.

Historically speaking, this actually wasn't a bad bowl season for the Pac-12. Sure, it's not the perfect 5-0 mark of the '08 season. But it's better than the 2-5, 2-2 and 2-5 ledgers of '09, '10 and '11, respectively. Worth noting also that an eligible USC probably would have won a bowl game last season because it was the hottest team in football down the stretch. Even still, 3-5 wouldn't have been a whole lot better.

Since the 1999 bowl season, the Pac-12 is 40-41, including this season, so a .500 record seems to fit the turn-of-the-century trend.

The what-ifs are plentiful. What if play had actually stopped and Boise State had received a measurement? What if Oregon State had made adjustments to account for Alex Okafor -- a few plays in max protect, a tight end helping or a running back chipping? What if UCLA and USC hadn't left their abundance of talent back in the City of Angels instead of taking it to San Diego and El Paso, Texas, respectively?

But what-ifs are pointless. All that matters are the final records.

With that said, it's tough to really declare a "winner" from the bowl season. For all the talk about the Pac-12 and Big 12 rivalry for "Who's No. 2," we're still left with inconclusive data. The Big 12 went 4-5, which included a loss to Conference USA's Tulsa. It went 2-1 against the Pac-12 with a blowout victory by Baylor and a late Christmas present from Oregon State to Texas. But the best it had to offer, Kansas State, was smoked by Oregon. We can call this one a wash.

The almighty SEC saw two of its top-10 teams go down -- LSU and Florida -- and South Carolina needed a miracle against a Michigan team perceived to be wildly overrated.

But the SEC has the crystal ball -- again.

Maybe the ACC is the big winner -- scoring victories over LSU and USC, plus a BCS bowl win. Or is it the Big East after Louisville's stomping of Florida?

You can look for meanings in the numbers and rationalize what was and wasn't good for the conference in the 2012 bowl season. But in end, the result is the same.

Some good. Some bad. Trying to make any more -- or less -- is a wasted exercise.

The Pac-12 was well-represented on the Walter Camp Foundation's 2012 All-America team, released Thursday.

USC sophomore receiver Marqise Lee, Stanford senior tight end Zach Ertz and a pair of running backs, Oregon senior Kenjon Barner and Arizona sophomore Ka'Deem Carey, were named to the first-team offense.

Utah defensive tackle Star Lotulelei and Oregon State cornerback Jordan Poyer, both seniors, earned spots on the first-team defense.

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If you were paying even casual attention to USC football, you’re probably not exactly floored by Thursday night’s announcement that Monte Kiffin is stepping down as USC’s defensive coordinator.

It felt for a while as if this was coming. Things just weren’t working out and somebody named Kiffin was going to get caught in the line of fire.

They certainly didn’t work out this season, when defensive breakdowns were the primary reason USC probably is headed for the Sun Bowl when virtually everyone expected them to be vying for a BCS title shot or, if things sputtered, the Rose Bowl.

When the Trojans were playing the spread offenses that are so typical in college football now, things didn’t really work out the previous two seasons for Monte Kiffin defenses either. Sadly, the primary snapshot of Kiffin’s tenure at USC will be a Trojan defender flailing on an open-field tackle.

If you’re a conscientious father seeing your son get pummeled on a daily basis by fans and the media, Thursday’s action was really the only decent move. Monte Kiffin, 72, said he’s stepping aside to “pursue opportunities in the NFL,” but had he not done what he did it was only a matter of time before his son, Lane, also was in pursuit of other "opportunities."

If you root for this team, you’re probably not overly saddened by this development either.

In USC’s five losses this season, opponents gained an average of more than 500 yards. For a team that has fattened the NFL with some of its brightest defensive talent over the decades, that’s embarrassing. Veteran USC observers had never seen a team run up and down the field on USC as Oregon did while running up 62 points at the Coliseum a few weeks ago.

But you also have to pause for a moment and recognize something uncomfortable. USC isn't going to get back to the glory of the Pete Carroll years as swiftly as so many people had hoped. When Mike Garrett hired Lane Kiffin two-and-a-half years ago, fans were probably more excited about the assistants he brought with him than about Lane’s return after a short and uninspiring adventure.

Monte Kiffin carried an aura as the founder -- or, at least, co-founder (along with Tony Dungy) -- of the “Tampa 2” defense that finally started slowing down those nickel-and-dime-to-death offenses that Bill Walsh dreamed up. Kiffin was also Carroll’s mentor, and you don’t have to say much more than that to get people excited around USC.

He's as respected within the profession as any coach in America. He was fun to be around after practices, the way he talked relentlessly about how good the opposing coaches were, how dangerous the opponent was (even when it was Minnesota or Washington State) and said things like, "Gosh darn it! I'm serious now."

Of course, what springs to mind is that, at his age, Kiffin just couldn’t make the necessary changes the job demanded. Twenty-six years in the NFL didn’t prepare him for an Oregon.

Who knows who the next face of the USC defense will be. Does Ed Orgeron deserve to step into the No. 1 chair? Is Gene Chizik the answer? Randy Shannon?

The point is, it was time to bring in a fresh set of eyes, a fresh look at the problem. Considering USC has the top-ranked recruiting class in the nation coming in next season, I’m still not convinced the Kiffin era at USC is over just yet.

We can say for sure that the Kiffin era of USC defense is over, and that's not entirely encouraging.

Some selected quotes from USC coach Lane Kiffin’s Sunday night conference call following the Trojans’ 39-36 loss to Arizona.

Open:
“Obviously, the story of the game I think starts with turnovers, and what that does in a game on the road momentum-wise, and changing of possessions and getting defenses back out on the field. With the double turnover with Jawanza’s [Starling] interception and fumbling it back, we had five turnovers on the day, and only get one [in return], so we’re minus-four on the turnover margin. It obviously makes a big difference. We had a chance at a number of takeaways.”

“A game of a lot of runs, starting off with their 10-0 run, followed by a 28-3 run by us and a 26-0 run by them … Obviously, very disappointing … as we watched the film, there were so many ways to win the game -- obviously with less penalties, less turnovers, just one play here or there.”

“Probably more than anything, the play that sticks out -- we’re up fifteen points, run a double-move by their corner -- who had jumped the post route earlier on Robert [Woods] -- and we weren’t able to connect on it … so unfortunately that didn’t happen. We missed it, and missed a lot of other opportunities in all three phases of the game and we came out of there with a loss.”

On whether or not USC was overrated to begin the season:
“I don’t know. We’ve had every opportunity to win every game. We’ve played eight of them. Six of them we’ve won by double digits, and screwed two of them up, so I think very easily we could be 8-0 if we had played better in these two games. I told the team, we do the hard things -- they practice really hard, they prepare really well -- the easy things are the decision-makings on the penalties, and those are the ones we’re not doing.”

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TUCSON, Ariz. -- The Arizona defender had fallen down, and USC receiver Robert Woods was all alone running down the sideline. Quarterback Matt Barkley leaned back and heaved the ball. Woods ran, the ball arced. It looked like a sure touchdown, one that probably would have started the conversation about the Trojans' huge game with Oregon the following weekend.

Woods ran. It felt perfectly scripted, a pair of superstars hooking up and making a definitive statement together.

Then the ball thudded to the turf a few yards in front of Woods. Barkley flat-out missed what should have been an easy 87-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter that would have pushed the USC lead to 22.

"I'll be thinking about that play all night," Barkley said. "I got a little too excited. I just didn't put enough air under the ball."

When your singular goal is a national title, every play matters. The details matter.

What happened next is Arizona took over the game, scoring 26 consecutive points, then holding on at the end for a 39-36 victory, with a Barkley Hail Mary pass falling harmlessly to the turf on the game's final play.

Just like that -- poof! -- USC's national title hopes died. The Trojans, who in the preseason looked like they were again ready for their national close-up after an NCAA-imposed two-year hiatus, now merely become the potential spoiler when the Ducks come to the Coliseum hoping to keep their national title run alive.

Arizona outlasted USC in this infinitely sloppy four-hour affair. The Trojans lost despite one of the all-time great performances from Marqise Lee, who broke the Pac-12 single-game receiving record with 345 yards on 16 receptions with two touchdowns. He also had a 72-yard kickoff return that set up a quick touchdown with 4:40 remaining that briefly perked up USC's hopes.

All USC needed to do was get a quick stop on defense. It didn't. The Wildcats got two first downs, forced USC to burn its final two timeouts and left Barkley and company with just 55 seconds from their 13-yard line to make a miracle comeback.

But this USC team, which seemed destined for greatness in the preseason, couldn't find that miracle.

And now the hard question: With its chief goals dashed, how will the Trojans (6-2, 4-2 Pac-12) react?

"We stick together," Barkley said. "That's the beauty of football. You experience the most exhilarating moments of your life and you learn how to cope and deal with some of these losses."

He then added, "We can still do something special."

USC could still go to the Rose Bowl. It could still win the South Division and then win the Pac-12 title game. Or it could collapse, losing four or five games. None of USC's final four games -- Oregon, Arizona State, at UCLA and Notre Dame -- are gimmes.

While Arizona (5-3, 2-3) played well in the second half, asserting itself as the Trojans seemed to wilt, the Trojans also were stunningly mistake-prone. Two of the Trojans' five turnovers were baffling Barkley interceptions. Arizona had only one turnover, a Jawanza Starling interception that he immediately fumbled back to the Wildcats on his return.

USC also surrendered a 60-yard pass from Arizona quarterback Matt Scott to Austin Hill on a third-and-22 play from the Wildcats' 16-yard line. That play set up the Wildcats' go-ahead score early in the fourth quarter.

"There are plays in every game that haunt you," USC coach Lane Kiffin said.

Kiffin further expressed bafflement at how penalty-prone the Trojans are. USC was flagged 13 times for 117 yards. Of course, Arizona had 14 penalties for 129 yards, So, yeah, it was sloppy for both sides.

Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez immediately noted that his team "didn't play very well." But he also liked what beating the Trojans means for his team.

"I think it makes us more relevant -- it should," he said. "I don't think we're a top-10 team, we've lost three games, but it gives us confidence. I hope it makes people notice. I hope it makes recruits notice."

On this day, Arizona's chief relevance came in making USC irrelevant nationally.

In one of the most celebrated moments of the offseason, Barkley stood in front of a Christmas tree last December in Heritage Hall and announced he was returning to USC for his senior season to take care of "unfinished business."

It will remain that way.