Lincoln Riley

USC vs. Michigan State: Errors by All

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Michigan State
September 20, 2025 at 8:11pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: (67,614 of 77,500)
Total Time: not sure

You may be curious as to why the total game time lists not sure.

If you were to believe the official stats, then the game ended at 7:39am and the total run time at 11 hours and 28 minutes. Although it felt that way from all the penalties, I’m pretty sure we got out of there right as it hit midnight and we all turned into pumpkin spice lattes. Those refs really like to extend these late night games. Are they taking revenge on the whole stadium because they had to work the late shift? At a certain point, we needed a penalties per drive stat, which we will coin as PPD. According to Google’s AI, it’s an existing acronym for postpartum depression or paranoid personality disorder, both of which can be glibly twisted to fit the situation.

And just to point out another strange thing, one of the referees is named Marcus Allen…but wasn’t the USC Heisman winner.

You’re looking for the wrong Heisman winner on the sideline

Another mistake I found was that USC is written as having 22 fair catches from kickoffs this game. The total number of kickoffs between the two teams was 13. Someone was definitely tired out of their mind while typing this thing up. Do the referees have penalty flags for the stats people? Errors seem to be coming from everyone. Now, to the real content…

The game was another one that felt a bit uncomfortable as the Michigan State took the lead early in the first quarter and kept it close at times. It makes one eager to criticize, but it’s quite the luxury of being able to complain about only having a 7 or 14 point lead in the fourth quarter. Those are Alabama dynasty kind of problems. Even in the Pete Carroll glory days, sometimes they’d be losing at the half. 

One particularly bad area was in the third quarter. The Trojans had them at a three-and-out. Somehow they turned that 4th-and-7 into a first down with penalties. First was the running into the kicker, then an illegal substitution penalty of all things. The renewed drive led to a touchdown. The immediate follow-up was not a score, but a fumble (not to be confused with the butt fumble) at their own 32, leading to another touchdown drive (which featured its own SC penalties). These are the kinds of mistakes that will cost you against a better opponent. Yet, at no point in the game, did it feel like the Spartans had control over the game. Being able to win soundly with a negative turnover against the best competition so far is not a bad place to be. 

Now on to Good/Badisms, because this post looks like it’s about to finish up later than this game did.

Good/Badisms

Good: The Trojans amassed 289 yards of rushing yards—more than their passing yards. It also helped their totals to not take a single sack

Good: Jayden Maiava’s top tier fakes and decision-making on read option plays

Good: 66.7% on third down conversions (8 of 12)

Bad: Failing a fourth down conversion, so now they’re not perfect anymore!

Bad x 3: The same few issues keep happening. The defensive backs let big plays through, the front seven let some runners slip past after contact, and penalties. I guess that’s part of this season’s identity at this point. The big question is if they can keep it together enough against the next three teams that will presumably be ranked (or perhaps even four if Nebraska gets through a very winnable set of games)

Good: USC was able to burn through half the fourth quarter on a touchdown drive to put the pressure back on the Spartans when they came within one score

CommBro Breaker

While USC is still #1 in average yards per play, they have dropped to a paltry 9.19 ypp. Not even getting a first down every play on average. It’s almost as low as the #2 in ypp (8.90 ypp), Florida State, and they just lost to an unranked team tonight. Who wants to be that?? We basically lost already.

Depressing Stat of the Week: The Trojans dropped even further in penalty yards per game (#125 to #129) in the nation for penalty yards a game (80.3 to 80.8)

Depressing Stat of the Week #2: USC is #110 in passes defended per game (but somehow #3 in the nation for interceptions)

Depressing Stat of the Week #3: USC is #98 in fumbles lost and also have lost 100% of their fumbles, making them dead last in that category. Should they start doing recovery drills? Kidding—I don’t think it’s that dire.

Depressing Stat of the Week #4: I’m only doing so many depressing stats because they’re still undefeated. Anyway, USC is #134 in punts per game. Who needs to be fired for this? They’re only punting once per game. How much are they paying Sam Johnson in NIL money to sit on the bench? PUT HIM IN. FREE SAM JOHNSON

Weird Stat of the Week: All three rushing touchdowns in this game weren’t from running backs. They got their revenge though, with two of them being tied for #2 in receptions this game

Uplifting Stat of the Week #1: USC is #3 in the nation in yards per run (7.06) and tied for #3 in rushing touchdowns (15)

Uplifting Stat of the Week #2: The Trojans have retained their spot of most sacks in the nation (16).

 

USC vs. Purdue: PP Rain

Posted on by commbro

Purdue vs. USC
September 13, 2025 at 3:45pm (Lightning Delay)
Ross-Ade Stadium, West Lafayette, IN: (58,065 of 61,441)
Total Time: 3 hours 16 minutes

The first road game of the season ended in victory, but probably sloppier than most hopefuls would like. However, as the resident pessimist, I’m here to temper that with some optimism. By the end of the season, we may see that this isn’t the same Purdue team that went 1-11 and had the 5th worst scoring offense and 4th worst scoring defense of the 2024 season. Three games into head coach Barry Odom’s tenure at Purdue, he has them with more wins than last year already!

Joking aside, Odom actually has a decent resume. He took over a UNLV team that hadn’t had a winning season since Lane Kiffin was still at USC (three interims, and two head coaches ago!) and immediately took them to the conference championship and a 9-win season. He followed it up with their first ever 11-win season before leaving for Purdue. He’s also responsible for 25% of their bowl appearances and bowl wins…so he could have very well had an instant impact with the Boilermakers. Aaaaand I could be eating my words as soon as next week when an angry 0-2 Notre Dame team boils them alive.

By the way, were you wondering what a Boilermaker is?

Purdue Pete, better known by his nickname: PP

Anyway, now that you’re done looking into those soulless eyes, we can do a quick foray into homerism. The broadcasters definitely felt more than a bit biased. Gary Danielson I get, being the former Purdue quarterback, but Brad Nessler? What’s his angle on this? Then there were those random penalties like the jumping penalty on the punt that led to Purdue’s first three points. Then a random defensive holding call on a lineman during a run play that was trying to make a tackle?

Even the biased commentators didn’t like this call

You can try to argue there was a penalty there, but it sure seems like nothing. Even if there was, they are enforcing it with the stringency of the Purdue Owl attacking you with MLA.

The deadly Purduo staring into your soul. Wait…there’s another owl associated with a duo…Duolingo. Conspiracy uncovered

By the way, Purdue had more first downs by penalty (5) than by rushing (3). There’s always stuff to criticize though, and there might be no-calls that USC got away with, so let’s just move on. I’ll admit that I’m such a homer, that I could’ve wrote the Odyssey.

Good/Badisms

Good/Bad: Jayden Maiava showed greatly improved deep ball accuracy, hitting receivers in stride downfield. However, he also still had some risky passes thrown up under pressure that easily could have been interceptions if bounced a bit differently…luckily, most of it was concentrated into one bad drive.

Good/Bad: A fluky play like the double pass trick play that went from a dropped interception, to fumble, and miraculously to touchdown. It’s bad because it happened, but also it means it won’t be happening often. They only allowed one other touchdown.

Bad: They need to clean up the tackling a bit still. USC was in Purdue’s backfield a lot, which showed how well they sniffed out plays. However, they didn’t bring them down in many cases, leading to large gains

Good: Okay, but five sacks and ten tackles for loss…so clearly it worked sometimes.

Goodish: Another zero punt game, but need more drives to translate to points

Good: Three interceptions, two by Bishop Fitzgerald and, of course, the fan favorite by Jamaal Jarrett. That one by number zero was especially meaningful since mid-third quarter, USC only made a field goal, Purdue was in the red zone and could have brought the game within one score (23-10), but the 70-yard pick six by Jamaal Jarrett bailed them out, bringing it back to a 3-score game. That moment was quite the swing.

Bad: Scoring zero offensive touchdowns in the second half

Good: 10:55 time of possession in the third quarter to really put a team away. Shows the team has the ability to do it and Lincoln Riley has grown as a coach.

Bad/Good: Poor 3rd down conversions, but made up with perfect on 4th down conversions.

Good: Red zone defense: two scores out of five attempts allowed and only one TD

Good: Ryon Sayeri made all but one of his field goals in rainy conditions, including a long 48-yarder

Good: Eli Sanders and Waymond Jordan both decent running. King Miller getting meaningful carries outside of garbage time and making them worth it. The running backs have USC at #8 in the nation for runs of 10+ yards (23).

CommBro Breaker

So all in all, it was a messy game with some missed opportunities on offense and defense, but it was a weird game and there’s still a lot of stuff that can’t be extrapolated from it due to that.

Along with the lightning delay and rain, the Purdue coaching staff carried both the former USC offensive line coach and Maiava’s former coach at UNLC. Also, as the broadcast mentioned, the last time USC won in the Eastern timezone was also when Kiffin was still here: 2012 against Syracuse. It was also the last time a USC game featured a weather delay. And lastly, let’s be honest, if this was last year’s team, they would’ve found a way to lose this game too. So let’s appreciate it for what it is.

Weird Stat of the Week: USC and Purdue both sit at #41 in scoring defense with 16.7 points per game allowed

Uplifting Stat of the Week #1: USC is tied for #2 in the nation in interceptions (6) and tied for #1 in pick sixes (2)

Uplifting Stat of the Week #2: The Trojans have the most sacks in the nation (14) and are two-thirds of the way to last season’s total (21) with 9+ games to go.

Depressing Stat of the Week: The Trojans sit at #125 in the nation for penalty yards a game (80.3)

USC vs. Texas A&M: Portal Potty Bowl

Posted on by commbro

Texas A&M vs. USC (Las Vegas Bowl)
December 27, 2024 at 7:40pm
Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada: 26,671 (of 65,000)
Total Time: 3 hours 37 minutes

In the latest edition of business as usual, this post is definitely not late. The plan was always to post this at the end of the postseason. Just kidding. We don’t do lies here, only jokes. Without further delay:

Two teams wracked by mass transfers in the transfer portal faced off against each other in the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl. What started out as a defensive battle in the first half, ended in a shootout and a comeback for the ages just to narrowly avoid a losing season. TAMU? more like TEMU, am I right??While that hardly seems like an accomplishment, we can’t miss the greater picture here: Lincoln Riley is 2-0 against the SEC this season. 

——skip up to the next indicator if you don’t feel like reading about my random rants on college football——

These ain’t just any SEC teams like 1-7 Kentucky or 0-8 Mississippi State. They’re in the tier of the 3 (SEC)-loss teams that finished just outside of the playoff contention. All of them sit in a six-way tie alongside Alabama and Ole Miss. Going back to what I was saying earlier, the real joke is that there wouldn’t be any more delays. I’d rather go on this tangent about the SEC.

Remember the narrative that Lincoln Riley ran away from Oklahoma because he’s afraid of the SEC? He took a “bad” USC team and went undefeated against the “best” conference in college football. Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s first season in the SEC had them winning only just as many SEC matchups as USC. This is a conference that plays 7 or 8 home games and only have to play one or two tough teams out of conference. This USC team might’ve been 10-2 and getting blown out in a playoff game if they were in the SEC. Then again…they didn’t get blown out by either of the two currently live playoff teams they played (Notre Dame and Penn State). 

Since I waited for the end of the postseason, I’m also going to insert my comments about the system. I’m not even going to get into the need for more guardrails and standardization regarding NIL and the transfer portal…or anything about the impending super conferences, playoff structure, and how teams are selected. But at the very least, shouldn’t all the conferences play the same number of conference games? But anyway, I digress…

—–start here if you are purely here for the game recap——-

As great as it was to witness the largest bowl comeback in USC history, it was not without some of the same issues we’ve seen all season. There was some weird time management at end of half that ended in a field goal attempt, which, as expected, did not make it. Then there were some really bad decisions by Jayden Maiava, some resulting in picks. One particularly bad choice was when he didn’t want to take a sack, so he ran backwards then attempted to throw the ball away and could possibly have been flagged for intentional grounding or have it be ruled a fumble. “Luckily”, it only resulted in a 13 yard loss on 1st down. 

In a much later driver, Makai Lemon, as much as he has been an improvement over Zach Branch at the return game, made a less than ideal situation to fair catch a punt at one point that forced the team to start from the 4-yard line. That put some extra pressure on Maiava to throw the ball from the end zone, which led to a poor throw and interception. Somehow, the defense held on and the team benefitted from the error of Texas A&M missing their field goal.

Even in their shining moment they were not able to act without error. The delay of game penalty at the goal line due to substitution could have been a backbreaker. While that rule is also some garbage that they need to revisit, it’s been that way for years, so Riley should have been aware of how it would play out. Luckily, they were still able to score the touchdown to put them up.

Just to finish up the last bit of negativity, they could have incorporated more read options plays than the two they used. If you’re going to replace Miller Moss with a running QB, then you might as well take advantage of it, especially if the running QB turns the ball over a lot. But it’s hard to be too harsh on them after such a large comeback win.

Regardless of the struggles, this team hasn’t given up on games this season. Down as much as 17, they found a way to get back in it even after all the mistakes that began to pile up. It’s impressive that they were able to score more in the fourth quarter than they did the rest of the game.

Good/Badisms

  • Good: Bryan Jackson earning some hard fought yards with both the #1 and #2 running backs gone
  • Bad: Eddie Czaplicki’s injury in first half after being hit by a Texas A&M player for a penalty.
  • Good: Ryon Sayeri carried on the Ray Guy winner’s legacy with a 57 yard punt
  • Good: Makai Lemon’s 46-yard kick off return
  • Good: Lemon’s behind the back stiff arm after the catch and run, as if he had a camera on the back of his helmet
  • Bad: Being down to having walk-ons in the rotation on the offensive line
  • Good: Akili Arnold and Kamari Ramsey with their interceptions in back-to-back drives that kept the score close in the first half
  • Good: Ja’Kobi Lane with 3 touchdown receptions in the second straight game.

CommBro Breaker

Couldn’t help myself. Just a tad bit more negativity. This game was probably rougher for TAMU since they it would’ve been 9:30PM to 1:30AM in their home time zone. 

I don’t know what kind of stat this is stat: Maiava somehow completed almost every kind of stat this game with a pass, run, reception, interception, and tackle.

Confusing Offensive Stats: USC was 16th in first downs, 23rd in Total Offense, 25th in third down conversions, but 51st in points per game. Confusingly enough, their 70.91% TD percentage in the red zone is good for 23rd in the nation as well. All those yards and conversions somehow weren’t turning into points. I think what tells more of the story is that they were 93rd in fourth down conversions, failing 9 out of 17 times and 108th in field goal percentage, missing 7 out of 21. That’s at least 16 drives there that failed to score. USC averaged 11.4 drives per game (when removing OT and garbage time), so that means that’s a game and a half worth of failed drives. Throw in the 21 turnovers lost…that was exactly 25% of their drives failed to score points

USC vs. Notre Dame: The QB Debate (Yes, it’s Clickbait)

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. #5 Notre Dame (Senior Day)
November 30, 2024 at 12:41pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 73,241 (of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 38 minutes

Every kid whose favorite number is 13 and wants to play at USC had their dreams destroyed by this man

Another regular season has come and gone far too quickly. Now all there is to do is await whether USC gets invited to the Souplantation Bowl or Kenny Roger’s Roaster Bowl (they’re not real bowls, but these fake names should trigger a few people). Although the season would have been disappointing regardless (especially compared to how it started), being able to sweep the rivals would have been nice. Having a shot to end at 8-5 also would have been nice. Instead, the game ended in two pick sixes to send us to a 6-6 finish. 

It’s kind of crazy when you look back at it, because Jayden Maiava’s stats to Notre Dame DBs are 198 yards and 2 TDs. Meanwhile, Notre Dame’s own QB was only at 155 yards for 2 TDs. Maiava built up enough stats to play for both teams. The bill had to come due eventually: live by the Maiava tricks, die by the Maiava tricks. 

On the other side of the ball, the defense gave up a season high of points, even if you remove the two pick sixes from the scoring total. The previous given up was 33 in OT against then #4, playoff bound Penn State. The Fighting Irish didn’t punt until 4th quarter. Still better than last year, I guess. 

In the end, it was tough for both teams to play defense. While Notre Dame tried to confuse the new starter with constantly shifting the defensive line and getting some rushes way outside the tackles and the tight ends, Maiava was able to keep the wheels on the bus until the late in the fourth quarter. The constant fade routes would miss sometimes, but he would complete enough of them to move the offense and score points against a defense that ranked well, statistically. But let’s not go too far with the compliments for the offense…

We saw some weird cooking this game was well. Bringing Jake Jensen in at the goal line for a run coming out of a timeout. Why in the world did Riley decide to bring in the third stringer to run a read option the ended with him diving for a 1 yard loss? On the subject of third stringers, there was the curious decision to bring in third string running back, Bryan Jackson, on his first play of the day (and first touch in a month) to run a speed option that almost ended in a fumble. Yeah, it hurt to have Woody Marks exit the game early due to injury, but that play could’ve easily been run by Quinten Joyner. Not sure why that was what the coaching staff chose, but that kind of thing probably contributed to Joyner shopping to see what’s out there in the transfer portal. These plays ultimately weren’t decisive factors in the loss, but just strange enough to point out…

Good/Badisms

Bad/Bad: Notre Dame was 100% on 4th down conversions (3 of 3) and USC was 0% (0 of 3)

Good/Bad/Bad: Czaplicki nailed a nasty 74-yard punt that the coverage team failed to down, resulting in a touchback, and then ultimately wiped out by an illegal shift penalty.

Good: Ja’Kobi Lane with 3 touchdown receptions 

Bad: Allowing nearly 270 rushing yards

Bad: Outgaining Notre Dame by over 100 yards, yet being outscored

Good: Makai Lemon attained his second 100+ yard receiving game

CommBro Breaker

Did I use the break between the end of the regular season and the Vegas Bowl to drag my feet on publishing another post? Find out next time, on City of Angles. 

So you’re probably itching to know who we think was the best QB of the season here. The votes are in from all City of Angles staff, and it’s unanimous. To end the debate:

  • Best QB: Makai Lemon
    • Reason: He completed all of his passes (1/1) and has a 427.6 passing efficiency rating, beating out Moss’ 135.1 and Maiava’s 132.5
  • Worst QB: Kyron Hudson
    • Reason: He didn’t complete any of his passes (0/1). Needless to say, his passing efficiency is ZERO. Please don’t take this seriously…

Czaplicki Tracker Week 13: Czaplicki holds at #3 in punting yard average with 48.5 (behind 49.3 and 49.6). But RAY GUYYYYYY

USC vs. UCLA: Crosstown Transfer Expedition

Posted on by commbro

UCLA vs. USC (Crosstown Showdown)
November 23, 2024 at 7:35pm
Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA: 59,473 (of 92,000)
Total Time: 3 hours 18 minutes

The Trojans claw their way to bowl eligibility for the season on their first true road win of season—yet it’s another one that requires an asterisk. While technically a true road game…they traveled even less than their neutral site win. Somehow, they managed to miss every chance at winning a real one the entire season. Either way, at least the Victory Bell is back and even losing to #5 Notre Dame won’t stop them from going to a bowl.

The broadcast would have you believe there was a torrential downpour. At one point I seriously wondered if the weather was different between my location and the media booth. I left a bag out at the tailgate and I’m not even sure it could even be described as damp. It was almost just mist. Those broadcasters certainly can’t be accused of a mist opportunity to play up the drama. 

As if there wasn’t enough drama with triple agent, Kyle Ford, transferring back and forth between USC and UCLA. He found a way to rack up extra wins in crosstown rivalry games. Other than the Helton firing year, he found himself on the winning side of this rivalry. Not many people can claim 5 Crosstown Showdown wins (2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 [UCLA], 2024)! While he was the only one to change back and forth, Kamari Ramsey and John Humphrey joined defensive coordinator, D’Anton Lynn, on the crosstown transfer expedition, a.k.a CTE, a previously unused acronym! Maybe that is a joke in bad taste.

Lynn delivered some extremely satisfying defensive moments like stopping UCLA at 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-1 on their own 34-yard line. Being able to stuff a QB sneak against a rival just brings a different level of joy. The defense then follows it up with stopping four straight passes to at UCLA’s 25 to end their possession, the game, and their bowl hopes all in one fell swoop.

The offense, on the other hand, barely hung on enough to survive. Even after the magical 4th down stop deep in UCLA territory just turned into a field goal. All in all, four out of five red zone trips ended in field goals. There were drives that ended at the 2, 6, 5-yard lines that were not touchdowns. If they had scored touchdowns on all of them, this game might’ve been out of reach by half time. Not being able to punch it in repeatedly is certainly disappointing. Curiously, they did run a play under center, only for it to be a play action. Although they got their only touchdown of the day from it, the play itself was a wild, unsafe scramble, a sketchy throw, and required a double clutch by Ja’Kobi Lane to complete. It could’ve been a fumble, it could’ve been a pick, it could’ve been a drop. Maiava continues to gamble big. Maybe he will continue getting lucky to balance out all the unlucky breaks this season.

Good/Badisms

Good: Speaking of Makai Lemon, his big plays like a catch and run for 64 yards, and the kickoff returns of 31 and 41 yards. And let’s not forget about the clean pass to Kyron Hudson for 39 yards.

Good: Michael Lantz making all four of his field goals. It’s the first time he hit all his field goal attempts in a game since September (on 09/28 vs. Wisconsin, 1-1). It’s also the first time he’s made a field goal since before he missed the field goal in overtime against Penn State (10/12, 3-4)

Bad: Before you start praising those special teams analysts that got us into NCAA trouble, Zachariah Branch’s performance as a punt returner continues to be butt clenching. Despite his improvement in the passing game, Maybe Makai Lemon should be the one doing those returns too?

Bad: Continued poor usage of timeouts, especially in the second half. At least they weren’t needed this time.

Bad: Hard to fault the defense that held the Bruins to their second lowest point total of the season (13, tied with #1 Oregon and #10 Indiana, below #4 Penn State [11 points]), but Garbers had thrown nearly as many interceptions as touchdowns this season, yet was near perfect for most of the second half. Bruin WR, J. Michael Sturdivant, got 100 out of 115 of his yards during that stretch. The worst one was allowing a 25 yard completion when the Bruins were starting from their own 1-yard line. He did not have any second half incompletions until that very last drive.

Good: Woody Marks continuing to carry the offense in both the ground and passing game.

CommBro Breaker

Defensive Headscratching Stats: USC is #99 in sacks per game (1.64) and #119 in tackles for a loss per game (4.36), #60 in interceptions (9), #99 in fumbles forced (5), #93 in passing yards allowed per game (235.6), yet, in the only stat that really matters, they are #32 (21.2 points per game allowed)

Czaplicki Tracker Week 12: Czaplicki dropped back down to #3 in punting yard average with 48.8 (behind 49.1 and 49.7).

Lazy Stat of the Week: I already hid a bunch of stats into the good/badisms. No more today, thank you.

USC vs. Nebraska: Schrödinger’s Quarterback and Marksism

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. Nebraska (Homecoming)
November 16, 2024 at 1:05pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 75,304 (of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 21 minutes

For the seventh game this season, USC finished the game within one score of their opponent. This is only the second time they’ve been on the favorable side of it.

The new starting quarterback, Jayden Maiava, has a stat line that could lull you into a sense of confidence, but watching the game footage would show you the truth: Every play he’s involved him sits on the precipice of both success and disaster. Maybe we should just call him Schrödinger’s quarterback.

Perhaps no other play better encapsulated his style of play than the one to Kyron Hudson in the end zone in the second quarter. The play barely slipped through the defensive back’s hands to hit Hudson in the chest and pinball off the DB’s helmet back into his arms as he barely lands inbounds. The absurdity of what we witnessed left both Trojan and Husker fans in shock. These kinds of plays seemingly happened often, sometimes in our favor and sometimes in a pick six or fumble in a red zone. Those particular plays primed Nebraska for half their total scoring—for free. Sure, things ended up in our favor this time, but this type of riskiness is probably what kept him on the bench for so long.

Of course, there were some positives to the overall composition of the team as well. Lincoln Riley used more option plays and got more creative with derivatives out of similar formations. Zachariah Branch got sent on some jet sweeps, tunnel screens, and the like to establish his threat. Then Woody Marks runs allowed Jayden Maiava to keep it on some runs. All of that finally set up a fake jet sweep to Branch with Maiava taking the ball on a speed option and flipping it out to Woody Marks for the 34 yard gain on 4th-and-1. That kept the drive alive on their last score. Being able to score in the fourth quarter to pad the lead, rather than fully putting it on the defense, and being able to drain 7 minutes and 40 seconds while covering 84 yards for the touchdown is the type of thing they haven’t been able to do at home or on the road.

But, back to Marks. Although they never really lined up under center, the way Woody was running the ball with those Cold War era uniforms and field, the shades of red and yellow are enough to make anyone a Marksist.

Seize the means of offensive yards.
City of Angles does not endorse any political position.

He finished the game with a 7.7 yard average on nearly 20 runs with 5 runs over 10 yards. That doesn’t even include his contributions to the passing game. He has also crossed the 1,000 yard threshold for the season.

Good/Badisms

Good: Interception by Jaylin Smith late in the 2nd quarter on a crucial possession to keep the game tied going into the half.

Good: Duce Robinson getting time to shine with the new QB

Bad: The way Maiava carries the ball. The aforementioned fumble presented the most obvious evidence, but even on the final touchdown play, the way he held the ball out in middle of the field on 1st-and-goal could have easily been knocked out and turned into a touchback instead of a touchdown. Things have generally cut in his favor this game, but if he keeps tempting fate, the eventual outcomes against UCLA, Notre Dame, or a potential bowl opponent may not be so positive.

CommBro Breaker

With more tape now on Maiava at USC, he may not see as much success in future games. UCLA is up next and has no margin of error for bowl eligibility. They will likely be practicing/studying hard to keep Maiava contained.

Czaplicki Tracker Week 11: Czaplicki managed to climb back into 2nd place (48.9 yards per punt) after having a 51.8 yard per punt average against Nebraska. All 4 of his punts pinned the Huskers in within their own 20-yard line (starting at the 12, 4, 13, and 1). Pretty impressive day for him.

Depressing Stat of the Week: Zachariah Branch scored his FIRST touchdown of the season in the 10th game despite having the most receptions out of the wide receivers (41). Woody Marks actually leads the team with 43 receptions

Shocking Stat of the Week: Somehow USC is #14 in sacks allowed and #33 in tackles for a loss allowed. Despite how poorly it started, it appears things have improved statistically (and from an eye test)

USC vs. Rutgers/Washington: CommBro vs. Busyness

Posted on by commbro

-USC vs. Rutgers
October 25, 2024 at 8:01pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 63,404 (of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 40 minutes

Washington vs. USC
November 2, 2024 at 4:40pm
Husky Stadium, Seattle, WA: 71,251 (of 70,138)
Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes

So if it wasn’t obvious, I missed last week due to the busyness of life. Don’t worry, I didn’t pull another midseason disappearing act…but I will be doing one megapost for both the Rutgers and Washington games. 

In other news, even Meta couldn’t keep me down. They tried to silence me!! LOL. 

My writing hasn’t been as good, but damn, that’s quite the roast to call it spam LOL

Somehow this is kind of amazing. My first hate mail and it’s by AI. It seems the “Misleading Stat of the Week” is far too controversial for Facebook. Who would’ve thought that I’d be censored before even getting to sell out?

Anyway, I was at a wedding the day of the Washington game so I must apologize for not getting a complete look at the game. However, due to my dedication to the craft, I was mostly definitely watching the game…

USC looked solid while breaking their 3 game losing streak with the win against Rutgers. They dragged themselves up from 16th in the conference to 13th and back to a .500 record. Then they lost their way back down to 15th and a losing record. 

USC remains winless in true road games (since LSU in Vegas counts as a neutral site…probably even closer to a home game considering the distance and time zone). They’ve also now guaranteed a losing conference record with the 5th conference loss. I’ll keep things short since at this point, by now we all kinda know what is going on. 

Good/Badisms

Good: Makai Lemon’s emergence as a receiving and returning threat in both games

Good: Zachariah Branch showing some improvement from his slump

Good: Woody Marks continuing to carry weight as an every down back

Good: The offense managed to score on all their first half possessions against Rutgers

Good: The defense managed to stop Rutgers on 4th down three times

Bad: Three interceptions thrown by Miller Moss against Washington, despite the offensive line blocking a bit better overall

Bad: Another game where they have the ball and the lead in the fourth quarter and manage to squander it

Bad: Failing to convert a 4th-and-1 at the goal line and also failing a 4th-and-4 in the red zone to basically end the game. 

Bad: Despite pretty much every one of their 11 drives ending in Husky territory and 4 trips to the red zone, they somehow only scored 3 touchdowns (one drive ended at the USC 45). 

Bad: Lincoln Riley trying to force 50 pass attempts against one of the statistical top passing defenses. I personally believe the stats are a bit inflated by the lack of very many decent quarterbacks they’ve gone up against this season, but they have a good passing defense nonetheless. 

CommBro Breaker

  • It’s the QB making poor throws! …Yes
  • It’s the o-line’s poor blocking! …Yes
  • It’s the receivers dropping the ball! …Yes
  • It’s the refs making weird calls! …Yes
  • It’s Lincoln Riley not adapting the offense to the personnel! …Yes
  • It’s the NIL not being there for the earlier recruiting classes! …You’re not going to believe it, also yes.

It’s a team game and there are a lot of factors that go into what happened. And just look at that, even with all those problems, they are so close to winning every single game. Yeah, it feels really bad to be losing half your games, but once at least some (or maybe even one) of those above things are fixed, this team could easily be 10, 11, or 12 wins next season. 

Whether we like it or not, Jayden Maiava will replace Miller Moss as the starter. And regardless of which subset of group(s) you personally would like to place the blame on, Maiava theoretically covers for the weakness of the offensive line. All we can hope for now is winning out, becoming bowl eligible, and carrying some experience and momentum into next year.

Czaplicki Tracker Week 8: Eddie remained at #3 last week, with the gap slightly widening. He’s averaging 49.3 yards per punt compared to FSU’s 49.6 and Baylor’s 51.1. Moss even helped him out by eating up one of the shorter punts on a pooch

Czaplicki Tracker Week 9: Czaplicki dropped down to #4 with a 48.5 yard average. The true depressing stat of this game.

A Stat of the Week: There’s been a lot of trash talk about the refs this season, but one thing’s for certain: USC has significantly less penalty yards per game than either of Riley’s USC seasons in the Pac-12.

USC vs. Maryland: 20% of the Time, It Works Every Time

Posted on by commbro

Maryland vs. USC
October 19, 2024 at 1:05 pm
SECU Stadium, Minneapolis, College Park, MD: 43,013 (of 51,802)
Total Time: 3 hours 51 minutes

Somehow we’re here sitting on 3 straight losses, 0 wins in October, 0 Big Ten road wins, and still 0 true road wins after losing to a team that was 0-3 in conference play. For whatever reason, the team can only play one solid half of football and then immediately start struggling in the opposite half to choke away the game in the final seconds.

But maybe we’re being too optimistic by saying it was a good half. The first touchdown they scored wasn’t even impressive. It came from what was initially a missed field goal, but an illegal substitution penalty by Maryland converted the 4th down for USC to eventually score the touchdown.

Their third touchdown also required some assistance. The punt return and 15-yard personal foul penalty by Maryland had the offense set up at the Maryland 41-yard line. With only a minute left in the half, they could have run out of time had they not had such favorable field position.

On Maryland’s ensuing possession, USC sought to return the favor by giving them 15 yards on the unsportsmanlike penalty. Not be outdone, Maryland politely fumbled the ball on a perfectly fine snap just to take themselves out of field goal range and give up their possession.

Let’s not forget about Maryland’s missed field goal either. They converted two 4th-and-shorts (one by USC penalty), which set up a long field goal. Luckily, Maryland missed it.

And what the heck was that timeout at 1 second just to come back at kneel?

The second half was where things got ugly. Multiple times they had the ball and the ability to end the game with even a field goal, but kept struggling to put it away. The defense can only hold up so many times in a season when they’re constantly forced to be out on the field after another sub-25 yard drive (of which, an astounding 41% of the 83 drives qualify). That blocked field goal on 4th-and-1 allowing for a big return was nearly comical. Somehow they find a way to lose every game.

Are they getting to the point of learned helplessness? I wonder if they felt they were going to lose after that 2-point conversion was successful. Yes, the team may not have enough talent and depth, but when you’re in very favorable positions to win these one score leads in the 4th quarter, you have to win them…or at least not lose 80% of them. Even guessing on every single question on a standardized test should statistically net you better results than this.

Good/Badisms

Good: Perfect ball back shoulder placement in the end zone by Miller Moss and great catch by Kyron Hudson for the touchdown

Good: Perfect ball back shoulder placement in the end zone by Miller Moss and great catch one-handed catch by Ja’Kobi Lane for the touchdown

Bad: Lots of high throws by Moss, missing his receivers and the interception and 51-yard return that allowed Maryland an easy score

Good: Duce finally catching a pass in the 4th quarter and slammed it into the end zone

Good: The return of tight end, Lake McRee, showed some immediate impact with some key conversions on third down

Bad: Jaylin Smith against Maryland’s and the Big Ten’s statistical leader had some trouble, allowing long completions or committing PIs Good: Interception in the end zone on a 4th down that saved them from not only a touchdown, but forcing the offense to start inside the 20 again

Good/Bad: Kamari Ramsey batting a pass on 3rd-and-5 but then missing the open field tackle the very next play to allow a 4th down conversion

CommBro Breaker

Wish I had some better news, or optimistic outlook, but we may have to wait until next season for anything remotely worth seeing now that the ceiling is 9-4. Being able to finish with a better than last year would be nice. Losing so often really can’t help recruiting. It’s kind of weird place to be when your team could reasonably beat or lose to any team on the schedule and you wouldn’t be surprised.

Depressing Stat of the Week: USC is 16th place in the Big Ten right now. Right above 2-5 overall UCLA and 1-6 overall Purdue

Depressing Stat of the Week #2: Miller Moss is tied for 27th most interceptions in the nation out of the 396 QBs counted. He is tied for 3rd most in the Big Ten.

Uplifting Stat of the Week: Woody Marks has the 23rd most yards in the nation for running backs

Uplifting Stat of the Week #2: Quinten Joyner is averaging 9.09 yards per carry, which is 5th in the nation for running backs that have played in 75% of their team’s games.

Czaplicki Tracker Week 7: Eddie Czaplicki has fallen even further to #3 in average punt yards per game (49.4), with the FSU punter beating him by .03 yards per punt (49.43) for the #2 spot

Misleading Stat of the Week: USC has lost 100% of their games against Maryland…because this is the only one that they’ve ever played

USC vs. Penn State: All Tricks and Picks

Posted on by commbro

USC vs. #4 Penn State
October 12, 2024 at 12:40pm
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA: 75,250 (of 77,500)
Total Time: 3 hours 36 minutes

Here we are again with me writing about the third loss in four weeks. Not all losses are equal, though, and an overtime loss by a field goal to an undefeated #4 team is a heck of a lot better than a loss in regulation by a touchdown to an unranked 3-loss team. There are signs of improvement, but it’s not exactly a great place to be halfway through October. The Trojans are all but eliminated from playoff contention, barring some absolute improbable chaos of events. As much as I love to generate obscure stats, even I don’t want to do the math on this one.

In a strange turn of events, the Trojans played well in the first half and suffered in the second half. As a whole, we saw some growth: they ran the ball more when needed (to much success for both Woody Marks and Quinten Joyner), schemed some ways to neutralize the constant pressure for Miller Moss like moving the pocket and throwing some more screen passes to loosen up the pass rush. Yet, it was not enough to overcome some of the more disappointing parts.

There were plays almost as uninspired as my writing these days like run plays on 3rd and very long that was basically just settling for a field goal or trying to send the game to overtime instead of trying for field position for a field goal. And yet again we find a tight end giving a USC defense problems. This one player totaled more yards (221) than either the entire USC rushing (189) or passing (220) offense. This time, there’s no Grinch to blame.

Penn State busted out everything they could, with trick plays getting them the edge on several plays. They tried direct snaps to the tight end, double passes, using a snapper at the tackle spot as an eligible receiver, and maybe even some more that I may have forgotten. That’s not to say they weren’t picking up yards normally either. Penn State was able to exploit the seams between zones for some big gains to the tight end spot. Overall defensive performance: debatable—or baitable?

Not to be outdone, Lincoln Riley busted out his own trick plays. The first major one was a fake reverse for the first touchdown of the game. Somebody find the branch manager because Zachariah Branch has unfortunately been more useful as a decoy this season than a receiving or returning threat. What looked like a broken trick play still ended up being successful. Woody Marks was given the opportunity to set up the double pass, realized it was going to be blown up, and pulled it down to run for 21 yards. Between that and the “fumble” recovery from the defensive lineman, he has shown himself to be a ridiculously quick thinker and improviser.

The Penn State final drive in regulation saw two fourth down conversions with Drew Allar targeting cornerback John Humphrey’s side and completing both the 4th-and-7 and 4th-and-10 to Julian Fleming that ultimately tied up the game and put the pressure back on the Trojans. The 4th-and-10 was the most frustrating because the defensive lineman, Jamil Muhammad had his hands on Allar and just needed another moment for a sack. Depressing Stat of the Week: The USC defense is #122 in the nation in sacks per game (1) and have only 6 in total for the entire season so far. DSOTW #2: They’re also #120 in tackles for a loss per game (4).

And I’m quite aware I seem to have broken my own record again for late posts.

Good/Badisms

Good: Desman Stephans II, playing for his first meaningful snaps, getting not only an interception, but returned it 42 yards

Good: Easton Mascarenas-Arnold’s fingertip interception on the deflected pass

Bad: Miller Moss throwing too high, resulting in an interception and no field goal try as time was expiring in regulation

Bad: The missed 45-yard field goal that gave Penn State an easy shot to win in overtime

Good: Drew Allar, only threw 1 interception in 103 attempts this season prior to this game, but threw 3 against this USC defense, though one was just a last second heave for a shot at winning in regulation.

Good-ish (we’ll take what we can get): Red zone defense: only 2 touchdowns allowed on 6 red zone trips

Bad: A paltry 2 of 11 on third downs on the offensive side of the ball

Good: offensive PI on Penn State that forced them into a position to only take a field goal

CommBro Breaker

While the back half of the schedule is theoretically easier, the defense is now down two starters for the rest of the season: linebacker Eric Gentry and defensive end Anthony Lucas. This is on top of defensive lineman Bear Alexander deciding to sit out earlier in the season. In a defense that was already thin on depth, it will be interesting to see how D’Anton Lynn adjusts.

Uplifting Stat of the Week: USC is #6 in the nation in opponent third down conversion percentage (27.14%) and #1 in the Big Ten.

Czaplicki Tracker Week 6: Eddie Czaplicki has fallen back down to #2 in average punt yards per game (49.8) compared to Baylor’s Palmer Williams (52.2)

A Stat: Halfway through the season, the defense is allowing 13.6 points per game less than last season (#41 vs. #121), but are scoring 11.1 fewer points per game than last season (#52 vs. #3).

USC vs. Minnesota: That’s not very Lincoln of you and I am really disappointed

Posted on by commbro

Minnesota vs. #11 USC
October 5, 2024 at 4:40pm
Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN: 50,913 (of 50,805)
Total Time: 3 hours 16 minutes

Gophers can be a real problem for football. Back in high school, we used to play pickup football games on a field that was swiss-cheesed by a gopher. Tripping and injuries due to gopher holes was a common occurrence. Apparently Whac-a-Mole isn’t as easy as it looks. Complete tangent.

Y’all ever notice that some versions of this game make the “moles” look a lot more like gophers?

Maybe you’ve also noticed that the title is an amalgamation of recycled headlines, but then again, so are the criticisms. We’ve harped on this stuff all season:

  • slow first half starts
  • poor offensive line play in pass protection
  • Miller Moss being rushed and hit all the time
  • procedural penalties
  • receivers dropping balls at crucial moments
  • turnovers
  • red zone scoring issues

The weather wasn’t even cold or snowing. Yet, the offensive line continues to look like the Disney on Ice rendition, allowing the opposing defenses to consistently generate pressure with only 3-4 people on the pass rush. That leaves 8-9 people dropping into coverage, so on top of rushing poor Moss, he has to somehow get the ball out in a cluttered coverage to receivers that may just end up dropping it. This all took place after 2:00pm so they don’t even have that excuse. Turns out it’s not just the mornings that were getting to them, it’s just how they are. 

The defense, really feeling the absence of linebacker Eric Gentry, allowed the most points in a second half this year (14), compared to the previous high of 10 from the LSU game. Up to that point in the season, they had only allowed 17 points in second halves. Still, they did enough for the offense to win the game despite the turnovers and short possession times putting more pressure on them.

And yes, we can all harp on the refs again, but we can only complain about that so much. It’s not like the Pac-12 was any better with that though. Unless it’s super egregious, it usually is not looked upon well to blame refs for a loss. But if we’re going to talk about refs, did everyone see how the Gophers head coach, P.J. Fleck, gave one of the refs a nice little shove?

Do you think he wears that sweater/tie combo to make up for the fact that his name is the acronym for pajamas?

Seems suspect to me. Anyway, enough about that.

It’s year three under Lincoln Riley and it should have been better than this by now. He’s a better coach than this, but really has not shown it in many ways. That being said…

CommBro Breaker

…the Helton comparisons are really just wacko. Has everyone already forgotten how bad that really was? Do people really think they should be pulling the plug that quickly? How many truly elite coaches are even out there? One that wins against everyone they’re supposed to, never gets upset, or makes weird decisions. By the criteria that are being expected, not even the successful—or all-time greats—would qualify. 

Jim Harbaugh took like 6 years before his first win against their chief rival, Ohio State. His tenure included some random upsets, a 3-7 bowl record (including a 5 bowl losing streak before making the playoffs to extend it to 0-7), losing to unranked Michigan State (their closest UCLA equivalent) at home more than once, some mediocre seasons, and even a losing season. He eventually took them to the playoffs a few times, and even won a national championship (albeit controversially). Y’all would’ve wanted his ass fired

Then there was Kalen DeBoer, where many were ready to anoint him as the second-coming of Nick Saban post-Georgia win…right until he leads them to the upset land against unranked 2-2 Vanderbilt on the road. Even with the Georgia win, they very nearly squandered a 28 point lead.

If Nick Saban himself were the coach, we still wouldn’t be free from the delusion. He’d be criticized for hiring Sark as offensive coordinator or any of the upsets they suffered. He’d be roasted alive for the kick six, allowing their rival to win off of an ill-advised 57-yard field goal attempt. Saban had to argue to get 1 second back on the clock in order to make the attempt that was returned for a touchdown rather than opt for overtime. That decision lost 100% cost them the spot in the final BCS national championship game.

And all of these guys started with far better rosters than the aforementioned Helton stiffed Lincoln Riley with. Let’s have some perspective here, huh? No one is immune to bone-headed decisions and Riley has already made huge strides on defense. He deserves more time to prove whether or not he’s got what it takes here, especially when the NIL landscape seems to shift faster than the rules of an elementary school basketball game 30 seconds before recess ends. It might just be frustrating in the meantime. 

Uplifting Stat of the Week: Eddie Czaplicki has retaken his rightful spot at #1 in the nation in average yards per punt.

Uplifting/Depressing Stat of the Week: Despite being #28 in the nation in scoring defense (18.4 ppg), they are #108 in sacks per game (1.2 per game) and #105 in tackles for a loss (4.6 per game)

Conspiracy Continuation Stat of the Week: Miller Moss completed only 9 passes to different receivers, even if you include both the interceptions. It’s a sad week now that the streak is finally broken

Good/Badisms

Good: Woody Mark’s one-handed catch and run for a first down out of bounds to bail out Moss from what would’ve been a costly sack or incompletion and help set up Michael Lantz for his field goal.

Good: Michael Lantz sinking a career-long 54-yard field goal to tie the game at the half despite the false start setting them back after the Minnesota timeout negated the 49-yarder he made. Whew, that was long-winded. Oh yeah, and it was windy when he kicked it.

Good: Woody Marks able to take the direct snap for a touchdown

Bad: We’ve gone over most if it, but I can toss in a few more.

Bad: Missed field goal by Lantz on the first possession

Bad: Moss throwing into double coverage to Duce that led to an interception

Bad: The OL allowing Moss to be hit as he threw, resulting in an interception