UCLA v. USC

L

l00p

10,000+ Posts
This battle in the Pac 10 will be fun to watch. You have a very motivated, excited (hopefully not corrupt) coach in Neuheisal getting some good talent. USC may have some sanctions thrown their way due to Reggie.

This head to head game as well as conference battle will have a new focus put on it. It should be fun. The addition of Norm Chow was solid and will mean a lot to the kids of SoCal who will be their main focus. This only helps other schools that USC has been poaching off of in other areas of the country as USC will have to watch their own backyard with renewed interest.
 
norm chow brings instant credabilty to that program. even with slick rick at the helm. i do find it amusing that they made a late push at darrell scott and got nothing for their troubles, but regardless, with rick and chow running the show, they will battle for pac-10 supremecy for years to come.
 
Say what you want about Skippy's recruiting ethics, but he brings some star power to UCLA. Throw in Chow and I am convinced that they will push SC for recruits in CA, especially since SC is freaking five deap with five stars at every freakign position. This is a very good thing for us. SC needs their own Oklahoma. Just think what kind of success we would have had over the last decade if our major competitor were UCLA instead of OU. Just think how many studs from Texas we lost to OU over that time period. Imagin all of those guys playing for UT...vince and AD in the same backfield...that's what SC has going on and it's time that UCLA give them a run for their money. At least make 'em earn it.
 
The way that Oregon is headed, Oregon St. and others making small ripples in Cali which is deep, it helps too. Now, they are not getting the top blue chippers but depending on if/how SC gets hit over the Bush debacle and how many studs the Bruins compete for, the talent once locked down by Pete could become thinner.

Then again, they are superb at national recruiting. But again, when the dust settles on the Bush situation, we'll see.
 
The guy to look out for in their class is Milton Knox.

That guy is a fn badass.

Small player, but he has the potential to be a lot like Maurice Drew. The guy is one hell of a talent.

For the first time in years (maybe late 90's) UCLA did better in Los Angeles than USC.
 
The thing is USC takes smaller classes than most and does a lot of cherry-picking around the country. That leaves a lot of West Coast talent for the rest of the Pac 10.
 
I don't foresee Skippy being much of a threat to USC. UCLA, for the most part, still rely on USC leftovers AND have to deal with a fairly strict admissions policy for incoming freshmen recruits.

Skippy will improve UCLA, but he won't supplant USC as the dominant west coast power. He will provide entertainment though.
 
PC had minimal college experience and was never a college head coach before going to USC. As the Mr. Orange's post shows, RN has shown a downward trend during his tenures at CU and UW. I will say that predicting the success of a newly hired head coach is next to impossible, but going by his body of work, 8-4 or 7-5 would seem to be the most one could expect from RN.

I think this is a terrible hire and there is almost no way he will leave the program in better condition than it is now. UCLA must have been enamored by his "Golden Boy" image and him being a former player certainly not his past performance.
 
From a recruiting standpoint, Fla and USC seem to be the 2 programs who are immune to any depth chart concerns a recruit may have. This looms very large as it really doesn't allow UCLA to put its foot in the door for recruits who are 50/50 between UCLA and USC. Moreover, as I mentioned, USC is also able to poach kids who maybe wanting to go to UCLA, but wouldn't be able to qualify in there. UCLA has lost probably 5-6 kids this year who they could have if they adhered to the NCAA minimum standards, as USC and 93293924 other programs do.
 
Blondie has left a trail of slime wherever he has been. That will be his major contribution to that poor-excuse-for-a-football school he now coaches.
 
My argument isn't that SoCal cant support two top 10 programs. There's probably enough talent there to support more than that when you look at all the guys that go to Cal, Oregon and the rest of the Pac 10. My argument is that a team's fortune usually rises and falls based upon the changes in coaching staffs. Since I don't pretend to have a crystal ball, I can only go on my observations of Rick Neuheisel's performance in his previous head coaching positions. His time at both Colo and Wash show a decent W/L percentage (trending down in both cases), numerous NCAA violations, and a willingness to ignore criminal behavior from his players that could help with wins. This is not a recipe for success in my opinion, and certainly not what I would look for when searching for a new head coach.

He might prove me wrong, but I fail to see what about Neuheisel is getting some of you so fired up. If Saban, or Meyer, or Tressel came to town that's one thing. Skippy is a different thing altogether. Guys with a history of skirting the rules rarely change their behavior. Its part of the game and the challenge to them . Unfortunately, it also usually doesn't end well for the schools involved.
 
USC under Carroll is a MONSTER.

What happened before he got there is completely irrelevant.

Skippy will absorb a few 40 point beatings and get caught cheating again at some point. He will leave ucla as he found it, plus some sanctions.
 
USC fan here,

This thread makes me lol. UCLA=Texas A&M guys, at least in football. I dunno what's happened to the Horns vs Aggy but I suspect their meager 2 year run will end in 2008.

UCLA is dog **** a loser program and always will be losers, just like Aggy. Both won a NC looooooooooooooong ago and have accomplished nothing since. Both had a weird long win streak over their rival (Aggy in 80's, UCLA in 90's) both live to beat their rival and nothing more, they really could go 1-11 every year and if the win is over Texas/USC they will celebrate like NC.

UCLA has a better group of assistants than USC does now (THANKS PETE) however Skippy is nothing to write home about. He is better than Dorrell but that doens't mean anything compared to a real program like USC. Chow can't work his magic without talent. Little known fact, in Chow's first season at USC, he took the best offense in the Pac-10 (USC had the #1 offense in the conference in 2000 despite having the 2nd worst team) and Chow turned the same group of starters into the last place offense, 10th. Chow won't do **** with the stiffs UCLA has. Their recruiting class this past year OVERRATED. They focused on skill players when it was one of the weakest years for CA skill talent in recent memory. USC focused on OL/DL and it was one of the best years for the big uglies in CA recent memory. UCLA brought in NO linemen except two stiffs on offense and 2 decent DE, zero DT. They're gonna focus on linemen next year and CA class is lousy and it's a down year for OL already. USC already has a commitment from CA's best OL for 2009, Graf lol and is the favorite for the 2nd best OL in the west, Martinez from Utah. USC already has the #1 class in the nation next year, they have like 9 Rivals top 100 recruits, UCLA will not compete with USC. Trust me guys. Skippy is a rosy-cheeked fairy who runs finesse offenses (he recruited like 8 WR his last class at Washington and 2 OL) Chow is the man but not without talent, nobody can do anything no matter how good of a coach with the crap UCLA has. And Skippy is already neglecting the line. Plus DeWayne Walker will get a head coaching job soon. IMO Washington will hire him after they fire Ty next off-season.

Skippy might take UCLA to the Holiday Bowl. I will give him credit though for hiring a good staff unlike Pete Carroll who has destroyed USC football with his failure homegrown coaching hires. Something no fans of other schools realize is how bad USC's coaching staff is. Most of USC's staff has NEVER coached anywhere other than at USC under Pete. A complete 180 from the way Pete approached things when he first got to USC. Now he has his homegrown failures, all yes men, so Pete can micromanage everything. Pete doesn't know **** about offense, his input has totally destroyed the program.

USC will continue to recruit the best talent but with this staff, they will NEVER win a NC, NEVER get to a NC game. Until Pete decides he wants to hire real coaches again and stop micromanaging the offense and instead focus on what he knows best....defense and recruiting while surrounding himself with top notch assistants (like he did when he first got to SC) USC will NEVER play for a NC. Just like the last 3 years (in 2005 this piss poor staff inherited Chow's, Orgeron's the old Pete's players that's the only reason they got as far as they did but they still choked when it mattered most), they will continue to piss away NC opportunities. USC in 2008 will be no different seeing as how no coaching changes are coming. Trust me guys. USC is NOT a NC contender next year. Another 10-2 underachieving team that's the most talented in the nation but poorly coached.

Pete is directly responsible for the 3 worst losses in USC football history...

3.UCLA 2006
2.Stanford 2007
1.Texas 2005

I will NEVER forgive Pete for losing those games. NEVER.
 
50%

but like all schools, most SC fans are blind homers who think they haven't failed miserably the past three seasons and think the coaching staff is excellent and probably expect USC will win the NC next season.

not happening
 
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