Life and Life Only

USC 28, UCLA 7: A Few Words About the Squabble

Kevin Roderick has the summary. But I have a comment or two.

The Trojans dominated in a sloppy game by both sides, but what they’ll be talking about for days (at least) is this: USC throwing a touchdown bomb one play after taking a knee to signify it was playing out the clock. UCLA called a timeout after the knee, perhaps precipitating the USC pass. In any case, a demonstrative celebration followed on the USC sideline — then the entire Bruins team swarmed off the sideline, many going past midfield, to object. Coaches, cops and cooler minds intervened before anything felonious happened, but it looked dicey there for a few minutes.

Indeed. Very dicey.

Even the handshake between the coaches seemed a bit….tense.

But about that touchdown bomb: Pete Carroll clarified the matter immediately following the game. (Not that it should have needed clarifying.) Yes, the USC offense took a knee, at which point everything could have stopped. Game over. Run out the clock.

BUT then the fact that UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel called a time out instead signified that the Bruins intended to keep playing, likely using a couple more time outs to get the ball back.

So that is exactly what the Trojans did.
They kept playing. Matt Barkley, the baby quarterback, feinted, then threw a gorgeous 48-yard bomb to Damian Williams for a touchdown.

After this fall’s battering season, it is perhaps understandable that Carroll could not control his little kid delight at the play. (There was nothing over the top. He simply looked very, very cheery.)

The touchdown plus Carroll’s and his players’ undisguised good humor set off a fury on the Bruin’s bench, and the entire team surged on to the field with intentions that looked considerably less than friendly.

Eventually, the coaches and referees managed to shoo the potential brawlers back to their respective sides.

Yet the grumbling continues.

Interestingly, I don’t remember anyone shrieking at Stanford two weeks ago when they kept running up the score in the last few minutes. Instead everyone loudly blamed USC for having a lousy defense.

Now when the Trojans throw a touchdown in the last minute of the game ….it somehow is again their fault.

Feh.

Okay, the weekend is nearly over so we shall soon be back to more serious issues.

But we aren’t there yet.

73 Comments

  • ^^ Huh? Oh I get it, it’s a tacky sexual innuendo. Stay with it, Matt. the English language and subsequent transference to paper, media, etc. can be tricky.

  • Coaches can’t always anticipate what young players will do, and the other team generally accepts such lapses in judgment and forgets it.

    I remember an Auburn – Tennessee game in which Auburn was leading with a few seconds left and with the ball on the Tennessee one-yard line. They had already taken one knee and were about to do it again to run out the clock. When the ball was snapped, the players on the line started shaking hands and walking off. But, the QB had never downed the ball, so he walked across the goal line for a touchdown. It looked pretty sorry, but he was just a kid, and his coaches weren’t too happy.

    UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel summed it up best, “They have every right to throw the ball deep. It’s our job to cover it.”

    They’ll get over it.

  • I think everyone agreed afterwards (at least the commentators I saw on Prime Ticket) that SC had a right to go for it, even though it may have intentionally signaled otherwise, and that Neuheisel’s trying to teach his own team not to quit til the very end may have been what backfired.

    BUT the gloating by Carroll the $4.5 million/year man was bad form – I THINK his rep as someone who’ll do ANYTHING to win played into this. Including the history of the team over the last 5-6 years off the field (including our current city attorney being “on speed dial” when they got in trouble for alleged assault or rape and so on). The team has been in the news in recent months and weeks too, for issues involving ethics. This somehow seems to have triggered the deep-seated but murky thing that sports are supposed to be about sportsmanSHIP, whatever that is exactly, the stuff we tell our kids counts in little league and AYSO – until they turn about 11 or so and then it becomes all about winning. Which can be the ugly side of any competitive sports, especially on a level of Pac10 where it becomes so much (too much) about winning translating into money from alumni which the school relies on, and so on. So Carroll looked at narrowly was doing his job and “had every right” to do what he did, but still, we don’t like to think of ourselves as a country where we win at all costs, so may feel a little “icky” about wins like this. Maybe.

  • This is precisely why I prefer to watch soccer. No whining about doing what you’re supposed to do: score more goals than your opponent.

    Last week a team in the English Premier league beat another one 9-1, scoring three of those goals in the last three minutes. No whining, no pissing and moaning by the losing team.

  • WBC,

    I agree with everything you’re saying in principle. And certainly we can have a discussion about the creepy nature of bigtime college sports.

    But, leaving that aside, in this particular instance, speaking just from my own perspective, I honestly did not see icky gloating with Pete Carroll.

    In truth, I am anything but over-invested in sports. But this year, I’ve watched at least a part of most of the USC games, or more accurately, I have them on in the house while I’m correcting papers or whatever, (And I was present at the disastrous Stanford game because my son’s girlfriend is a happy USC grad and wanted to go.) But, if you follow a team, it’s no fun to see it allow itself to be repeatedly pummeled, as has been the case with USC.

    So, in the second half of yesterday’s game, when USC was winning, not because of interceptions and other messy moments that had occurred earlier in the game, but honestly because they were finally playing well, certainly it was hard not to feel damned chipper. Their defense seemed to have snapped awake, and they didn’t keep falling apart on the 3rd downs. After weeks of watching USC play …um…really badly, seeing them do better was something of an emotional relief, even for people like me.

    Okay, fast forward to the end when it was 21/7 and clear that the game was over (the USC offense took a knee, etc.) and then….it changed. The UCLA time out was called, everybody returned to the field, play resumed, and Matt Barkely threw that beautiful pass.

    Honestly, heaven help me, but that touchdown moment was entirely emotionally cathartic. So when Carroll threw his hands up and cheered and sort of hopped, it seemed anything but unnatural. It seemed kinda human. I mean, hey, he expressed how I felt. It wasn’t gloating or a screw you to the Bruins. It was a Wooo-hooo! (If you know what I mean.)

    (However, in fairness I also saw a couple of the USC team members reacting a LOT less gracefully).

    Anyway, this is only one person’s experiential opinion and in no way reflects any kind of objective accuracy. But by chance I did happen to be staring at Carroll at the touch down moment, and noted his reaction, so I can at least attest to that—and my own emotions at that same moment.

    For whatever it’s worth.

    Okay, now back to writing a pile of grad school recommendations (its that season) and munching turkey leftovers.

    Oh, and Matt, and thank you for providing the good theater.

    PS: Maybe Randy’s right and we should all switch to soccer.

  • I don’t know about SWITCHING to soccer, but I’ve always liked it as an AYSO parent, even running around the field a bit myself to work out with the kids or for a fun workout myself, and it doesn’t hurt that the pro guys and not just Beckham are pretty hot and not in that huge bulked-out way. AND because no one disputes that you play til the last second – there’s no psyching out with the knee thing or whatever, it’s about speed and precision and you always KNOW exactly who’s doing what, and that dance between striker and goalie is exciting precisely because anything can happen til the last second. BUT I don’t see how you can separate the whole Big Sports aspect and the ethical issues as background for what happened with SC and Carroll. He’s been head coach for years with all that baggage he’s brought with his win-at-all-costs philosophy.

    While Neuheisel is only in his second year, rebuilding a team – and there’s some excitement in that, and he’s attracting some top recruits who want to be part of that on the ground floor. (Plus both these college teams tend to be on the young side, with players having 2-3 years left.)
    I think UCLA going forward has to just focus on the fact that they are a better team than they were last yaer, that they did score a touchdown with 6 minutes to go so things COULD have turned out differently. They need to work on offense, as Neuheisel said – I think he was pretty fair and gracious in his comments.

  • PS: Maybe Randy’s right and we should all switch to soccer.

    *********************

    Maybe if I move to Europe and have no other sports viewing option, I watch the other football. And speaking of “whining, pissing and moaning” isn’t soccer the sport where players routinley whine, piss and moan about a foul that never occured.

    And of course, in what other sport do the fans attack the opposing team or in what other sports have the fans died in a little squabble with the opposing fans?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G__flnITkgU

  • Yeah, Randy, those soccer fans always act like perfect gentlemen and never act disruptive over a game’s outcome. Now, tell us where these seemingly fictitious fans actually exist. Instead of soccer, you might be thinking about chess.

  • Uh….. Oh. Right. WTF and Woody, I forgot about the killing people part.

    Okay, forget about that switching-to-soccer thingy. I’m sticking with football. (whew!)

    And track and field. And Olympic snowboarding.

    And Olympic skateboarding if skateboarding ever becomes an Olympic sport.

    I like skateboarders. (I raised one. Although now he’s turned rock and ice climber.) They’re a scruffy lot but they rarely form into murderous mobs and attack their rivals.

  • WTF and Woody,

    Pot, kettle, black: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ8jDgz35WM

    BTW, don’t know if you saw Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel this month, but the NFL is finally doing something about drunken fans after years of besotted idiots staggering into stadia.

    FWIW if you base your opinion of all pro soccer teams by Millwall, the team with arguably the worst reputation in England, you might as well base your opinion of all baseball players on Barry Bonds.

    Yeah, Randy, those soccer fans always act like perfect gentlemen and never act disruptive over a game’s outcome.

    If I actually said that, you might have a point, but as usual you’re making shit up.

    Here’s what I wrote as you seem to have a reading comprehension problem.

    No whining about doing what you’re supposed to do: score more goals than your opponent.

    In gridiron football, there’s plenty of whining about this. That’s a fact.

  • Randy, when he was a skater, the helmets were an ongoing battle. (In a skateboard park and on ramps, yes, on the street…. not so much.) However, skating is no longer an issue as he’s outgrown the sport.

    In general, my son has always chosen the kind of sports guaranteed to give any mother the vapors.

    As a climber, however, he has excellent equipment and is appropriately cautious. (And his closest climbing buddies are a couple of Spaniards who are older than he is and experts, plus his girlfriend who, like his mother, is intensely invested in his well being.)

    But let’s just say I have search and rescue on speed dial in three counties. Just in case.

  • I do think the “hooliganism” that goes along with soccer in some cases must be separated from the game itself – those fans would probably behave the same whatever the sport is. Besides the clarity and simple beauty of the game I agree on with Randy, there’s the excellent conditioning of playing, even amateurs, which makes it a great youth sport – all that running, soft balls which can’t give you concussions like in baseball, no body slamming like in football, developing LOTS of skill to handle the ball without hands – for me, the sheer unnatural aspect of leaping up to smash the ball across the field with just your knee (i’m no good with the head thing) feels like you’re flying. And everyone, including people slight of build and moms, can play it and have a fair shot at being good at it. And maybe the fact that as of now, soccer is NOT a big-money college sport which encourages the nastier win-at-all-costs behavior or outrageous coach salaries, makes it more of a real sport not business.

    This is in no way to diss baseball or football – which serves somewhat the function gladiators did in ancient Rome, something we can’t all do but enjoy vicariously for that reason, including admiring those superhuman physiques; and there’s nothing like seeing a really BIG guy flying and leaping with the grace of a ballet dancer. (I did in fact help work my way through college by teaching ballet at a dance school which also taught a team which was the best small-college football team in the country at the time, and the coach swore it WAS the ballet. Nothing like a grand jete to leap up against gravity to clear ground and the clutches of your opponents, and catch that ball.)

  • “…(I did in fact help work my way through college by teaching ballet at a dance school which also taught a team which was the best small-college football team in the country at the time, and the coach swore it WAS the ballet. Nothing like a grand jete to leap up against gravity to clear ground and the clutches of your opponents, and catch that ball….”

    Totally cool.

    BTW, if you have not seen episode 4 of Glee, you need to drop everything and watch it. (It may not work as well, if you don’t know the characters, but still…)

    http://www.hulu.com/watch/96626/glee-preggers#s-p2-so-i0

  • Sport can bring out the best and the worst in people. Bobby Knight and Woody Hayes are classic examples of the worst as sometimes was Paolo di Canio, who was suspended for several games for pushing a referee when he played for Sheffield United.

    He partially redeemed himself in my eyes when the goalkeeper for the opposing team was down injured, the ball was passed to him at the center of the penalty area, but seeing the injured keeper, instead of shooting the ball into the undefended net, he caught the ball and pointed to the injured keeper.

  • WBC,

    Boy do I agree with you about the skill in the sport. I just watched barcelona beat Real Madrid this afternoon and it was a pleasure to see someone like Leo Messi or Xavi Hernandez, both of whom are about 5’7″ and less than 150 pounds weave there way around defenders with the ball seemingly glued to their feet.

    My wife’s from Brazil and she told me that when she was a girl and there were boys who wanted to play futebol and didn’t have a ball, they would go the butcher shop. If there was a freshly slaughtered pig, they’d have the bladder cleaned, inflate it and it was near perfect.

    Celeste, glad to see your son is being careful. I have been using a helmet diligently for years when I’ve been biking.

  • Randy, interesting about the butcher shop leftovers: sounds like the origins of polo, kicking around a dead sheep carcass or what remained after cleaning it out, or even the head. (Which you still see in Central Asia.) Much easier for us to appreciate when it evolves into something with a ball, but interesting to get back to the origins of things, how people are so resourceful.

    Celeste, will check out the show late tonight or tomorrow. Checking the website about it, one way it’s described is as a H. S. musical but with transgender, gay and other anti- stereotyical characters, including one with misophobia. (Which “Monk” has too, another show I like.) But my experience was somewhat different in that the jocks were very stereotypically macho and didn’t exactly take to the ballet thing at first – especially since my usual co-teacher was a slightly built gay guy, not someone they identified with but they did pretty much get over the hangups after a few classes. And they liked winning and it worked.

  • Soccer is without question the best introduction to competitive sports for young kids. And it’s got “legs” as you age. American football is a great sport for folks who love to sit on their ass and talk about what somebody else just did.

  • USC and UCLA suck. Los Angeles just isn’t a football town. Even conservatives in L.A. are too busy building Requonista bunkers to find time for sports. Even the Raiders were too good for L.A.

  • Woody, feel free to argue sports, of course. (And I, for whatever reason, prefer football, probably because my kid never played soccer so I never got into it, and…well, I like football.)

    But please dial it back on the other issue.

    Mike Penner/Christine Daniels was extremely well liked in Los Angeles. I did not know him at all. But I do know that he was known for being very witty, very talented and very kind.

    Many in and around the LA sports-writing world are grieving about his death.

  • WBC, you may or may not like it. And I don’t know how it will be coming in to watch one episode in the middle of a season, given the multiple story threads. But the football/dance part of the episode is pretty much worth the price of admission, even if the rest isn’t quite your cup of tea. I can at least assure you that it’s very clever writing and really excellent casting.

  • Woody “exercises” the same part of his body for “sports” that he uses to write his comment here. CouchMan!!!!

    Go shove your “elitist” crap up your arrogant ass.

  • Woody, I assume you’re just making the “elitist” and “anti-American” crack about soccer because you feel it’s de rigeur (that’s “elitist” for “obligatory”) given the persona you’ve taken on here, but maybe you can explain what’s “elitist” about a sport that requires only a pair of soccer cleats and any field to play on, not even a helmet or bat or other paraphernalia – and is done by poor kids around the world from the havelas in Brazil to kids in remote villages in China?

    And maybe you can explain what’s so bad about what’s usually called “elitism,” things like knowing what wine to drink with a meal or drinking wine at all, not getting flustered when confronted with more than one fork and knife and glass before you, and so on. (If you’ve ever been in that situation, down south – and I fancy you have, as better clubs and restaurants do love their antebellum airs, as do the society ladies.) I’ve been embarrassed more than once by being at a formal dinner in Europe or even in the US (quelle horror) where my “fellow American” was stabbing and impaling his or her food with one fork or knife, stuffing it heartily into the mouth while ignoring all the other utensils as though they were irrelevant distractions. It’s NOT all that hard to learn this stuff. Sure I enjoy a good simple barbecue or tailgate party, but life isn’t either/or – it’s ideal to be ABLE to pass between the two.

    But even more, I often find it MORE of an affectation when people sneer at at “wine drinkers” as “snobs,” making a point of “only” drinking beer (even if it’s a more pricey or “elitist” microbrew) to hammer home the point that they’re “average joes” unlike moi. When I’m around those people, I’ve learned to watch my back and my wallet.

  • Thanks for the thread, Celeste.

    As a mid west immigrant, and a fanatic partisan of the Michigan v. Ohio State rivalry — Go Blue! — I have to say that Los Angeles is extremely fortunate to have the Bruin v. Trojan rivalry going. One year, the Buckeyes were punishing Michigan and Woody Hayes (the human being I have launched more cuss-word laden tirades against that any human who has ever lived) went for two points instead of kicking a PAT after a 4th quarter touchdown. Asked after the game why he went for two, Hayes replied, “Because we couldn’t go for three!”
    Bruin fans, you should thank Pete Carroll for giving your football team something to stew on for another 365 or so days. You can’t call time out as if to say, “we’re contesting this thing to last second” and then get burnt deep. USC simply called the bluff. Let’s see what UCLA’s response is next year. This is the kind of stuff that makes these kind of games great rivalries.
    Oh, what’s that I hear? Sounds like….TUSK!!!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQeewVPxlPc&feature=PlayList&p=471631C86A4EA95A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=41

  • Actually, I was first exposed to soccer while living in Germany while my Dad was stationed there aiding in the defense of our nation.

    In fact, FIFA currently ranks the USA as 14th in the world, ahead of all other nations in the Americas except for Brazil and Argentina. The USA has qualified for six consecutive World Cups, finished the qualification round for the current World Cup as well as the 2006 World Cup in first place.

    The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup Competition is 95 years old this year. The USA made it to the semifinals of the first World Cup and qualified for three of the first four World Cups.

    The USA has more registered soccer players than any other country in the world. That means people playing in leagues and in an organized fashion.

    The US has qualified for nine World Cups. That’s more than Hungary, a nation that has reached the Championship Game twice.

    So when one says that soccer is un-American, all one does is show their own ignorance.

  • I said that soccer cleats were required for soccer, but in fact as Randy pointed out, in places where a pig’s bladder will do in place of a ball, bare feet will do just fine.

    And good point, about the growing important of soccer in the U. S. And not just among the Latino population but among kids because it IS perhaps the best game for conditioning and learning both team play and reaching your personal best at the same time. As these kids become adults, we’ll probably see more mainstream interest in the sport – AYSO will do more in that regard than paying a mega-star like Beckham. And funny you should mention Hungary, I was there once when the U.S. was playing a close game for the World Cup and was struck by how we probably have more respect in the sport abroad than we do here. (Of course, when you compare us to Hungary, that’s a country with a total population of 10 Million, but still – in that sport and water polo, they’re pretty dominant.)

  • Okay. I just went back and read Woody’s comments (which I usually just scroll past). Woody, reg kinda put the notion of why soccer is a better game for kids a tad blunt, but he’s right. It’s really self evident, c’mon on. No need to fire up the elitist canard about soccer. It’s great that so many parents are willing to have their kids participate in organized sports that both boys AND GIRLS can readily play. This is a good thing. Just consider it a ‘total coincidence’ that the rest of humanity likes soccer…

    What’s your best reason why we should root for Alabama against Florida next weekend?

  • I have to laugh when people call soccer elitist and “un-American”. My entire city plays soccer, boys and girls, rich and poor, all colors and creeds. People may not watch soccer on television, but it’s played by everyone year round, in every community.

    I myself am a huge American football fan, and always will be–I grew up during the 70’s when ballet artists like Lynn Swann and other graceful wide receivers (John Jefferson, Wes Chandler, Stanley Morgan, Drew Pearson, etc.) were bringing the aerial game to a new and exciting level. At the same time, I learned to love the artistry of soccer, its strategy and pure athleticism.

  • Oh, and one more thing: as much as I love American football, the ever-increasing size, speed, and athleticism of the players (on every level) makes me more concerned about the possibility of concussions and other brain-related injuries. I do take joy in watching the brutalism, but I’m definitely not sad that my nephew plays soccer and baseball instead of American football.

  • UCLA and USC were fighting for relevance. I think it’s really time to question your status as a football town when the Raiders are too good for you.

  • Last year I went to see the Real Madrid/FC Barcelona matches at Nevada Smith’s, arguably the best sports bar in the US for soccer matches.

    Notwithstanding the fact that the atmosphere there is probably the next best thing to being in the stadium and you’re not hassled to buy drink after drink, I decided to pass seeing it there this year as I would have had to arrive hours before the start of the game.

    The place is packed, largely with Barça fans, but most attendees are Americans.

    Two summers ago Steve Nash, the NBA player decided to have a pick-up match with several star players from Europe and the US at a park in Manhattan. There were probably two thousand people there, with people surrounding the fenced park 5-6 bodies deep on a weekday afternoon.

  • Fook the Raiders. For God’s sake, I’m contacting my L.A. Council Member to make sure Al Davis never sets up shop in L.A. ever again.
    Fook the NFL. It stands for the NO FUN LEAGUE.

    College Football is as good as it gets. Tradition. Rivalries. Bands. Alumni.
    Fookin’ GREAT Bands! Full Stop.
    L.A. has two great schools. Brainiac student bodies. Simply awesome institutions. Bragging rights for L.A.
    Where do you live Rob Thomas?

    The only reason to even maintain a pulse regarding the NFL is so that one can root for the New Orleans Saints. Any city that gets swallowed by the sea oughta have some sorta civic distraction to get fired up about. New Orleans, enjoy!

  • Well, UCLA got the crap beaten out of them pretty soundly, and that TD just smarted. It’s not easy taking that. Both teams were being a little silly at that point.

  • Rob Grocholski Says:
    November 29th, 2009 at 8:07 pm

    “Where do you live Rob Thomas?”

    ………..

    Translation: I’m out of arguments, so now I want to move the conversation to flaws in your town.

    Football in Los Angeles is a joke.

  • I just scanned the comments, but elitism is when one publicly professes to prefer the obscure and foreign preferences and attitudes – usually, simply because they disdain anything American and often because they want some kind of attention for being special.

    Rob, I went to the Alabama – Auburn game Friday. Alabama had all that they could handle with an Auburn team under a new coach and with no depth. If there is a reason to pull for Florida, it would be that they are the SEC team that has a better chance of beating an outside opponent like Texas. But, if you just like Alabama because of its traditions or your connections to the school, that’s good enough reason to pull for them.

  • I happen to get very bored watching sports on TV – and I can’t obsess over teams or feel any loyalty UNLESS there’s a period when a team attracts my interest for a stretch because of great players and great coaching. I don’t feel any loyalty because when all is said and done it’s just a bunch of big guys with agents – just like movie stars – and a little balI, but I also deeply resent the scamming of taxpayers that takes place sooner or later on the part of all of these mega-millionaires.

    And I believe that top-tier college sports are essentially corrupt operations. (I went to high school – and played football – with a guy who became one of the top college coaches in the country and I always thought he was a good guy who was blessed to build a career doing something I knew he loved, but he ended up involved in some incidents that were shameful. He might as well have gone off the deep end on Wall Street, for all of the honor that was left.)

    I loved Oakland’s A’s in the ’80s (my youngest kid was of an age where he was obsessed with baseball, so it was a great fit) and I loved the 49ers when Montana was quarterbacking and Bill Walsh was coaching. I’ve never been able to muster any love for the Giants and Al Davis is one of the most repulsive men on the planet, thus no love for the Raiders. I’m glad so many folks enjoy watching sports, but most of them would be much better off if they spent more of that time at the gym – or even just taking a walk. And although I had a short and remarkably undistinguished career playing football as a kid, I agree with Scott that I’d rather see my kids and grandkid playing almost anything else. I don’t watch soccer on the tube, but my involvement years ago with my kid’s team and comparing it to the dull routines, lack of physical energy and unseemly parental displays at his Little League made me a youth soccer partisan.

    Of course, aside from the very occasional incredible moment in college or NFL footbal, nothing compares from the spectator’s POV to beautifully played basketball IMHO.

  • Woody – you stupid ass. More people play soccer in the US than any other sport. The youth leagues have more kids than Little League. For you to call soccer “obscure” proves for the thousandth time that you’re an idiot who persists in saying dumb things apparently for the same reason that a dog licks himself – it makes you feel good and you have an innate inability to experience embarrassment.

  • I didn’t say that soccer was obscure per se. I mentioned how liberals try to look elitist, and preferring obscure things is one of the ways. Obviously, careful reading isn’t part of being elitist on your part.

    I’ll take your word on how it feels to liok a dog’s privates.

  • “Interestingly, I don’t remember anyone shrieking at Stanford two weeks ago when they kept running up the score in the last few minutes. Instead everyone loudly blamed USC for having a lousy defense.”

    Actually, Celeste, Pete Carroll shrieked at Jim Harbaugh when Stanford went for a 2 pt. conversion…with six minutes left. Not in the last minute like USC pasting on another TD Saturday night. What’s ironic is that USC has never had a problem going for 2 or going for a 4th down conversion when they were obviously going to win in past seasons. Carroll complained about Stanford doing it, and to just about everyone, it seemed like Carroll could dish it, but he couldn’t take it. The fact that he put up an unnecessary touchdown the next game after complaining is what got so many upset.

    My thoughts as a Bruin: I think it was completely fair for USC to run a play to try to score. It was the celebrations that were out of line to me. Fine, you beat your rivals. Don’t stick out your tongues and point at the other sideline. That’s just classless behavior, something that I’m not alone that think USC has been guilty of many times in victory. Carroll is obviously a great coach. It’s too bad that he often doesn’t handle winning in a classy manner.

    I can’t wait for next year’s game. UCLA will remember this for a loooooong time.

  • You were servicing yourself as usual, Woody. Saying what makes you feel good, no matter how feeble. Total nonsense, total narcissism, steeped in lack of attention to anything resembling fact and, of course, when you’re called on your bullshit, it gets topped off with dull whine.

  • “Fine, you beat your rivals. Don’t stick out your tongues and point at the other sideline.”

    I quite agree, Evan.

    For the record, I didn’t see that of Carroll. Neither did my student, who was working for a TV station at the sidelines. But it seemed to me that the TV camera caught a couple of USC players behaving….ungracefully, shall we say, which is never cool.

    On the other hand, swarming on to the field in an angry mob had it’s ungraceful aspects too.

    Young players, high stakes. What can one say?

    But about that 2-point conversion: Nobody questioned Stanford going to 55 for that depressingly lopsided victory of 55-21, the most points scored against USC in the team’s history. Stanford just kept playing a good game, and USC failed to keep their offense out of the end zone. That’s football.

    They did, however, question coach Harbaugh’s choice to go for a two-pointer earlier, when the score was 48-21, and there were nearly 7 minutes left, just so Stanford could get to an even 50.

    But, in the end, it wasn’t a big deal.

    If you re-look at the coverage, I think you’ll see that reflected, where as this weekend’s controversy is a lot more heated.

    But, whatever the case, as you imply, it’ll make for a good and intense game next year.

  • Randy, UAH is in German territory. Of course, soccer would be an early sport for those Nazi rocket scientists. The school also has an ice hockey team, while it does not have a football team. Go figure that out. That doesn’t make their sports better or more popular. It just makes them affordable, which they have to be since almost no fans go to the games and there is little ticket revenue.

  • I looked everywhere on the tube tonight for one of those extremely popular soccer games. Instead, I found a great Monday Night Football game in which the Saints are on fire in the first half.

  • “I looked everywhere on the tube tonight for one of those extremely popular soccer games.”

    From Scott:

    “My entire city plays soccer, boys and girls, rich and poor, all colors and creeds. People may not watch soccer on television, but it’s played by everyone year round, in every community.”

    Think before you post.

  • Randy, UAH is in German territory. Of course, soccer would be an early sport for those Nazi rocket scientists.

    Wrong again:

    The University of Alabama in Huntsville soccer history began in 1969 when UAH students approached Dr. Ostap Stromecky, a naturalized United States citizen who was born in the Ukraine and grew up playing the sport. Since that year, Dr. Stromecky coached 21 years of soccer at UAH, accumulating a 265-90-29 overall club and varsity record. During this time he had two players sign professional contracts, eight named to the NAIA All-American Team, and three named to the NAIA National All-Tournament Team. His teams won the NAIA Southern States Conference Championship once, the District 27 championship 16 times, area championships six times, and traveled to the national championship tournament six times.

    From club soccer beginnings, the Chargers gained membership into the National Athletic Intercollegiate Association in 1973. They were members of the NAIA until 1986 when all UAH athletic programs became members of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), competing at the Division II level, where it still stands today. Until his retirement in 1990, Coach Stromecky was the only coach the Chargers knew. The helm of the UAH soccer program was turned over to Carlos Petersen, a letterwinner under Stromecky from 1979-83.

    Continued best wishes for success in your modeling career, Woody.

  • Ryan, if you measure popularity by how many people do something, then watching Monday Night Football is more popular than all of those boys and girls, rich and poor, all colors and creeds playing soccer.

    I have nothing against soccer, and my kids played it, but I do want to call liberals out on promoting soccer as something better than football simply because they want to look down their noeses on all things rooted in American culture.

  • I looked everywhere on the tube tonight for one of those extremely popular soccer games. Instead, I found a great Monday Night Football game in which the Saints are on fire in the first half.

    Don’t blame us for the fact that your cable system does not have Fox Soccer Channel or Gol TV.

  • Uh, how was I wrong, Randy? I didn’t say that a Nazi was the first UAH coach. But, if you want to point out that the first coach was a commie, then that’s your right.

  • Ahh, yes a sport that originated from rugby and rugby a sport that originated from association football, aka soccer is hardly rooted in American culture.

    If you were talking about basketball – a sport I am a fan of – you might have a point. As usual, you don’t.

  • But, if you want to point out that the first coach was a commie, then that’s your right.

    And if you knew Ostap Stromecky – as I did – you wouldn’t call him – a refugee from communism – a commie.

    If he heard you call him that, he’d flatten you.

  • Randy, the U.S. isn’t the originator of capitalism or democracy. We just came up with the best systems of them, which drives you and the left crazy. Same with football.

  • Randy, the U.S. isn’t the originator of capitalism or democracy. We just came up with the best systems of them, which drives you and the left crazy. Same with football.

    I’m perfectly sane. You on the other hand have no clue about which you declaim.

  • Actually, I’m watching Barcelona beat Real Madrid again. Much more action and skill, while much less likelihood of concussions and dementia for the players.

  • but I do want to call liberals out on promoting soccer as something better than football simply because they want to look down their noeses on all things rooted in American culture

    Straw man–clearly no one’s arguing that. Why would you just make stuff up? Are you that insecure around these scary elitists? Sports are for enjoyment–if people love soccer, they love soccer. I don’t know why you’re taking it personally. I know liberals who love hockey and conservatives who love badminton. Who cares–they’re sports!

  • “Actually, I’m watching Barcelona beat Real Madrid again. Much more action and skill, while much less likelihood of concussions and dementia for the players.”

    Concussions and dementia ??

    I bet the Woodster played lots of Pop Warner and high school football without a helmet. Not to mention the wrazzlin’ with pokes to the eye. :0

  • A silly debate at best. Any activity by youth in sports is pretty much a good thing, getting them away from their XBOX and other video type games is always a plus.

    There’s always going to be some unsportsman like behavior by others that influence even the very young, no matter the sport or setting. I don’t think any one sport has a lock on idiot fans or have none of you been to a Dodger game the last few years?

    I’d be happy to go back to the days when players spent their entire careers with one team but I can look past the money and loyalty issues and still root for my teams. That’s what fans do.

  • Apparently Randy knows something that I don’t about the locker room at the YMCA. However, if he participates in such fights, he surely would come out on the short end.

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