Hey Scott, thank you for taking the time and joining us.
No problem, thanks for having me. No doubt about it. Now, unfortunately, we have seen, you have seen a lot of bad football. This is not going well for USC. Three and four blowing every game possible.
What's the largest and biggest issue where they can't close these games out? Yeah, you know, they have, they've been in position to have them lead all seven games this season in the fourth quarter. And, you know, they've had opportunities to really close them out by just one more score. And, you know, they, it just seems like it's a turnover of some sort. You know, on some occasions you have an interception and the, you know, ball was run back to the 18 yard line in the last game and went in for an easy touchdown from there.
But yeah, it's, USC is one of those teams where, you know, it was one of those years where I thought maybe nine and three was going to be kind of a really, really good season. And looking back, you know, you have to look at injuries and stuff like that, that they've, that they've had, which affects them on defense. But offensively, it's just been the offensive line has been inconsistent with the pass protection. So I, you know, I think it's a combination of maybe some some game management.
Yes, maybe some, some going away from the run when it's working. You need to take some time off the clock. You know, I, it's, it's hard to put my finger on it, but it just seems like all four losses have been like Groundhog Day, the movie, you know, like I've seen this before.
An analyst Scott Schrader is joining us here on the JR Sport Reshow, most recently a loss against Maryland. This hasn't been the introduction to the Big Ten that they wanted. How do you think that's factored in? Well, you know, I think that there's probably a factor of the travel element.
I don't know how much that's going to impact you. But, you know, so USC certainly has, has probably flown an hour on average to their away games, except when they go to Washington and Oregon and leaving the time zones and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, you know, I think that there is a fact that the Big Ten does have bigger players than in the conference they were playing in before.
So I think there's that element. But yeah, I don't, I mean, I hate, it seems like a pretty weak excuse, you know, going to the Big Ten, because some of the teams that they're losing to in the Big Ten right now, you know, people would have bet their house that USC would have lost to them. So yeah, it's just been a really, really wild, crazy year. With all the expectations and having Lincoln Riley, this is a team that was ranked almost top ten.
That seems like a long time ago. How much longer is, or how much rope is Lincoln Riley going to get, given the current situation? Yeah, you know, there's a lot of stuff. Look, he's the head football coach getting paid a whole lot of money. So, you know, he obviously is going to have the finger pointing at him. But at the same time, there was a lot going on when he got to USC.
That was kind of the advent of name, image, and likeness, and kind of, you know, we know what it is. It's pay-for-pay with these high school kids, which is no big deal to me, but you know, we should just call it what it is. And USC's NIL program really didn't get funded properly until this year. So they were missing out on some recruits that might have been able to help them here, you know, on the offensive line and defensive line. They had a lot of catching up to do on the offensive line.
There were stuff that was going on that, you know, was out of his control. So I think there is an element of that to where they weren't going to get to where they wanted to be year three, like you typically would have. If you would have eliminated the NIL factor from recruiting, you know, they probably would have, you know, enough guys right now to be, I mean, it's crazy to say that they're a play away here and there from being 7-0. You know, you certainly want to hear your head football coach say that after a fourth loss, but I mean, that is the reality. They're really not that far off from being a good team. That doesn't mean they're going to be this year, but they're certainly not playing garbage football and getting their butts kicked every week.
Scott Schrader is joining us here on the JR Support Reshow covers USC for on three head analysts. You talk about NIL and we see the effect that it's had on football programs, even basketball programs all over college. How is USC built to compete into the future with all of the, let's just say things are up in the air with conference realignment, NIL, how are they built to compete into the future? You know, I think this is actually, I've been covering USC, this is now year 22.
So I've seen the really, really good times, the really, really bad times, and then the kind of in between times. I've never considered USC in a position to sustain a really strong football program until, after the Pete Carroll years, anyways, I'm talking about, until now. They have a really, really strong athletic department. They have one of the best athletic directors in the country in Jim Cohen. They have an outstanding football staff across the board. We're talking about the position coaches all the way through the support staff part and their NIL program is finally thriving.
So, you know, and that's going to help them withstand some of this, you know, these losses. You know, the record right now, there's three and four, but they still have, you know, a pretty decent amount of recruiter momentum. So that is in large part because the NIL program finally caught up to the rest of the country. Is there anything in you, for all the years that you've been covering USC, is there anything in you that looks at the realignment and looks at the future of the Pac-2 to be the new Pac-8, hopefully again Pac-12?
Is there anything that feels lost? Well, you know, for me being from the West Coast, you know, we love the Pac-12. The Pac-12 was viewed, you know, as a weak conference and maybe it was deserved at times, you know, whatever. But, you know, there's an element of the West Coast kind of feels like it's on its own. The rest of the country kind of, they're kind of together, but you got a big gap in between kind of the Midwest and the West Coast. And, you know, it's great that Oregon and Washington are in the Big Ten, but you miss Stanford, you miss Cal, you miss some of those other matchups. And I just think with the way things are going right now, I think at some point, maybe not even that far down the road, you're going to have just a bunch of teams that are one kind of super conference competing for the playoffs and competing for a national championship. And I think you'll probably see more West Coast. It might not be as crazy as the travel schedules right now.
Like UCLA, for example, they're traveling 22,000 miles this year. I mean, that's just ridiculous. Hey, we all for the money, Scott. We know it's all for the money. I know. And it's good money, too.
I do it, too. I mean, for the amount of money they're getting paid, I would walk from D.C. to Los Angeles and take my chances on surviving. Scott Schrader is joining us here. Covers all things USC. We know Miller Moss is going to be running for his life the next bunch of games. What do you foresee? What is the likeliest outcome for USC the rest of this season? We know they don't end on a high note. It's not going to be easy taking on Notre Dame.
No, it's not. Before the season, that would have been one of the games you would have put in the likely loss column. But I think they're going to be competitive. They're going to have a chance to win all their games. They're certainly going to have a chance. They're good enough to beat Notre Dame.
There's no doubt about that. But if you talk about not getting the pass protection, I think you're going to be challenged, obviously, the most one when Notre Dame plays USC at the Coliseum at the end of the regular season. As far as the quarterback situation, if you're not winning games, don't you look at every element of the football program to see where you might be able to get better and just give it a shot? I think that even if they brought in, they have a back of quarterback who's really, really mobile. We've seen teams do it where maybe they get into fourth and one situations or third, fourth and goal situations. And they're bringing a guy that can run the ball a little bit. Maybe USC, maybe that might be a move that they make for a couple of plays a game. And who knows where that leads? But there's no question right now, Miller Moss is the guy for Lincoln Riley.
And I suppose that they have to go across that road at some point. Is there any chance? We got 12 playoff spots now.
Is there any chance they get so hot that they end up in that top 12? No. I think that went out the window. I think that there was talk. It's all talk, too.
None of us have any idea what's going to happen. There's a lot of circumstances that have to play itself out. But after the Penn State game, I guess if they went on a run and didn't lose a single football game the rest of the year, there might have been a bit of hope. But that loss is Maryland, man. Nah, it's over after that one.
Yeah, 29, 28. Well, they got a Friday matchup against Rutgers. We know Los Angeles is going to be real busy. How long is it going to take you to get to the game? Are you flying?
How are you getting there? Because getting in a car with the Dodgers and the Lakers is going to be wild out there. It really is. I think there's a Kings game that night, too. So there's a hockey game. There's all kinds of stuff going on.
I'll tell you what. It's one of those Friday nights where I would rather not be in Los Angeles, to be quite honest with you. But there's some great...I guess if I had to choose a game, I'd be at the World Series. I mean, come on. It's the Dodgers and the Yankees. But this is a game. If USC loses this one, I can't even imagine what... what Sunday is going to be like. This is going to be tough.
Let me ask you this, Scott. Totally unrelated based on what you just said. If you don't want to be in LA in the county to forget just the city on Friday, what are you going to do when the Olympics comes to town?
You know, what's crazy about that is that we all talked about the...I'm old enough, by the way, to have been able to go to the Olympics in 84. But that was a topic for months leading up to it. How is LA going to deal with the traffic? And there was none. People just knew they had to stay home. Touché.
Sometimes I guess those of us in Southern California are smart a few times, every few decades. And stay home. Not too bad. Good advice. Hey, Scott, where can we be? But you got a point. I think it's, you know, I don't think that's going to happen this time, by the way. We're just going to stay off the roads.
But you know, it's going to... Friday night is going to be a bit nutty, though. People want to be outside and take photos and selfies. And I was here and I was there and I'm important. That's what people want to do, Scott. Yes. We see that daily. New world. Well, hopefully the next time we have a chat, it'll be on a positive note with USC.
And hopefully it's good news for Lincoln Riley. Where can people follow you and all of your work covering this thing? Well, our website is wearesc.com. It's w-e-a-r-e-s-c.com. We're part of the on3.com network.
Thanks for that plug, by the way. And I'm on social media. It's just my name, Scott Schrader. And we also have our on3, I guess, Twitter account. But that's about it. But the website's a place to go. And what's really cool about what we have is that we offer the content we do. We inform people. We give them a perspective you're not going to get maybe from a lot of the outlets. But we have a really, really great community and a message board.
And that's one of the things that keeps us unique. So anyway, wearesc.com. Hey, thank you so much, Scott. If you see Shiano, tell him he's in Los Angeles. Okay, don't smile, okay? Tell him that. I wish he got an issue with smiling. I think so.
Most time. He looks like he's a sour patch or something. He needs a smile. Let me ask you this.
I know you want to get going, but yeah, I haven't really overall done a great job there, though. It's its name. That's it. It's it's the it's it's just the name. It's Rutgers. Come on now. It's what's what's exciting about them?
Nothing. They play in the shadow of New York. Greg Shiano is just back and it's I don't want to call it a nostalgia play because it hasn't been on that long.
But he's back. And what else is anybody going to be happy about his workers? They do have a good basketball program now. Football so much. They get paid to get stomped on by everybody else.
All right. Well, somebody has to be that team. The U.S. is looking like that right now. So hopefully they can change that.
What the team that gets paid to get smashed in the big town. I don't know about that one. Yeah. Thank you, Scott. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. Anytime. We'll catch you on down the line, Scott. Bye, man. Thanks.
