SoCal football programs dealing with losses, adversity

Hard to Believe: USC
Hard to Watch: UCLA
Hard to Understand: SDSU

We have crossed the midway line of the 2009 college football season. In Southern California, losses on the field, loss of credibility and lost fan support rack up.

USC

The Trojans — once mighty — have tumbled over. Saturday night’s pummeling at Oregon puts on the exclamation point that others in the Pac-10 Conference have caught up to Pete Carroll’s legendary program.

Related: More Hacksaw | More SDSU coverage

USC has now lost four straight times on trips to the Oregon Trail, twice to the Ducks and two more times to the Oregon State Beavers. What was once a given — a USC win most anytime in any place — no longer is guaranteed.

It was the worst beating in Carroll’s illustrious run at Troy. His teams have been built on great defenses, and they were beaten badly by a 5-foot-9-inch quarterback and a 5-foot-7-inch tailback. When quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and dart-and-dash tailback LaMichael James were done, Oregon had posted 613 yards of offense.

Spread formations, shotgun snaps, quarterback draws, screens, sweeps and counters. Not in 63 years of greatness had Southern California given up this kind of yardage. Masoli was everywhere, throwing for 222 yards and rushing for 164. Not bad for the last recruit on the list a year ago — a refugee from City College of San Francisco who was fifth on the depth chart in the fall of 2008 and got the job because of injuries and defections.

James plays and stars because of the ugly opening game fight that has led to the near season-long suspension of big back LeGarrette Blount.

SC could say they have lost two big conference games this year because they lost a ton on defense, including all three starting linebackers to the NFL. But the Trojans deal with NFL defections every year.

Or it may be because Carroll’s staff has been raided in recent years, losing the likes of coordinators Steve Sarkisian, Lane Kiffin and Nick Holt.

The Trojans, who were 88-11 until two weeks ago under Carroll, have given up an amazing 487 yards per game over the last three weekends.

Turn the spotlight off, quit reading press clippings, and get back to basics. The Trojan Horse looks as if it has been toppled.

UCLA

UCLA had hoped it would turn around quicker. The flashy, quick-with-a-quip and always smiling Rick Neuheisel isn’t smiling anymore. A season-and-a-half of battering has taken the fun out of Saturdays at the Rose Bowl for the former Bruins quarterback.

His name will open recruiting doors, and his dynamic personality will lure recruits, but it has not guaranteed the talent will develop quickly at Westwood.

The gutty little Bruins, tags that former coaches Terry Donahue and Bob Toledo liked to apply when they were pulling off upsets, no longer fits. Poor performances have left Neuheisel with a 7-13 record at UCLA. He is in the midst of an unacceptable five-game losing streak.

Even worse, his strength — developing quarterbacks and putting up big passing numbers — looks to have become a weakness. Neuheisel and gifted offensive coordinator (and former Trojan) Norm Chow have gone to a revolving door game at quarterback.

Forced to play JUCO transfer Kevin Craft a year ago, they saw him toss 20 interceptions in a turnover-marred season while never living up to his billing as a no-huddle thrower. This year has seen them spin the roulette wheel between the untested Kevin Prince and late-comer Rich Brehaut amid reports of a coaching feud. Chow wants one quarterback to develop. Neuheisel wants to play someone who can get hot. Everyone is losing.

Losing trusted defensive coordiantor DeWayne Walker, who took the New Mexico State head coaching job, has compounded problems.

One quality win against Stanford and two non-conference wins against struggling Tennessee are all Neuheisel has to show. UCLA ran newspaper ads upon his arrival that there would be two big-time teams in L.A. On campus they are still waiting, and no longer smiling at Slick Rick.

San Diego State

San Diego State’s team remains a work in progress. That was to be expected. Brady Hoke knows this program didn’t get bad in 15 minutes and won’t be fixed in 15 minutes either. But where is the support?

An Aztecs team that won two games last season is 4-4, but no one seems to notice, nor care. Hoke’s troops have taken on his personality — hard working, fiery and never giving up. They battled UCLA tooth and nail, did not meltdown against superior BYU, and showed grit and grime in the win at Colorado State.

Ryan Lindley is a star in the making, and what his coordinators are building has finally taken hold.

But despite all that, a meager crowd of just more than 12,600 showed up for homecoming on Saturday. It looked as if there were only 5,000 in the stadium, making one wonder if the town knows that progress is being made or even cares.

What will it take to turn this town onto college football? Maybe it’s the conference that turns people off. Maybe it’s the lack of student support or an indifferent alumni base.

Their own don’t care. The rest of San Diego doesn’t care either. Most of San Diego wasn’t here during the Marshall Faulk era. Even fewer saw coach Don Coryell light up the air and the scoreboard.

Hoke has not been able to shed the stigma of a 43-84 record since the Aztecs’ last bowl game. He wasn’t here for that. Unfortunately, San Diegans don’t account for that.

We enter November with the Trojans searching for a defense, the Bruins searching for a quarterback and the Aztecs searching for fan support.

Hard to believe what has happened at USC; hard to see what is happening at UCLA; hard to understand what happened to SDSU in its own town.

Lee “Hacksaw” Hamilton hosts “Sportswatch”on XX-1090 (3-7 p.m.) , broadcasts NFL football for the Compass Media Networks and won a San Diego Press Club Award for his SDNN columns.

Tags: Brady Hoke, Pete Carroll, Rick Neuheisel, San Diego State, SDNN, ucla, USC

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 10:03 am and is filed under Aztecs, Football, Sports, Sports Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.