Just a reminder- we are actually 4-4. Not great, but we are not in the midst of our worst offensive season by any stretch. I get it “6 yards after 3 quarters vs A&M”. Yeah- that sucks. I know why fans are frustrated, especially with that being the last game we played… but let me take you on a little trip through time.
Let’s go back to 1999 real quick. That was my second year as a student at USC. My first year we won ONE game under Brad Scott- looked awful.. Made a coaching change and brought in HOF COACH Lou Holtz! Exciting times! First four games of 1999, we scored 12 points. Not THAT bad of an average? Ok, yeah that is still a pathetic average, but that was actually our TOTAL points through 4 games. We scored 9 vs UGA and 3 vs ECU (losing 21-3) got SKUNKED the other two. It felt like we may never score a TD again! I get the differences- different “age” of CFB, more defense oriented game then. We had Holtz not Beamer coaching the team… Sure. BUT, if you look back on this season and feel hopeless, feel like this is the worst offense ever.. You are simply wrong. I have lived through worse football than this and things turned out fine after that. We had a couple good years to follow. Eventually signed Spurrier to replace Holtz and he took us to new heights eventually. THAT turnaround took years but we went from hopelessly bad in 99 to 8 wins the very next year and the best bowl win in our history… Things may seem bleak right now but we still have a chance to do some good this year- if we can find two more wins over the last 4 games, we make a bowl and get the extra practices and publicity associated with that. Even if we do not, we have talent returning next year from this team, a better foundation to build on than Holtz had and a young, motivated staff that knows how to recruit. This is a rebuild, it will take time but understand- things are not as bad as they may have seemed during the A&M game. As bad as this offense has looked at times, we have also moved the ball well at times and scored way more points than that team that actually WAS 0-8 at this point in the 99 season. We pulled out wins in lose-able games vs ECU, Troy and Vandy and showed a lot of fight and heart in doing so. Take it for what it is- not a great season… but after 2 wins last year and 4 the year prior I hope most were not expecting some magical season year one. Again, at 4-4 most goals are still in front of us and if we can build some momentum and finish the year on a high note, this is the kind of season it takes to turn things around sometimes. The growing pains of looking inept on offense at times are hard to take lying down, but as Beamer says all the time- our team writes the story of this season and it ain’t finished yet! Pick your chins up ya’ll, cheer for these guys and let’s go win a couple more!
Let’s go back to 1999 real quick. That was my second year as a student at USC. My first year we won ONE game under Brad Scott- looked awful.. Made a coaching change and brought in HOF COACH Lou Holtz! Exciting times! First four games of 1999, we scored 12 points. Not THAT bad of an average? Ok, yeah that is still a pathetic average, but that was actually our TOTAL points through 4 games. We scored 9 vs UGA and 3 vs ECU (losing 21-3) got SKUNKED the other two. It felt like we may never score a TD again! I get the differences- different “age” of CFB, more defense oriented game then. We had Holtz not Beamer coaching the team… Sure. BUT, if you look back on this season and feel hopeless, feel like this is the worst offense ever.. You are simply wrong. I have lived through worse football than this and things turned out fine after that. We had a couple good years to follow. Eventually signed Spurrier to replace Holtz and he took us to new heights eventually. THAT turnaround took years but we went from hopelessly bad in 99 to 8 wins the very next year and the best bowl win in our history… Things may seem bleak right now but we still have a chance to do some good this year- if we can find two more wins over the last 4 games, we make a bowl and get the extra practices and publicity associated with that. Even if we do not, we have talent returning next year from this team, a better foundation to build on than Holtz had and a young, motivated staff that knows how to recruit. This is a rebuild, it will take time but understand- things are not as bad as they may have seemed during the A&M game. As bad as this offense has looked at times, we have also moved the ball well at times and scored way more points than that team that actually WAS 0-8 at this point in the 99 season. We pulled out wins in lose-able games vs ECU, Troy and Vandy and showed a lot of fight and heart in doing so. Take it for what it is- not a great season… but after 2 wins last year and 4 the year prior I hope most were not expecting some magical season year one. Again, at 4-4 most goals are still in front of us and if we can build some momentum and finish the year on a high note, this is the kind of season it takes to turn things around sometimes. The growing pains of looking inept on offense at times are hard to take lying down, but as Beamer says all the time- our team writes the story of this season and it ain’t finished yet! Pick your chins up ya’ll, cheer for these guys and let’s go win a couple more!
