Welcome to Fraud Fiefdom

What an exciting past few weekends we’ve had here, no?

A host of lower ranked teams lost and in an effort to save time, I’m going to list them:  Iowa (but hold your heads high…you could’ve folded when down two scores in the 4th, but you didn’t.), South Florida, Miami, Houston, Arizona, and Utah. There you go.  These teams lost.

Why am I moving through so fast?  Because Fraud City is more of a Fraud Fiefdom this week.  There’s a bunch of peons, i.e. the asshats listed above, and then there’s the Baron.  The Lord.  The unquestioned ruler of Fraud Fiefdom.

The University of Southern California.

Stanford, let me say that again, with all caps for emphasis, STANFORD, just beat USC by almost five touchdowns.

A team with ridiculously stringent academic standards that hasn’t gone to a bowl game since 2001 just beat the team who, by all accounts, has more blue chip talent than any other two schools in the country put together…by ALMOST FIVE TOUCHDOWNS.

If these aren’t your Fraud Fiefdom overlords, I really don’t know who else is qualified.

This has been a positively mediocre year for your Trojans, one marked by offensive inconsistency and defensive malaise.  What was once considered to be the powerhaus of powerhouses, USC has vascillated between offensive ineptitude as seen in their wins over Ohio State and Arizona State, and defensive nonchalance which was in full display after letting Oregon and Stanford, again, STANFORD, hang a collective hundo on a unit that features Everson Griffen and Taylor Mays and Chris Gallipo, first rounders, all.

So while Toby Gerhart, Andrew Luck and co. decided to roll up the Trojans as USC had done to them numerous times in the recent past, twin freshman linebackers Vontaze Burfict and Manti Te’o were in Tempe and South Bend, making tackles for the Devils and the Irish.

Why do I bring those two names up?  Because they both spurned the Trojans to play elsewhere.  And play elsewhere they are, with gusto.

Now we have a program once rich with every defensive recruit fit for print, pining for guys two years ago they would’ve landed when signing day was a speck on the horizon.  A program loaded with offensive playmakers that can’t find a way to put it together in a conference known for defensive ineptitude.  You have a bunch of paper tigers who’ll look fantastic in their combine workouts, but who can’t actually play football (unless it’s beating the football team I give a shit about…fuck you USC).

What’s more, you have the culmination of every college football fan’s dream…the one where USC gets it’s just desserts and they can’t sit back and say, “well we’re the most talented team in the country.”  That saying is out the window…completely.  We can never hear it again, ever, for one simple reason.  The most talented team in the country would not lose to a freshman QB and white RB leading an unranked team AT HOME by almost five touchdowns.

And what was originially supposed to be a season of dreams, one that looked so promising after the win in Columbus, has become an absolute nightmare.  While it’s convenient to say that this is just a blip on the radar and that USC will no doubt reload, that confidence has been shaken.

Shaken to the point where USC “fans,” the incredibly small  handful that actually care and don’t just show up to games to take cell phone pictures and get a t-shirt they can wear to class, are pointing the finger at the one name that seemed untouchable, Pete Carroll.

When it looks evident to every single viewer from the impassioned to the casual, that USC flat gave up when against the ropes versus Oregon, that falls on the coach.  When it happens again two weeks later, not only does that criticism’s volume get a little louder, it’s becoming an irreversable trend.  This is not losing a big game over and over again like Stoops or Tressel.  This isn’t having a bunch of bad years in a tough situation like Kirk Ferentz in Iowa.  This isn’t Bowden and Paterno’s senility, this is a rock solid, cold hard truth that was proven to be accurate in a gruesome display of clock churning runs.

Pete Carroll is the problem.

Now, it’s not a problem to dominate recruiting rankings, win 10 games every year, win the conference every year and absolutely own the Rose Bowl, because that’s part of what you get with Carroll as well.  And, make no mistake, that’s the apples in the Trojan apple pie.  But at the same time, Carroll’s nonchalance and easy going attitude are reflected in his teams…and you see this every year with every loss to Oregon State, to Washington, to Stanford the 41 point underdogs.

In the past, yea, Carroll has had the talent to minimize these mistakes and his players were always ready for big games.

This year?   Squeaking by a rebuilding Ohio State team that had me thinking blowout for an entire year?  Barely beating ND?  One of the ugliest wins in recent history against Arizona State?  When you couple those with the GIANT losses to Oregon and Stanford, you move away from the thought that USC’s a powerhouse and closer to the school of thought that says that USC was lucky to make a bowl game this year.

But back to the coaching…did you ever think you’d see a day where USC would give up, not once, but twice in a season?  I mean, flat out, GIVE UP.  These losses were not on the talent, even though the recruiting has been slipping.  These losses were on the coaching staff breaking in two new coordinators and on the head coach not having his team prepared at all for their opponents.  30 point losses are not a result of one or two things, it’s a culmination of events that materialize in a nightmarish gel.

Is USC done?  Probably not in the long term, but when you’re a national power and your best case scenario is the Las Vegas Bowl, well…

So your Barons of Fraud Fiefdom, USC.