Players behaving badly: Can USC stay disciplined long enough to defeat Stanford?
JuJu Smith-Schuster was sitting just outside USC’s practice field this week when he recalled an aphorism that, he said, USC’s coaching staff has been drilling into the team.
“Our coaches told us that when emotions go high, intelligence goes down,” Smith-Schuster said.
USC is hoping that message has stuck, and that Saturday’s game against Stanford dispenses the image that the team is disorganized or undisciplined. That reputation began to crystallize early, when national commentators criticized the team’s entrance at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, before the opener against Alabama. Some players crawled out of the tunnel as if dogs straining against a leash.
Two USC players were ejected in the first two games. One, linebacker Jabari Ruffin, was suspended for an additional half and forced to write an apology letter.
After left tackle Chuma Edoga was thrown out of last week’s game against Utah State for making contact with an official, right tackle Zach Banner announced he’d had enough.
“I told him it’s [expletive],” Banner said afterward, outside USC’s locker room.
Banner and other USC players said they were concerned the incidents were reflecting poorly on Coach Clay Helton.
Helton highlighted a different kind of worry. “That can cost you a game,” he said.
A win over Stanford in a Pac-12 Conference opener Saturday could salve the sting of the blowout loss to Alabama. But Stanford has won three conference championships since USC last won one, and it has done so by punishing opponents upon the first hints of carelessness.
That’s what Stanford did last season. USC carried a lead into the second half of both games against the Cardinal, but Stanford swung each by pouncing on penalties or USC’s failure to close out series on defense. In the regular-season meeting, the Trojans blew a critical third-and-one when a personal foul knocked them back 15 yards.
In the Pac-12 title game, USC’s defense forced another critical third-and-five. But All-American running back Christian McCaffrey then caught a quick pass and scampered 67 yards to set up a touchdown.
“That turned that quick,” Helton said, snapping his fingers. This season, he said, “I really feel the word is ‘finish.’ And finish very cleanly.”
Tidiness was missing in the first week against Alabama. Sloppy play turned a close first quarter into a mess. A rash of missed assignments sunk the offensive line. Miscommunication in the secondary allowed one Alabama touchdown, and the failure to finish a play, after cornerback Iman Marshall misinterpreted a rule, led to another.
It makes sense that discipline could help USC regain a foothold among the Pac-12’s best teams. USC’s excesses have, in part, helped facilitate Stanford’s ascendance. A diminished USC, weakened by NCAA sanctions, created a vacuum atop the Pac-12, which Oregon and Stanford filled.
Stanford has cultivated an image of restraint and compliance. Five years ago, the Wall Street Journal deemed Stanford one of “The NCAA’s Last Innocents.”
But image can be fleeting. This week, the NCAA announced Stanford had committed “major” NCAA infractions in football and softball for the first time in school history.
The transgressions included free rent, an improper loan for a bicycle, benefits involving snacks and a movie ticket, and an athlete who had been given “intermittent use of an automobile on approximately 10 occasions.” The NCAA valued that last benefit at $58.
On the field, though, the Cardinal has operated more efficiently than the Trojans.
Running back Justin Davis said USC’s early mistakes have created an impression that the team is disorganized.
“We’re not that type of team,” Davis said. “We’ve never been that type of team.”
The ejections, he said, have baffled him.
“Man, I don’t know,” Davis said. “It’s just sometimes we just let the emotions get the better of us.”
The coaching staff has drilled the team on the dangers of temper. Players police small details, such as wearing the proper clothing and showing up early to meetings, that they believe will translate to order and discipline on the field.
Right guard Viane Talamaivao said Ruffin and Edoga have learned from their mistakes.
“It’s a learning experience for this team,” Talamaivao added.
Follow Zach Helfand on Twitter @zhelfand
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