USC Football Luckily Beats University of Hawaii

Thursday night marked the 1st game for Lane Kiffin as the new USC Trojan head football coach. The Trojans played the Hawaii Warriors, a WAC conference team, at Aloha Stadium in sunny Honolulu, Hawaii. 

At the start of the game, it appeared that it was going to be a long night for the home team as the USC football players looked more physically and skillfully superior. However, this did not faze the Warriors as they came close to beating the once great USC football team. If the Warriors starting quarterback, Bryant Moniz, did not get himself injured after scrambling on a quarterback run, the game would have been much closer.

However, at the end, USC luckily beat the Warriors with a final score of 49-36. USC was the better team tonight, but there were a lot of flaws that future opponents can target at in order to defeat this highly overrated team. Below are some of them.

Defensive Flaws

1)      USC’s young secondary are inexperienced and are vulnerable to passes in the middle

2)      The entire defense does not tackle well

3)      The weak link of the defense is true freshman Nickell Robey. He was exploited all night long.

Offensive Flaws

1)      Matt Barkley dependence on #1 WR Ronald Johnson was evident and if a team can shut down Johnson, USC may have to depend on unproven tailback.

2)      Mitch Mustain is overrated as he was benched again for Barkley in the 4th quarter; he was inaccurate as he overthrew a receiver on a 2-point conversion in the 1st quarter.

3)      The 2nd and 3rd string are littered with 4 and 5 star athletes but many of them did not produce when they were in the game. Missed tackles and blown coverages was seen everywhere.

4)      Monte Kiffin’s Tampa 2 defensive scheme is also highly overrated. There were holes everywhere in the defense as 3rd string Hawaii quarterback exploited it often for points. Monte should retire as he is 70 years-old.

Posted in: Sports,University of Hawaii,USC Football,USC Trojan