In case you haven’t heard, Matt Barkley is returning for his senior season. With he and “Big Hit” TJ McDonald returning – as well as the rest of our too-numerous-to-name all star cast – we’ll be looking to improve on the righteous beatings we laid on Washington, Oregon and – of course – ucla.
Check out the scene of Matt’s press conference at Heritage Hall:
Note that, for our press conferences, we don’t need a backdrop that says “USC Football.” The Cardinal and Gold, the Heisman trophies; where else could you be? ucla simply doesn’t have that kind of swagger.
Speaking of ucla – their new coach’s first order of business is to convince his players to show up for practice. As a commenter on that story pointed out – now that he’s got the tradition of ditching practice wiped out – he needs to work on eliminating the long-standing bruin tradition of losing football games.
Another ucla note – one of their fraternities received no punishment after someone died of a drug overdose in their house. Sounds like a page out of the “Chip Kelley discipline manual” to me!
On a related topic, I finished my Christmas shopping at South Coast Plaza yesterday. I stopped by the USC store, and ordered this t-shirt:
I'm ordering one for every member of my family - especially the ones who root for ucla!
They’re out of anything bigger than a medium – but I was able to score a large online from the USC bookstore. Get yours today! In fact – buy 10. T-shirts wear out after 5 years or so – this is a shirt you’ll want to wear to EVERY SC-ucla game forever!
Last off, my “Rudy is a Fraud” opinion has been well documented here , here , and here. My closing argument – his huge fine for running a “pump and dump” stock scam, is detailed here .
Merry Christmas, Happy “Other Holidays,” and Happy New Year! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! (Like wear powder blue.)
USC Trojan Football Blog 
This must have been a tough decision to make and I think it definitely says something about the guys character even if he turned down his lifelong dream to play quarterback in the NFL for another year. I think if he stays healthy he could be a star quarterback in the NFL undoubtedly and in the second half of the season, IMO, looked better than Andrew Luck. It will be interesting to see how he comes out and plays next year and if he becomes the true Heisman candidate he has the potential to be. Also, you think you could check my blog cuz I’d love to hear what you have to say http://chrisross91.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/people-are-crazy/
Matt is a Trojan – family is important to us.
That being said – I thought the chance of him coming back next year was pretty close to zero. I wasn’t worried at all, though – when in the last 10 years have we Trojans been disappointed at the replacement QB? Hell – even Booty would have played for a natty if he could have shed that “throw your passes into the D-line” tic.
Hi there! Great post!
Thanks!