Kiffin’s choices could end up hurting USC


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It worked against unranked Minnesota. It might not this week. Despite poor playcalling and a few other head-scratching decisions against the Golden Gophers, USC managed to notch a win Saturday in its season opener. But if USC coach Lane Kiffin follows the same script against Utah, the Trojans could be looking at a souring 1-1 […]

Realignment wouldn’t benefit USC in long run


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At approximately 4:37 p.m. Saturday, either USC placekicker Andre Heidari or his Utah counterpart Nick Marsh will send a commemorative football soaring high into the late afternoon Los Angeles sky, officially beginning the first game in Pac-12 history. By that time, however, the Pac-12 might already be a thing of the past. Rumors are swirling […]

Time for Trojans to rise to the occasion


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Don’t be fooled by the sanction-imposed façade hovering over the USC football season because there is still plenty at stake in 2011. Sure, a bowl ban can diminish BCS title hopes or attendance numbers — as was evident by some of the sparse crowds at the Los Angeles Coliseum last year — but no longer […]

Ambiguity of football program might help


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If you tried wrapping your head around USC’s football team this season, chances are you’d find yourself wanting to know more. Because of the ever-vigilant eye of the sports media and its constant barrage of prediction and analysis, it’s become a real challenge for a program of USC’s stature to sneak up on anyone. Still, […]

Historic stadium in need of upgrades


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Stadiums don’t get much more historic than the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Host of two Olympic Games, two Super Bowls and the 1959 World Series, the Coliseum could make a strong claim to the title of America’s most storied sporting backdrop. It’s also true, however, that stadiums don’t get much more rundown than the Coliseum. […]

After two full seasons, Barkley has seen it all


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So much has happened since Matt Barkley first stepped onto USC’s campus years ago, when he was just an 18-year-old with a million-dollar smile and championship promise in tow. First came the losses of 2009 — four in a season for the first time since 2001 — as a team in flux tried to live […]

Academic rise has boosted water polo


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The USC men’s water polo program is easy to compliment. It’s become, more or less, the pretty girl at the bar. And it’s easy to see why. Over the last three seasons, the Trojans have compiled an overall mark of 83-4 en route to three straight NCAA championships. With the 2011 season slated to begin […]

Loss of volleyball star not serious


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It happened in a flash — almost unexpectedly. Sophomore outside hitter Falyn Fonoimoana, who appeared to be the future of an already bright USC women’s volleyball program after being named Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in 2010, was gone. There was neither a news conference nor an in-depth explanation given. A simple, almost mundane, 95-word […]

Support now missing for football program


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It’s late August on USC’s University Park campus. Must mean it’s time to get psyched up for Trojan excellence in the 2012 Summer Olympics, right? That’s what the athletic department would have you think. The east side of Heritage Hall was recently adorned with a smattering of banners celebrating the amazing feats of USC athletes […]

Tough hill to climb for Trojan basketball


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They happened five months and more than 6,000 miles apart. First, there was the late March press conference at the Galen Center in Los Angeles where first-team All-Pac-10 center Nikola Vucevic declared he was skipping his senior season at USC to enter the NBA draft. Just last week, in a nondescript gymnasium outside Sao Paulo, […]