The 2011 Yearbook is done. What a year! You can see all the albums from the year here.
This years edition clocks in at 108 pages – the longest yet. I hope you enjoy it, as I know Tiff and I will for years to come!
You can browse the pages below.
110 Photos
99 Photos
82 Photos
78 Photos
66 Photos
And in USC news, former USC football player and LA Times sports reporter dropped a bomb. Well sort of.
See, he admitted that nearly 30 years ago when he was catching passes and returning kickoffs as a Trojan, he was also violating NCAA rules in taking $14,000 of benefits. He didn’t break any laws. And I believe him when he says that everyone else was doing it, too.
But here’s the problem for the NCAA. What are they going to do?
Surely, they can’t punish the current USC football team for a rules violation that happened during Ronald Reagan’s first term. That would be absurd – some arbitrary statute of limitations has certainly passed that makes Lonnie White feel comfortable enough to admit his actions.
But then again, how is punishing the current USC team for actions committed by someone else in the past any different than what the NCAA did in the Reggie Bush case?
Reggie Bush is currently earning millions in the NFL while the program he left six years ago is serving time for his crimes. And yes, I think the NCAA was out of line to tag the program for somehow not catching an athlete who went out of his way to cover his tracks.
For consistency’s sake, the NCAA has no reason not to vacate USC’s wins while Lonnie White was on the team. But if we’re going to be consistent, other athletes who were on the take should come forward. Eventually, I suspect, the NCAA would end up wiping entire seasons off the books – 1984… didn’t happen. That is the consequence of carrying the current NCAA logic out to the logical ends of absurdity.
Like the NCAA rules or hate them, that’s not really the point here. The point is the NCAA is currently incapable of punishing the athletes that actually violate the rules. So they punish the athletes they can get to. And that’s an abortion of justice.
Reggie Bush ought to be legally liable for his actions. That might mean requiring a binding contract to play NCAA sports that establishes actionable civil consequences for rules violations. Imagine how different things would be if the NCAA could actually go after Reggie Bush instead of taking it out on Matt Barkley and company.
At the end of the day, the NCAA system is rife with inconsistency and injustice. You might not like USC, but just remember. If they can do it to us, they can do it to you. How sure are you that no one at your school has ever violated an NCAA rule?
That’s what I thought…
USC opened the season with a high-scoring 49-36 shootout in the islands. The game started at 11 pm in Washington, D.C. – way too late. It didn’t get over until 3 am – way too early. It was nice to get back into the swing of things after an off-season that rivals the worst anyone has ever had ever. But enough about that. Here are the highs and lows.
YAYS
Matt Barkley – He threw five touchdowns (and no interceptions) which tied a school record with Rodney Peete (once), Carson Palmer (once), Matt Leinart (three times) and Mark Sanchez (once). But we’ve always known Barkley was talented. What impressed me was the poise and leadership. He’s not quite so arrogantly cocky as he once was (I think his golden-boy ego actually became a problem for him last year when he lost the love of his team by always talking about Number One). In fact, he did far better with the press than his coach did.
He sure sounds like Pete Carroll doesn’t he?
Offense – Sure, Hawaii doesn’t have the best defense that USC will face, but the ability to score more or less at will reminded me very much of the 2005 Leinart, Bush, White, Smith, Jarrett team. I’ll withhold final judgment until they duplicate the effort in the Pac-10, but it was great to see some studs really step up: Ronald Johnson, Stanley Havili, Marc Tyler come to mind.
Special Teams – Hey, we ran one back! Beyond that, even though it didn’t pan out, I highly approve of going for two on a regular basis. The PAT has become footballs most boring play, which is sad because of how many games are decided by a point or two. I’m sure someone’s crunched numbers and decided that going for two doesn’t make mathematical sense, but screw math. Football isn’t a game of numbers, it’s a game of momentum and emotion. Going for two is like a medieval warrior going into battle without armor. It’s saying, I’m crazy, I’m reckless and I’m so darn good, you can’t touch me. Sure, it’s risky – but it’s also inspiring and even intimidating.
Game Face - One of the biggest pet peeves I had with recent Trojan teams was their unearned swagger. I’ve blogged about this before. This team lowered its head and took care of business. They weren’t prancing around like show ponies, which is good because they are a long, long way from earning that right. It was nice to see them focused on the game and not the glam for a change.
NAYS
Defense – They’re young, inexperienced and they allowed 36 points. I guess Monte Kiffin will have a chance to prove his mettle – he’s working with unfinished ore. Can he forge it into a a defensive phalanx to match the USC defensive prowess of yesteryear? Let’s hope so.
Penalties – On the plus side, most of the penalties were little head game problems (off sides, jump starts). This time around, there weren’t a slue of 15-yard personal fouls for the aforementioned swagger. But 100 yards (11 penalties) isn’t a drop in the bucket, and in a close game against a better team, they can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Announcers – I hope the pedantic rehash of the summer’s story lines won’t be a preview of the rest of the year. I get that the first game is going to include some retelling of summer story lines, but that’s all these guys could talk about. It’s pretty clear they don’t like Kiffin, and (see below) that feeling seems to be mutual. In any case, the USC public affairs people need to start working overtime to give this team an image makeover because they had to dig back into the Pete Carroll era to find a feel-good story. It’s time to put the team to work cleaning up litter in South Central LA or something…
Lane Kiffin – Let me preface this with a caveat: It’s possible that Kiffin is only in the first Act of a 3-Act play where he starts the season as the grouchy coach who no one likes and slowly lets his team earn his respect until, by the end of the year they are all one big happy family. If that’s the case, and he can pull it off, Kiffin is a genius. But I’m growing concerned that the sour-puss Kiffin demeanor is a better representation of who he actually is. That might work great in the NFL, but when you’re dealing with 18-22 year old kids, you’ve got to throw them a bone. You can’t motivate them with the stick all the time. Football is a head game as much as a muscle game, and if you’re coach – your general – is always seeing the worst in you, that’s got to have some impact. I don’t think Kiffen should sugar coat poison pills the way Carroll did, but at the same time, I’m sure he could have found something to be happy about during or after the game. Frankly, his press interviews were uncomfortable. He doesn’t seem happy to be there, and if I’m seeing that, I’m sure his team is too.
Back when we hatched this trip, the plan was for the whole family to run the Seeley Lake Challenge sprint triathlon together. That’s a 600 yard swim, 10 mile bike ride and 3 mile run. It generally takes between 1 and 2 hours. But Tiffany got swamped with work and I had some respiratory adjusting to do with the introduction of a dander machine (i.e. cat) in the house so our training regime never got off the ground.
But Ruth, well, she’d been training for this all summer and despite the rest of the family bowing out, she decided to go for it. Which is awesome. At the last minute, Rachel decided to join her (at this point, no one knew Rachel couldn’t swim…).
On your marks…
Get set…
GO!
Ruth makes good time in the swim (but loses a little time drying off, changing clothes, curling her hair, putting on makeup before she starts her bike ride). But Rachel is nowhere to be found. We suspect that she may have drowned. Finally… she dog paddle out of the water to where Ruth is still getting dressed:
Ruth has some fans… and it’s off on the bikes!
and then running…
And then the final stretch to the finish!
And then we all celebrated.
Oh, yeah. The event organizer saw me with my camera and gave me her contact info. I became the “official” photographer for the event. She even paid me $1. My first dollar as a photographer!
Even if it’s taken at face value, the NCAA case against USC is weak. The evidence is circumstantial and a long, long way from a smoking gun. It seems clear to me – and even the anti-USC pundits – that the NCAA was less interested in getting this right and more interested in making a point.
But now it’s becoming clear that even the circumstantial evidence isn’t solid. The NCAA screwed up dates and even made claims that have been materially proven false, having to do with what the “assistant football coach” (Todd McNair) knew and when. And it’s not like they threw this report together in a weekend; this was the end-result of years and years of investigation!
Let’s review the current state of the NCAA’s actions, a couple weeks later.
- The Infractions Committee was sloppy in figuring out the sanctions, and the effect of those sanctions. See the 12-th game debacle, which the NCAA still is not clear about.
- The NCAA pulled back from committee chairman Paul Dee’s threat of television sanctions. This was a multi-million dollar issue to a Notre Dame member on the committee (Missy Conboy).
- The key evidence tying USC to knowledge of the Bush violations may be, at best, mistaken.
- And the NCAA apparently has a new standard, at least with respect to sanctions: even if only one student athlete is involved, big-time sanctions are appropriate, if it is a really, really important student athlete. “High profile players demand high-profile compliance,” Dee said.
Otherwise, there are no questions about the NCAA’s logic.
Okay, while I admit I’m not a neutral party, this smells rotten. It’s what you’d expect if the NCAA made its decision five years ago and then desperately looked for a way to justify it. It’s a modern day witch-hunt.
The NCAA has put its credibility on the line here. Meaning that for an appeal to succeed, the NCAA which played the judge and jury would have to acknowledge its own failures. Not likely, no matter how much the evidence (or lack thereof) supports a reduction in the penalty.
To which my only response is a warning: If they can do this to us, they can do it do you.
*Update: Apparently the committee on infractions appeals is composed of members than the committee on infractions. USC has appealed some of the findings – which, as indicated above, may be factually incorrect and demonstrably so.
The unfair NCAA sanctions against USC have some silver linings. There’s no denying that Trojan Football has been in decline. I’m not just talking about the four-loss 2009 season. No, the decline I’m talking about is bigger than that. I’m talking about the cultural rot that comes from apathetic success. The public (and the press) was tired of a team that won without praise and lost without grace.
Something needed to change. And like it or not, when the NCAA let the hammer fall, something changed. Here are the top five good things that will result from USC’s Football Sanctions:
5) Moving On
Let’s face it, this investigation has been hanging over our heads since the story broke in 2005. No one likes sitting under Damocles’ sword, and as any p.r. flack will tell you, in the vacuum of no official information, the rumor mill will fill in the blanks with the least flattering options. But now the clouds have burst and the facts are out there. Truth dispels the worst of the conjecture; Reggie Bush screwed up, but everyone knew that. And while the penalty hits USC hard, the NCAA Report actually vindicates USC from too much responsibility (if not the punishment).
No one likes serving time but finally there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
4) Showcasing the Trojan Family
It’s easy to be a Trojan fan when USC is on top of the world when the band wagon is full. But the Trojan Family is more than a marketing ploy, and USC is more than our football team. It’s when times are tough that the rest of the country can see what it means to be a Trojan. And these colors don’t run.
3) Rekindling the Media Love Affair
As I’ve said before, the shine had worn off for USC in the press. In part because USC success was no longer exceptional or newsworthy (while failure was) and in part because of the baggage USC had accumulated. USC had ceased to be the media darling that it was when we won back-to-back Heisman Trophies and were declared by ESPN to be the greatest team ever. Winning was business as usual, and it seems like everyone enjoyed our losses a little too much.
But press love goes in cycles, and reporters love the underdog. I think USC hit the bottom in the defined hours between when the report was announced and when it was released. As soon as the (excessive) punishment was revealed, that tide began to turn. Suddenly, even our harshest critics were lamenting the severity of our sentence. Suddenly, we were the underdog again.
And just like that, without so much as a losing season, USC is an underdog again.
2) External Adversity
In the past several years, USC’s greatest adversary hasn’t come from the other team. While packing the talent to beat strong teams (Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State), the most notable losses came to huge underdogs (UCLA, Stanford, Washington). The team was it’s own worst enemy. I think USC’s cultural problem came from two places: First, as a team, there was a sense of entitlement. You could see it by the lack of respect paid to the other teams, and by how poorly they reacted when the chips were down. The second problem was too much focus on the individual athlete at the expense of the team. USC became a team of 22 individuals where showboating was writing checks that on-field accomplishments couldn’t cash.
But nothing clears up the internal problems like an external adversary, and that’s exactly what the NCAA has provided. It’s USC versus the world, and it’s an uphill battle.
1) Team Unity
There’s a reason so many organizations have an initiation process. Shared adversity builds comradery and if Pete Carroll’s influence remains with the players he recruited, I have little doubt that the challenge will revive a team work ethic. Now they’ve got something to prove. We’ve already seen this in the developing leadership of Matt Barkley. The family circles the wagons, and no one can really know what’s going on inside that circle unless you’re there. In a way – and to shamelessly crib Shakespeare – “the fewer the men, the greater the share of honor,” in a perfect season.
Want to stick it to the NCAA. Put yourself in a position to play for the National Championship and watch the press crucify the suits who unjustly denied you that opportunity.
I’ve said this before. I have little doubt that Reggie Bush was on the take. If the claims contained in the NCAA Report are even a fraction true, he was knowingly and willfully violating NCAA rules by asking for cash, cars, lodging and other obviously inappropriate benefits. You will not find an apology for Reggie Bush here. He was on track to make millions and he couldn’t wait for 12 more months. He got greedy and impatient. Sure he was young, and his scumbag, sleezeball step-father LaMar Griffin was a corrupting influence, but his actions to cover it up indicate that he knew right from wrong, and he made an active decision to violate the rules.
Unfortunately, the NCAA can’t touch Reggie Bush. They can’t touch his scumbag, sleezeball step-father LaMar Griffin, or any of the unscrupulous prospective agents who were involved. No laws were broken, just the rules of the NCAA, and none of the perpetrators have any more ties to the NCAA.
So the only avenue for punishment is the institution of USC, more than half a decade after the violations took place and after almost everyone who was involved has moved on. It’s the punishment of the institution that I’ve got problems with. This seems a little bit like punishing mom and dad because junior cheats on a test in school.
I wrote before:
See, that’s the real issue here – not whether mom and dad Bush took money, but whether USC’s Athletics Program had some responsibility to know about it. What level of internal enforcement is an academic institution required to take? Should they hire private investigators to stake out anyone who interacts with an athlete?
So let’s review the facts.
1) The Football Violations Were Perpetrated by Reggie Bush and his family; Not USC
Finding B-1-a-(1) addresses an agreement between third parties to form a sports agency. Reggie Bush is implicated by circumstantial evidence.
Finding B-1-a-(2) is about impermissible payments to Reggie Bush’s family, including his scumbag, sleezeball step-father LaMar Griffin.
Finding B-1-a-(3) is about travel for Reggie Bush’s family.
Finding B-1-a-(4) is about Reggie Bush’s new car, although the cash was provided to his parents, who then paid for the car.
… and on and on through B-1-a(12). Each instance is a benefit received by Reggie Bush (usually indirectly, or in cash) or his family. And again, I’m not saying Reggie Bush is innocent; it looks like he’s guilty as O.J…
So the question is, did USC know, or should they have known?
2) The Conspirators Went to Great Lengths to Hide Their Actions
It seems clear that Reggie Bush and the merry band of criminals knew they were breaking the rules and took extreme measures to cover their tracks.
During subsequent conversations, agency partner A and student-athlete 1 agreed that everything would be done with cash and that the student-athlete’s name would not appear on any documents. By dealing in cash and thus avoiding a “paper trail,” they believed they could insulate student-athlete 1 from any entanglement in institutional, conference or NCAA violations should there be any questions about the agency. (USC Public Infractions Report, p. 9)
Deals were brokered in cash, using intermediaries including Reggie Bush’s family, friends and girlfriends, off-the-books bank accounts. None of the parties involved were registered agents or had any professional athletes as clients; in fact they had a pre-existing relationship with the Bush family since they had attended the same high school in San Diego.
So the question is, was USC supposed to have known what was going on? Keep in mind that it took the NCAA more than five years to put the story together. And that’s with the help of the freaking FBI, cooperative witnesses, hearings, testimony and of course an army of investigative reporters helping uncover the truth. Five years! Is it really reasonable to expect that USC should have known what was going on while it was happening and all of the conspirators were still working very hard to keep it a secret?
3) So what did USC know, and when?
The only evidence that I can find in this report is on page 23:
At least by January 8, 2006, the assistant football coach had knowledge that student-athlete 1 and agency partners A and B likely were engaged in NCAA violations. At 1:34 a.m. he had a telephone conversation for two minutes and 23 seconds with agency partner A during which agency partner A attempted to get the assistant football coach to convince student-athlete 1 either to adhere to the agency agreement or reimburse agency partners A and B for money provided to student-athlete 1 and his family. Further, during his September 19, 2006, and February 15, 2008, interviews with the enforcement staff, the assistant football coach violated NCAA ethical conduct legislation by providing false and misleading information regarding his knowledge of this telephone call and the NCAA violations associated with it. The assistant football coach failed to alert the institution’s compliance staff of this information and later attested falsely, through his signature on a certifying statement, that he had no knowledge of NCAA violations.
After this call, apparently the assistant called Bush and they spoke for 13 minutes. This looks bad. Okay, USC screwed up. If this happened, and there’s no reason to think it didn’t, USC screwed up and deserves punishment. But the loss of 30 scholarships and a 2-year bowl ban is a bit extreme. Let’s review a time line.
So the NCAA proves that an assistant coach apparently finds out something is fishy four days after Reggie Bush’s college career ends. And in the content of a 143-second conversation, he is apparently supposed to now be aware of a situation that it takes the NCAA 67 pages to explain?
The NCAA Report goes on to allege apriori knowledge of violations by tangeantly suggesting that the assistant coach knew of the would-be agent’s existence (they ultimately admit that there isn’t enough evidence for an “unethical conduct finding”). I think this line of attack misses the mark; just because the assistant coach knew that the third-party existed doesn’t require that he knew that there were ongoing violations. Remember none of the participants were registered agents, and there was that pre-existing relationship which would explain away any interactions that USC became aware of.
Still, if the assistant coach lied, USC isn’t innocent and deserves punishment. It’s the severity of the punishment that I think is unfair.
4) Did USC do bad?
The simple answer to this question is yes. Finding B-2-a indicates that the USC Athletics department helped arrange paid internships for student athletes (gasp!). USC had too many coaches between August 8 and December 11 in 2008 when they hired a “consultant” to help review tapes and offer input (gasp!). A local restaurant owner (aka booster) apparently contacted possible recruits (gasp!). It also appears that Joe McKnight was on the take – although to a much lesser degree – and when USC found out they didn’t clear him to fumble play in the Emerald Bowl.
So yes, USC isn’t perfect. But given a big enough microscope, I submit that not a single football program would withstand the scrutiny of perfection. This isn’t to say USC shouldn’t be punished. But the punishment should be fair.
Conclusion
It should come as no shock at all that the NCAA is willing to forgo fairness to make a point. While I can respect the goals of amateur athletics, the sanctions against USC’s football program are vindictive and unwarranted. The Institution is being punished for the actions of others; actions it is completely unreasonable for them to have known about.
They are punishing today’s athletes, many of whom weren’t even in high school when Reggie Bush was playing.
While USC Athletics aren’t perfect, it’s not the villain either. Ultimately, we may never know what really happened (and I admit, there is some pretty suspicious circumstantial evidence in the report), but what we do know is that the wrong people are being punished for what appears to be the hypothetical worst-case scenario. That’s not justice.
In the legal system, you don’t get to “make an example” of someone. I understand that the NCAA isn’t part of our legal system, but that doesn’t mean it should ignore a good idea. Enforcing rules by over-punishing a fraction of offenders is inherently unjust. If they NCAA is serious about enforcing its rules, they should be applied fairly across the board, not just harshly in the high-profile cases.
Finally, USC is bigger than our football team. We’re bigger than our basketball team. While this situation sucks, it’s not the end of the world. And just remember, when the haters suggest that we cheated, not a single one of the NCAA rules violations gave an athlete a performance enhancement of any kind. We still whooped butt on the field, and intercollegiate sporting organizations aside, that’s what really matters.
You can take our stats. But you can’t take our wins.
Great.
As the Pac-10 seriously pursues expansion
Adding the rumored schools would create a conference championship game and completely change the dynamics of the conference’s next television contract.
… the stars may be aligning for USC to enter the new era of Pac-10 (West-16?) football with a severe Reggie Bush induced handicap.
Which begs the question. With this much on the line, why didn’t USC reassemble O.J. Simpson’s “Dream Team” for it’s NCAA defense? “If the player’s not diposed, the victories can’t be disposed!”
Ugh…
USC’s new football coach Lane Kiffin on his biggest challenge returning to USC – via the Orange County Register.
“I would probably say, to get this group of players to understand what it was like before (when USC was winning back-to-back national championships in 2003 and 2004), to understand the way players worked (then), the style they played with. There’s a big difference between being confident and cocky. Back then, guys played with great confidence, and there was a swagger, but it wasn’t cocky. It wasn’t celebrating over people because you make a five-yard gain. There were a lot of penalties that happened last year (that need to be eliminated). We want to make sure they understand this is why you win 34 straight games, why you go five straight years at home without a loss, why you have three Heisman winners in four years. That was not done on Saturday. That was done this time of year and in the offseason at 6 in the morning when you’re working out. You have to do it all year round.”
Amen coach.
