Posted by Travis Rodgers on Jan 13, 2010

USC Trying To Become Pac-10’s First SEC Team

Categories: College Football | View Comments

Things you won't see in Mike Garrett's office

Points for honesty, if nothing else. USC isn’t even pretending that they care about things like rules, credibility, and reputation. Just win.

What started with Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo has culminated in Lane Kiffin as their new football coach. Just win, damn the investigations and probation.

Reggie Bush and a rogue sports marketer. OJ Mayo receiving cash payments to enroll at USC. Joe McKnight driving a luxury car that was registered to a wealthy USC supporter. Any one of those things might have been bad luck, a bad apple, or dismissed as an isolated incident.

Maybe Reggie Bush and his family really didn't take a house and other benefits from an aspiring marketer. Maybe it was a giant misunderstanding and the athletic department had no idea. Good thing he won the Heisman though. A national championship too. Sure, maybe the NCAA is still poking around looking to jam someone, but you won!

OJ Mayo, one of the most highly sought after basketball recruits in the country, just happened to choose USC for no good reason, and the alleged cash payments had nothing to do with his decision to come all the way across the country to a program with zero basketball tradition. Hey, it's possible. Good thing he was one of the best players in the nation and a first round NBA pick. Good luck, I guess. Hey, you screwed your own hoops program, removing them from post season play this year, that should keep the NCAA away, right?

So what if Joe McKnight was tooling around town in a Land Rover that was owned by a USC supporter and then lied about it when questioned. It could happen to anyone. Pretty fortunate that he was a great player though, huh? The fact that investigators are still looking into this is no big deal. Right?

But this?

Thrown out.

Lane Kiffin? A coach who was front and center on the NCAA’s radar after just one season as a college head coach? That’s the guy? Were Howard Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson not interested in the gig? Barry Switzer is enjoying retirement?

Hey it worked for the SEC. They don’t pretend to be anything other than obsessed with winning titles, and guess what? They win titles. Nick Saban doesn’t even fake the college thing. He calls his football team an ‘organization’ rather than a program. Colleges have ‘programs’, NFL teams have ‘organizations’. Well, at least outside of the SEC they do. The Trojans are dropping the facade. Win, rack up trophies, and let the NCAA try and stop them.

USC is probably tired of pretending to care about things other than wins and ugly crystal trophies, and now they don’t have to.

I just want to know one thing, how long until they hire John Calipari to coach the basketball team? He should be available right after he gets Kentucky to the Final Four only to have it vacated shortly there after.

While USC is trying to infiltrate the SEC, they might as well hire one of its own.