Saturday was such a clarifying day for USC football, if you stop and think about it.
We learned P.J. Fleck will definitely not be USC’s next head coach. His Minnesota team lost as a 31-point home favorite to a bad Bowling Green team that hadn’t won a Football Bowl Subdivision game since November 2019.
We learned Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott will not be USC’s next head coach. His Clemson offense is a disaster. The Tigers gained fewer than 220 yards in an overtime loss to North Carolina State. There is zero chance Mike Bohn reaches out to him in light of this downward spiral at a program that will finally miss the College Football Playoff.
We learned Todd Orlando will not be on the 2022 USC head coaching staff. No coach would want to retain him, but just in case a coach (for some weird reason) has any ideas about doing so, Bohn will not allow it — not after another clunker by the USC defense in a Pac-12 home game. Fuhgeddaboudit.
What did we also learn from Saturday? We learned that Donte Williams might still get a spot on next year’s USC staff as recruiting coordinator or maybe as a position coach, but he will not get the plum job of defensive coordinator.
It was reasonable to think Williams had a chance at landing that job, or at least being in the running for it when a new head coach arrived if he wanted to stay at USC in 2022 and beyond. This interim year was and still is his audition for a realistic and attainable job position — never USC head coach, but maybe defensive coordinator.
That audition ended Saturday night.
There was a hope — how logical is up to you to decide — that the inspired performance in the second half versus Washington State might lead to a different attitude and a different personality against Oregon State, one in which USC took the field with a tough, hardened mindset and kicked butt.
We all saw what happened.
USC got kicked up and down the field, thrown around like a rag doll, mashed like instant potatoes, pummeled like one of Mike Tyson’s many victims in the boxing ring during Tyson’s prime years.
It was a bloodbath.
Bohn can’t have staffers next year who maybe, possibly, hopefully, potentially, can become great. No, he needs stone-cold experts in the top coaching positions.
Williams knows how to recruit. He has restocked USC’s talent supply on defense. A recruiting-focused role next year, if he wants it, could certainly be offered to him.
Defensive coordinator? That is best left to the professionals at this point.
Saturday was a very clarifying day. Clarity is helpful. Clarity is what USC and Bohn needs. In that sense, Saturday wasn’t all that bad for the Trojans.
