Lane Memories

It has been a scary week at the Yard. We had cancelled our USC acid reflux prescription when we friended Lane Kiffin on Facebook in September. USC has never fired a coach in mid-season and as miserable as USC had played, our Kiffin seemed safe for the balance of the season or at least through Thanksgiving weekend. Lame felt the same when he met Pat Haden on the tarmac at LAX that fateful fall night. His passing did not seem fair to Bruin nation without a moment of silence and reflection. Kiffin was our hero and many would have expected USC to digress into diffidence and malware. Kiffin disappeared as he had at every other job. Interim head coach Ed Ogeron was never expected to right the offense and Traveler VI. With all of the Obamacare capitulations we felt we could cut back on that med until the Republicans regained control and did who knows what. Alas, we digress...we need our USC meds this week and it does not appear that we can log onto the website in a timely manner to receive these gastrointestinal medications prior to kickoff. There was only hope for persistence when the Yard gladly embraced the Lane Kiffin era at USC. USC AD Mike Garrett raced by private jet to lure Kiffin back to USC from Tennessee when Pete Carroll bolted ahead of NCAA sanctions. Kiffin was foolish to leave USC for the Raider job and short sighted to leave TN to return to USC. Garrett promised the keys to an Emerald city that Kiffin would never govern from behind the curtain. It was always the poppy fields in black and white just prior morphing into color for Kiffin. Lane was trapped with the winged monkeys not the ruby shoes. When USC AD Pat Haden fired Lane after the debacle in the desert, USC looked done and stuffed in that order. Ogeron was a Trojan Loyalist but a caretaker in waiting to close out the misery that had already been predicted. Ogeron rose above the task and flipped the game board for this team and their rabid following. The Raging Cajun is not the coach Haden has in mind to take Troy back into the national championship discussion. He was never in the consideration for a micro second when the job was open at any time when Ogeron was the team’s best assistant coach. He finally left and took the Ole Miss Job in 2005 and tried to recruit Kiffin as his offensive coordinator. Kiffin demurred and then declined. Ogeron hired Noel Mazzone who he fired before being fired himself in 2007. Ogeron has now replaced Kiffin and Mazzone is the OC at UCLA. The Yard hopes that USC retains Ogeron. He deserves the job and his team is playing out his resume. They are fighting to ensure Haden hires their head coach, father and mentor. The team sent a message loud and clear when they played better after Kiffin than before him. USC may have to hire Ogeron with the outcry of support from current and former players. Even Kiffin has given his endorsement. Ogeron might not have wanted that one. If USC hires easy Ed as the man, they will probably be firing him before his contract expires. But he deserves the job now. We can only hope Haden stays the course that Garrett outlined. . Regardless of the outcome on Exposition on Saturday night, there is a basketball season that follows. For Trojan fan, not so much. Troy has a better basketball arena than the wretched coliseum but an inferior product that plays there. UCLA’s rival in basketball has not been USC since the early 1970’s. USC does not really have a rival in hoops because you have to win something to have a rival. Again, we tug at the low hanging fruit. UCLA hoops have been a surprise this year. Ben Howland’s termination was not a surprise but hiring Steve Alford sure was. The ink was barely dry on Alford’s ten year deal at New Mexico when it was announced he had been hired as the Bruin’s new head coach. We are no legal experts but the timing of those two events has an air of inconsistency about them. UCLA AD Dan Guerrero kept Bruin fan in the dark as he sourced a replacement for Howland. Ben of the Scowl had worn out UCLA fans with his plodding offense, average defense and never having a timeout in the last five minutes of any game ever. He did lead three teams into the Final Four and had a solid reputation for fundamental basketball training. The NBA loves Howland’s players and many are thriving from those teams at the next level. Ben just did not make it fun and compelling for the kids at his level. Guerrero may have hired Alford because he saw the steady stream on Howland recruits finish their careers at New Mexico under Alford. Kendall Williams and Drew Gordon were part of the exodus that led to Alford’s rise and Ben’s demise. Ben’s detached, constrictive style of coaching did not allow talent to blossom. Howland was a better coach at lesser programs where talent was thin but earnest was huge. At UCLA, talent was huge and needed freedom to become earnest. In Howland’s last season at UCLA, the Bruins topped 100 points once and 90 points three times during the entire season. In the first seven games of Alford’s tenure, the Bruins have topped 100 points twice and 90 points two other times. Granted it is the cupcake portion of the schedule but Howland had basically the same team and the same pastries last year. The Bruins are averaging 91 points a game so far this year. With the same leading scorer and senior point guard Larry Drew III, UCLA averaged 69 points a game last year for a similar seven game stretch. Last year’s team had arguably better talent than the current roster but was boring to watch and performed to those levels. This year’s campaign has been fun to watch and Jordan Adams and Tony Parker are going to forces to reckon with throughout the season if they stay healthy. It is 109 days until selection Sunday. The Yard is hoping for a favorable outcome on this Saturday but there will be many more exciting games for UCLA for months to come. USC’s whole sports campaign comes down to this Saturday. It is the myopia in which we have basted for most of our lives in the city of the angels. Still staring at the spinning wheel on the web site, tick tock. Extra Innings: Alex Rodriguez stormed out of his arbitration hearing regarding his doping this past week. A-Rod has been in MLB’s cross hairs since his first lack of self-awareness. It persists. The Yankees have their collective fingers crossed in the abject hope that he is suspended for more than 211 games. 211 games would save the Yankees $38 million that they would prefer to not pay A-Rod. They have few avenues to avoid paying that nut to an overpaid 3rd baseman that looks at himself too much in the mirror. The Yankees were probably the source of most of MLB’s evidence against A-clod. MLB has emails and personal medical information which Rodriguez likens to a witch hunt. The witches are in pinstripes and they hope to keep the caldron boiling in their quest to rid themselves of the Rod of their indignation. Yardbits: Last Sunday the NFC Central had a record breaking week. Although every team in the conference played, not one team won. That is and of itself is not remarkable but it is considering that two teams in the conference played each other. The Packers and the Viking played to an error filled tie while the Bears and Lions lost as well. Another scintillating week of NFL parity. Happy Thanksgiving!