10 Thoughts about USC's Holiday Bowl performance.

1. USC's performance at the Holiday Bowl was an encapsulation of their season, fit to a T, including the ending. It is no mere coincidence that in 13 games, USC has been involved in 5 games decided in the last few seconds (three hail mary throws and two field goal attempts).
2. Even some of the players had that feeling of, "here we go again" going through their minds, apparently. The way I see it, it's not the players, but the coach who came up with the defensive scheme. This defense was arguably more talented than last year's squad, but last year's squad was a throwback to Pete Carroll's era, when it held opponents to 335.2 yards per game (more on this stat in#8).
3. USC allowed Nebraska to break the Holiday Bowl record for most plays in a game by a team, with 94. This isn't on the players so much as it's on the terrible defensive game plan. Prevent defense is not a means to survive limited player numbers, as it keeps them on the field longer, giving up chunks of yards. Nothing else can explain how a mediocre Nebraska quarterback, who averaged 193 yards passing per game, exploded for 381 yards in the air, or that a guy who averaged just a completion rate of 51.7% during the regular season, boosted his numbers against USC with a 62.7% completion rate.
4. On the other hand, the USC defense did hold the highly esteemed Ameer Abdullah to 88 yards rushing, which is below his 127 ypg rushing average. Meanwhile on offense, USC's Buck Allen had 152 yards rushing, which was above his season average of 111 ypg.
5. At the end of the first quarter, USC had been assessed more penalty yards (67) than they had gained on offense (65). The rest of the game, they gave up 30 yards in penalties. Emotionally, they weren't prepared.
6. Speaking of penalties, those 12 penalties by USC, tied the Holiday Bowl record. Coincidentally, the last time a team had 12 penalties in the Holiday Bowl was in 2010, by Nebraska.
7. No disrespect for Nebraska, but everyone predicted a USC win, wider than just a field goal. Maybe Nebraska played up to the competition, but then again, I keep seeing those three dropped interceptions in my head. True freshman John Plattenburg could have had a record night, but instead all he gets is a note about how he could have had a record night.
8. So you say that you don't believe me, that Wilcox's defense is bad? With the Holiday Bowl game in the books, I just went through 40 years of USC stats (I got tired and stopped when I hit 1975): No previous Trojan defense in the last 40 years have allowed more yards than this year's squad (407.9 ypg). The next worst defense, was Monte Kiffin's first year as DC - 2010 - when USC allowed an average of 400.1 ypg. Everyone should be seeing red (get it?) on this stat. In my humble opinion, Wilcox had as much talent on this squad as in any season in the past 40 years.
9. This 9-win season is a big deal for Sark -- his first, ever, as head coach -- but falls short of last season's 10 wins. So, the question we all want to ask is, is USC's talent only good enough to get one more win over Sark's lone 8-win season (five total seasons) at UW? I'm quite sure that USC has vastly more talent, even if limited in scholarship players, in a gap that is embarrassing. So, despite Sark's statement that next year's team will be incredibly talented, the thing we're all wondering is, how much more of an already wide talent gap, does Sark need, to win the PAC-12 and play for the national title? You can see the theme of this season, can't you? The tandem of Sark-Wilcox has severely underperformed.
10. In the end, hey, USC won! That the Trojans got their 9th victory this season and ended it by beating Notre Dame, then Nebraska, has to count a whole lot, right? Also, this sets up the PAC-12 at 3-0 in bowl games. (End on a positive note, I say.)