Welcome back to coaching in Southern California Mr. Sarkisian. After a very crazy 2013 season, the USC Trojans are hoping to settle things down and build a program that got lost during penalties after Pete Carroll left the program to coach the Seahawks. In addition, the Lane Kiffin era is one that USC fans are hoping to forget quickly. Kiffin went 28-15 at USC over 3+ years and 17-12 in the Pacific 12. He was fired on September 29, 2013 after getting home from the crushing loss at Arizona State. Then, Ed Orgeron, former head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels, took the reins as head coach and went 6-2, getting them a solid record and in position for a bowl game. But since he was not given the permanent head coaching job he felt he deserved after the season, he resigned. Orgeron does not have a coaching job yet to this point. Clay Helton coached the Trojans to their win in the 2013 Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl. He has remained on staff at USC as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under the new staff. Below are the complete results from all the coaches in the 2013 season for USC.
2013 USC Trojans Season
Despite the chaos, they still won 10 games last year! That seems very difficult to believe since the team was going through a lot of turmoil, and Orgeron did a great job keeping the team in games, including the upset win over Stanford. It is not exactly clear why they did not give him the head coaching position, but they wanted someone with deeper USC roots and Sarkisian was there with Carroll before. It's a guess that they think he can bring the glory that Carroll had with the team, but Kiffin was there at the same time too, so that logic does not make a lot of sense. Despite all of that, many players who accomplished results on the field will return in 2014 and it is worth a closer look at who they are and what they accomplished during this hectic season.
Offense
Clay Helton has been the quarterbacks coach for the Trojans since he arrived at the school in 2013. The quarterback that he debuted in 2013 to replace Matt Barkley was Cody Kessler. Many people thought that Max Wittek was the heir apparent to Barkley, but Kessler beat him out when they both played in several of the games at the beginning of the season. Wittek is no longer on the team and was last rumored to be transferring to the University of Hawaii. Kessler was very efficient in 2013, completing over 65% of his passes for 2,968 yards and a 20-7 touchdown to interception ratio. Kessler added a rushing touchdown as well, but running definitely is not his forte. Being a redshirt Junior, there is a good chance that he will not only be throwing the ball for the scarlet and gold in 2014, but for his senior season as well.
Also a redshirt junior, the leading rusher for the 2013 Trojans, Javorius Allen, is returning to the team in 2014, hoping to build on the success he had last season. It is a two headed monster backfield between him and another redshirt junior in Tre Madden. Allen rushed for 785 yards and 14 touchdowns last season, while Madden rushed for 703 yards and 3 touchdowns last season. Madden played in 3 fewer games though. Both of them should remain prominent in a similar offense since Sarkisian and Kiffin were co-offensive coordinators at one point under Pete Carroll and both use the power running pro system that is employed by Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks.
The offensive position with the biggest shoes to fill is at wide receiver where they lost Marquise Lee to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL Draft. Lee left earlier then he could have and he will definitely be missed amongst the Trojans in 2014. The leading returning receiver is junior Nelson Agholor. He had 56 catches for 918 yards and 6 touchdowns and worked as a punt and kick returner as well, with his 19.1 yard return average for punt returns being second in college football last year. He will by joined by the sophomore wide receiver Darreus Rogers. Rogers had 22 catches for 257 yards last season. He is still looking for his first taste of the end zone in college during the upcoming season after being held out last year.
Defense
Sarkisian brought his defensive coordinator with him from Washington, whose name is Justin Wilcox. He had previously been the defensive coordinator at Tennessee and Boise State before taking the Washington job. Before he was a defensive coordinator, he was the linebackers coach at Cal from 2003 through 2005.
The returning man to anchor the defensive line is junior defensive end Leonard Williams. At 6' 5" and 300 pounds, Williams is not a man that is easily moved. Last year, he was second on the team in total tackles with 74. 13.5 of them were for loss, which tied for the team lead, and he recorded 6 sacks as well. Woods is joined by a big nose tackle in the middle, a redshirt junior, Antwaun Woods. He is 6' 1" and 325 pounds and should be the team's starting nose tackle in 2014. These guys do not usually rack up the tackles or get a lot of sacks, but they are integral to how well the team plays. Woods is hoping to improve on a 2013 campaign where he started only 6 games. He did play in 13 games though and recorded 19 total tackles including 1 sack.
The main man of the USC Trojans defense is redshirt senior inside linebacker Hayes Pullard. Pullard has already started 39 games for the Trojans, recording a total of 282 tackles. Last year he led the team with 94 tackles, 5.5 for loss, 1 interception and 6 pass breakups. Pullard has one final year and it should be a great one, as he was a defensive captain last year and will continue to lead the defense into 2014. He is joined on the outside by senior J.R. Tavai. Tavai had 56 tackles last year, 8 for loss, and 3.5 sacks. He started 8 times at outside linebacker, but was also cross trained and able to play as a defensive end if needed, which shows just how athletic he can by playing multiple positions.
Redshirt senior cornerback Josh Shaw is the leader of the USC secondary. Last season he had 67 tackles, 5.5 for loss, and recorded 4 interceptions. Shaw has played a little bit of both corner and safety in his career at USC, but one of the major reasons that he will be able to play mostly at cornerback in 2014 is the emergence of sophomore Su'a Cravens. Cravens is a strong safety who played in 13 games as a true Freshman. He recorded 52 tackles and 4 interceptions last year, which placed him on many of the national Freshman All-American teams. He had enrolled in Spring of 2013 after graduating High School early, but missed parts of Spring practice due surgery to repair torn cartilage in his knee. If he played that well right after surgery, Cravens will look to improve upon that and have an amazing second season for the Trojans.
Special Teams
The kicker for the last few years at USC has been Andre Heidari. He will be a senior this year and will resume the kickoff and field goal duties. In his career, he has made 40 of 55 field goals attempted, with a career long of 52 yards. With point after attempts, he has hit 138 of 143 in his career with USC. Heidari could break school career records this season for both field goals and point after makes.
His teammate in the special teams unit is redshirt junior punter Kris Albarado. Of his 79 punts in the 2013 season, he placed 27 inside his opponent's 20 yard line, while only allowing 4 to go for touchbacks. He only had 4 punts go over 50 yards as well and it would not be a surprise to see his name on the Ray Guy award list as the season progresses.
2014 Season Outlook
Whenever a new coach is coming to a school, it is always difficult to guess just how many games he can win with the new team. Sarkisian should be very familiar with his new school, but it is difficult to know just how well he will do because he had a lot of talent during his time at the University of Washington, but not a lot of success. His coaching record is only at 34-29 over his 5 seasons in Seattle. Here is a closer look at their games during the 2014 season.
This is a fully loaded schedule for the Trojans in 2014. When the non-conference games on your schedule are Fresno State, who ironically the Trojans played in their last game, the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl, at Boston College and hosting Notre Dame, there are no cupcakes to get experience against. Starting the Pacific 12 schedule during week two by going to Stanford is about as rough as it gets. They do avoid playing Sarkisian's former team in Washington and the Oregon Ducks from the Pacific 12 North, which is a nicer twist in an otherwise difficult schedule. The toughest divisional opponents are the two that finished ahead of them in 2013, the Arizona State Sun Devils and the UCLA Bruins. All of these games and even more should be incredibly exciting this upcoming season, but currently they cannot really be expected to win more than 8 or 9 games this season. If they win 8 games, it would tie Sarkisian's best season with the Huskies, in his inaugural season with the Trojans.