USC Trojans quarterback Matt Barkley passes under pressure by Oregon Ducks linebacker Boseko Lokombo (25) during the first half of their NCAA football game in Los Angeles, California, October 30, 2010. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)
USC quarterback Matt Barkley just announced at a 1 PM PST news conference that he will be returning to play for the Trojans in 2012 and will not enter the 2012 NFL Draft. Barkley felt that he was ready for the NFL but stated that he had “unfinished business” at USC. The USC marching band was on hand at the announcement so that took away some of the suspense leading up to his announcement.
This is great news for a top-flight program that has had to endure a two-year bowl ban and the loss of 30 scholarships over three years. But even with that USC finished with only two losses in 2011 under Lane Kiffin and destroyed UCLA 50-0 in its last game of the season, leading to the resignation of Rick Neuheisel and the hiring of Jim Mora.
Barkley posted some huge numbers this season and had NFL scouts drooling in what was shaping up to be an epic year for quarterbacks in the NFL Draft. He completed 308 of 446 passes for 3,528 yards, 39 touchdowns vs 7 interceptions and with a completion percentage of 69%. Barkley worked in a pro-style offense at USC which made him even more attractive to many scouts.
Without Barkley in the draft, Robert Griffin III will get even more buzz as the likely #2 quarterback taken after Andrew Luck. Many teams like the Miami Dolphins, the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Browns might be looking hard at a quarterback in the first round so it will be interesting to see how Griffin does at the combine and how tall he measures out at (he’s listed at 6′ 2″). There are other prospects as well like Landry Jones, but with Barkley there seemed to be real debate developing over whether teams would prefer him or Griffin after Luck.
Barkley enters to 2012 season at USC as one of the clear favorites for the Heisman Trophy, so this golden boy will be all the rage next year. USC has 17 starters coming back for next season so the Trojans will be in the mix for the Pac-12 championship. Also, Barkley can purchase up to $5 million in insurance under the NCAA’s Exceptional Student-Athlete Disability program.
College football needed some good news in an otherwise lame 2011 calendar year of bad news, so this is an early holiday gift for fans.
How can you not love the Mora family? The elder gave us “Playoffs? Playoffs?” while the son used to sniff ammonia capsules with his players before games and went on a sports-talk show with a former teammate and said that he would take the Washington Huskies coaching job even if the Falcons “were in a playoff run.”
Adorable – both of them.
Never too shy to speak his mind, Jim Mora (the son) had an interesting take on Cowboys’ cornerback Mike Jenkins, who flat out avoided tackling Packers’ receiver James Jones on the way to the end zone during Green Bay’s 45-7 thrashing of Dallas last Sunday night.
This is what Mora had to say on the NFL Network about Jenkins, uh, effort:
“To me, this is high treason,” Mora said. “An NFL football player does not turn down a play like that. And if I’m Jason Garrett, the first thing that I’m doing when I take over as the head coach of this team, is I’m getting guys like that — number 21, who absolutely committed treason, let his team down by passing up a tackle and let the ball get in the end zone — I’m taking him and I’m getting him out of my locker room.”
What he said was all well and good, even though he went overboard with the whole “high treason” remark. I don’t think a lazy, overpaid, selfish cornerback allowing a receiver a free pass at the end zone is similar to betraying one’s nation, but maybe that’s just me.
That said, I find what Mora said to be a little hypocritical. After all, this was the same man who didn’t bench loudmouth DeAngelo Hall when the brash cornerback tried to pad his interception total at the conclusion of the second quarter in a game against the Saints a couple of years ago and allowed a New Orleans’ receiver to score a fluke touchdown. I also seem to remember Michael Vick starting his next game after giving Atlanta fans the bird while walking off the field during a game in ’06.
But I guess Mora can’t draw any similarities between those instances and Jenkins’ “treason.”
Apparently now that Mora is a member of the media he’s allowed to hold other coaches to a different standard than he did himself. Granted, I don’t disagree with anything he says and Jason Garrett should change the culture in Dallas. But with this coming form Mora, what he said carries as much weight as a feather in a windstorm.
Mora didn’t handle that very well. It’s a perfectly legitimate question to ask Vick’s former coach if he wonders “what if?” when he sees how Vick is playing this season. Mora got rattled, and then phoned in (literally and figuratively) the answer about whether or not the Philadelphia fans should boo Donovan McNabb.
Don’t do radio interviews if you don’t want to answer questions, Jim.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke was in Southern California earlier this week to talk to Carroll and gauge his interest in the Seahawks’ job.
ESPN’s Chris Mortensen was the first to link Carroll’s name with the Seahawks. Mortensen said on SportsCenter his league sources indicate it would be almost surprising at this point if Carroll doesn’t make the move. Here’s his story on ESPN.com.
Jay Glazer of FOX Sports posted a note on his Twitter account that two people close to Carroll said the Seahawks are “dangling an exhorbitant amount of money at him.”
Former Los Angeles Times columnist J.A. Adande, now with ESPN, writes that a football source told him Carroll to the Seahawks is a “done done done deal.”
Seahawks owner Paul Allen certainly has the money to make this deal happen, but Carroll has had the opportunity to return to the NFL a couple of times and hasn’t done it. If he does leave USC, why choose the Seahawks? What makes them a more intriguing employer than some of the other teams that have courted him over the past couple of years? It can’t be the money because I’m sure other NFL owners have been willing to pony up before. Maybe this is just the right time for Carroll.
From a scheme and game plan standpoint, Carroll is a fit for the NFL because he already runs a pro style system. (USC is essentially a junior NFL team based on the way the program is run under Carroll.) But is he too much of a ra-ra guy to succeed in the pros? He was criticized when he was the head coach of the Jets and Patriots in the 90s because he was too much of a “player’s coach.” Should we expect anything different this time around?
It’ll be interesting to see if this deal gets finalized and based on Seattle’s decision to fire Jim Mora without hiring a new GM to replace Tim Ruskell, there’s a good chance it will.
It only took the Seahawks one year to figure out what the rest of the league should know by now: Jim Mora isn’t cut out to be a head coach.
On Friday, the Seahawks fired Mora (who had replaced Mike Holmgren) after just one season. The move is rather surprising because Seattle did this before hiring a new GM to replace the departed Tim Ruskell, so that means the front office had already made the decision that it wanted Mora gone.
Mora has pulled the blanket over everyone’s eyes one too many times. He’s a fine defensive coordinator and I doubt that he’ll have problems latching on as an assistant elsewhere because he’s a good motivator and players like him. But as a head coach, he just doesn’t have it and he’s proven this on two different occasions.
Mora has always been completely outmatched as a game planner and he often leaves his teams unprepared on Sundays. He has never been good at halftime adjustments and he can’t out scheme other coaches in order to produce wins. If his teams can’t get by on talent, then they’re doomed at kickoff because Mora can’t make the necessary in-game decisions to put his players in the right position to win.
Mora might make a fine college head coach because teams can get by on emotion and passion at the collegiate level, much more than they can in the NFL. Maybe he’ll drop down to the college ranks now that Seattle has decided to part ways.
As for potential coaching candidates, the Seahawks have already been linked to Vikings’ defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier and USC’s Pete Carroll. Of course, every year Carroll’s name is linked to some NFL team and he always winds up heading back to USC. I doubt this year will be any different, but you never know. Owner Paul Allen has enough money to lure Carroll away and ESPN’s Adam Schefter says that the USC coach wanted back into the pros.
Remember when the Atlanta Falcons fired Jim Mora two seasons ago for openly saying on a Seattle-based radio show that his dream job would be to coach at the University of Washington? Well his dream might become a reality because the position is open and rumor has it that he’s considering bolting the Seahawks for it.
Two years ago, then-Atlanta Falcons coach Jim Mora sealed his fate in Atlanta by saying in a radio interview that he’d bolt the Falcons (as Bobby Petrino would do a year later) if Mora had the opportunity to become the head coach at the University of Washington, his alma mater.
Mora was later fired by the Falcons, apparently due in part to his surprisingly candid display of disloyalty to his employer.
And so he landed as an assistant coach with the Seahawks. With head coach Mike Holmgren deciding to make 2008 his final year with the team, the Seahawks entered into an agreement earlier this year that will make Mora the head coach after Holmgren goes. (An exception to the Rooney Rule permits such arrangements, even though we think that such arrangements circumvent the spirit of the rule.)
But now the Washington job is open, and rumors are flying that Mora is getting the job, according to Profootballtalk.com.
Granted, these rumors are coming from the ultra-hit and miss Profootballtalk.com, but considering this shady S.O.B. played at Washington and showed interest in the job before, I wouldn’t doubt the rumors are true.
At least this time Mora is on a team that has no shot for the playoffs. When he talked about the Washington job while still coaching in Atlanta, the Falcons were still in the postseason hunt, only to crash and burn because of the distraction he created.
Do yourself a favor and go check out all 10 of the tirade videos because they’re phenomenal. They include Denny Green’s “The Bears are who we thought they were!” and Jim Mora’s “Playoffs?!” post game rants.
