Fighton247 Board

Come on, I know you want to go down memory lane...

God forgive me, I can't help myself...

"When it comes to college football, Los Angeles clearly belongs to the Bruins.

Not USC, not any more, not even close, and not only just this year.

This is a Bruin football town, and has been a Bruin football town, and will continue to be a Bruin football town as long as the Bruins continue running the consistent, directed program so lacking across town.

I agree with Plashke. The people I went to school with are pissed. We have a major image problem because of the football team and Kiffin has made it much worse. I do not believe for a second that a teenager in that context would have the balls to do that by himself. Watching Kiffin claim that is so unblievalbe. He is trending as a cheat and that is our head coach. Honestly I wouldn't care if Haden fired him tomorrow. Even Cowherd said this morning that Haden could overlook some of the other stuff but this had to piss him off something fierce. This is exactly what USC did not need and what Pat was hired to prevent: blatant cheating that embarrasses the entire University, not just the football team.

Penguin...always the voice of reason...love ya girl!

I was just pointing out a flaw in his reasoning. I am not saying this is what happened.

However, just to play devil's advocate, the plain view argument is really stupid. Anyone who has deflated a ball knows that that the needle is tiny and it doesn't take a lot of skill to deflate a ball. Stick the needle in, let air flow out and then pull the needle. It can be done in seconds without anyone noticing. Unless you are really looking for it, it could done in front of 90,000 people and no one would notice. A perfect example is that Oregon didn't see it happen, but it still happened.

Now lets say the manager was told to deflate the balls to give USC some advantage. How does he really know what the refs will notice. It isn't an exact science. If he deflates the ball slightly, no one would notice. However, if he accidentally left the needle in too long, it suddenly becomes noticeable. At this point there is nothing you can do. You can't pull out an air pump on the sideline. He likely deflated ALL the balls, but left the needle in longer for some, letting too much air out and making those ones noticeable to the refs.

As for seeing whats right in front of us- someone told that manager to deflate the balls. It might not have been Kiffin (he might have had zero knowledge of it), but someone did.

One really big thing doesn't make sense about the "innocent mistake" explanation: if this was an innocent mistake, why was the student fired ?

In generic terms, my first thought in a situation like this is that the student wouldn't have done it on their own. (What would the student's motivation have been to do it on their own ?)

Take USC out of the equation.

If this happened at, say, Auburn, would you guys accept the explanation that it was a student acting alone ?

Or would you assume that this was something Chizik was doing to gain an edge ?

He was fired because it's against the NCAA rules, and USC is under a microscope, and I would bet that our Compliance Department fired him.

There is no way possible that CLK or any other coach on the staff approved this, especially on the Oregon sideline. There is also no way possible that if CLK approved him to do it, he would come out so strongly and say that no one on his staff knew anything about, knowing that if the guy that was fired said that CLK did know about, Haden would probably fire him on the spot.

While I do get tired of all of the stupid little stuff going on lately, I can't believe how many in here have already found CLK guilty in this.
Sad

I'm a little surprised but I understand why you are questioning this whole matter as I have also wondered, why fire the kid?

Either the kid was innocently doing what perhaps he does in practice without knowing the rules or he knew he was breaking the rules and did it on his own initiative to help the team but is tossing out 12 balls of different inflation really helping the team?

Call it a poor judgement call and keep the kid on the job away from the balls ...

I would love to know his motives.

I am not ready to make the leap that Lane knew anything about it.

It is so bizarre ... I never heard of this done before ... a first in my experience.

I don't understand, if the student manager did this intentionally in order to cheat, why would he only have deflated 5 out of 12 game balls? It doesn't make sense!

Maybe this paragraph from the ESPN article will help us all understand:

"The balls are then required to be left alone until the day of the game, when they are examined by the referees. Each team uses six game balls, which are stored on opposite sidelines during games."

So the premise that he only deflated 5 balls out of 12 is false. He deflated five out of six. Presumably five for use on offense and left one alone to use in kicking situations.

That pretty much solves the mystery as to whether he intended to cheat or not. Whether any players or coaches knew, we will probably never know.

The PR door swings both ways but (if it was a mistake) IMO this was a damned if you do (fire), less damned if you don't situation.

Regardless, the point is moot. ESPN is reporting the kid admitted he did it intentionally.

So what we are left with are three options... 1) The ball boy acted alone 2) Kiffin ordered the code red 3) one of Kiffin's subordinates ordered it without Kiffin's knowledge. Regardless of what the media thinks - that it taxes credulity a ball boy just went rogue - even if it's the god honest truth it's still a for Kiffin. Paraphrasing Ted Miller, do you think a ball boy would ever take it upon himself to even blink funny on a Saban coached team?

At this juncture the facts are immaterial. All that matters is Kiffin cannot afford another one of these micro incidents. The alumni IMO will not tolerate it.

But I think there's a flip side to Miller's point... These incidents would be effectively muted if Kiffin starts winning like Saban.

Clearly, chipper's idol is Pete Carroll...does the man ever come up with an original thought/comment???

"Big Balls Pete" began in 2002...

In Chip's defense, I think Erin Andrews started calling him that

Rumors in fact huh. F*uck off and F*ck off again when we end your undefeated season in the coli. Can't wait for the close up of Teo after the loss.