The future looks bright for USC football. By Bobak Ha’Eri (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

After an extremely disappointing season in 2012, not many people projected the USC football to do much of anything in 2013. Starting off the season 3-2 with losses to Washington State in the Coliseum and a blowout loss to Arizona State, USC’s season looked like it was going nowhere. The Trojans struggled mightily with play calling and leadership and it showed on the field. The offense looked pathetic and the defense looked tired from having to bail the offense out so often.

So Pat Haden decided that it was time to cut ties with coach Lane Kiffin, a move that was a long time coming.

The school promoted assistant coach Ed Orgeron to Interim Head Coach and all of a sudden, the entire atmosphere of the program changed. USC went 6-2 over the last eight games, only losing to Notre Dame on the road and UCLA in the final game of the season. USC even knocked off Stanford, which was ranked fourth in the nation at the time. Led by quarterback Cody Kessler and Marqise Lee on offense, the Trojans under showed how good they really could be. It’s clear that getting a new leader into the locker room (Orgeron) was the right move by management.

Prior to the bowl game, it was announced that USC would not be retaining Coach Orgeron and that they had hired Washington coach Steve Sarkisian. Upon hearing that he would not return as head coach, Coach O resigned from his position did not coach in the Las Vegas Bowl. Without Coach O, and with Sarkisian looking-on from a box, USC took on a tough Fresno State team but easily defeated them 45-20 to become the Las Vegas Bowl champions. It may have not been the bowl game they had hoped for but it was a good win nonetheless. After losing Coach Orgeron, the team could have laid down and had nothing to play for but they came out fighting and dominated from the start.

Trojan fans should be encouraged. The future looks bright for the USC program and hopefully they can regain their position as one of the top teams in college football where they belong.

That being said, I found a few non-sports-related items I thought were interesting early this morning.

One is that a Dutch soccer team signed a toddler to a 10-year deal. I love soccer. Lane Kiffin, where you at?

The other fun thing to read this morning (and hopefully for a while) is the public battle over the Dodgers. While the franchise shouldn’t be fought for like this, in public, what we’re getting now is more transparency than ever before. Us Dodgers fans just want to know what’s going on, even if it’s really bad. Here’s to a fresh start sometime between now and what could be 5 years from now.

I wonder what the Vegas over/under is on the timing of this whole mess being over with. If McCourt wanted to win the hearts of Dodgers fans, he’d take the $30 Million and bet it on the Dodgers winning the World Series. With the 35/1 odds, he could really get the team out of the financial hole they’re in and prove his metal…

NOTE – I know that scenario is impossible, but it would make for a sweet storyline for a movie…

And, finally, an excerpt from Bill Simmons’ article on ESPN.com today. This is why he’s the Sports Guy:

In baseball, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt ran out of money to pay for stuff. There were two big reasons for this: He was going through a nasty divorce, and he never had any money in the first place. How can you buy one of the most famous baseball franchises without any money? It’s a great question. But when McCourt went behind Bud Selig’s back and tried to secure a $30 million personal loan from Fox (his television partner), an enraged Selig seized the team from him last week under the rarely seen edict, “You Can’t Pay For Stuff Anymore.”

Only Southern Californians fully understand what happened to the Dodgers during the McCourt Error. Six decades, Dodger Stadium, Vin Scully, Koufax and Drysdale, Garvey-Cey-Lopes-Russell, Fernandomania, Orel’s streak, Gibson’s homer, Gagne coming out of the bullpen breathing fire, Dodger Blue … the McCourts were crapping on all of it. Desecrating the brand. Maybe it took a sneaky loan and a poor Giants fan getting senselessly beaten into a coma for Selig to finally intervene, but he did. To his credit. When a commissioner keeps siding with owners over fans, he becomes nothing but a puppet with strings trickling out of his back. Selig stuck up for Dodgers fans. He did the right thing.