Kiffin Call: Post-Cal
- Several stats have been adjusted for yesterday's game. USC was credited with two additional sacks (one to Morgan Breslon, one to George Uko) to bring their total up to nine. Cal was also credited with a sack, but that occured when Matt Barkley tripped over an offensive lineman.
- Kiffin said the story of the game was the trenches. Said USC was able to dominate the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The stats show it. USC had nine sacks to Cal's one. Trojans had 296 rushing yards to Bears' 77.
- On the offensive line, Kiffin said the Aundrey Walker "responded really well to his 'partial demotion' last week" after lackluster performance against Stanford.
- Kiffin also said that Abe Markowitz played a very impressive game at both guard and center. Said Kiffin, "I couldn't help think about the difference he would have made" against Stanford. Markowitz missed that game with an injury.
- As expected, Kiffin would not provide any updates to the status of Khaled Holmes, who left the game in the second half.
- Freshman linebacker Scott Starr will miss the remainder of the season with a "neck issue." Starr played in only three games this year, so Kiffin believes he will be granted a medical reshirt.
- Wide Receiver George Farmer was not medically cleared to play against Cal yesterday and did not dress. Also didn't make the trip to Stanford last week. "Hopefully he'll be back next game," Kiffin said.
- Kiffin said the way USC won yesterday, without their passing attack clicking 100 percent, "was good for this team" as a learning experience.
- While USC's win yesterday was not always the easiest on the eyes, Kiffin said he no longer gets on his team for ugly wins like he has in the past. Said ny time a conference game is won by three scores, you did pretty well.
- Kiffin talked at length about the frustrations Robert Woods has experienced this season. He admitted that Woods has "never practiced a full week all season." Also said that every defense USC has faced this year has thrown the book at "number nine (Marqise Lee) and number two (Woods)" and done things they had not previously shown on film to try and shut those two down.
- Biggest point of contention came after Kiffin talked about not caring about ugly wins, which is reasonable. But he then said the he doesn't care about "getting numbers for certain guys or Heisman races," which is fairly obviously false. Kiffin always seems to be trying to boost individual numbers.
Don't make assumptions on what's false. He tries to win the games. It's that simple. Making assumptions reflects badly upon you. You become just a blogger, and not a factual reporter. Stick to the facts please.