RSS
Home
Three straight losses illustrate end of Torero dominance
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
During the first semester of my sophomore year of college, the girl I had been dating on and off for two years broke up with me. I assumed the hardest part of breaking up would be handling my emotional state. Like picking up the pieces of a broken heart, moving on, fighting through the pain, and every other socially constructed product of the break up. I feared I would end up curled up on the ground crying every night like Jason Segel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. So I braced myself for the pathetic spiral into despair and Fruit Loops.
To my surprise, however, emotions weren’t the problem. The problems I encountered were purely pragmatic: I had to look up movie times for myself. I didn’t know who to call when I thought of a funny joke. I had to buy my own shampoo. I had to find somebody to pick me up from the airport. I wasn’t sure what do with all the new free time. Basically I didn’t know how to be single.
I suddenly had to start doing all those things my friends had been doing for the past two years and I was shamefully lost. I had become so used to having a girlfriend that I forgot how to operate without one. I was in so deep, had become so immersed, that I could not imagine living any other way. So I had to re-learn from scratch. The first few weeks after ending a long relationship are a torrent of shock, confusion, and gloom.
And that is what USD’s football season has been like.
After four years of excellence, the Toreros are suddenly thrust into a sea of mediocrity. Through eight games the team has lost five, including four in conference. USD lost five total games and four total conference games in the previous three years combined.
The Toreros have lost three straight and four of their last five and the aura of invincibility is gone, evaporated by the heat of defeat.
Now USD must grind out wins against inferior opponents. Now the offense stalls. Now blowout losses happen. Now every week is a struggle and no games are guaranteed. Basically, the Toreros are going through what every other program in the conference has had to go through for the past four years and are lost.
The team was so used to having dominance that they forgot how to consistently win without it. The team was so deep, so immersed in excellence that they could not imagine playing any other way.
And the fall from the mountain top is sudden and swift. The higher one sits, the further they fall.
So just as I questioned whether I would ever get accustomed to being single and return to normalcy, USD must question whether they will ever return to dominance.
In the first few weeks after the break up I began to try some new things: I tweaked with my facial hair, got some new clothes, tried different hair styles, and went out a bit more on weekend nights. I was exploring uncharted territory with my newfound emotional sovereignty, hoping to stumble upon the right combination of changes. I had to define my identity independent of a significant other. Consequently those first few weeks were ripe with reflection.
Well, the drift toward mediocrity has been ripe with reflection for USD and the team is trying new things: They installed the Wildcat, enacted new rules at practice and tried out various personnel groupings, hoping to find the right combination of changes. Counter-intuitive as it seems, losing provides certain freedoms that are absent in winning. If it is broke, you gotta fix it. So in order to right the ship, all options must be kept on the table.
For example, when starting quarterback Sebasitian Trujillo, a pre-season Walter Payton award watch-list member, struggled to start the season, Coach Caragher gave the keys to the offense to redshirt freshamn Sam Scudellari. While there is no denying that Trujillo is a talented thrower, Scudellari brought better athleticism to the position, and consequently jump started the offense. Without an established playmaker like John Matthews to bail the offense out of virtually any situation, Scudellari’s mobility was necessary to keep the chains moving. The switch to Scudellari was a lot like The Hills switching to Kristen instead of LC. LC was a solid main character but she needed a cast of exciting characters around her for the show to be entertaining. Kristen, on the other hand, brings constant drama and, thus, can carry the show by herself. Accordingly, The Hills is much more entertaining now with Kristen as the focus, just as USD’s offense is much more potent with Scudi under center.
With Scudi out with a broken leg, true freshman Bo Stompro has been trust into action. Stompro was decent in his first start against Dayton, going 12-24 with 169 yards, 2 touchdowns and a pick, but really it is never a good sign for your season when your first starting quarterback leaves the team and your second starting quarterback breaks his leg.
Injuries have played a big role in the Toreros’ struggles. Most notably, the team has lost quarterback Sam Scudellari and safety Chris Wilson for the rest of the year in addition to missing all-world corner back Gabe Derricks, team captain and defensive end Kevin Dunn, and last year’s leading rusher Phil Morelli for chunks of the season.
The defense has swarmed to the ball and played with great tenacity, but has surrendered crucial game-changing drives versus Northern Colorodo, Butler, Drake, and Dayton. The offense has had some explosive plays, but has had difficulty getting in rhythm.
In the past few years the Toreros have been famous for their dagger-striking drives as soon as they smelled blood. And when they got rolling they were impossible to stop. Josh Johnson, Wes Doyle, Mitch Ryan, John Matthews, and pre-injury JT Rogan would simply overmatch their opponents and not allow the team to falter. This year the team does not have the dominant offensive weapons for the first time since before the Harbaugh-era. And while receivers John McGough, Godfrey Smith, and Kyle “Long Ball” Warren have made their share of big plays and Matt Jelmini and JT Rogan have ran the ball effectively, the offense hasn’t developed a 24 Hour Burrito Joint Threat. Johnny can’t bail us out anymore, neither can Josh. It is much harder to score. These are the problems from which USD has been immune for the past four years.
The offense has had difficulty sustaining drives. Most scores come on big plays, such as Long Ball Warren’s 82 yard reception last Saturday or McGough’s 59 yarder against Jacksonville. Watching the offense is like watching someone playing Madden one difficulty level too high. Great calls with perfect execution conservatively peppered over a bunch of three and outs.
But it’s not like guys aren’t playing up to their standards. Despite last year’s knee injury and despite handling some of the fullback duties, JT Rogan is quietly putting together another 1,500 all-purpose yard season. It should also be noted that Rogan covers kickoffs in crucial moments of the game as well. So, just for the record, the greatest running back in USD history has played fullback, defensive back, and covered kickoffs this season. Don’t let anybody convince you that JT Rogan should not be All-PFL first team this year.
McGough, a redshirt sophomore from Bellevue Washington, has taken the torch from Matthews and Doyle and Ben Hannula and Eric Rasmussen and is ready to etch his name in Torero wide receiver lore. Fellow receiver, redshirt freshman Warren, has emerged as a dangerous playmaker, catching 4 touchdowns on just 6 reception, and seems poised to join him.
Defensively, Loka Kanongataa has emerged as one of the best linebackers in the PFL. The redshirt sophomore also from Bellevue bursts through the line like a canon and causes more disruption than a fat guy at a crowded club. In seven games Kanongataa has notched 9 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 5 quarterback hits and 3 pass break-ups in addition to his 39 tackles. Also, Adi Adeyemi and Gabe Derricks have continued to prove that they form the best cornerback tandem in the conference, despite the fact that both have battled injury all year. Last season, opponents kept the ball away from Derricks’ side of the field and challenged the true freshman Adeyemi. Adi made them pay with five picks, two for touchdown. This season, teams have decided to keep the ball away from both of them.
So the ability is there and several players are having tremendous years. The problem, then, goes back to the Break-Up Hypothesis. USD has not yet figured out how to consistently win the close games. In all five losses the Toreros had a chance to win in the second half, but weren’t able to turn on the jets late in the game. Against Butler, Drake, and Dayton the team couldn’t get the one big stop or the one big drive they needed. USD beat Marist because they got that stop and they got that drive.
Eventually USD will get used to winning without dominating just as I eventually got used to being single. All those things that once seemed novel and farfetched will become normal.
And the swagger will return once USD gets used to winning without dominating. In the last couple of years they expected to win emphatically and always did. The team may have gotten accustomed to winning most games that way and must now learn how to grind out close wins on a weekly basis. Like they did against Marist this year and Davidson and Davis last year.
The loss at Butler was shocking. Butler is supposed to be an inferior conference foe, a guaranteed win in years past. The loss at home to Drake was confusing. Home losses are few and far between and Drake, unlike Dayton last year, was supposed to be intimidated by the mystique of Torero Stadium. And the losses to Jacksonville and Dayton were pure gloom. They affirmed our fears that USD is no longer competing for a PFL title, is no longer the class of the conference. Now we knew the era of dominance had passed, like a freight train in the night. It was over.
