USC Football | Destination School

USC Football as a destination school is something that was automatic in the minds of high school players and their families. Over the years they have built great teams on the reputation and performance on the gridiron with distinction. Many have tried and few have weathered the test of time like USC Football.

Today there are many who question whether they can still compete for the hearts of high school American football players and their parents. The program has been shaky of late but a season or few do not measure the test of time only time does. The football program like the school is always tested and lately its no secret that both have been challenged.

Clemson and Alabama are the only unchallenged true elite teams today and rein supreme when it comes to the title of Destination School. I don’t think many would argue with that but this is still a free country for now and we have that right. I welcome your thoughts as always.

Looking at other schools outside the Cardinal & Gold reign you can see the struggles faced to maintain that elite status. Michigan football thought they had come all the way back under their young coach, Jim Harbaugh. But that was short lived. He has been unable to cross that very wide chasm that separates the good from the elite. Notre Dame probably has the most remarkable short term turnaround under coach Kelly but they too did not cross the chasm of an elite destination school.

Saban and Swinney it can go on and on and they understood what it would take to build a repeatable program that performs at the highest level. Dabo has a ways to go arguably but Saban owns it now. He has proven that he has what it takes to compete every year and not just in the moment as we saw from Notre Dame.

My favorite Dabo quote

“You’re never going to be a great program if you lose a game and your season’s over and you act like the world’s coming to an end; [like] none of the other games matter.”

Dabo is natural when it comes to an interview he is not controlling ala Nick Saban. Reporters want that time with Saban but they know that he controls the conversation and topics and don’t cross that line ever. Dabo, is more open and he has a subtle charisma that aides to the continued interest in playing for Clemson Football as he projects his image of success across the landscapes of America television sets each and every week.

For USC Football it has been a struggle both on the field and with the staff but the double whammy was also the schools embarrasing problems in the past few years that have also dulled the edge of Destination School. But on both fronts the school has taken steps to clean the future from the past. Questions remain as to whether Lynn Swann and his chosen head coach, Clay Helton, will survive but they are firmly fixed in the stone that builds on the school and gridiron today. Like it or not that is a fact and if they win and win the USC Way then they can turn their personal challenges around and at the same time bring USC back to the elite status they once had.

Fight On