USC Notepad: August 30, 2010

A quick trip around Troy to see what happened today.

Football

Via Twitter, @USCPsycho posted a link to Pat Haden’s email to boosters about the state of Troy. Check it out to see what Haden has to say about the direction of USC.

Volleyball

I attended volleyball practice today and had a chance to talk with coach Mick Haley and All-American Alex Jupiter afterwards (for direct quotes check out this Friday’s edition of the Daily Trojan). Throughout practice, Haley kept stressing his team needs to get better if they want to win the national title. When one of the teams surrendered a point during a scrimmage, he told them that they should be so stingy that they never ever concede a point.

The Women of Troy head to Hawaii for a tournament that includes a marquee matchup with the Warriors. Last year, USC was eliminated by Hawaii in the NCAA tournament at Galen Center. Despite the tough loss, Haley doesn’t see this as a revenge game. He believes this will be a great test in an adverse environment that will serve as a barometer as to how good his team is.

For the first time, the vaunted freshman class will be on the road, but Haley isn’t concerned. He said that the recruiting class was very talented and experienced, and they respond well to his coaching so he doesn’t have too many reservations. Jupiter echoed the sentiment that this isn’t really a revenge game. When asked to compare this year’s team to the one that lost to Hawaii last year, Jupiter said that the chemistry was better this year and that the team was faster, bigger, and more aggressive than in 2009.

Reign of Troy

Via Twitter, I saw that the Spirit of Troy (aka the USC Trojan Marching Band debuted a song last Thursday at the opening of the Ronald Tutor Campus Center entitled “Reign of Troy”, which is written by USC alumnus Mark Watters. Check it out here. It is pretty cool that our blog shares a name with a song that the band plays. Perhaps in the future it can serve as our theme song when a recording becomes available.

“Here are provided seats of meditative joy, where shall rise again the destined reign of Troy.” -Virgil