USC Trojans News: Hope for better PAC-12 officiating, Sam Darnold shines, more

PAC-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff addressed the procedural errors in officiating that USC Football experienced in their game against the University of Arizona Wildcats. According to PAC-12 Insider Jon Wilner, "Kliavkoff calls procedural errors with officiating 'unacceptable.'"

Of course, at least some of that statement is referring to that UA game, when the PAC-12 referees let several seconds run off the clock to go to overtime after SC had completed a first down reception. They did not stop the clock while they were spotting the ball, which is the correct procedure. The PAC-12 referees somehow forgot the rules of their own game.

Hopefully, Kliavkoff emphasizing this to the media makes for the PAC-12 refs to be much better in this PAC-12 Championship Game on Friday. This is especially key because objectively awful officiating is what lost USC their regular season matchup to the Utes earlier this year.

More USC Football News

Former PAC-12 Champion with the USC Football program, Sam Darnold had his first start of the NFL season on Sunday. He was outstanding, as he out-dueled a Hall of Fame Quarterback in Russell Wilson for the win for the Carolina Panthers. Carolina averaged just 18.8 points per game coming into the game, but with Darnold pulling the trigger, they scored 23 against Wilson's Denver Broncos.

The Broncos have a great defense, and are third in the NFL with just 17.6 points per game allowed. Darnold did not care, as he averaged 8.6 yards per pass attempt, and scored two touchdowns (one passing) while not turning the ball over a single time. Darnold will be starting their next game against a coach who is also a USC legend, in Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll.

NCAA News

Longtime PAC-12 Head Coach at Stanford, David Shaw, has officially resigned as the Cardinal Head Coach. Shaw won four PAC-12 Coach of the Year awards in his 12 seasons at Stanford. Shaw went seven and six against the Trojans in his time as head coach at Stanford, and went 1-1 against SC in PAC-12 Championship Games.

Shaw did a good job at Stanford for the first seven years of his tenure there. He did well for the next three years after that, too, but it didn't correlate to many wins with the Cardinal in those years (17-14 record) due the the school not giving him many resources for success and focusing less and less on football.

These last two years, the combination of Stanford putting less of an emphasis on football and Shaw appearing past his prime have led to even less wins in the last two seasons (6-18 record in that time).