Originally posted at The Roar
Even the most casual observer of college football ought to be able to tell you about the rise and fall of the University of Southern California’s football program over the last few years. From a run of Rose Bowl and National Championship success in the first half of the last decade to an ugly series of penalties – ones that appear far more harsh than what other schools have received for far more serious infractions – levelled by the NCAA, the Trojans have fought through their share of adversity.
Just when it seemed as though there was light at the end of the tunnel for USC football under it’s polarising head coach Lane Kiffin – no, actually, that was the light of an oncoming train, which derailed Kiffin’s up-and-down tenure in Los Angeles, and Trojan fans were back on the roller-coaster of football fortune, which will hopefully have more ups than downs in Season 2014 under former offensive coordinator/new head coach Steve Sarkisian.
Whilst there have been struggles on the college gridiron for the Trojans, there have been good things happening for those who have gone on to the bright lights of the National Football League. Particularly on the Super Bowl Stage, there has been a string of Trojans who have recently and influenced the sport’s biggest occasion, be it offensively, defensively or even from the sidelines, helping to deliver Lombardi Trophies to the New York Giants, Green Bay Packers and, most recently of all, the Seattle Seahawks.
It isn’t hard to see why there are so many Trojan alum in the NFL doing big things when it really counts. The Pete Carroll-coached USC teams in the middle of the last decade were regular features in college football’s biggest games on its biggest stages, from big-time Bowl games to regular season games against powerhouses like Ohio State. Players who moved onto pro football were not so overawed by playoff football, for they had excelled in similar atmospheres in their college days.
Aside from a Rose Bowl Game appearance stretch of 2006-2009 (the 2006 game doubled as the National Championship, an eventual heartbreaking loss to Vince Young’s Texas Longhorns, but the following three years saw the Trojans record decisive victories over Michigan, Illinois and Penn State), the Trojans under Carroll won a National Championship in January of 2005, demolishing Oklahoma 55-19 in Miami.
There are plenty of Trojans represented in the NFL these days: fifty-three of them were on rosters in season 2013, from established stars like Troy Polamalu and Brian Cushing to rookies like Khaled Holmes and TJ McDonald. Most of them are veterans of the Carroll era, and they know what it’s like to be in big games.
In fact, just last week in Super Bowl XLVII two USC alumni played starring roles in delivering the Seattle Seahawks their first ever Lombardi Trophy. From the sidelines, it was Pete Carroll, at the end of his fourth year coaching in the Pacific Northwest, masterminding the league’s best and most ferocious defense as it shut down, harassed and victimised the league’s most prolific offense and it’s star quarterback, Peyton Manning.
Leading Seattle’s defensive charge was eventual MVP, Malcolm Smith, whose interception of San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick – you know, the one that Richard Sherman made possible, which led to his crazy post-game rant on television – sent Seattle to the Super Bowl. He was back at it again in the big game, intercepting an ill-advised Peyton Manning pass, and taking it 69-yards to glorious pay dirt for a defensive touchdown that catapulted the Seahawks to a 22-0 half-time lead.
As if he hadn’t already done enough, Smith was front and centre for another important defensive play for Seattle, recovering a Demaryius Thomas fumble in the second half, which put another layer of icing on the Seahawks’ Super Bowl cake. He had ten tackles, six of them solo efforts, and a pass deflection on his way to becoming the first defensive player to win the MVP at a Super Bowl since Tampa Bay’s Dexter Jackson, a ball-hawking safety, in 2003. The victory was USC-like, reminiscent of Bowl games in college where Carroll’s team beat their opposition into bloody submission.
It's pretty much guaranteed that no football fan will likely ever forget Eli Manning’s brilliantly-orchestrated game-winning touchdown drive in Super Bowl XLII – although if you’re a New England Patriots fan, all you do is want to forget those moments, where hopes of the first nineteen-win undefeated season went up in smoke – but before that, on the first drive of the fourth quarter, with the Giants trailing by three, Malcolm Smith’s older brother, Steve, caught a crucial pass for seventeen yards, which continued a New York possession that ended with Manning rifling a pass over the middle to David Tyree for a go ahead score, and a 10-7 New York lead.
Later in the game, of course, was the celebrated and miraculous ‘helmet catch’ by that man Tyree following the most incredible Houdini act from Manning, but before the much-maligned Giants quarterback, who would step out from Peyton’ shadow that night in the Arizona desert, found Plaxico Burress for seven points, Smith stepped up to the plate once more.
It was third down and eleven to go with 0:44 remaining on the clock. The Giants were driving into New England territory, living on Manning’s arm and his ability to shuck pressure, and Smith caught a ball on the sideline, pivoted quickly – almost a shimmy – and managed to get across the mark needed for the first down. It was tremendous play: spatial awareness, smooth hands and the wherewithal to squirt ahead and go out of bounds to stop the clock in a situation where the Giants were low on time outs.
Three years later, it was former Trojan walk-on Clay Matthews, by then a bonafide NFL superstar marshalling a vastly-improved Green Bay defense that helped the Packers to their first Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl XLV. The win inside the new Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis was Green Bay’s first since the Brett Favre-led triumph in Super Bowl XXXI, way back in January of 1997 in the Louisiana Superdome against Drew Bledsoe’s New England Patriots.
Like he had been all season, Matthews was front and centre in the Super Bowl of 2011, forcing a key fumble, executing three tackles and one pass deflection. He was a menacing figure in the middle of that Packer defense, responsible for the general harassment of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Really, Malcolm Smith’s defensive heroics and Pete Carroll’s superb game plan in Super Bowl XLVII has capped off a great run for Trojan alumni in the NFL’s most important game, a few bright moments on the sport’s biggest stage when life for the University of Southern California’s own football program hasn’t been anywhere near as exciting or victorious.
Hopefully, a new dawn for USC football is just around the corner, and here’s to more Trojans doing their thing in Super Bowls for many, many years to come.
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