By: Nate Murphy (@bigmurph23)
As we wrap up Season 21 I thought I’d head back to my writing roots and bring you all another view from the booth. There will be more fun-style articles coming from me this offseason, especially as we head into the holiday season. But before I did that I wanted to sit down with Jacob, someone I have considered a good friend since his time in Morgantown with me. We talked a little bit about USC’s second consecutive title run. And yes, I threw in question one just for me. So without further ado, here is my sit-down interview with the Trojan in charge.
Nate: How important was your time on the WVU coaching staff?
Jacob: Incredibly! I almost did not remake after my first player, but joining the staff to help recruit guys to Morgantown kept me engaged in the league and helped me fall in love with this process and experience. I wouldn’t be the AD at USC if I hadn’t joined as an RC all those seasons ago.
N: They say getting to the top is hard but staying on top is harder. Did you feel any extra pressure heading into season 21 knowing the target was on your back?
J: The pressure wasn’t because of the target on our back. The pressure on myself was knowing we still had the kind of talent to win the championship again and I had to do my part to put my guys in a position to win. We felt like anything short of getting back to the championship would have been a bad reflection of the talent we have on the team.
N: What were you able to take away from your season 20 title to help you through season 21?
J: That your game planning can constantly be growing. We hear the Story about wookie running the same settings for 3 seasons and winning all those games, but I think learning that sometimes your best settings stop working and even if you might drop a game trying something new doing it during the season will set you up for way more success in the playoffs. In both seasons our offenses hit low points and we adapted on the fly tried new things and found ways to be successful in our biggest moments.
N: After a 4-0 start you dropped 2 of your final 4 games. What were you able to do to right the ship as you went through the playoffs?
J: Simply Continue trusting in our process. I’m thankful for an awesome team that even after hard losses encouraged me and lifted me up more than I was them. I took our losses hard and seemingly our entire locker room was the ones cheering each other on and lifting me up. It’s that kind of culture from my team that gave us the freedom to say, “Mistakes are ok, let’s dial this in for the playoffs.” So we tried new settings, we changed playbooks, and we started trusting our talent. Sometimes you just gotta let players make plays rather than trying to scheme up the perfect play for every drive.
N: As an AD I understand the nerves that build up throughout a game. You played three one possession games in the playoffs alone. How do you handle the nerves and keep focused during games like that?
J: Oh easy… I didn’t haha, I’m an emotional wreck during these games. I gotta give a real shout-out to my AHC Kaki, Venom, and Jonsey for jumping in voice calls with me and some of the players during the games and calming me down after every drop or missed tackle. Reminding me that just because we dropped a 1st down in the 1st quarter that doesn’t mean the game plan was bad and the game is over.
N: USC became the third team in league history to win back-to-back championships. There will be some pieces that need to be replaced. But there are also a lot of key pieces returning. What do the Trojans need to do to become the first team to 3peat?
J: Gotta reload on offense for sure. We really feel like we found a rhythm during the end of the season and want to continue doing some of those things well going into next season. We are going to be replacing some monsters on offense including Mr Championship himself Kevin Davis but a few well-picked recruits and USC will be rolling once again. On the other side, however, we are returning all 11 starters on defense with the potential to get better during the off-season so much like the last two seasons we know our defense is going to continue to clamp teams up and keep us in games.
N: I want to thank you for your time, not just with this interview. But also with the willingness to talk to me during the semifinal and championship games. Is there any kind of statement you would like to make as we wrap up season 21 and start to focus on season 22?
J: I’m so thankful for the guys and gals who trusted me these last two seasons with their players. A lot of them have been here since I took over 3 seasons ago and were real foundational pieces for us here. To the rest of the league, look out cause the Trojans aren’t done yet #FightOn
Again, I want to say thank you to Jacob for his time. I would also like to congratulate all of the Trojans on their back-to-back championship run and say good luck to them, and everyone else in Season 22.
