USC football brings the noise and energy to spring practice
No matter what music is blaring, the Trojans have an ‘awesome vibe moving forward,’ QB Jayden Maiava says
USC returning starting QB Jayden Maiava claps during spring football. (Photo by David Crane, LADN/SCNG)
Dan Lovi (OC Register) — LOS ANGELES — On a gloomy Tuesday morning, the atmosphere around the USC football team was anything but.
At the start of media availability, the team was stretching to the sounds of a country music playlist, highlighted by The Zac Brown Bandand Toby Keith.
Players were enthusiastic, sprinting to their respective position groups after warmups. Maybe even a few indiscreetly grooving to the country tunes.
“It’s been an awesome vibe moving forward. I really love where this team is going right now,” quarterback Jayden Maiava said after practice. “I don’t know who controls the aux, but you know, sometimes to be honest, I appreciate it.”
The energy displayed Tuesday morning has permeated throughout the entirety of spring camp. And the way that excitement has sprouted naturally from the players themselves has to be gratifying for the coaching staff.
Of course, the coaches have been doing their part as hype people, bringing their fervent teaching styles to the team.
Whether it’s special teams coordinator and linebackers coach Mike Ekeler demonstrating what to do during a drill, or defensive coordinator Gary Patterson’s overcommunication, the enthusiasm coming from the coaches has been palpable.
But as redshirt frosh offensive lineman Aaron Dunn (6-7, 315) from Spanish Fork, Utah, noted after Tuesday’s practice, the players are motivated and determined to get better each day and bring out the best in one another.
“The energy that we bring out here on the field, everyone is competitive and everyone’s wanting to get better,” Dunn said. “The coaches are getting at us, making sure we’re pushing ourselves everyday, but the biggest thing is that it’s team-driven and it’s team-led. As soon as people on the team are doing it, that energy is contagious. I think that’s something that’s been great this year.”
It helps that spring football was moved to an earlier start date this year. Practices began at the beginning of March and are set to conclude the first week of April.
Last year, the first spring practice was on March 25 and the last one was on April 26.
Moving up the schedule has allowed incoming freshmen to get into the action sooner. It’s also beneficial for players who had to have offseason procedures, giving them more time to recoup and get ready for summer camp.
“It’s changed a good bit,” Dunn said, referring to the spring practice schedule. “I kind of like the practices, how they’re all bunched together and we can just get through it. It’s more like four weeks instead of six weeks.”
With three more practices left in spring, the knob controlling the energy hasn’t been turned down in the slightest.
And whether it’s country, hip-hop or rock music blaring out of the speakers at practice, the energy hasn’t wavered.
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One-fifth of all women’s college basketball players are now in the transfer portal Iowa State center Audi Crooks Jeff Hauser (Yahoo Sports) — The transfer portal season has arrived in women’s college basketball. Just one day after UCLA took home their first National Championship, some of the best players in the sport are on the move. This will be the year of the greatest shift with 1,193 players currently in the portal as of 8:30 p.m. ET on Monday night. That represents over one-fifth or 23 percent of the total players on Division I rosters, which is 5,048, per the NCAA.… Read more »
6-6 center Gracie Merkle (44) and guard Kiyomi McMiller (23) talk with one another during their game against NW at Rec Hall on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2026 in University Park, Pa. Merkle has entered the transfer portal for the 3rd straight season. Merkle missed three games in January with an injury. She returned at the start of February, helping lead the Lady Lions to their first conference win of the year over Purdue with 19 points and a season-high 20 rebounds. The All-Big Ten Media Third Team honoree capped off her Penn State career shooting 72.5%, the best single-season field… Read more »
Jen Cohen has issued a new State of Troy address. Of interest, in part only: ATHLETICS WEST “I’m thrilled to announce that last week, we reached the $200 million mark towards Athletics West. “Recently, Ted Jones became our ninth cornerstone donor toward Athletics West, leaving just two remaining cornerstone opportunities from our original goal of 11. We have also received gifts toward Athletics West from the following individuals and families: Michael and Jill Adler; Scott Boras Family; Scott C Brittingham ‘88 and Ella M Brittingham ‘92; Sue Cimbaluk; Glenn Irani Family, Martin Irani Family, Lillian Irani Mueller Family; Bret and… Read more »
Yep……the winner of UCON/Illinois had no literal chance against the other two. Michigan shot the lights out against Arizona or Arizona would have had a good chance. Some see it another way but my opinion is that it’s all about those 3’s. You hit above 35% and you’re in just about any game. It’s the equal of more than 50% from the field and the rebounds come out away from the basket so a smaller team will get its share. If I were coaching today…..I’d force the team to shoot 30 minimum a game from 3 if I was thinking… Read more »
To the rescue?, Jan 2026 power forward, early enrollee … SITAYA FAGAN | 6-4 | Melbourne, Australia Fagan is one of the most highly regarded young players to emerge from Australia in recent years. A versatile 6-foot-4 playmaker with the ability to handle the ball, defend multiple positions and impact the game on both ends, Fagan has already accumulated extensive international experience at the highest level. “Tay [Sitaya] is such a unique, versatile and super athletic talent,” said Lindsay Gottlieb of Fagan. “She really is positionless, and I’m really looking forward to figuring out all the ways that we can… Read more »
If you think USC is just gonna go out and quickly haul in another once-in-a-lifetime Lauren Betts (the Bill Walton of women’s college basketball), good luck with that.😂😂
I’m sure USC is working on adding more. But Fagan and Okeke are damn nice taller additions if they live up to the hype.
Hey I’m still hopin’ for that Red Rider BB Gun for Christmas. 🙄 Seems there has to be some 6-6 center out there who would love to come to USC and be surrounded by next seasons cast.
UCLA’s obviously a great, deep, very explosive, well-managed, super talented team. I would have been happy with one win over the Bruiins, but we only even came close to that once.
Hopefully our 27-6 team rebounds strongly, gets back in the saddle and starts winning again against beatable teams. We play 19-10 UCSB tomorrow (4:30 PT) in Santa Barbara. The Gauchos are coming off a three-game win streak after losing at Dedeaux 7-6.
They are the heated rival and we rave when they get beat. But their women’s team is kicking favored So Carolina’s ass so totally it isn’t even a game anymore.
Trojans gave it a good effort yesterday. A high scoring back and forth game. In the end SC pitching came up a bit short. Too bad, would have made todays game more interesting. Now just hope they don’t get swept. If the Ruins get a Natty in WBB and sweep USC today, that will suck.
President Trump has signed an order directing the NCAA to create rules restricting players from transferring more than once without a one year sit out. The order also restricts players to a total of 5 years for their career.
To be effective 08/01.
Hopefully this glues some of our talent to USC.
Will the Supreme Court have knock this down? SCOTUS has ruled on college sports. Congress and the P4 conferences need to regulate it. I don’t love or hate the POTUS but he needs to stop with the EOs. He’s got more important things to fix.
He’s the most productive president we have ever had. We have almost half the country who would fight him if he cured cancer and yet he gets things done. He certainly isn’t perfect but he does get things done. I’d rather have him than corrupt Joe Biden or the 2 cackerels(Hillary and Kamala) or handsome harry(Newsome) or tampon Tim. Who do the dems have to offer?
Folks……I’am feeling a bit uneasy concerning what I posted. Please help.
My kids as a joke call me the great liberal……just to the right of Barry Goldwater……but…….just to make it clear…….my original post was not intended as a political comment. Just trying to elicit opinions on whether the order would change things for USC football.
I got it. My comment was a legal one. A feeling player lawyers will file injunctions and other lawyer stuff and it would go back to the Supreme Court since they have already ruled on it. The TDB lawyers out there would know better.
Well stated. Trump says and does things that annoy me, but he gets things done, and most of them are good.I really hope this EO sticks, but I am sure the courts will knock it down. If Trump got unconditional surrenders from Iran and Putin,the left would find a way to complain about it.
The left would get out their guns and fight for Iran and Putin and North Korea and China rather than support Trump even if what he did is good for america. But I do believe they are going to ruin college football if something is not done because the teams with the most money are going to win most of the time.
OG Allen, you may want to weigh in to concur or dissent. These photo op EO’s quite frequently are of no legal force and effect. This well intentioned EO is relevant to bringing clarity to current chaos with the TP, but it suffers from legal erectile dysfunction. Possibly he can announce the NCAA needs to be disbanded.
Cutting to the chase quickly here 72, most all legal precedent heavily suggests Trumps’ EOs will not withstand the sure-to-come courtroom challenges in more than one regard. No surprise, huh? I certainly don’t have any illuminating insight. Maybe Congress will somehow be motivated to get off its duff and do something to help stabilize a well-intentioned situation suddenly run amok after so many years of imbalance. But relying on Congress for anything has largely disappeared from my hope meter. I think most of us believe the genie is out of the bottle for good here. Isn’t it always, once the… Read more »
SoCar looked like women playing girls when they played USC. All the final four teams look big and veteran. Gottlieb needs to more than just get the best high school girl every year. Hated to see a former Trojan, Heckel, playing for UConn. Looking forward to the men’s games today. And maybe the Trojan baseball can hit and pitch better today.
It should be noted that Kayleigh Heckel, originally from New York, played so badly last night that she was literally crying on the court during the game and only scored three points. No big loss for USC. Glad both she, individually, and UCONN as a team got totally greased by the superior Gamecocks.
Geno Auriemma acted like a total fool and disgraced himself after the game, weirdly attacking Dawn Staley. and abusing the refs when his team simply got slaughtered in the second half.
A “Good Friday” to all. Just in case you have some time this Easter Sunday, looks like the USC-UCLA game will be on BIG10 Network at 4pm PT. We will see what kind of team the Trojans and Ruins really are.
Huge series, but SC might be lucky to get one win here. Our pitching is elite, but their hitting and power is off the charts.They are light years ahead of where SC is swinging the bats. Game is sold out
Agree. I’d be happy to win one vs the Bruins this weekend. Still, USC baseball has come a long way under Stanky after many years of futility, especially considering we had no home field for two years.
Javon Vital commits to USC: Trojans land versatile, game-breaker-type 2027 offensive weapon from Louisiana USC added one of the more versatile, tricky playmakers in Louisiana Thursday when Javon Vital committed publicly. Javon Vital (three-star, 5-9, 185, 4,4) committed to USC over LSU, HOU, OLE MISS and UK. He’s 247Sports’ No. 34 ATH in the country and Louisiana’s No. 17 overall prospect. The USC fit — Vital has played QB /WR/RB as a prep, and he will undoubtedly perform in some gadget packages for Lincoln Riley. Vital also provides return ability and could see special teams action early on. He’s explosive, versatile and dangerous in space.… Read more »
I’m underwhelmed by the number of power schools that went after him. Watching his film, he is hard to tackle. I wonder how good his league opponents were.
Your suspicion about lesser competition is correct 007.
As a private school, Hamilton Christian Academy (Lake Charles, LA) competes in Class 1A and Select Div IV. Class 1A is the smallest school classification in the LHSAA.
Hamilton Christian had a historic 2025 season, finishing the regular season undefeated (10-0) for the first time in program history. They lost in the state quarterfinals.
Thanks for the info. I’ve never heard of Hamilton Christian Academy but just watching his film it looks like his opponents couldn’t tackle Mother Theresa
The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman predicts Makai Lemon will land with the Rams at pick #13: 13. L.A. Rams (from Atlanta): Makai Lemon, WR, USC “The L.A. native stayed home to play at USC and will have a short commute for his family to watch him in the NFL. Sean McVay should have a lot of fun with Lemon, who was by far the best player in the program the past few years. USC defensive coaches thought he would’ve been the team’s best cornerback if he had played on that side of the ball. His instincts, quickness and toughness are… Read more »
Times of Troy poll Last week, the LAT asked, on a scale of 1-5, with five being most confident, what’s your confidence level in Eric Musselman as USC’s men’s basketball coach after two seasons?
USC Men’s Basketball Hires Brad Davidson As Assistant Coach. usctrojans.com
Davidson, with 18 years of coaching experience, previously served as the Assoc HC at HI since 2021, helping the team achieve three 20+ win seasons.
Offensive Focus:he specialized in running the offense, directing a unit that ranked in the top three in the Big West in field goal percentage during the 2025-26 season.
I like music, I was a music major in college, but during a game it’s the TMB for me. At the most recent home game I attended, some fool in marketing brought a DJ to the party. I wondered why? I guess that’s the modern era football idea. I hope he’s on vacation if I ever get to the coliseum again.
Just Who Is This Sidd Finch, many might say? For those TDBers who have never heard of or remember Sidd Finch, such as myself — though I used to be an avid Sports Illustrated reader (loved those SI covers featuring USC football!): Sidd Finch is a fictional baseball pitcher (think ‘The Natural’ Roy Hobbs personified by Robert Redford and his juiced-up bat “WonderBoy” in 1984) and the subject of a famous 1985 Sports Illustrated April Fools’ Day hoax. Brilliantly created by immersive storyteller George Plimpton, the story featured a rookie phenom with a 168-mph fastball, trained in Tibet, who played… Read more »
Back in 1985, SI was the bible for all sports media. This prank was awesome. I was trying to remember how far I got through the article before I came to my senses.
Sorry I spelled your name like your sister does (with a “y”), Mr. Finch. I will do better next time.
One-fifth of all women’s college basketball players are now in the transfer portal Iowa State center Audi Crooks Jeff Hauser (Yahoo Sports) — The transfer portal season has arrived in women’s college basketball. Just one day after UCLA took home their first National Championship, some of the best players in the sport are on the move. This will be the year of the greatest shift with 1,193 players currently in the portal as of 8:30 p.m. ET on Monday night. That represents over one-fifth or 23 percent of the total players on Division I rosters, which is 5,048, per the NCAA.… Read more »
Gracie Merkle, 6-6 center from Penn St is in the portal. Go get her Gottlieb.
6-6 center Gracie Merkle (44) and guard Kiyomi McMiller (23) talk with one another during their game against NW at Rec Hall on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2026 in University Park, Pa. Merkle has entered the transfer portal for the 3rd straight season. Merkle missed three games in January with an injury. She returned at the start of February, helping lead the Lady Lions to their first conference win of the year over Purdue with 19 points and a season-high 20 rebounds. The All-Big Ten Media Third Team honoree capped off her Penn State career shooting 72.5%, the best single-season field… Read more »
Jen Cohen has issued a new State of Troy address. Of interest, in part only: ATHLETICS WEST “I’m thrilled to announce that last week, we reached the $200 million mark towards Athletics West. “Recently, Ted Jones became our ninth cornerstone donor toward Athletics West, leaving just two remaining cornerstone opportunities from our original goal of 11. We have also received gifts toward Athletics West from the following individuals and families: Michael and Jill Adler; Scott Boras Family; Scott C Brittingham ‘88 and Ella M Brittingham ‘92; Sue Cimbaluk; Glenn Irani Family, Martin Irani Family, Lillian Irani Mueller Family; Bret and… Read more »
Very kool!
BIG wins the NCAA tournament. First time in 25 years. Hopefully it’s the start of a long run.
MICH”s a great team though last night’s game was a stinker. Clank after clank. UCONN never seemed like it had much of a chance in this “rock fight.”.
Yep……the winner of UCON/Illinois had no literal chance against the other two. Michigan shot the lights out against Arizona or Arizona would have had a good chance. Some see it another way but my opinion is that it’s all about those 3’s. You hit above 35% and you’re in just about any game. It’s the equal of more than 50% from the field and the rebounds come out away from the basket so a smaller team will get its share. If I were coaching today…..I’d force the team to shoot 30 minimum a game from 3 if I was thinking… Read more »
I think UCONN is lucky it was that close. I can’t believe how many offensive rebounds bounced right to them.
I agree…..Michigan was just the better team.
Note to Gottlieb and Musselman, a dominant big at center is the foundation of a championship team. Kinda like dominance in the trenches in football.
To the rescue?, Jan 2026 power forward, early enrollee … SITAYA FAGAN | 6-4 | Melbourne, Australia Fagan is one of the most highly regarded young players to emerge from Australia in recent years. A versatile 6-foot-4 playmaker with the ability to handle the ball, defend multiple positions and impact the game on both ends, Fagan has already accumulated extensive international experience at the highest level. “Tay [Sitaya] is such a unique, versatile and super athletic talent,” said Lindsay Gottlieb of Fagan. “She really is positionless, and I’m really looking forward to figuring out all the ways that we can… Read more »
Not quite, Lauren Betts is 6-7. USC looks set with guards and forwards. Still need a big at center.
If you think USC is just gonna go out and quickly haul in another once-in-a-lifetime Lauren Betts (the Bill Walton of women’s college basketball), good luck with that. 😂 😂
I’m sure USC is working on adding more. But Fagan and Okeke are damn nice taller additions if they live up to the hype.
USC will continue to look for a disputatious “glass eater” with sharp elbows and chip on her shoulder.
Great footwork and either hand shot-making ability would also be nice.
Hey I’m still hopin’ for that Red Rider BB Gun for Christmas. 🙄 Seems there has to be some 6-6 center out there who would love to come to USC and be surrounded by next seasons cast.
In the last 8 games, USC baseball went 3-5 giving up 69 runs while scoring 56. Pitching was supposed to be their strength.
UCLA’s obviously a great, deep, very explosive, well-managed, super talented team. I would have been happy with one win over the Bruiins, but we only even came close to that once.
Hopefully our 27-6 team rebounds strongly, gets back in the saddle and starts winning again against beatable teams. We play 19-10 UCSB tomorrow (4:30 PT) in Santa Barbara. The Gauchos are coming off a three-game win streak after losing at Dedeaux 7-6.
And hopefully they don’t face the Ruins till the conference championship game and the national championship series.
They are the heated rival and we rave when they get beat. But their women’s team is kicking favored So Carolina’s ass so totally it isn’t even a game anymore.
Trojans gave it a good effort yesterday. A high scoring back and forth game. In the end SC pitching came up a bit short. Too bad, would have made todays game more interesting. Now just hope they don’t get swept. If the Ruins get a Natty in WBB and sweep USC today, that will suck.
President Trump has signed an order directing the NCAA to create rules restricting players from transferring more than once without a one year sit out. The order also restricts players to a total of 5 years for their career.
To be effective 08/01.
Hopefully this glues some of our talent to USC.
Will the Supreme Court have knock this down? SCOTUS has ruled on college sports. Congress and the P4 conferences need to regulate it. I don’t love or hate the POTUS but he needs to stop with the EOs. He’s got more important things to fix.
Let Trump be Trump. Unlike Biden and ALL of the House and Senate, Trump can walk and chew gum at the same time.
He’s the most productive president we have ever had. We have almost half the country who would fight him if he cured cancer and yet he gets things done. He certainly isn’t perfect but he does get things done. I’d rather have him than corrupt Joe Biden or the 2 cackerels(Hillary and Kamala) or handsome harry(Newsome) or tampon Tim. Who do the dems have to offer?
The question answers itself, right 007?
Folks……I’am feeling a bit uneasy concerning what I posted. Please help.
My kids as a joke call me the great liberal……just to the right of Barry Goldwater……but…….just to make it clear…….my original post was not intended as a political comment. Just trying to elicit opinions on whether the order would change things for USC football.
I got it. My comment was a legal one. A feeling player lawyers will file injunctions and other lawyer stuff and it would go back to the Supreme Court since they have already ruled on it. The TDB lawyers out there would know better.
Well stated. Trump says and does things that annoy me, but he gets things done, and most of them are good.I really hope this EO sticks, but I am sure the courts will knock it down. If Trump got unconditional surrenders from Iran and Putin,the left would find a way to complain about it.
The left would get out their guns and fight for Iran and Putin and North Korea and China rather than support Trump even if what he did is good for america. But I do believe they are going to ruin college football if something is not done because the teams with the most money are going to win most of the time.
OG Allen, you may want to weigh in to concur or dissent. These photo op EO’s quite frequently are of no legal force and effect. This well intentioned EO is relevant to bringing clarity to current chaos with the TP, but it suffers from legal erectile dysfunction. Possibly he can announce the NCAA needs to be disbanded.
Cutting to the chase quickly here 72, most all legal precedent heavily suggests Trumps’ EOs will not withstand the sure-to-come courtroom challenges in more than one regard. No surprise, huh? I certainly don’t have any illuminating insight. Maybe Congress will somehow be motivated to get off its duff and do something to help stabilize a well-intentioned situation suddenly run amok after so many years of imbalance. But relying on Congress for anything has largely disappeared from my hope meter. I think most of us believe the genie is out of the bottle for good here. Isn’t it always, once the… Read more »
I’d love to see UCLA women’s basketball lose to TEXAS tonight. Game starts in a few mins.
SO CAR just annihilated UCONN 62-48 to get to the championship game. Not completely surprised after watching what the Gamecocks did to the Trojans.
SoCar looked like women playing girls when they played USC. All the final four teams look big and veteran. Gottlieb needs to more than just get the best high school girl every year. Hated to see a former Trojan, Heckel, playing for UConn. Looking forward to the men’s games today. And maybe the Trojan baseball can hit and pitch better today.
It should be noted that Kayleigh Heckel, originally from New York, played so badly last night that she was literally crying on the court during the game and only scored three points. No big loss for USC. Glad both she, individually, and UCONN as a team got totally greased by the superior Gamecocks.
Geno Auriemma acted like a total fool and disgraced himself after the game, weirdly attacking Dawn Staley. and abusing the refs when his team simply got slaughtered in the second half.
Poor Geno and Kayleigh. 😂
True true, last thing USC needs is another better than average guard, we already have 2 of the best. Get some bigs up front. Where’s the beef?!
A “Good Friday” to all. Just in case you have some time this Easter Sunday, looks like the USC-UCLA game will be on BIG10 Network at 4pm PT. We will see what kind of team the Trojans and Ruins really are.
Huge series, but SC might be lucky to get one win here. Our pitching is elite, but their hitting and power is off the charts.They are light years ahead of where SC is swinging the bats. Game is sold out
Agree. I’d be happy to win one vs the Bruins this weekend. Still, USC baseball has come a long way under Stanky after many years of futility, especially considering we had no home field for two years.
Agree….Like I’ve said Rome wasn’t built in a year.
Javon Vital commits to USC: Trojans land versatile, game-breaker-type 2027 offensive weapon from Louisiana USC added one of the more versatile, tricky playmakers in Louisiana Thursday when Javon Vital committed publicly. Javon Vital (three-star, 5-9, 185, 4,4) committed to USC over LSU, HOU, OLE MISS and UK. He’s 247Sports’ No. 34 ATH in the country and Louisiana’s No. 17 overall prospect. The USC fit — Vital has played QB /WR/RB as a prep, and he will undoubtedly perform in some gadget packages for Lincoln Riley. Vital also provides return ability and could see special teams action early on. He’s explosive, versatile and dangerous in space.… Read more »
I’m underwhelmed by the number of power schools that went after him. Watching his film, he is hard to tackle. I wonder how good his league opponents were.
Your suspicion about lesser competition is correct 007.
As a private school, Hamilton Christian Academy (Lake Charles, LA) competes in Class 1A and Select Div IV. Class 1A is the smallest school classification in the LHSAA.
Hamilton Christian had a historic 2025 season, finishing the regular season undefeated (10-0) for the first time in program history. They lost in the state quarterfinals.
Thanks for the info. I’ve never heard of Hamilton Christian Academy but just watching his film it looks like his opponents couldn’t tackle Mother Theresa
“I think I’ll pull the old ‘drop leg’ trick on this guy.”
Go for it MT
One of the things that is unique about this site…….honesty.
Thankfully, USC is going to be totally loaded with talent and may be taking a filler.
The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman predicts Makai Lemon will land with the Rams at pick #13: 13. L.A. Rams (from Atlanta): Makai Lemon, WR, USC “The L.A. native stayed home to play at USC and will have a short commute for his family to watch him in the NFL. Sean McVay should have a lot of fun with Lemon, who was by far the best player in the program the past few years. USC defensive coaches thought he would’ve been the team’s best cornerback if he had played on that side of the ball. His instincts, quickness and toughness are… Read more »
Let us hope.
Times of Troy poll
Last week, the LAT asked, on a scale of 1-5, with five being most confident, what’s your confidence level in Eric Musselman as USC’s men’s basketball coach after two seasons?
The results, after 448 votes:
3-29.2%
4-24.6%
5-18.2%
1-16.9%
2-11.1%
latimes.com
USC Men’s Basketball Hires Brad Davidson As Assistant Coach. usctrojans.com
Davidson, with 18 years of coaching experience, previously served as the Assoc HC at HI since 2021, helping the team achieve three 20+ win seasons.
Offensive Focus: he specialized in running the offense, directing a unit that ranked in the top three in the Big West in field goal percentage during the 2025-26 season.
I like music, I was a music major in college, but during a game it’s the TMB for me. At the most recent home game I attended, some fool in marketing brought a DJ to the party. I wondered why? I guess that’s the modern era football idea. I hope he’s on vacation if I ever get to the coliseum again.
Happy Sydd Finch Day, everybody!
What a fastball!!
Just Who Is This Sidd Finch, many might say? For those TDBers who have never heard of or remember Sidd Finch, such as myself — though I used to be an avid Sports Illustrated reader (loved those SI covers featuring USC football!): Sidd Finch is a fictional baseball pitcher (think ‘The Natural’ Roy Hobbs personified by Robert Redford and his juiced-up bat “WonderBoy” in 1984) and the subject of a famous 1985 Sports Illustrated April Fools’ Day hoax. Brilliantly created by immersive storyteller George Plimpton, the story featured a rookie phenom with a 168-mph fastball, trained in Tibet, who played… Read more »
Back in 1985, SI was the bible for all sports media. This prank was awesome. I was trying to remember how far I got through the article before I came to my senses.
Sorry I spelled your name like your sister does (with a “y”), Mr. Finch. I will do better next time.