Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart, who led the USC offense during a period of unprecedented excellence that has been virtually completely erased by the NCAA due to a conclusion that the school knew or should have known that tailback Reggie Bush was getting paid, has opted to ignore the fact that many of those wins have been transformed after the fact into losses.
“People can say whatever they want but we still played every game the way
we had to, we beat almost every team we played and, to me, no one will
ever be able to take that away,” Leinart said recently, per Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com. “I’ve talked to a lot of
people I played with on those teams and we all say the same thing.
Everyone who knows football knows we won those games and we won the
title. It’s unfortunate what happened and you move on from it but I just
feel for the guys who are there now but they’ll move on from it.”
Yes, they’ll move on. But when they move out, they’ll lack the same hardware and accomplishments that were enjoyed by Leinart’s USC teams, thanks to the sanctions arising from the actions of the program when Leinart and Reggie played.
“It won’t affect how they play on the field but it might be hard with
recruiting,” Leinart said. “The thing about Lane [Kiffin] and his coaching staff,
they’re all great recruiters so I still think they’re still going to
get great recruits but it might be a tough period the next couple of
years but they’re still going to be competitive. Once the ban is off I
think they’ll be back where they were before, playing in title games
almost every year.”
Leinart’s reference to recruiting confirms, in a roundabout way, the importance of the penalties that the NCAA imposed. Though the payments made by outsiders to Bush don’t represent direct cheating by USC, the fact that Bush was getting paid without scrutiny or interference from the school creates an environment that is more attractive to recruits who hope to get paid without scrutiny or interference from the school.
And, yes, the same thing happens at plenty of other schools. But in Bush’s case it was blatant, and no one would have known about any of it if he’d merely settled up with Michael Michaels and Lloyd Lake before they had to sue him.
That’s why we’re astounded by the ongoing loyalty that guys like Leinart (who said he’s “proud” of Bush) and former coach Pete Carroll (who has said repeatedly he’s not mad at Bush) demonstrate to the guy who made this mess. Bush created the problem, and then he had a chance to clean it all up and to save everyone connected with the program a significant amount of hardship and turmoil, and Bush was too cheap or too arrogant or too hard-headed to do what he ultimately did after the championship hit the fan — repay the money he received.