It also brings up guys like Marinovich and Dan McGwire who haven't played in 20 years as negatives, in which case we might as well start marking down David Carr as a negative against Nor Cal and Jim Druckenmiller as a negative against Western PA.

The only thing that So Cal has done wrong are that guys like Carson Palmer and Randall Cunningham topped out at good but not HOF careers, which I don't think you can blame on the LADWP or So Cal smog at that point. And the only real story here is that USC QBs in the Carroll/Kiffin era have been terrible pros with the exception of Palmer, and that UCLA hasn't put a QB in the pros in over a decade.