USC vs. Arizona: Lane Kiffin regrets not spiking ball on final drive

USC head coach Lane Kiffin expressed his regret for not spiking the ball at the end of Saturday's 39-36 loss to the Arizona Wildcats but not for the reason you might expect.

Kiffin explained in his media conference call Sunday night that he didn't care about saving a few seconds with the spike. Instead, he wished he would have had QB Matt Barkely bounce the ball behind the center to give WR Marqise Lee some time to catch his breath before running another deep route. Kiffin takes full responsibility for the poor decision as he proclaimed "that's all one me."

Sure, one might wonder if Lee would have been a little better off for the Hail Mary that followed that play if Kiffin gave him a breather but honestly, that might be speculating too far. More than anything, the Trojans should be kicking themselves for the 13 penalties they incurred that put them in that situation in the first place.

Kiffin obviously felt the same way as he shared with the media that he spent "a lot of the night and morning" after the game putting together a highlight real of all the Trojans most costly penalties this season.

"They saw the magnitude of what these things do," he said of his team after they viewed the tape.

Hopefully they now reciprocate what they watched and clean up their sloppy play sooner rather than later. If not, Oregon will surely be willing to give them a lesson on what a nice, clean football game looks like next weekend.