...traditional powerhouses are prominently represented. The top four teams … No. 1 Southern California, No. 2 LSU, No. 3 Florida and No. 4 Texas … each have a BCS title in the last four years. It's the third time USC has started No. 1 in the last four seasons.
With the benefit of four years of hindsight, USC quarterback John David Booty can see the folly.
When I think about Pete Carroll, the name that keeps jumping into my head is Knute Rockne. I keep telling myself that there have to be better analogies, and there probably are. But my brain won’t cooperate. It keeps whispering “Rockne.”
...“I think they should be in that league I was so successful in,” said new Arizona State head coach Dennis Erickson, referring to his unsuccessful stints as an NFL head coach...
...Mix all of that together and it's a recipe for two consecutive national championships -- and a few seconds away from a third.
...Southern California doesn't have a 1,000-yard rusher returning, and no wide receiver on the roster managed even 30 catches in 2006. But the Trojans...aren't too concerned...
...Outside the conference, USC enjoyed double-digit wins over Southeastern Conference West champ Arkansas (50-14), Notre Dame (44-24) and Michigan (32-18) in the Rose Bowl.
...The Trojans enter this season with inexperienced receivers and tailbacks around the senior quarterback John David Booty, so the team’s identity, especially early on, will come from a defense that returns 10 starters...
While searching microfilmed newspapers for something else, I spotted a tiny item in The North Shore Press of Aug. 2, 1932.
It is a measure of how far Pete Carroll has taken the USC program that an 11–2 season, highlighted by a victory over Michigan in the Rose Bowl, was considered a disappointment by many of the Trojans’ boosters.
..."It just got to the point where I knew it wasn't going to work out there," Mustain says. "Not this year, not ever."
...Guess what? The Trojans should be even better this season. The defense is already being touted as one of the best ever with 10 returning starters from the '06 team. (Three others also saw some starting action.)
Fight on? There was plenty of that chatter Monday with USC coach Pete Carroll in town.
Todd McNair is driving and talking and recruiting. He's always recruiting. Running backs, wide receivers, defensive backs. Even occasional doubters.
There was a feeling around USC that nobody would ever replace All-American nose tackle Mike Patterson, who now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. Patterson's quickness was his forte, confounding opposing centers and guards.
...Joe McKnight is more than a traitor to those crazed LSU loyalists. Why John Curtis, McKnight's coach, was told he was "the most hated guy in the LSU community."
Gotta pull for a linebacker who learned how not to pulverize ball carriers from his mother.
How in the world does Pete Carroll continue to keep his team so stacked with talent year after year? How can the seven Parade All-America running backs at USC all believe they’re going to be the next star at Tailback U.? Why does quarterback Mark Sanchez, the 2004 Parade All-America Player of the Year, sit on the bench behind Matt Leinart and John David Booty — for three years? It’s the same story at just about every position on the team. If the Trojans lose a game this year, it’ll be their own fault.
Keyshawn Johnson has declined an offer from the Tennessee Titans and has decided to retire.
What’s the point in being young, rich and famous if you can’t have a star-studded birthday bash?
Junior Seau is staying in school.
After five months of considering his options, quarterback Mitch Mustain officially left Arkansas behind and enrolled at USC on Monday.
When Johnnie Morton finished playing wide receiver in the National Football League, he carefully reviewed his retirement options: be host of a talk show, expand his real estate profile, maybe work on his golf game.
[Maisel]...OK, seriously: who plays tailback at Tailback U.? If you have 10 running backs, as USC will have on scholarship this fall, do you have one? And will it matter to the consensus preseason No. 1? It sure would help if quarterback John David Booty discovers a go-to receiver in the huddle. Patrick Turner is the leading candidate but has never held the job...
The website of his private equity firm notes that Pat Haden graduated Phi Beta Kappa from USC, was a Rhodes scholar and earned his law degree...
...John Curtis' Joe McKnight has been through it, seen it all, and he knows one thing, he said. It's time to move on. He's always in the fast lane, it seems...
...College football's five best recruiters sponsored by headhunters.com...
...Bad news for the Continental Indoor Football League: The Port Huron Pirates' defense just got a little stronger.
Of all the rookies set to infiltrate Giants training camp in Albany this summer, Steve Smith is poised to outshine them all...
New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush took a break from his offseason jet-setting to make a cameo appearance at the team’s training facility.
Since Keyshawn Johnson was cut by Carolina after the draft, Tennessee Coach Jeff Fisher said repeatedly Johnson could be a possible Titans target but that he'd have to talk to Johnson, a longtime friend, face to face before the Titans moved forward.
...That kind of versatility requires mobility...
...On the other side of the room was more truth. Troy Polamalu had returned from a religious retreat on an island in Greece. He was pure ... just pure. The reporters peppering him with questions about money, money, money made me laugh...
Running back LenDale White, who said Thursday he hopes to be back within two weeks from an injured left hamstring, says his weight is not an issue and that he will have it under control by the time training camp rolls around. White, who was around 260 pounds entering the offseason program, said Thursday he was around 245 pounds.
Former NFL player Brad Banta has been hired as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's tight ends coach, Mocs coach Rodney Allison said Monday afternoon.
...rank all 11 Division I-A conferences...
Southern Cal coach Pete Carroll might not have had room in his Trojan starting lineup for Oscar Lua last year during the linebacker’s senior season, but he has a hunch the Patriots just might have a place on their roster for his former defensive captain.
...From Jon in Westport, Conn.: Ivan, with so many high school All-America running backs on the roster at USC, do you you expect an exodus to other schools by some of these kids or will Pete Carroll find a way to spread the ball around enough to satisfy everybody?
...Parts of the Pac-10 are easy to pick. USC is first (brilliant!). Stanford is last.
USC assistant coach Dave Watson was hospitalized twice last week following a motor scooter accident in Mexico.
IT'S NOT TOO EARLY TO PREDICT - New Orleans Times-Picayune
...According to sources at USC and BC, the Eagles are close to signing on for a two-year series with the Trojans beginning in 2011...
Dallas Sartz and H.B. Blades both are rookie linebackers, but they don't have much else in common when it comes to the basics.
Thanks to the influence of his Grandpa Rocco, Carolina Panthers rookie center Ryan Kalil has a soothing outlet when football or life gets too hectic: He reaches for his iPod and listens to Frank Sinatra songs.
On Aug. 1, Vanderbilt University Law Professor Robert Rasmussen will become dean of the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California.
...USC
