Exhibition celebrates centennial of Gamble House - Pasadena Star-News
The year was 1908. Henry Ford introduced his Model T. Admiral Peary set sail for the North Pole. William Howard Taft won the White House, and in Pasadena architects Charles and Henry Greene broke ground for what would become the masterpiece of the Arts and Crafts Movement in America, the Gamble House.

Commissioned by Mary and David Gamble of Cincinnati, heir to the Procter & Gamble fortune, the mansion became the winter residence for two generations of Gambles. At one time, the family contemplated selling the house, but soon reneged when the potential buyers mentioned painting the magnificent hand-rubbed woodwork white "to brighten it up." Knowing its architectural significance, the family retained the property until 1966 when they deeded it to the city of Pasadena in a joint agreement with the USC School of Architecture. It was designated a National Historical Landmark in 1977 and underwent a major restoration in 2004...

USC coaching continuity keys strong spring camp - Inland Empire Press-Enterprise
It was one of those moments scripted as if by a comedy writer with an equal sense of timing -- and irony.

The day UCLA's football players went "over the wall" and skipped out the gate to blow off practice while coaches fumed, USC may have had its best practice of the Pete Carroll era.

CBS' Craig James said he'd never seen a team hit, especially one not in full pads, and compete the way the Trojans did. Ditto for Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel, who's been coming to see USC work out for four or five years.

Maybe there is something to having a coaching staff that for the first time in Carroll's seven seasons hasn't turned over, not a single spot...

SC’s Keith Rivers hopes to follow long line of Trojan greats in the NFL - KC Star
The jersey number at the University of Southern California is handed down from one player to the next as if it were a family heirloom.

No. 55.

It went from Junior Seau to Willie McGinest to Chris Claiborne to … Keith Rivers.

Seau, Claiborne and Rivers were All-American linebackers. And Seau, Claiborne and McGinest were first-round picks in the NFL draft, a legacy Rivers hopes to continue.

“That’s a big tradition,” Rivers acknowledged at the NFL scouting combine. “Great linebackers have worn it and made it proud. I was honored to have it and tried to do my best to live up to it.”...

Also, Rivers proves he can drive 55 - Detroit News
Keith's Journals - Yardslice.com

[Mandel] Sanchez expected to continue USC's long line of excellence at QB - CNNSI
...Carroll and Sarkisian decreed that fourth-year junior Mark Sanchez had performed impressively enough in that environment to officially earn the Trojans' starting job, and on this day, Sanchez clearly looks like a No. 1 guy both in performance and demeanor. With the pocket collapsing around him on one play, Sanchez laces a throw to Vidal Hazelton across the middle, eliciting a roar from coaches and teammates behind him and causing the ever-excitable Carroll to start racing down the field while marking a first-down signal. (Everyone runs at USC practices, even the guys holding the down-and-distance chains).

When it's time for one of his fellow quarterbacks, Mitch Mustain or Aaron Corp, to take their reps, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Sanchez is the most vocal cheerleader on the sideline. "C'mon Garrett, let's see what you got,"...All the while, he sports a mile-wide smile, high-fiving and joking with teammates...

USC defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis is a beast who’s a beauty - KC Star
Of all the awards and trophies handed out in college football, this may be the most obscure.

But to USC defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, it was the most cherished.

Ellis was a two-time winner of the Morris Trophy, which goes to the best lineman in the Pacific-10. It’s not the Heisman Trophy or the Outland Trophy or the Lombardi Award, nor is it determined by a vote of the media or the coaches.

What makes the Morris Trophy so special to Ellis is that it is voted on by the league’s starting offensive linemen.

“I hold it in high regard as one of the best awards because it’s voted on by your peers, by the people you play against,” Ellis said...

Lockwood candidate for BHS grid job - Boulder Daily Camera
...the job of Boulder High head football coach apparently is still a pretty coveted one.

Coveted enough anyway to attract the interest of one of the biggest prep football names the city has produced.

The Camera has learned that former Fairview High running back Scott Lockwood has applied to become BHS' next coach.

Lockwood was a Parade All-American for the Knights in the mid-1980s before playing collegiately at USC and spending three seasons in the NFL...

Pro Day Risers and Sliders - CNNSI
...Risers
Chauncey Washington, RB, USC...
...the star of USC's pro-day...Washington's performance solidified him as a top-75 pick and there's a good chance he could break into the second round.

Keith Rivers, OLB, USC
...every bit the part of being a top 10 choice...looked terrific in position drills...

...Sliders...
...Sam Baker, OL, USC
...looked slow and sluggish during pro-day...he has little opportunity to play tackle in the NFL...

...Chilo Rachal, G, USC
...looked stiff, unathletic and out of shape...

Laurinaitis, Maualuga highlight candidates for Lombardi Award - Lindy's Sports
The preseason Rotary Lombardi Award list is out and 54 players are among those on the watch list...

...The Rotary Lombardi Award goes annually to the college football lineman -- offense or defense -- who...best exemplifies the discipline of Vince Lombardi.

Eligibility for the Rotary Lombardi Award is limited to down linemen and those defensive players who line up within five yards of the football. The candidates earned a place on the preliminary watch list by earning All-American honors or by being named to their respective all-conference first team as selected by the conference's head coaches.

The preliminary watch list for the upcoming 2008 season are as follows:...Rey Maualuga, LB, Southern California...

Agent Guy McElwaine dies at 71 - Variety
Guy McElwaine, long one of Hollywood's top agents and studio execs, died Wednesday in Los Angeles...He was 71.

McElwaine was a founding partner of International Creative Management and served as a VP of production at Warner Bros., president of Columbia Pictures and, most recently, as prexy of Morgan Creek Productions...

...McElwaine was an L.A. native who attended USC and played baseball professionally out of college. He began his showbiz career as a manager and publicist, working with clients such as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Warren Beatty, The Righteous Brothers and The Mamas and the Papas...

OBITUARY: Tennis player ranked among best in world - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
There was no mistaking Roger Knapp's tennis prowess. By the age of 6, he had already claimed victory in the 10-and-under division of a city championship while growing up in Des Moines, Iowa.

Knapp, 48, who suffered a fatal heart attack Sunday, was a high school and college tennis standout who went on to become one of the top 150 players worldwide by 1985. That same year he beat one of the top 10 players, Henri Leconte, at a tournament in Bristol, England.

After leaving the pro tour the following year, Knapp coached at his alma mater, the University of Southern California, and later at Drake University in Des Moines, where he helped the tennis team reach the NCAA tournament in 1992 for the first time in the school's history.

"That was a monumental achievement," said a friend...

Jaguar Jon - Lake Oswego Review
They called him “Jaguar Jon.”

At 5-11 and 195 pounds, he was the complete package as a halfback in the 1950s, making All-American at [USC]...

...He had great speed, elusiveness and a highly unusual acrobatic ability...He had an incredible talent for making defenders zag while he zigged...

...now Jon Arnett makes Lake Oswego his home, even though for almost his entire life he was the quintessential Southern California glamour football player.

“I went to grammar school, junior high school, high school, USC and the Rams, all within a 5 mile radius,” Arnett said. “I was really a Southern California person.

“Now you couldn’t get me to go back there.”...

Against USC, Irish Have the History, and That's All - NY Sun
The good news for Notre Dame is that while Southern Cal could wipe the Irish out at South Bend this Saturday, they will still be leading the Trojans in their 77-year series. In fact, Notre Dame (who are underdogs by three touchdown) could get clobbered every year until 2018 and still be ahead. The bad news is that this is what's likely to happen.

Notre Dame–USC was, for more than 60 years, the most important single game in college football — that is, if you define importance by influence on national rankings (the two schools have a combined 24 national championships) and television ratings. That was a long time ago; now it isn't even just another game. Actually, the Irish and Trojans did play a great game in 2005...Southern Cal has now won the last five by a cumulative score of 204–92 — that's an average of 41–18...

...The last time Notre Dame won a bowl game was 1994...

Also, Irish failures puzzle Parseghian - Chicago Tribune
Wait's worth it for Sharpley - Chicago Tribune
Sharpley offers ND a fresh starter - South Bend Tribune

They're lining up on his side - LA Times
The body that made open-field tackles on legendary running back Jim Brown now struggles to get out of bed. The sure hands that snared 48 interceptions during a 12-year career fumble a Styrofoam cup. The sharp mind that got him into the NFL Hall of Fame now tricks him into believing that he is back in training camp for another season with Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers.

Willie Wood, 70, is paying the steep price for being a football hero.

Two knees and one hip have been replaced. Doctors have performed four major surgeries on his back and fused two vertebrae in his neck. And last year he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease...

...Yet Wood isn't facing his uncertain future alone...

USC's Johnson is looking for a break - LA Times
USC receiver Ronald Johnson returned kickoffs last week as a fill-in for injured C.J. Gable.

Now, with Gable out for the season after abdominal surgery, the freshman from Michigan intends to make the position his own when the second-ranked Trojans play Stanford today...

...Johnson returned three kicks in USC's 27-24 victory over Washington, one for 31 yards. Johnson thought it could have gone farther.

"It was a poor decision I made," Johnson said. "I should have kept it outside, so that's something I've been working on."...

..."I think I'll be able to break one this game," he said...

Also, USC heavily favored over Stanford - LA Times
Keys to the game - LA Times

Fix-it time - OC Register
...The Cardinal may as well be a backdrop, like one of those seaside cliffs in a sports-car commercial. The way USC is approaching this game, it's not about matching up with an athletically inferior team. It's about fixing the leaking engine, its offense, that sputtered away from Seattle last week.

After watching John David Booty sail ball after ball over receivers' heads, USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian called for a sit-down with his senior quarterback. Sarkisian and Booty watched film of that Washington game. Both swear they never once had to cover their eyes...

Trojans report: Notes, quotes - CBS Sportsline
--Could senior DT Sedrick Ellis be the top pick in the NFL Draft? Could be, said USC coach Pete Carroll.

"Sedrick is playing great football. He's really playing big-time ball," Carroll said. "He's dominating his area, he's making teams double him a bunch. We're moving him around some to try to keep him from that. He's just at the top of his game, and I've heard from a number of scouts that have visited us that he's one of the top players at his position in the country, and that makes you a No. 1 pick if you're a D-lineman.

"That's a lot to live up to, but that's what they're talking about."...

Also, Trojans report: Inside slant - CBS Sportsline
Trojans report: Strategy and personnel - CBS Sportsline

Towering Troy looms - Stanford Daily
...Pritchard will have to overcome his inexperience if the Cardinal is to pull off what would be a major upset. The third year sophomore is 1 for 3 for 10 yards in three appearances for his career...

...External factors are also at work against Stanford. Carroll’s teams rarely play two bad games in a row; USC followed up last year’s loss at Oregon State with a 42-0 blasting of Stanford...

...Then there are Cardinal coach Jim Harbaugh’s offseason comments...

...with the trouble Stanford’s defense has had stopping the run, USC’s offense may have no trouble grinding down the Cardinal. And with a new quarterback leading a hodgepodge unit on offense for Stanford, the talented Trojan defense should be drooling...

Also, [Ratto] LAY THE 40 1/2 ... - SF Chron
USC expects to bounce back - Daily Trojan
3 things to watch for other than the score - Daily Trojan
Week 6: Stanford at USC - Athlon Sports

Washington ready for heavy work day - LA Times
Chauncey Washington finds it a little hard to believe.

USC's tailback corps is significantly thinned by injuries, but the senior is not among the hobbled.

Asked Thursday if he considered himself lucky, Washington chuckled and said, "I don't even want to think about it because it might happen to me."

Washington, who was plagued by injuries throughout last season and the start of this one, will make his third consecutive start...

Guard Heberer ready to move up to first team - Inland Empire Press-Enterprise
There he was, standing in a five-man group with USC's Sam Baker, Jeff Byers, Matt Spanos and Drew Radovich as the Trojans' second-team offensive line went through its practice paces Thursday.

A week ago, redshirt freshman guard Zack Heberer was one of those second-teamers.

No longer.

With Chilo Rachal spraining his knee at Washington, Heberer has been running with the first team all week and likely will get the call with against Stanford on Saturday at the Coliseum...

[Goe] USC at head of the class - Portland Oregonian
...it's time to issue the Pacific-10 Conference's early-season progress reports...

...USC...
...Strengths: Defensively as good as there is in college football, with big-timers Taylor Mays at safety, Rey Maualuga at middle linebacker, Sedrick Ellis at nose tackle and Lawrence Jackson at defensive end. The offense is capable, with veteran quarterback John David Booty, lots of big receivers and fast running backs. Uh-oh: There are injury problems on an offensive line that will be patched together with bailing wire and chewing gum for this week's game against Stanford. No vertical stretch to the passing game. Grade: A...