Next to quarterback J.D. Booty, the one player that the Trojans desperately need to remain injury-free in 2007 is redshirt freshman fullback Stanley Havili, who is profiled by Gary Klein in today’s Los Angeles Times. Smart pundits draw a causal connection between the early-season losses of FBs Brandon Hancock, Ryan Powdrell, and Stanley Havili to the Trojans’ two losses and 4 other close games during the 2006 campaign. Along these lines, Pete Carroll laments,

We have all kinds of cool plays that just diminished out of the game plan because we just didn’t have the personnel.

Fullback position in good hands with Havili (LA Times)