Updates from September, 2007

Unlike last year’s contest, which wasn’t decided until the game’s final play, this year’s matchup between USC and Washington State (in each team’s Pac-10 opener) was decided before halftime, with the Trojans cruising to an easy 47-14 victory at the Coliseum. The Trojans showed impressive balance, with the ability to move the ball efficiently through […]

There were no major developments out of the Trojans’ walk-through on Friday, so we present a last group of articles previewing USC’s matchup with the Washington State Cougars at 5:00p Saturday at the Coliseum. We’ll be back late Saturday night with a roundup of post-game coverage (and before then, should there be any major news […]

Rather than posting detailed descriptions of each, I thought I’d simply call your attention to some interesting profiles on USC players which were published in the last several hours.  The Associated Press discusses senior nose tackle Sedrick Ellis’s domination of Nebraska and his decision to return for his senior year. Phil Collin of the Daily News analyzes the effect of having a dominant fullback […]

Pete Carroll named Chauncey Washington the starting tailback for Saturday’s game: “Somebody’s got to go first, so let’s say we’re going with the oldest guy…We plan on playing everybody.” Read on for more notes from Thursday, including another statement from the NCAA on progress in the Reggie Bush investigation.

ESPN has posted commentator Dick Vitale’s preseason college basketball rankings, and USC is sitting at 17th on his list, with Vitale adding that, had Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt returned, the Trojans would have been a top ten team. Vitale has fellow Pac-10 teams UCLA (#5), Oregon (#10),  Stanford (#13), and Washington State (#16)  all […]

Some notes from USC’s Wednesday practice as they continue to prepare for Washington State:

Thomas Williams got a lot of time in Clay Matthews‘ strong-side LB spot on Wednesday as the latter has been limited by his broken thumb. The man who originally occupied that position, Brian Cushing (ankle), is no longer a sure thing to […]

Scott Brandenburg of the Muskegon (Mich) Chronicle profiles hometown star and USC freshman WR Ronald Johnson, who certainly seems polished for a freshman in how he presents himself to the media. Johnson told the paper,
I want to keep working until I’m the guy…I really want to play hard and play well. I want my mom and […]

Paul Oberjuerge of the LA Daily News, like just about every other print news outlet and cable news program, is writing about O.J. Simpson this week. His angle, however, is to implicate USC for its refusal to formally distance itself from the Heisman Trophy winner by removing Simpson’s jersey and Heisman Trophy from Heritage Hall. […]

WR Patrick Turner, who dropped three catchable balls on Saturday and fumbled another one after a catch, stayed 15 minutes after practice Tuesday catching hard balls from an angle out of a machine, and he’s working on getting his arms above his head more quickly. Turner is feeling better from the pinched nerve in his shoulder, […]

USC’s dominating victory over Nebraska on Saturday was enough to land the Trojans on the cover of the September 24 issue of Sports Illustrated. The associated article, in addition to focusing on tailback Stafon Johnson and the resurgent Trojan ground game, dives into this season’s running storyline: namely, which conference is superior, the Pac-10 […]