February 2007 Archives

USC has gotten two more verbal comnmitments for the Class of 2008 with one an Inland Empire prospect, wide receiver/defensive back Chris Polk of Redlands East Valley, who was paired this week with a 6-foot-8 offensive lineman Matt Meyer of Stockton Lincoln.

With 6-8 Matt Kalil of Corona and Servire High (Ryan Kalil's younger brother) already commited, that gives the Trojans a pair of 6-8 tackles. Just a bit heavier than Kalil, Meyer tips the scales at 285.

Polk, a 5-11, 190-pounder with a 4.45 time in the 40, told wearesc.com that he'd been offered by USC a week before this year's Feb. 7 signing day. Both Polk and Meyer say they plan to attend USC's summer camp for top prep prospects.

So far so good for the USC guys at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. Ryan Kalil has come off as probably the No. 2 offensive lineman behind Wisconsin's 6-foot-8, 303-pound Joe Thomas.

And USC wide receiver Steve Smith ran an official 4.4 in the 40-yard dash although Dwayne Jarrett, with a slight groin pull, will not run for time until the USC Pro Timing Day March 28.

Not only did Kalil of Corona do 34 reps in the 225-pound bench press, fourth-best of all the offensive linemen (and six more than the long-armed Thomas could do, as expected), he also ran a 4.96 in the 40-yard dash and at a full 6-3, came out ahead in all of those categories of Rimington Award winner and first-team All-American Dan Mozes of West Virginia.

"He's got great hands, the best hands of any offensive linemen,'' NFL Draft analyst Mike Mayock said as Kalil did the mirror drill, noting that the only way Kalil won't be a first-round draft pick is if the league doesn't draft a center in the first round.

One of the first of some 300 NFL prospects to make it to the podium Thursday at the NFL Combine to address the media was "OL 26'' USC center Ryan Kalil, with a nearly full beard and a grey shweatshirt indicating he was "Offensive Lineman No. 26.''

Kalil, of Corona, the top-rated NFL prospect at his position by both the NFL.com and NFL Network draft analysts, hit all the familiar points starting out with his debt to the "competition'' theme at USC and to his father, and coach, Frank Kalil, a center in both the NFL and USFL.

"Pops'' as Kalil calls his father, didn't push him into football, Kalil said, and "I always admire him for that.'' But when he got to USC and the Trojans needed a center, he turned to his dad, a Servite assistant, for extra work.

"I've been a little awestruck seeing all these guys,'' Kalil said, also thanking longtime NFL exec and analyst Gil Brandt for the nice things he said about him.

Other compliments came as the NFL Network showed Kalil's Senior Bowl workouts with isolated shots of how he's able to dip his hips and maintain blocking contact while also finishing strong against bigger people.

Also in Indy for the Combine are USC alums Oscar Lua (MLB, Indio), Dallas Sartz (OLB) and junior Dwayne Jarrett (WR).

In of all places, here's a single question-and-answer from the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press that had a sitdown with NCAA President Myles Brand last week.

Not surprisingly, the subject of Reggie Bush and USC came up. Here's the transcript that puts the difficulties of the NCAA's enforcement effort into a little more focus than some of the sensational stories that have filtered out every so often.

Q to Brand: You brought up enforcement. How heavily has enforcement taken on the Reggie Bush case?

A: Well, we are doing an investigation, in conjunction with the PAC-10. We don't have subpoena power, so we can't call witnesses, and they're all engaged in a bunch of lawsuits.

As such, the attorneys for all the involved parties -- not just the Bush family, but all the involved parties -- have been letting out information selectively. So that makes it very difficult for us to get the facts of the matter, and if we don't get the facts right, then we're liable to a lawsuit, as well.

It's taking us an inordinate amount of time to get the facts out, but I think the situation is highly complicated by the other issues around it. But we are in the middle of an investigation.

Last year the official University of Michigan athletics Web site, Mgoblue.com, contributed this neat nugget to the world of college football information, something Big Ten and Pac-10 fans could feel good about.

Only seven major college schools had yet to play a Div. 1-AA opponent in the history of the NCAA division setup.

The seven: Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Washington, UCLA and USC.

Well, here's a hat tip to Wearesc.com poster "USC 484'' for picking up on this: Michigan will be off the list Sept. 1 when the Wolverines open the season against Div. 1-AA toughie Appalachian State.

And no, USC will not drop off next year. The Trojans' opening foe Idaho is Div. 1 all the way -- or at least some of the way.

With full credit to the Daily Trojan Wednesday for this comment from new USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, but it looks like USC may do more than just try to settle on the best way to run the football, as Sarkisian told the Press-Enterprise was his No. 1 priority in his first interview the day he arrived back at campus after turning down the Oakland job.

With a group of talented young backs whose number might be pushing double digits for the fall, that's a given.

But Sarkisian also hinted to the DT that he wasn't completely averse, as has been the case with Pete Carroll teams in the past, to exploring an occasional use of the shotgun for 6-foot-3 quarterbacks John David Booty and Mark Sanchez.

"It's something that we need to evaluate from last season,'' Sarkisian said after a year of more batted-down passes than the 6-5 pair of Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart ever suffered.

"We're a couple of inches shorter than we were in the past,'' Sarkisian said and the shotgun might be a nice third-down change of pace.

The firing of Marty Schottenheimer by the San Diego Chargers was much more than just a blip on the NFL coaching carousel Monday. It was fuel for the college coaching conspiracists -- and it knocked the USC/Reggie Bush/Joe McKnight recruiting story off the top of the college fans' Web sites.

Aha, the first thought in the conspiracy chain that was put together in a heartbeat: No wonder USC assistant Steve Sarkisian didn't take the Raiders head coaching job, he knew another job would soon be opening that he wanted more.

Aha, the second thought hit: No wonder USC assistant Lane Kiffin hot-footed it to the Raiders (never mind that five-fold minimum raise he got), he knew his patron, and godfather, Pete Carroll, was going to be gone.

The there was "aha'' No. 3: Why do you think the Chargers waited so long to let Schottenheimer go? They were just waiting for Carroll to finish recruiting at USC, then he could leave.

Hey, if it made any sense, it wouldn't be a conspiracy.

After all, isn't it Pete Carroll's dream to coach a West Coast NFL franchise with a chance to win right away? And do so for less money in a smallish media market in a bad stadium with meddling management that had just fired a coaching legend who had gone 14-2 and done so for reasons no one can quite understand after a longstanding dispute no one can quite explain with a GM whose name no one can quite remember.

Probably not.

As Carroll told anyone and everyone who asked him Tuesday, clearly showing that he'd learned from all his talk after the Miami Dolphins interview: "I've got nothing for you. I'm not talking about it."

He doesn't have to. Everyone else seems to be. In the featured AOL Sports story on the late firing, there was Carroll's picture the first of all the "prospects'' despite both sides saying there was no interest or contact.

Give the AOL readers credit, however. In a poll asking which of the four "longshot'' candidates might get the Chargers job, they had Carroll, at 23 percent, behind Bill Cowher (37 percent) and barely ahead of Jimmy Johnson (21 percent) and Bill Parcells (19 percent).

From the minute that Rivals.com reported that LSU's recruiting of Louisiana tailback Joe McKnignt included a heavy dose of negative inferences about the Reggie Bush investigation and possible NCAA penalties for USC, you knew that wouldn't be the end of the story.

That would make it imperative for USC to answer those concerns for a recruit, especially when he's playing in the same town as Bush, but did it include a conference call with USC Coach Pete Carroll and Bush or an opportunity to listen in to such a call on a speakerphone?

At his press conference Wednesday, McKnight seemed to indicate that something like that had happened, which would raise the issue of whether Trojan alum Bush was involved in recruiting for USC, something the NCAA forbids.

Now the LA Times is reporting that both Carroll and McKnight's high school coach, with whom he has been living after Hurricane Katrina, say the call didn't happen. The coach reports that McKnight was confused and didn't express himself correctly and that he'd just heard about such a call but wasn't on it nor did he get a call from Bush. That would seem to make this a nonstory, even if the USC, Pac-10 and NCAA compliance people will all certainly check it out now.

But if you're USC these days and recruiting the No. 1 running back in the nation to replace Reggie Bush and doing so in the same town where Bush is the big story and doing so against a homestate program not at all happy about losing a player like McKnight, then you can be sure things like this will come up.

But if there was no call, no conversation involving Bush and McKnight as now agreed to by all the principals who have talked about it, there would seem to be no violation even if that word makes it into the headline. And considering the way the Bush request for a sideline pass for the Rose Bowl turned out, it would seem a reasonable inference that USC wouldn't be calling on Bush all that much for help these days.

Take a close look at Oregon's 29-signeee class that's ranked as high as No. 8 in the nation (by Scout.com) and No. 2 in the Pac-10.

What do you see?

You see that 19 of the Duck prospects come from Southern California. That's more than next-highest-ranked Cal had with 10 of its 25-man class from SoCal or even Washington, No. 4 in the Pac-10, which signed 11 Southern Californians.

Both of the out-of-state schools signed more than UCLA's Bruins, limited to 10 overall this year, who signed seven from SoCal.

As subjective as individual and player rankings can be in college football recruiting, multiply that by a factor of 10 when it comes to comparing conferences.

Although you can take these two rankings to the bank. The Southeastern Conference was No. 1 this year, so far ahead it's not even close. And the Big East was by far at the bottom of the BCS six leagues. Again, no doubt here. It's the ones in the middle that you can debate.

The SEC was simply unchallenged. According to Rivals.com, the SEC had seven of the top 10 classes Wednesday, starting with No. 1 Florida, No. 3 Tennessee, LSU (4), South Carolina (6), Auburn (7), Georgia (8) and Alabama (10).

Only No. 2 USC, No. 5 Texas and No. 8 Notre Dame made the Top 10 with the SEC teams.

The Big East, with its best team, Pittsburgh at No. 25, was almost noncompetitive.

With Oregon at No. 11 and Cal at No. 22 in Rivals.com, Pac-10 fans make the case that the league could be No. 2 overall. The Scout.com rankings work even better here for the Pac-10, with Oregon at No. 8 and Cal No. 12.

But the Big 12 has Nos. 13-14 Nebraska and Oklahoma joining Texas while the Big Ten and ACC didn't have any Top 10 programs, those leagues had lots of mid-level strength.

Michigan (No. 12), Ohio State (13), Illinois (17) and Penn State (23) are the top Big Ten teams with North Carolina (16), Miami (18), Florida State (19) Georgia Tech (20), Clemson (21) and Virginia (24) tops in the ACC.

The rest of the Pac-10 looks like this: Washington (35), UCLA (38), Arizona (43), Arizona State (44), Oregon State (46), Stanford (52) and Washington State (62).

LA Loyola safety Chris Conte committed to Cal months ago, but last month rescinded and opted to commit to UCLA. On Wednesday, however, he switched again and signed with the Bears.

Conte spent plenty of time at UCLA practices during training camp in August, even though he was a solid Cal commit at the time. In fact, he even showed up wearing Cal gear at least once, and UCLA coaches allowed him to watch practices, sensing that he may be willing to re-open his recruitment.

Joe McKnight, the top running back in the nation from New Orleans, picked USC over LSU and Mississippi. McKnight also played receiver, defensive back and returned kicks for Class 2A state champion John Curtis HS. McKnight said he picked USC because it has a strong public relations program. McKnight made his announcement live this morning on ESPNU.

McKnight is the nation's No. 1 running back, according to SuperPrep magazine.

McKnight is a multi-purpose threat. His senior season, he had 709 yards rushing (15.7 per carry) with 14 TDs and 735 yards receiving (30.6 per catch) with 13 TDS.

He averaged 22.3 yards on 12 punt returns with 3 TDs and 34.6 yards on five kickoff returns.

UCLA commit Brian Price, who is planning to sign with the Bruins on Wednesday, has been one of the most hotly recruited D-Linemen in the West, despite giving his verbal to UCLA last March. USC has been making advances, much to the displeasure of the Price family.

Having already told USC he was not interested in taking an official visit, USC assistant Ken Norton Jr. - a former UCLA player - called Price last month and tried to get him to check out the campus on an official visit. After some joking on the phone, Norton asked if Price would prefer to be picked up in a Mercedes-Benz or a Chevy Tahoe, and Price said he jokingly told Norton he preferred the Tahoe, but then declined the trip altogether.

The following day, Price said, he was pulled out of his fourth-period art class by a guidance counselor who informed him a limousine was waiting in front of Crenshaw High for him. When he got to the front, the driver asked Price to get in and they were going to USC.

With school officials declining to release Price without parental permission, Frank Price came to the school. They called Norton, who instructed the two to hop in and come to the campus, despite Brian and Frank repeatedly telling USC coaches they were not interested in taking the trip.

"He didn't get it through his head, and I had to keep on telling him no," said Brian Price, who grew up a USC fan. "I wasn't falling for it. "That wouldn't look right for UCLA. I'm the face of UCLA football right now. I already know I would not be the face of the USC team. Me taking that trip would be giving UCLA a bad name."

After they sent the limo away, both said they have not been contacted by USC
since. USC coaches are not allowed to comment on Price, since he is still a recruitable athlete until he signs.

While it's being reported that the use of a limo in recruiting is a violation of NCAA rules, Carroll told the LA Times that the school uses Town Cars, not limos. Price's father is quoted as saying the car was much longer than a limo.

The reports that former Saints and Raiders assistant John Morton, who coached with USC offensive coordinator and assistant head coach Steve Sarkisian at Oakland, has been hired to replace Lane Kiffin may be a bit premature.

According to USC Coach Pete Carroll, Morton has been offered the job as passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach. But he has yet to sign a contract or do any of the paperwork required to be hired at USC.

And USC has not done all the paperwork required to make a hire, as well. And with Morton's wife expecting their second baby any day now, the deal could take as much as another week to be completed.

Morton, 36, played in college for Western Michigan and in the CFL for the Toronto Argonauts. He coached at Oakland for parts of seven seasons and helped the University of San Diego to an 11-1 record under new Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh in 2005 before going to New Orleans as a Saints passing game assistant for this past season.

USC strength and conditioning coach Chris Carlisle has been named the 2006 National Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year by the Professional Football Strength and Conditioning Coaches Society.

The 44-year-old Carlisle, in his sixth year as USC's head strength and conditioning coach, will be presented the award at the society’s annual banquet Feb. 23 in Indianapolis.

"Coach Carlisle is a big reason for any success I've had in college,'' USC senior center Ryan Kalil said after the season.

They aren't ever written in stone but USC has announced the dates for spring football practice. Workouts open March 20, with additional practices March 22, 23, 25, 27, 29, 30 and April 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13 and 14.

The Trojan Huddle spring game is Saturday, April 7, at the Coliseum with the annual Pro Timing Day (closed to the public) March 28. The Coaches Clinic will be March 23-24 with the "Swim With Mike'' fundraiser closing things out April 14.

USC announced Tuesday that for the first time, Trojan fans can watch live as the 2007 football recruits are "unveiled exclusively on usctrojans.com at 4 p.m.'' today.

USC Coach Pete Carroll's press conference, along with bios and highlight video of all the recruits, will be available.

To quote USC sports information director Tim Tessalone: "Many national recruiting publications listed USC’s last four signing classes among the tops in the nation each year. The 2007 class is expected to be ranked equally as high.''

Stay tuned.

Early last week, when Long Beach Poly recruit Donovan Warren, the No. 3 cornerback prospect in the nation, announced he'd be heading off improbably to Ann Arbor and turning his back on USC, among others, you couldn't help but hear "the sky is falling'' talk from some Trojan fans.

It's Pete's fault, if only the USC head coach hadn't flirted with the NFL again. And losing recruiting coordinator Lane Kiffin to the Raiders didn't help things. Woe is us was the word.

Then on Sunday, at his church in Muskegon, Mich., Top 10 overall prospect Ronald Johnson, a cornerback/wide receiver/kick returner with measurable skills probably superior to those of Warren across the board, although both run the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds, stood up in front of his hometown fans to say that no, he wasn't going to homestate Michigan, which had seemed to be in the lead for months. Nor would he go to nearby Michigan State, where his brother had committed. Nor would he be going to Florida, which had made a tremendous run at him.

He would be going to USC, the 6-foot, 177-pound Johnson said, and would be signing his national letter-of-intent Wednesday. As he announced his choice, some 9,100 Michigan fans were signed on to the teams' top fans' Web site, according to a report in the Detroit Free-Press, to get the immediate word of where the nation's top-ranked cornerback would be going to school.

Johnson's commitment ties USC, despite its small class of recruits numbering 15 to 18, with Florida in one national ranking and with Tennessee in another for the most five-star recruit commitments while putting USC one ahead of Florida in top-100 recruits -- 11 to 10.