Healing?

The Trojans appear to be returning to near full-strength just in the nick of time. I expect Saturday’s game at Oregon to be the most challenging game of the regular season for the Trojans.

Here is the projected depth chart for the 2007 Trojans updated to reflect the current injury situation to the best of my knowledge. I should note that I was surprised to see Brian Cushing, Rey Maualuga, and especially Stafon Johnson play as much as they did at Notre Dame.


Affected players’ names are followed by a number indicating the number of games he has missed so far this year due to injury and his status for the Oregon game.
Strikethroughs indicate players who are out for the year.
Contrary to USC’s official press release last week, Nick Howell is not out for the year.

The linebacker corps has returned to virtually full strength. Cushing, Maualuga, and Keith Rivers are all finally ready to start together for the first time since the Idaho game. The secondary will also be starting their strongest line-up, excepting Josh Pinkard who is lost for the year. Finally, the offensive line is surely returning to health. The 2007 projected starting offensive line of Sam Baker, Jeff Byers, Matt Spanos, Chilo Rachal, and Drew Radovich will probably start together for the first time this year.

Mark Sanchez will start again in place of the healing John David Booty. That might be a good thing.

I am very excited about tomorrow’s game. This is about the time Pete Carroll’s Trojan teams have engaged the afterburners in years past, and last week at Notre Dame they played their most complete game of the season. Of course, Notre Dame is no Oregon (this phrase normally having the opposite meaning than in 2007) and Notre Dame Stadium is no Autzen. However, I believe tomorrow we will finally be privileged to see the Trojan football team everyone expected at the beginning of the season.

McKnight Believes Bush

I got to thinking today about whether the New Orleans Saints drafting Reggie Bush in 2006 helped USC land the top-ranked running back recruit in 2007, Joe McKnight.

McKnight attends John Curtis H.S. in suburban New Orleans. Presumably, McKnight is a fan of the Saints and their star rookie running back. Today, when McKnight announced his decision, he said his decision to attend USC over LSU and Ole Miss came down to the strength of USC's public relations program, in which McKnight plans to major. However, it wouldn't surprise me if Bush being a Saint influenced McKnight's thinking to some degree.

Apparently, Bush helped USC seal the deal with McKnight. Check out this quote from an Associated Press story on McKnight's announcement:

McKnight said he was not at all worried about the prospect that USC may be penalized because of an investigation of whether Reggie Bush or his parents took improper payments from agents while Bush was playing there.

McKnight said USC coach Pete Carroll set up a conference call so he and [McKnight's coach J.T.] Curtis could talk to Bush and ease their worries that USC might wind up under sanctions.

"We addressed that directly and we were satisfied," Curtis said. He said Carroll told him that USC is not being investigated.

I would love to hear what Bush told them.

Also of note: due to Hurricane Katrina, McKnight started his junior year playing for Evangel Christian (Shreveport, LA), John David Booty's high school.

Update (02/09/2007): USC is looking into whether it broke NCAA rules while recruiting McKnight. Apparently, it is a violation for a former player to telephone a recruit or his relatives or guardian. Carroll, Curtis, and McKnight have all denied that any such call ever took place, saying that McKnight misspoke at his news conference and that McKnight was never on a conference call with Bush.