A commenter over on The Peristyle dug this up. This is some real neat stuff!

WOW!!

You can see the rest here.

Doc Saturday breaks it down perfectly...

If the Trojans are meant to be just an example, well, the Association had a chance to knock Alabama back into the Dubose era as a repeat repeat offender, and didn't take it.

Yeap...we have pretty much said similar things in the past.

Maybe they will and maybe they won't but the only reason this is getting more play now is because of the alleged linking of both the Bush and Mayo investigations. There will be no death penalty. The lack of institutional control charge will be tenuous at best because a school can't investigate a families individual finances any more than the NCAA has subpoena powers.

There are people out there that really have a hard-on to punish USC as we see in this article. (in which Doc was refering to in his piece)

Watch out, USC. Some influential folks in the NCAA are yearning to hammer a school that has strayed from its rules on recruiting and/or academics. So if what's published about Reggie Bush turns out to be the truth, the Trojans will be the first major football program in at least five years to face serious sanctions.

History would say otherwise. Recent examples, especially the Florida State academic fraud and the Alabama textbook cases, show the NCAA has spared the rod on its top programs. Probation and vacation of victories have replaced significant scholarship losses and postseason or television bans as popular punishment.

Once again we have another writer trying to connect the dots to make a conspiracy theory out of the Reggie Bush mess.

What many people seem to miss is that after 3 years of trying to sort the Bush mess out the NCAA still has nothing to report. If this was so cut and dry SC would have been hammered by now. The NCAA has to be careful NOT to come down too hard because they could find themselves in court over it.

If we are to believe the Sporting News writers contention that the NCAA "spared the rod" on FSU and Alabama then that is on the NCAA. FSU's scandal involved multiple players in multiple sports and Alabama was a repeat offender so how does the NCAA justify punishing USC hard for one rogue player WHOSE PARENTS were the ones that initially broke the rules. There maybe other issues that come up in regards to Bush but we haven't heard a lot on that other than unsubstantiated claims made by the accuser(s).

The battle lines have been drawn on this. No one knows just how it will shake out but many think SC will get minimal punishment unless some incredible earth shattering news comes to light. I mean after three years we have seen nothing leaked that could be damning...no investigation can keep things under wraps this long, sooner or later something is going to come out.

Chalk up another hater...

Ted Miller has a couple of interesting pieces today.

Here is his nice write-up on Jeff Byers...

Jeff Byers has been around a long time at USC and he's seen a lot. He started games for the 2004 team that won a second consecutive national championship. And he's seen his promising career almost end due to injuries, which killed two of his seasons.

Old Man Byers, as some of his teammates hail the sixth-year offensive guard, will anchor perhaps the nation's best offensive line this fall as a sixth-year senior. Yet his chief reason for hanging around for so long might surprise you.

"I came back because I wanted to finish my masters' degree, first off," said Byers, who will turn 24 in September.

Let's just say that Byers has used his time at USC wisely. While many yakety yak endlessly about college athletes not getting paid, Byers has parlayed his football scholarship into a bachelor's degree in business administration and tossed in an MBA for good measure.

That would cost most folks around $350,000.

That is some nice scratch...and that is before football. If he never plays in the NFL he will do pretty well with what he has accomplished in school. Byers really has been the anchor of late. His experience last year was really key in bringing the O line along and we culd not have done it without him.

Byers is a great Trojan!

Miller is also fretting about our depth at running back...again.

It's another bushel of stories about USC's embarrassment of riches at tailback and the counterintuitive but entirely defensible idea that too much of a good thing might become a bad thing.

Or at least a less good thing than it could be if there were, say, merely three future NFL draft choices in the backfield instead of six.

Look. Here's one already! (A good one, in fact).

To let you in on a little secret: Sportswriters don't like doing the same story over and over again. And I've hit this one a few times over the years.

I've got a hunch, too, my boss is going to call me up at some point soon and say ... USC running backs ... think ... we ... need to... hit that one ... again.

Look, its what Pete Carroll does...stockpile talent. No one is twisting these guys arms to come here to compete. I like our rotation, Pete Carroll will find the right mix like he always does. I am hoping that John Morton finds a few tricks up his sleeve that he can throw into the mix.

It will be fun to watch (again)!

I am not sure why this was such a big deal...

But Mitch Mustain has been cleared to play next season.

USC quarterback Mitch Mustain has resolved an academic issue and is eligible for the coming season, Coach Pete Carroll said.

"It's been resolved," said Carroll, whose team reports for training camp Aug. 7.

Carroll had confirmed last week that Mustain, a fourth-year junior, was dealing with unspecified academic matters that could have jeopardized his eligibility. The Trojans open the season against San Jose State on Sept. 5.

Meh...We have seen it before and it gets cleared up so I am not sure it was big as SOME made it out to be. Hopefully he has righted the ship and things will go smoothly in the fall.

BTW...anyone think we will have some fun with this?

I will!!

Here it is!

Download the PDF file...

Phil Steele USC 2009

As usual it is a great read!

DFW Trojan put this up in the FanShots but I wanted this to get some main page exposure.

This is a great write-up! Once again we see why we are so lucky to have Pete Carroll coaching at USC.

Here is an excerpt...

I wanted to attend the University of Southern California. Color television was just becoming popular, and the colors that emanated from national broadcasts of Trojan football games from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum; against UCLA and Notre Dame; of glorious, warm autumn Saturdays or bright Southland evenings; of beautiful cheerleaders and tanned alumni dressed in beach attire; of the band and the feeling; well, let me tell you, it had a real effect on me.

In 1969, a high school buddy and I drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We bought tickets and were sitting high up in the Coliseum stands for a night game in which UCLA led with only a couple of minutes to play. Both teams were unbeaten. The Rose Bowl, and perhaps the national championship, hung in the balance. The giant throng, half rooting for the Bruins, half for the Trojans, pleaded and begged for victory. The tension was so thick you could cut the November night air, which was already electric with gridiron excitement and hot Santa Ana winds, with a proverbial knife.

Trojan quarterback Jimmy Jones had been bottled up by an unforgiving UCLA defense all evening. He, his team and the USC fans were frustrated. Now he faced one last chance. He dropped back to pass, was chased down, and tossed up a desperation heave that fell incomplete, but before the Bruins could celebrate, a flag fell calling for pass interference against UCLA. Given a reprieve, Jones went deep into the corner of the end zone. In those days, the lights at the Coliseum were not as bright as they are today, and the pass descended into the shadows. There, in those shadows, the ball found the waiting arms of Sam Dickerson for a touchdown and a 14-12 Southern California victory. It sent Troy to the Rose Bowl, where they completed an unbeaten season by defeating Michigan.

A vivid description...

This will be a great book when its released!

FIGHT ON! COACH CARROLL

mmm-kay

HT: EDSBS

We will get back to Floyd's resignation later

This is too rich to pass up!

I knew this was going to happen.

So, you read my posts here and here. But Adam Rose clarifies it for us. (emphasis added)

But it turns out that Neuheisel's kids -- or anybody under the age of 18 -- can already be on the sideline provided they are performing a game-related task.

After telling the crowd that they would leave "ticked off at Pete Carroll, ticked off at all that is SC," Neuheisel described how Carroll was the lone dissenter in a 9-1 vote by the league's coaches. He apparently forgot to mention that the Pac-10 athletic directors immediately shot down the proposal, 8-2, with only UCLA and Arizona in favor of the change.

League officials were primarily concerned about increased liability, and also wary that a change might lead to efforts by administrators or even donors to try to get sideline passes for their children, too. As proposed, the new rule would have allowed any coach's child onto the sideline. Such a change could have added as many as two dozen kids on some sidelines.

I guess that covers Ricky Rosas. (sorry 102 - Nice try though, thanks for playing, you can get your lovely parting gifts when you drop off my pizza)

And to boot, 8 of 10 Pac-10 AD's voted it down so I guess Skippy not only got the rule wrong but it was the AD's that had the final say not the coaches, further embarrassing this nimrod. So much for top notch ucla education (not to mention embarrassing USC's Law School).

All Skippy had to do was read the rules (or pick up the phone and ask someone)...it was there in black and white. He was so intent on sticking it to PC that he didn't get his facts straight. So, while he may be 100% right as ESPN's Ted Miller states, it turns out he got the rule wrong and Miller missed it too...on national TV.

Great Job Guys! Who looks petty now?

Too funny, it killed two birds with one stone. Looks like some peoples agenda just got exposed...again!

Well, we can all rest easy Ted Miller has got Skippy's back so the controversy is over....

Whew...thank God we got that all straightened out.

Miller is hilarious in calling Pete Carroll petty in tweaking Slick Rick. Right... Skippy has never tried to tweak Pete, not at all. I'm sure we don't half the stuff that goes on behind the scenes.

Miller misses the point...its not about how many passes USC gives out but who they give them to Miller tries make a big deal out of that in his post on the matter. It doesn't matter who SC passes them out to. There is a Pac-10 rule in place about minors not being on the sideline. If the Pac-10 choose not to enforce it, it is not my problem.PC did not agree with changing the rule, what is so hard to understand about that? There is not a greater conspiracy here and if even if there is, is anyone surprised? SC has pretty much done their own thing, meanwhile no one has forgotten the LAT ad...I'm sure Slick Rick didn't know anything about that right? Or the red meat he throws out at halftime at Pauley.

Sure, Rick has never lied before has he. We should just believe him at face value...whatever you say Huckleberry.

And what does this have to with Pete's charity work? That sounds like Apples and Oranges to me. Miller throws that out there from way out in left field. I have not seen it written anywhere where why the other 9 coaches want the rule changed (other than for sentimental reasons about son's being on the sidelines with their dad), only that Pete Carroll is an ogre and supposedly hates little children.

Skippy comes into town and wants to do things to grab some attention...fine but when you stick your head up too high someone is going to throw rocks at you sooner or later. Dose anyone think that it could be the other way around that maybe Slick Rick got all the coaches together to tweak Pete Carroll? I mean with the stories that go on in the recruiting wars it would not surprise me at all.

Miller got his wish...he got some juicy gossip to report on...

A few weeks ago I told Chris Low, ESPN.com's SEC blogger, how jealous I was of all the squabbling going on amongst his coaches, particularly Pac-10 export, Lane Kiffin.

It warms my heart when college football goes all pro wrestling -- always thought Ric Flair would be a great coach.

Congrats Ted, you are now ESPN's official version of a National Enquirer reporter.

At least you got the guys on that other blog on your side...good luck with that.