I was wondering if anyone could give me any updates on a few of our injured players.  I don't believe Stanley Havili played against UCLA.  I know he got dinged up against Notre Dame and I was wondering if anyone had any info.  Same thing goes for Ellison.  I believe he was cleared to play before the Notre Dame game but said his knee wasn't feeling right and ended up sitting out. 

Also from where I sat in the stadium it looked like Damian Williams did something to his arm/shoulder on a play towards the end of the game.  I don't believe he came in after that.  Anyway, I feel all three guys are critical to our defense and especially our offense.  Hopefully these guys will be okay with a few weeks to heal before Jan. 1st. 

Hi guys.  Big SC fan here.  I'm going to go out on a limb and assume we beat UCLA this weekend and end up playing you guys in the Rose Bowl.  While I must admit that I, along with many other SC fans, was rooting for Oregon State to win last weekend so that we could play in the Fiesta against Texas or perhaps an SEC team, I still think the Rose Bowl will be an awesome game between two well matched teams.  While it's true that if SC wins, the national media will probably not give SC much credit for beating another Big Ten team, I won't let that fact temper my enthusiam for this game.     

With that said, I look forward to some great banter between our two fan groups over the next several weeks leading up to the big game.  My question for you guys is this: What do you perceive to be your teams biggest weaknesses, and what gameplan should SC employ to exploit those weaknesses and win the game?

I'll go first and give you this one fan's opinion on how to beat SC.  I've dissected every game SC has played this year (as well as the last ten years) so I would hope I some insight on the subject.  Let's start with the big one, How to beat SC's defense.  Well, I'll tell you, it won't be easy.  SC leads the nation in just about every significant defensive statistic and by a good margin at that.  Then again stats can be misleading and don't always give a complete picture.

In my opinion SC's greatest asset on defense is that the entire defense is composed of outright athletic freaks.  These are big strong fellas who are amazingly quick for their size.  The starting linebackers (Cushing, Maualuga, Maiava) are arguably the best groups of LBs in the history of SC.  (and please although Big Rey is a walking highlight, overall Brian Cushing is easily our best linebacker.  Dont' let anyone tell you otherwise).

All that said, despite all their physical prowess, this SC defense is not always the most disciplined group.  In their zealous pursuit of a ESPN top ten highlights, they have a tendency to commit bonehead penalties.  And I mean a lot of them.  I haven't looked it up but I'm almost certain that SC was the most penalized team in the Pac Ten this year.  And this isn't a recent trend either.  We've been one of the most penalized teams in the Pac-10 over the last several years.  If SC's comes out a little too loose on Jan 1st and starts making a lot of mistakes, then it will go a long way towards neutralizing their stout D.

So how does one attack the SC defense?  Well, for starters don't run the ball against them.  It's just not a good idea.  However if you must, then never EVER try to run the ball around the edges or corners.  The LBS and secondary are simply way too fast and shut almost everything down around the edges.  If you're going to run it, run it up the gut every time.  When the defense has struggled this year (ie that horrible game in Corvallis) it's been against quick shifty backs who shoot the gaps up the middle.  If Penn State can establish a rhythm in their running game where they're gaining 5, 6 yards at a time, up the middle with a decent consistency, then their chances for success increase exponentially. 

How about in the passing game?  Carroll's basic defensive philosophy is to take away the the home run plays from the opposition by playing a soft zone coverage most of the time.  Although he certainly has the personnel to play shut down man to man, he just doesn't most of the time.  What that means is that the quick slant routes are there for a good QB who can read the defense and get rid of the ball before the inevitable blitzes come.  I'm actually really surprised that more teams throughout the year didn't attack SC on this front.  SC has phenominal defensive passing statistics but that's partly the product of not playing many teams that consistently attacked their secondary as well it being a down year for QBs in the Pac-Ten.  So as far as passing goes, the dink and dunk is definitely the way to go against SC.  (Also just as a word to the wise, Penn State would be wise not to try too many deep passes against the SC secondary.  Taylor Mays the free safety, is probably the biggest athletic freak of them all and lately has just been blowing people up.  Just a word of caution if you value the well-being of your WRs).      

Anyway, this is just a springboard to get some good analysis going and this is just one fan's opinion, albeit a little oversimplified.  Anyway, since I didn't get to watch many Penn State games this year, I'd love to hear more about your teams weaknesses and what not.  Take it easy.

I was watching the video on wearesc that was recently posted showing the 7 on 7 drills from Tuesday.  On it they showed a short clip of Brice Butler running a short route and catching a pass.  The thing that immediate jumps out at you is just how LONG Brice's arms look.  It came as no surprise to me that the team has already given Brice the nickname, "spider arms".

I tried doing a search on Brice to see if his wingspan was listed anywhere and a quick google search shows a quick blurb from Rivals that seems to indicate that his wingspan is 6'10!!!!  I can't be positive because I don't have a premium membership but that would seem to make sense with what everyone is saying (there's another article that came up where Brice was quoted as saying that when he is standing straight up, he can "almost" touch his knees).

Obviously it's just speculation (and maybe wishful thinking) at this point but man, think what kind of jump balls a WR with a 6'10 wingspan can grab.  Here's to some sick grabs from Mr. Butler in the years to come.

Go SC! 

While I am usually loathe to compare these two guys because I feel it's really an inordinate amount of pressure to place on Mcknight so early in his career but I came across this little tidbit and I thought it was interesting.

Rushing stats R. Bush Freshman year.  (13 games)

521 yards on 90 carries (5.8 avg) with 3 TDs

Rushing stats Mcknight Freshman year. (13 games)

540 yards on 94 carries (5.7 avg) with 3 TDs

Pretty darn similar.  Coincidence or harbinger of great things to come?

I just wanted to express just how much Stafon Johnson is continuing to impress me.  The guy is such a natural runner.  Sure he doesn't have blinding top end speed but who cares?  Week after week, he just seems to have found his niche and I've lost count of how many plays where he's met at the line of scrimmage by a linebacker only to break free and gain 10 yards or so.  Anyway, I just wanted to give some huge props to Stafon.  I'm really looking forward to seeing him further develop over the next couple years.

Random observations about Stafon, but has anyone noticed how incredibly tiny his hands are?  In every photo I've seen his hands look like child hands.  Doesn't seem to matter though because he's yet to fumble.  (knock on wood).  And also I see how's he's listed at 6'1 but I'm sorry, there's no way he's that tall.  Take a look at this photo of him standing next to Turner. He looks about 6 to 7 inches shorter, putting him about 5"10 or so at most.  Anyway, neither of these things matter just random observatons.

 http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/teamphotos?photoId=1698400&teamId=30

I don't know if anyone else has already pointed this out, but in case they haven't, this is hilarious.  I love how he just disappears off screen.  Classic stuff indeed.  The rest of this sentence is just filler so I can get the 300 character minimum.  I hope this is enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPbSE-qGRXo

After the loss to Oregon State, SC dropped to #9 in the BCS but I still felt they had an outside shot of making the big game.  After only 2 WEEKS (and of course all the upsets this weekend) the trojans are back to #3 in the BCS.  Pretty incredible.  Now there's no doubt the Trojans most assuredly control their destiny.  Win out and the strength of schedule will only go up with the 2 tough games coming up.  Granted there's still soooo much football to be played but USC has been given another shot.  Let's see what they do with it.

I read on ESPN that Jarrett will try to play on Saturday.  I really would hate to see him aggravate the injury more and cause him to ultimately miss more than 2 to 4 weeks.  I'm not too concerned about the next few weeks.  USC should take care of business.  However SC can't afford to be without Jarrett for that murderous November schedule (sans Stanford of course).  Oh, well, I guess he knows his injury better than anyone.  The offensive injury bug has just been really hard on the offense this year.  

Good to see that Jarrett won't miss any games.  This has been such a nightmarish offseason for the trojans and it's about time there was some good news.  Speaking of receivers, has anyone seen Patrick Turner lately?  According to Feldman on espn, he's looking huge.  6'5 and 230 pounds of rock solid muscle.  With him and Jarrett on the field at the same time, that's some awesome targets for Booty to throw at.