Where to begin with the Trojans? It's hard to find a place as it seems that their reign will never end barring a Carroll exit. To look at a team up and down that should have been playing for the National Championship for an unprecedented fourth straight year and not find any holes is frightening in the least. If not for a late season stumble against their hated crosstown rivals UCLA and an earlier hiccup against Oregon State these Trojans were headed for an NCAA record 3 championships in 4 seasons.

The Trojans will be returning 18 of 22 seasoned starters from that '06 team combined with the best recruiting class for a fourth straight year that includes the Nations prize recruit Joe McKnight. There was controversy surrounding that recruitment as allegations of tampering floated around the AP news wires. Those voices have now fell silent and have added up to nothing more than the rest of the NCAA lamenting another dominate Trojan team.

Many pundits have speculated at the loss of two starters from the receiving core may have crippled the mighty Trojans for another year, but reports out of Spring practices seem to indicate otherwise. Junior Patrick Turner(6'5"), red shirt freshman David Ausberry(6'5") team up with 6'3" sophomore Vidal Hazelton to hopefully become HUGE red zone targets for John David Booty. Red shirt freshman Travon Patterson is going to be Booty's "speed" target at the wide out position.

At running back however there remains questions that have yet to be answered. The Trojans have seven 1st and 2nd year running backs who have earned HS All-American honors.
With this bottleneck at RB comes the possibility of transfers to other programs, but who is the front runner to start for the powerhouse Trojans? So far this question remains unanswered, but three have become front runners for the spot. Former starter Hershel Dennis is trying to come back from a knee injury suffered last spring. Before that injury he started ahead of Reggie Bush and LenDale White in 2003.

Chauncey Washington was the leading rusher last year, but is once again struggling academically after sitting out the '04 and '05 seasons for the same reasons. Sophomore Stafon Johnson is nursing a shoulder injury this spring that required an operation. The recruitment of McKnight, who is slated to share some of those carries, should help alleviate whatever concerns that the Trojan faithful might have.

The Trojans did however lose out on the 5 star offensive guard James Wilson who commited to Florida instead. Derek Simmons and Alex Parsons are rumored to be two players who could make the transition to o-line with the athleticism that they posses. Although it isn't a guarantee, there could be some shuffling of the o-line positions as the big men beat each other up during spring practices for the coveted title of blocking for the next potential Heisman winner. For 2008, USC has gotten a commitment from 6'7" 275lb Tackle Matt Kalil for o-line help in the future.

So you can now see that whatever holes in the Trojan armor that were evident are more than covered by a swath of talent. Of course, if all else fails, the USC Trojans could stoop down to the level of everyone else and plug in a 4 star recruit and hope that gets them by.

authored by 2*2*2


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