USC Trojans

LOS ANGELES -- USC Trojans coach Lane Kiffin said he was somewhat familiar with new legislation adopted Tuesday by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, intended to make football and basketball coaches more accountable for mistakes made by their assistants.

A new four-tier penalty system opens up more possible penalties and directly punishes head coaches who have any knowledge of violations committed by those on their staff. In the past, only major and secondary violations were available, and head coaches often escaped punishments in secondary-violation situations.

"Those have been in discussion for a long time," Kiffin said when asked about the new legislation Tuesday. "I think that what it came down to is people were tired of an assistant coach doing something and an assistant coach being the one punished."

Kiffin said he did not have a particularly strong opinion on the topic, although he appeared to lean against it.

"It is what it is," he said. "I just think it's the responsibility ... you're the head coach and it's hard to know what everybody's doing, just like it's hard to know what your players are doing or the relatives are doing or the things we've discussed before.

"If those are the rules, then those are the rules. They come with the job."

The document calls head coaches responsible for several types of violations "unless the coach can show that he or she promoted an atmosphere of compliance and monitored his or her staff."

USC athletic director Pat Haden said it will require coaches to take more responsibility for the actions of their assistants.

"It's a tougher penalty structure, there's no doubt about it," Haden told USA Today, which first reported on the changes last week. "The point is, for head coaches -- and this goes for any sport -- you have this responsibility. You need to be constantly vigilant and you need to be constantly coaching your coaches about how important it is to play by the rules."

Haden was part of the group of athletic officials who worked on the legislation before its adoption.

Is Oregon-USC about a passing of the guard?

The one absolute history teaches us is there will be change. Nothing lasts forever. Empires fall. In ancient times, no one could conceive a world without Roman domination. Look at Italy now.

USC has 11 national championships. Oregon has none. And it wasn't too long ago that USC under Pete Carroll made a dynastic run that terrorized college football. From 2002 to 2008, USC was college football's pre-eminent power, the lone program that made the SEC quake in fear.

But there is a distinct sense that Chip Kelly and the Oregon Ducks are headed to the Coliseum on Saturday to grab the Pac-12 sword from Tommy Trojan and take it back to Eugene.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. In the preseason, the overwhelming consensus was USC was ready to reclaim its place atop college football. The Trojans, emerging from a two-year postseason ban courtesy of the NCAA, welcomed back 19 starters from a team that went 10-2 and won at Oregon. They looked like a potentially all-time great team on offense, with a talented defense playing a strong supporting role.

Meanwhile, Oregon was replacing six offensive starters, including a two-year starter at quarterback in Darron Thomas and its all-time leading rusher, LaMichael James. The defense looked stout, but there were plenty of questions. It seemed premature, despite three consecutive Pac-12 titles, to call the Ducks a "reload, not rebuild" outfit.

Au contraire.

Oregon has been a well-oiled machine. It has rolled over everyone like an army of steamrollers and sat its starters for large portions of the second half. Sure, the schedule hasn't featured any A-list foes. But Arizona, Arizona State and Washington are a combined 14-10 with wins over Oklahoma State, Stanford, Oregon State and USC, and the Ducks beat them by a combined count of 144-42.

USC has flashed brilliance at times on both sides of the ball this season, but that only serves to provide a stark contrast for the moments of inexplicable mediocrity and sloppiness. The Trojans are 120th -- last! -- in the nation in penalties and penalty yards per game. And last by a fairly wide margin.

Quarterback Matt Barkley has thrown eight interceptions. He threw seven all of last year.

And to cut to the chase, USC already has two losses, to Stanford and Arizona, that have thrown a blanket of "Neh" over what was supposed to be not only the Pac-12 game of the year, but also perhaps the national game of the year.

So it's fair to ask what it might mean -- big picture -- if Oregon prevails and then goes on to win a fourth consecutive Pac-12 title: Are the Ducks poised to displace USC atop the conference for the long term?

USC fans would rightly counter, "Well, how about the Ducks win a national title first?" That's fair.

Oregon fans probably would admit there's a reasonable -- and nagging -- qualifier here also: "As long as coach Chip Kelly stays in Eugene."

While Oregon probably wouldn't tumble into mediocrity if Kelly bolted for the NFL -- the program is too rich and too Nike'd -- this run of dominance feels like its foundation is built on Kelly's cult of "Win the Day" personality.

But the Pac-12 blog, just like Kelly quashing an interesting question, won't deal in hypotheticals.

So then, if the Ducks roll over the Trojans on Saturday by multiple touchdowns -- an unthinkable idea in the preseason -- and go on to win a fourth consecutive Pac-12 title, that feels like it could be a resonating statement.

Further, USC has two more years of scholarship sanctions. It can sign no more than 15 players for the next two recruiting classes (though there's some backwards-looking wiggle room coach Lane Kiffin has skillfully exploited) and can't exceed more than 75 players on scholarship, instead of the standard 85. All along, the point has been repeatedly made that USC will be most taxed by sanctions over the next two to three years.

Meanwhile, a glance at Oregon's roster, led by redshirt freshman QB Marcus Mariota, and sophomore fancypants De'Anthony Thomas, suggests the Ducks aren't going anywhere. This is almost certainly a preseason top-five team in 2013.

It seems like a potential old-school to new-school transition is at hand. From a program with iconic uniforms and pageantry that is immediately recognizable to college football fans across the country, to a program that changes uniforms every week and isn't afraid to wear lime-green socks.

Of course, the reality is USC won't go easily into the night. It has too much tradition. And let's not forget this: Location, location, location. USC's presence in Southern California's recruiting hotbed means the potential for program greatness is built-in.

And maybe USC pulls the shocker on Saturday and gets to smirk back at all the doubters.

Yet if Oregon takes care of business as most now expect, something might very well change. When someone asks, "Tell me about the Pac-12?" The new response will be, "Well, of course, there's Oregon first. You know about them, right?"

SEATTLE -- Matt Barkley stood outside the visiting locker room at CenturyLink Field, took off his navy blue and silver USC hat, and rubbed his head as he tried to make sense of USC's latest win that produced more questions than it did answers about the direction of the team and their quarterback.

Barkley didn't look like the quarterback of a team that had just won because his final stat line didn't look like that of a quarterback or team that had just won.

He finished the game completing just 10 of 20 passes for 167 yards and had one touchdown and one interception. He completed only 3 of 10 passes in the second half and USC was only 2 of 12 on third-down conversions, opting to run on third and long throughout the game instead of putting the ball in Barkley's hands. Barkley also was sacked five times, including once on fourth down late in the game.

"It's just the little things like you saw last week with the penalties and being undisciplined," Barkley said. "If we play undisciplined football like that we're not going to have a blowout football game, it's going to be close. Those are things that we need to fix in terms of stalling drives and putting ourselves in second-and-long and third-and-long situations. If we correct those things, we'll be fine."

Lane Kiffin and Barkley have been trying to "correct those things" on offense for the past six weeks now. While USC finished the first half of the season at 5-1, there's no question the Trojans would probably be 6-0, in the driver's seat for the BCS national championship game and Barkley would still be the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy if they had corrected those mistakes long ago.

Instead, those same mistakes continue to rear their ugly head every week, leaving players and coaches to sound like a broken record when talking about what's wrong with the team.

Perhaps the scariest mantra coming out of USC's locker room now is that the Trojans don't care about style, stats and substance anymore as long as they simply win the game.

"I continue to remind myself that there's one goal and that's to win the game," Kiffin said. "Are the numbers what we're used to? No, but we won. If you remember [against Stanford] when we went on the road, we weren't sitting here with a win so, yeah, we played conservative when we got a lead. We said it all along. This isn't about anybody's numbers or a Heisman or any of that. It's about winning games and we did the best thing to win today."

If USC's goal is still to win the national championship, numbers should and do matter.

Let's not forget that the national championship game in college football (until we get a four-team playoff in 2014) is still very much a beauty pageant if there are not two undefeated teams at the end of the season.

Kiffin could have adopted his old friend Al Davis' "Just win, baby" attitude if USC hadn't stumbled against Stanford. Now, USC has to not only win but look good doing it if they are going to be the top-ranked one-loss team. They're already behind one-loss LSU and will likely be behind one-loss Oklahoma when the new polls come out, and both of those teams lost after USC.

(Read full post)

In 2000, Oklahoma won the national title without any starters missing a game due to injury. Think about that. Think of all the injuries that your team has suffered through the years that make you go "what if?" I hear you Oregon, 2007.

With that thought, we introduce you to the 2012 USC Trojans -- a team loaded with talent and top-ranked by the Associated Press. If the national title game were to be played Saturday, the Trojans would be solid favorites against anyone.

And, yes, when that's the case, the media hype machine opens its maw wide and spews forth words, pictures and video that function as polarizing, love-hate attention-getters. USC and coach Lane Kiffin don't inspire many neutral reactions across the college football nation. Switzerland, USC is not.

As for talent, USC's is fairly remarkable, particularly on offense. There is no better offensive troika in the nation than quarterback Matt Barkley and receivers Robert Woods and Marqise Lee. More than a handful of NFL teams would trade what they have for what USC has. There are a pair of 1,000-yard rushers behind Barkley: Curtis McNeal, who averaged 6.9 yards per rush in 2011, and Penn State transfer Silas Redd. Four starters are back from an offensive line that was very good last year. And both tight ends are NFL prospects.

On defense, the back seven returns intact. And the Trojans welcome back both specialists.

Of course, you've read this before. In fact, this accounting of USC's starting 24 has become redundant. As is the caveat that the Trojans -- limited to 75 scholarships, 10 below the typical limit per NCAA sanctions -- are thin behind that strong starting lineup. In fact, most measures show the Trojans at present with just 71 scholarship players.

Yes, on paper today, this team looks better than anyone. But 12 regular-season games and a Pac-12 championship game lie between the Trojans and a berth in the BCS national title game. Attrition is typically an immutable -- and frustrating -- rule of college football. A redo of Oklahoma in 2000 is probably too much for Trojans fans to expect.

So, starting with a home date with Hawaii on Saturday -- Norm Chow finally getting his chance as a head coach -- the million dollar question is, can USC stay healthy enough to claw its way back to the top of college football? That's the first issue.

The second? How do folks feel about USC's quick return to the national title race despite brutal -- and brutally unfair -- NCAA sanctions that were intended to cripple a dominant power?

In the Pac-12, Oregon fans feel slighted by the USC hype. After all, the Ducks stepped up when the Trojans stepped down and won three consecutive conference titles. Nationally, there's the widespread -- and ignorant -- opinion that USC is one of the nation's corrupt , football-first programs. And down South there's the whispered suspicion that the biggest threat to SEC supremacy is USC.

Wherever you stand, be prepared: If USC piles up wins and impressive performances, the hype churn will only get more frenzied. Just the way it is.

As for depth issues -- so mundane! -- plenty of teams are thinner than the Trojans, whose roster is still full of four- and five-star recruits. But it's not difficult to create worry when fiddling with a black marker and the USC depth chart, particularly on defense.

For example, what if you mark off sophomore George Uko, the Trojans' best and most experienced defensive tackle? The remaining four defensive tackles are all freshmen. The Trojans already were replacing three starters on their defensive line when end Devon Kennard was likely lost for the season due to a torn pectoral. Kennard split time with Wes Horton last year. Any further hit to the D-line could mean trouble.

Or take away one of those talented sophomore linebackers. "Uh-oh" is right. In fact, the only position on defense where there's solid, proven depth is safety.

Things are deeper on offense, though it's worth noting both of Barkley's backups are redshirt freshmen.

As for the schedule, USC stands as a clear favorite -- today -- against all 12 foes, including Oregon on Nov. 3. There's a tough Week 3 road date at Stanford, and then back-to-back visits to Utah (a Thursday night game) and Washington. Those certainly won't be walkovers.

But it's not difficult to look at USC's depth chart -- today -- and look at the schedule and conclude this team will be headed Jan. 7 to South Florida, where it won its last national title in 2004.

The "USC Watch," with all the cheers and jeers it will inspire, begins in earnest this week.

But an observer who can contain his emotions about the polarizing program might want to focus on the Trojans' injury report, which could prove as telling in the early going as the scoreboard.

USC wasn't eligible for the coaches' poll in 2011 due to NCAA sanctions, but it will start 2012 almost at the top.

The Trojans are ranked third, behind No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama, the two SEC teams that played for the BCS national title last season.

The vote at the top was tight. USC, with 19, and Alabama, with 20, actually got more No. 1 votes than LSU (18). That should be your first warning of the "What the heck" nature of the poll. LSU, which welcomes back 15 starters from a 13-1 team and upgraded at quarterback with Zach Mettenberger, seems like a clear No. 1 to the Pac-12 blog.

LSU, with 1,403 points, was just ahead of Alabama, at 1,399. USC got 1,388.

It's a little surprising that USC isn't No. 2. Alabama only has 11 position players returning, including just five from last season's outstanding defense. But coaches tend to tip their caps to defending champs, and it's not unlikely that each of the seven SEC coaches in the poll -- the Pac-12 had six -- voted the SEC teams one-two. I also have a hunch a Pac-12 coach -- or two -- didn't vote USC either No. 1 or 2.

And, of course, the coaches poll, though it is unfortunately included in the BCS standings, is the least respected of all polls due to its regional biases, obvious conflicts of interest, lack of transparency and the simple fact that few coaches pay attention to teams they don't play. Oh, and many of the coaches hand off their votes to sports information directors.

Oregon comes in at No. 5, 18 points behind No. 4 Oklahoma. Stanford is 18th, just ahead of the Oklahoma State team that nipped the Cardinal in the Fiesta Bowl.

And that's it for the Pac-12 in the top-25. Washington came in at No. 26 and Utah at 32nd, based on the "others receiving votes" tally.

The SEC led all conferences with seven ranked teams. The Big 12 had six, including new members West Virginia and TCU. The Big Ten had four, the ACC three.

It's also evident that the voters ran out of steam in the top 25. Florida, Notre Dame and Auburn combined for 16 losses in 2011, but were ranked Nos. 23, 24 and 25, respectively.

As we noted, "What the heck!"

Here are the coaches who voted, per USA Today, including the six Pac-12 coaches, who are bolded:

The USA TODAY Board of Coaches is made up of 59 head coaches at Bowl Subdivision schools. All are members of the American Football Coaches Association. The board for the 2012 season: David Bailiff, Rice; Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech; Tim Beckman, Illinois; Bret Bielema, Wisconsin; Terry Bowden, Akron; Art Briles, Baylor; Troy Calhoun, Air Force; Matt Campbell, Toledo; Gene Chizik, Auburn; Dave Christensen, Wyoming; Mark Dantonio, Michigan State; Tim DeRuyter, Fresno State; Dave Doeren, Northern Illinois; Sonny Dykes, Louisiana Tech; Jimbo Fisher, Florida State; Kyle Flood, Rutgers; James Franklin, Vanderbilt; Al Golden, Miami (Fla.); Jim Grobe, Wake Forest; Darrell Hazell, Kent State; Brady Hoke, Michigan; Dana Holgorsen, West Virginia; Skip Holtz, South Florida; Mark Hudspeth, Louisiana-Lafayette; Curtis Johnson, Tulane; Ellis Johnson, Southern Miss; Butch Jones, Cincinnati; Brian Kelly, Notre Dame; Lane Kiffin, Southern California; Mike Leach, Washington State; Pete Lembo, Ball State; Tony Levine, Houston; Mike London, Virginia; Rocky Long, San Diego State; Dan McCarney, North Texas; Mike MacIntyre, San Jose State; Ruffin McNeill, East Carolina; Gus Malzahn, Arkansas State; Bronco Mendenhall, BYU; Les Miles, LSU; George O'Leary, Central Florida; Paul Pasqualoni, Connecticut; Bo Pelini, Nebraska; Chris Petersen, Boise State; Joker Phillips, Kentucky; Paul Rhoads, Iowa State; Mark Richt, Georgia; Mike Riley, Oregon State; Rich Rodriguez, Arizona; Nick Saban, Alabama; Steve Sarkisian, Washington; Frank Solich, Ohio; Steve Spurrier, South Carolina; Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee; Bob Stoops, Oklahoma; Dabo Swinney, Clemson; Jeff Tedford, California; Tommy Tuberville, Texas Tech; Kevin Wilson, Indiana.

The surest route for just about any investigation? Follow the money. When money started flowing in and out of prep 7-on-7 football tournaments, the NCAA raised an eyebrow.

Yet once the NCAA and universities recognized that 7-on-7 tournaments were quickly becoming the football equivalent of the sleaze of AAU basketball, the question became what would everyone do. It hasn't been easy finding answers. For one, these enterprises mostly operate off campuses and away from NCAA jurisdiction.

"It's a pretty complex topic," said Mark Jackson, USC's senior associate athletic director, and one of the hosts of the summit called, "The Impact Of 7-On-7 Organizations On College Football Recruiting" on Tuesday at the Galen Center.

First of all, 7-on-7 football isn't some type of satanic cult. There are positives.

• It gives players more exposure, which increases scholarship opportunities.
• If a player's high school team is mostly run-based, it gives quarterbacks and wide receivers a chance to shine in pass-first games.
• Players who are competing in 7-on-7 football aren't doing other things where they might get in trouble.
• Many of the coaches and organizers are in it for the right reasons: To help young people.
• 7-on-7 football is fun.

Of course, the negatives are why athletic directors; compliance officers and head football coaches from the Pac-12 and Big Ten; NCAA enforcement staff; representatives from the Pac-12, SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten conference offices; operators of 7-on-7 organizations; and high school coaches gathered for an invitation-only event at USC.

• 7-on-7 football can marginalize high school coaches.
• It allows for the insinuation of third parties -- read: "street agents" -- to work themselves into a young athlete's recruiting process.
• It's become a big-money operation, which creates plenty of opportunities for NCAA rules to be bent, twisted and broken.

"The conversations got heated and spirited but it was good to understand the landscape," Jackson said.

So what ideas came up during this "heated and spirited" discussion? More than a few.

For one, there needs to be communication between the high school coaches and the 7-on-7 coaches. One major problem when a young man becomes a recruit is it seems two separate coaches now speak for the player. Often these coaches are at odds. A 7-on-7 coach might tell a player that he should change high schools. Or a 7-on-7 coach might tell a college team that he represents a young man, not the high school coach.

Further, things get complicated when young men on tour with 7-on-7 teams show up for unofficial visits on campuses. Who pays for these visits? Perhaps it might help to make changes to the official recruiting calendar so these visits fall more under the NCAA rules umbrella.

Finally, as 7-on-7 tournaments get bigger -- and richer -- it makes sense for them to get more organized and standardized. And supervised. Wouldn't it make sense for the NFL to get involved? After all, it is the chief steward of the game.

When it started, 7-on-7 football was small and all the money was coming from grassroots fundraising. Now it's a big business, with companies like Under Armour and IMG involved. Pining for simpler times isn't going to help. So universities and the NCAA are trying to find common ground with organizers, creating rules and oversight that might prevent 7-on-7 football from tumbling into the corrupt morass of AAU basketball.

"These things are not going away," Jackson said. "This is free enterprise."

Free enterprise operating parallel to the complicated and controversial "amateurism" of college sports' cash cow, but that's a topic for another day.

We like doing Power Rankings at ESPN.com. These are the post-signing day Power Rankings.

If you want to see where your team stood on Jan. 10, go here.

The schedule does not factor into these. This is a projected pecking order based on where a team stands right now.

And if you don't like where your team is in the post-signing day Power Rankings, then I'd suggest whining about it until your team plays better.

1. USC: The Trojans ranked 13th in the final recruiting rankings with just 12 signees. They will be ranked in the preseason top 5, perhaps even No. 1. If things go according to plan, USC will blow a big raspberry at Paul Dee next January.

2. Oregon: The Ducks surprisingly lost QB Darron Thomas to the NFL, but the far more important news is not losing coach Chip Kelly to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A strong recruiting class and another likely top-5 preseason rankings sets the Ducks up nicely to enter the national title chase.

3. Stanford: Stanford signed the best recruiting class in the Pac-12. It was ranked 12th by ESPN Recruiting and much higher by just about every other recruiting service. While the Cardinal have big holes to fill -- most notably behind center -- a glance through the roster suggests those rooting for the program to topple after a grand rise are going to be disappointed.

4. Washington: Much of the recruiting season had been disappointing for the Huskies, particularly losing almost all of the top in-state prospects, including a pair of A-list linemen who would have addressed major needs. But Steve Sarkisian made a series of aggressive moves rebuilding his coaching staff, most notably with the hiring of defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox and ace recruiter Tosh Lupoi. That supplies much of the positive momentum here.

5. Utah: The Utes signed a strong recruiting class and welcome back a wealth of starters from a team that won eight games without much production at QB. The promotion of 24-year-old Brian Johnson to offensive coordinator was a surprising move, particularly with fans rooting for a "celebrity" hire. It could prove to be a stroke of genius, but the onus is now on Johnson to make it become so.

6. UCLA: The Bruins are the big climbers from our Jan. 10 power rankings -- moving up from No. 10 -- but that's what happens when new coach Jim Mora punches back at skepticism with an outstanding recruiting class. A team that looked like a "neh" is moving closer to a "maybe."

7. California: Despite all the hand-wringing over the loss of Lupoi and receivers coach Eric Kiesau to Washington, the Bears still signed a top-25 recruiting class that addresses needs. Still, perception matters, and at present, Bears fans seem more worried than optimistic. Nothing, of course, a few wins in a shiny remodeled stadium can't change.

8. Arizona: Rich Rodriguez's recruiting class finished at or near the bottom of the Pac-12, according to most rankings. That said, Rodriguez got his man at defensive coordinator, Jeff Casteel, which is significant because most trace the problems at Michigan to his failure to do so for the Wolverines.

9. Washington State: The Cougars didn't soar in the recruiting rankings just because of the hiring of coach Mike Leach. Still, that doesn't appear to be dampening the enthusiasm in Pullman.

10. Arizona State: New coach Todd Graham did a solid job salvaging the Sun Devils' recruiting class. But the loss of QB Brock Osweiler to the NFL and the NCAA's rejection of receiver T.J. Simpson's bid for a sixth year of eligibility leave the program with plenty of questions on offense. And just as many on defense.

11. Oregon State: The Beavers were victimized by a handful of late recruiting flips that put dents in what was shaping up to be a strong class. And the loss of secondary coach Keith Heyward to Washington also was a blow. On the plus side, the Beavers will see 17 returning starters during spring practices.

12. Colorado: The Buffaloes remain at the bottom because the bottom line is this: They welcome back 13 starters from a team that went 3-10 and ranked last in both scoring offense and scoring defense. Still, coach Jon Embree put together a solid recruiting class, one that could become the foundation of his substantial rebuilding project.

USC, which finished this season 10-2 and ranked No. 5, will have 19 starters returning in 2012 including both specialists and a guy by the name of Matt Barkley.

The Trojans welcome back their top rusher, top three receivers, four starting offensive lineman and a guy by the name of Matt Barkley.

Also back in 2012: The Trojans' top four tacklers. And five of their top six. And a first-team All-Pac-12 kicker. And a guy by the name of Matt Barkley.

The Trojans looked like a preseason top-10 team a month ago. They looked like the preseason Pac-12 South Division favorites. But when Barkley announced Thursday, "I have not yet finished my journey as a Trojan football player," it sent a shockwave across the college football landscape.

Remember that little girl staring at the TV snow in "Poltergeist"? All together now: "They're baaaaack!"

Barkley makes USC a national title contender. Barkley makes things around Heritage Hall feel like it's 2002-2008 all over again. Barkley means Trojans fans can stop thinking about the injustice it suffered when the NCAA whacked it with severe sanctions and start dreaming of BCS bowls again.

Just FYI: Miami on Jan. 7, 2013. What happened the last time the Trojans played in South Florida with big stakes?

Ah, the Oregon fans have just arrived. To borrow a phrase: Not so fast, my friend.

The Ducks are the three-time defending Pac-12 champions. They've got a whole bunch of key guys coming back in 2012, too. They, too, are a certain top-10 team, perhaps top-five. They will be the overwhelming favorites to win the North Division.

Both have highly favorable schedules. USC's nonconference schedule: Hawaii (with head coach Norm Chow!), at Syracuse and Notre Dame. Oregon's is, well, pitiful: Arkansas State, Fresno State and Tennessee Tech.

Oh, then there is this little date for both in LA next year. The Pac-12 schedules aren't official yet, but the conference confirmed to the Pac-12 blog that USC and Oregon will play in the Coliseum next fall. That regular-season game, not hard to project as a matchup of top-five teams, very likely could lead to a rematch in the Pac-12 title game, which could be a gateway to the national title game for the winner.

Ducks and Trojans: Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

Meanwhile, Barkley, by passing up a chance to be a top-10 NFL draft pick as Matt Leinart and Andrew Luck did before him, immediately established himself as the leading 2012 Heisman Trophy candidate. His status as front-runner is only slightly less firm than Luck's was last year when he announced a shocking return.

And that point -- thump -- should provide a speed bump of moderation for our foray into admittedly hysterical hyperbole about Barkley and USC. Just about every time you try to write a college football season's story before it plays out, you end up being wrong.

Preseason predictions can be completely off: Oklahoma was the consensus preseason No. 1 this year. Or they can be slightly off: Luck and the overwhelming Heisman favorite in August. Or they can fall just short in the end: USC as the best team in college football history in 2005.

Or, then again, sometimes they are spot-on: USC in 2004 was preseason No. 1 as well as the postseason national champion.

Still, while grand scenarios are merely reasonably conceived potential endings for something that is a year away and laden with unforeseen variables, there is no downside on this day for USC. In fact, it spiderwebs positives throughout the program, from making the future at QB more secure, to bolstering the present recruiting effort, to getting USC fans excited and reinvested again, ready to fill up the Coliseum next fall.

By the way, USC folks aren't the only ones smiling. Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott is grinning ear-to-ear. He sees another bright, articulate Heisman Trophy candidate who conducts himself with class acting as the face of the conference, as Luck did this past fall. He sees two big ticket national title contenders in 2012, just as the conference's new TV contract kicks in. He's got broadcast partners -- ESPN and Fox -- as well as a new Pac-12 Network that are going to be thrilled that the conference's ratings-driving bell cow is back under the klieg lights in LA.

Toss in four new, high-profile coaches, and there are plenty of sexy story lines for the Pac-12 in 2012.

The week started with USC fans slapping their foreheads over Ohio State's middling NCAA sanctions for severe infractions. It was a frustrating reminder of the seeming cosmic forces that conspired to end the USC dynasty, including Pete Carroll skipping town back to the NFL.

But the week ends with an early Christmas gift for USC. Matt Barkley telling it, "I am staying because I want to finish what I started."

Yes, college football fans across the country pricked up their ears Thursday and thought, "Drat. I hear those darn "Tribute To Troy" drums again."

Breathe, USC fans, breathe.

In fact, I'd suggest you ignore what happened Tuesday with Ohio State and its slap on the wrist from the NCAA for a massive systemic breakdown and a coverup by head coach, Jim Tressel.

Yes, when you hold up the Ohio State case and the USC case, it's impossible not to conclude the Ohio State case was far more severe. It was, of course, without question. No informed, objective person believes differently.

But here's the thing: Being outraged will accomplish nothing. You will be unhappy and your team will still be docked 30 scholarships over the next three years for what one player secretly did while Ohio State will be down just nine scholarships over the same time period for the rule-breaking of five with full knowledge of their head coach. And your unhappiness will provide great joy to folks who don't like your team.

Adopting a placid pose — at least as best as you can — will be good practice for handling potentially more infuriation ahead. The NCAA also likely will give even worst upcoming cases — North Carolina and the University of Miami at Paul Dee — less severe penalties than it gave USC.

Why? Because the NCAA treated USC unfairly — everybody in college sports knows this — and it likely won't revisit such irrational harshness. In the end, the justification for such severe penalties, meted out in contrast to past precedent, was little more than "just because."

But the NCAA, an organization not endowed with a sense of self-awareness, failed to foresee when it curb-stomped USC that among the lawbreakers in college football, the Trojans were jaywalkers amid a mob of bank robbers. Ohio State's sanctions, in fact, represent a return to NCAA normalcy: Mostly toothless penalties that will have little effect on the program's prospects, other than a single-season bowl ban.

There we go again: Fretting the particulars and the injustice of it all.

The point is USC fans have been quite reasonably been shaking their fists at the heavens or, more accurately, the NCAA home office in Indianapolis for two years. That anger has accomplished nothing, other than emboldening taunts from opposing fans.

You know: Fans whose teams didn't finish 10-2 and ranked No. 5 in the nation.

And therein lies the ultimate revenge: Winning.

It's hard to imagine the next five years won't see a USC downturn. Losing 30 scholarships is a tough burden. Things could be particularly difficult in 2014 and 2015, when the true cumulative impact arrives. And it could be even more galling if Ohio State is back in the national title hunt those years. Maybe playing Miami in a Fiesta Bowl rematch!

But if the Trojans can somehow remain in the picture, perhaps playing in a Rose Bowl -- or two -- along the way that would be a heck of a panacea, wouldn't it?

It's a longshot, sure. But other than that, we've got nothing for you USC. Sorry.

Easy, now. Breathe, breathe. Happy place. Happy place.

Oh, no. That's exactly what we were trying to avoid.

Coaches and athletes are vindictive. You know it. I know it. It's the nature of competition to hold grudges against those who beat you. When athletes and coaches say last year's game doesn't matter, or they're not interested in revenge for some slight -- real or imagined -- reporters should be allowed to slap them on their foreheads for being so disingenuous.

I, for one, would enjoy that, though there are several players -- Vontaze Burfict, David DeCastro, to name a couple -- for whom I'd take a pass on the forehead slap, even if it were officially sanctioned.

We bring this up because USC's second-half schedule is so rife with revenge scenarios that it feels like Charles Bronson should take over for Matt Barkley at quarterback.

And it's already off to a good start for the 6-1 Trojans. Notre Dame? Check. The Trojans took revenge for their 20-16 loss last year, which ended an eight-game winning streak in the rivalry series, with a 31-17 pounding of the Fighting Irish last Saturday inside a Notre Dame Stadium brimming with 80,000 stunned fans.

That, however, is just the beginning. USC's "Revenge 2011?" tour continues Saturday with a visit from Stanford.

The Cardinal have won two in a row against USC. Last year, they broke the Trojans hearts, 37-35, with a game-winning field goal with four seconds left. And the year before, you might recall, was the "What's your deal?" game, with former Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh running up the score in a 55-21 victory, including going for two when the game was well in hand. Further, the Trojans fifth-year seniors will remember the 24-23 loss in 2007 when Stanford was a 41-point underdog and USC was expected to be in the national title hunt.

Further, Barkley has been fairly honest about how he's competitive with Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck. This will be his last shot at him as the Trojans quarterback.

So, yes, the Trojans should have some feelings about the Cardinal.

Then, after playing Colorado, USC plays Washington, Oregon and UCLA on consecutive weekends.

USC has lost two in a row to Washington since former Trojans offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian took over in 2009. Sarkisian and USC coach Lane Kiffin are good buddies, which means Kiffin wants to beat him almost as much as he'd like to beat, say, Urban Meyer, who is not a good pal.

As for the Oregon, Chip Kelly's Ducks have whipped USC in consecutive games by 27 and 21 points. The Ducks also have displaced the Trojans as the Pac-12's preeminent power.

And, finally, USC could hammer the final nail into embattled UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel's coffin on Nov. 26. That's the sort of thing Trojans live for, right?

The big question for USC in the preseason was how would it maintain consistent motivation with no chance to play in the postseason due to NCAA sanctions. Well, they seemed to have saved their best football for the last two weeks, whipping California 30-9 the Thursday before the Notre Dame trip.

That maligned USC defense? It gave up just one touchdown apiece to Cal and Notre Dame. The vaunted Irish offense had just 267 yards and only 41 yards rushing.

The questionable running game? USC rushed for 219 yards at Notre Dame.

Sloppy play? USC had just two penalties and no turnovers against the Irish.

It would appear the Trojans are finding their rhythm under Kiffin. There's also good reason to believe they will be plenty motivated down the stretch, even without the postseason.

What does that mean?

Probably this: Be wary of the Trojans.