Top 25 Intel: No. 4 USC
The Trojans lose remarkable talent almost every year, but new players always await
If you want to play football on Sundays, USC is a pretty good place to play on Saturdays.
Since the advent of the NFL draft in 1967, 294 Trojans have been drafted, the most from any program. It's not really close; the second, third and fourth teams on that list -- Nebraska (254), Notre Dame (248) and Ohio State (243) -- are closely grouped but well behind the Trojans. What's more, this gap isn't based just on the days of Ronnie Lott; it's just as real today. Over the past four years, USC has seen 37 of its players -- two-thirds of an NFL roster -- drafted. That's 10 more than the closest program.
This isn't just a waltz past the trophy case. It matters now, because in 2009, you'll see the perfect confluence of what USC has come to represent, both from a talent standpoint and as a program.
Rocky Seto -- a 32-year-old one-time Trojans walk-on who volunteered to be a student assistant while earning a master's degree at USC eight years ago -- was given the defensive coordinator reins in January after previous defensive coordinator Nick Holt left to serve the same role in Steve Sarkisian's regime at the University of Washington. (Sarkisian is another former assistant to USC head coach Pete Carroll.)
Seto was handed a defense that just saw eight players snatched up by NFL teams, including five listed as linebackers. (And safety Taylor Mays was projected to be a top-10 pick, but he decided to stay in school.)
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