Elijah Rushing, a five-star defensive end per 247, committed to Arizona today. A Pac-12 coach told me he heard Rushing is getting $1 million a year to go to Arizona. I’m not criticizing that. Just reporting it. USC certainly uses NIL to its advantage. It just shows you where things stand today with NIL. I’d like NIL a lot more if more athletes got paid … Continue reading Notes: A Five-Star Makes Quite A Decision
USC announced that DJ Rodman will wear No. 10 this season, “with the blessing of DeMar DeRozan, whose jersey hangs in the Galen Center rafters.” This is bad enough by itself, but Gus Williams also wore No. 10 and his number was retired. Did he give permission too? In 2020, guard Quinton Adlesh wore No. 10 even though it was retired, so Rodman is hardly breaking … Continue reading USC Unretires Another Jersey
College football analyst Phil Steele has USC ranked No. 7 in his top 40 preseason poll. Steele puts a lot of time into his research, probably more than any other preview magazine. But all rankings are a guess/prediction. Remember that Steele had USC ranked No. 3 in his Top 25 for 2015. USC went 8-6. Steele ranked USC No. 6 on his list of surprise … Continue reading USC Morning Buzz: Even Well-Researched Predictions Can Be Off
Four-star cornerback Zabien Brown of Mater Dei will make his college commitment on Sunday. His finalists are USC, Alabama and Ohio State. The Pac-12 will probably announce its new media rights deal by Labor Day, according to John Ourand of Sports Business Journal. How much of it is streaming vs. regular TV and who will be carrying the games remains unknown. Ourand expects the Pac-12 … Continue reading USC Notes: Recruits Keep Deciding In July
Are you reading the preseason preview magazines? How many of them list USC special teams as a concern? I know one does because I wrote the preview for it. Who else? This is the time of year when it’s easy to overlook special teams. Don’t forget USC had the worst special teams in the nation, according to Pro Football Focus, which ranked the Trojans No. … Continue reading USC Morning Buzz: Are Preseason Magazines Highlighting This?
The Coliseum fireworks show in 1952 (above) was an enduring event. Here’s a publicity photo from 1955 that featured Miss Firecracker (Camille Williams) and an American Legion Special Events director. Here is a cheesier publiticy photo taken outside the Coliseum in 1955. If you look closely, you can see the truck driver has lipstick on his forehead. The event was big enough in 1959 to … Continue reading A Fourth Of July Gallery
