USC Football: Indecision for WR McFoy

He doesn't draw the attention of Reggie Bush, LenDale White, Winston Justice or Darnell Bing, but USC receiver Chris McFoy is also thinking of concluding his college career at the Rose Bowl.
But McFoy isn't thinking of turning pro. The redshirt junior will graduate this year and could decide to quit football and begin life after college.
He recently met with USC coach Pete Carroll to discuss his situation.
"I don't know yet. I talked to Coach Carroll about it and I'm trying to figure out what's going on," McFoy said. "After the bowl game, I'll decide. Coach Carroll just helped me figure out my options."
A main consideration with McFoy is playing time. McFoy caught 17 passes for 172 yards this season, but USC's other top three receivers (Dwayne Jarrett, Steve Smith, Patrick Turner) are expected to return, and the Trojans will probably add two of the top receivers in the state, David Ausberry of Lemoore and Travon Patterson from Long Beach Poly.
Autograph hounds: With swelling crowds attending practice and many onlookers seeking autographs, Carroll wants to clamp down on the situation next week when USC returns from its holiday break.
USC took the unusual step of locking the public out of Heritage Hall on Friday so that players could move freely through the building.
"I think it's time for the players to feel a little more focused coming and going (to the practice field)," Carroll said. "We can't do a lot signing every day. I'm going to control it."
No basketball Carroll issued an order to the players not to play basketball or engage in any activities over the break that might result in injuries.
"Everyone has assignments to do running over the weekend, but we don't want them to do anything risky," he said.
Mock game: USC scrimmaged for 99 plays Friday and Carroll praised receiver Patrick Turner, who missed the Fresno State and UCLA games with a pulled hamstring.
"Patrick Turner had one of the best days he's had," Carroll said.
Carroll added that linebacker Keith Rivers (hamstring) is also ready to play.
"There's no question he's one of our fastest defenders," Carroll said. "I don't care who is starting right now but I know he will split time."
No worries: Even though tight end Fred Davis has not been late coming back from Ohio during any breaks this season, Carroll still checked whether Davis would go home for Christmas.
Last year, Davis came back to Los Angeles late and was not allowed to attend the Orange Bowl.
"Fred's not traveling. Fred's not leaving the state," Carroll said.
Davis said he's going to visit relatives in San Diego instead of his hometown of Toledo, Ohio.
"I know there's a lot of snow," he said. "I'm just staying out here. The drive to San Diego is a lot less snow."

USC Football: Ruel is not a stranger to Texas

USC last played Texas in 1967, but the Longhorns hold a prominent place in the career of Trojans offensive line coach Pat Ruel.
Ruel faced Texas in the first game of his coaching career in 1973, as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Miami. Texas finished the previous season ranked No. 3 in the nation and was favored over the Hurricanes.
"They came down to Miami and we didn't have a very good team," Ruel said. "We beat them 20-15. That started the Sports Illustrated cover jinx, because they were on the cover the week of that game. That game also started my love for coaching."
Ruel also faced Texas in 1977, when he was an assistant at Arkansas. Texas was ranked No. 2 in the nation and Arkansas was No. 8.
"They threw a screen pass to Earl Campbell for about 60 yards and ended wining 13-9," Ruel said. "They knocked us off but we ended up going to the Orange Bowl."
Ruel was on the Arkansas staff with USC coach Pete Carroll, who was a graduate assistant in 1977.
"Pete's a pound lighter since then and I'm 25 heavier," Ruel said.
More numbers: USC has 11 plays from scrimmage this season that are 50 or more yards while Texas has 10. USC alsohas an 84-yard punt return from Reggie Bush, a 68-yard kick return from Darnell Bing and a 51-yard kick return from Desmond Reed.
Bush has 36 plays of 20-or-more yards and scored touchdowns 11 times but ironically, Bing owns the longest kick return.
All tied: The Trojans and Longhorns each have seven players with plays of 40-or-more yards from the line of scrimmage.
Two contrasts: Texas has held opponents scoreless on their opening drives in 11 games this season. USC last let an opponent score on its opening drive in two of its past five games.
Texas has not allowed a punt return for a touchdown in 84 straight games. USC allowed punt returns for touchdowns in two of its past nine games.

Davis Isn't Taking Chances

After putting his players through a 99-play situational scrimmage Friday, USC Coach Pete Carroll sent the top-ranked Trojans home for the holidays."We made it through without anyone getting nicked so we're in pretty good shape going into the break," Carroll said.Players are required to report to campus by late Tuesday. On Wednesday, they will begin weeklong preparations for the Jan. 4 Rose Bowl.Sophomore tight end Fred Davis said he would spend Christmas with relatives in San Diego rather than at home in Toledo, Ohio, so he can be assured of reporting on time."I'm trying to play in this game," Davis said, laughing.Last year, Carroll suspended Davis for the Orange Bowl after he failed to return to campus on time following a Christmas break.Davis was forced to watch on television as the Trojans demolished Oklahoma to win their second consecutive Associated Press national title."It's still fresh in my mind," Davis said. "I decided at that time to make sure it doesn't happen again. So this year I've been at everything I have to be at on time."Davis matured into a major contributor for the Trojans, starting three games and catching two touchdown passes."Freddie's come a long way," Carroll said.

Champions and challenges

Looking back at The Oregonian's sports pages from the first week of January 2005, we see that Maurice Cheeks' job as coach of the Trail Blazers was safe and Oregon State's football program was on the upswing. Oregon's was nowhere to be found.
The USC Trojans were the best college football team in the country.
On New Year's Day, Oregon's men's basketball team awoke to a 9-1 record; the Beavers were 9-3. Steroids had not yet risen to the level of congressional involvement. Vijay Singh was the No. 1 golfer in the world. Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren was given a vote of confidence.
The University of Portland's Christine Sinclair won the Hermann Trophy, awarded to the best women's college soccer player in the country.
What happened next?
These were the champions
(You knew them well)
USC began the year winning its 11th national championship, comically dismantling Oklahoma in the process. Then Michelle Kwan won her ninth U.S. Figure Skating Championship, at the Rose Garden in January.
The New England Patriots won their third Super Bowl in four years. And, sure, the national championship North Carolina won in basketball was coach Roy Williams' first, but it was the school's fifth, in its 16th Final Four appearance.

Coming up roses

THE 2002 ROSE BOWL REALLY stuck in Southern California's craw. The game had been a Big Ten-Pacific 10 affair since 1947, and we were accustomed to seeing sturdy Midwesterners, usually from Ohio or Michigan (though every so often from Iowa or Wisconsin). Our teams were USC, UCLA, an occasional Stanford, or one of those teams from the rainy Northwest or the dry Arizona desert.The 2002 game, Miami versus Nebraska, was a rude break with tradition. It came courtesy of the Bowl Championship Series, a flawed and confusing system designed to determine a national collegiate football champion. The title contest itself rotates among four existing bowls — Orange, Sugar, Rose and Fiesta.So in 2003, the Rose Bowl was stuck with Oklahoma beating Washington State. The 2004 game just happened to revert to a contest between the Big Ten and the Pac-10, with USC beating Michigan. But this past January, Texas came to Pasadena with that "Eyes of Texas" song, all that orange apparel and those drawls, and knocked off Michigan 38-37. OK, it was a great game. Meanwhile, in Miami on Jan. 4, undefeated USC drubbed undefeated Oklahoma to win its second consecutive national title.Next month, it's the Rose Bowl's turn to host the championship game. And one participant is that interloper Texas, ranked No. 2 in the country. But we won't complain too much because the other team is No. 1 USC, an extraordinary powerhouse gunning for its third consecutive national title. Both teams are undefeated. USC's offense ranks among the best in college football history, although it's difficult to try to compare it with, for instance, the Army teams of 1945 and 1946 or Oklahoma in 1971. In the past, USC suffered, perhaps unfairly — or was it a UCLA plot? — from the rap that it was just a football factory supported by a corps of fanatic fans and arrogant alumni. Gratefully, that seems to be in the past. This is a classy operation. And the Trojans seem to have fun playing the game.We still don't quite get the link to ancient Troy. (UCLA's Bruins, we know, can trace their roots to California's Bear Flag Republic.) And we cringe a bit when that big white horse stomps the turf and the mounted Trojan thrusts his sword skyward. But we'll take a magnificent horse over a sad-looking cow any day.

Are they ready for some football?

Southern California football coach Pete Carroll has 24 days to prepare for one day at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4. He will take one day this month to help five juniors prepare for the rest of their lives.
It's not long, but then not many college juniors are coached by a former head coach of two NFL teams. Carroll, who coached the New England Patriots and New York Jets, will lend his expertise during an all-day seminar in the middle of bowl preparations, covering everything from lifestyle to agents to expectations when youth is served early to the NFL.
But above all else, Carroll will cover what pulls players in the most: money.
After practice earlier this month, Carroll talked about "how important it is not to be swayed by opinions of people who don't control the draft, which is basically what everybody listens to. Because the draft guys don't talk. They don't let you know what's going on because it doesn't behoove them to."
If college football players thought the school they signed with was the biggest decision of their lives, it will seem like deciding where to eat lunch compared to leaving school early. How high would I go in the draft? How much money would it mean? If I stay another year, how much higher will I go next year? Should I risk staying and getting hurt?
In idle moments when they aren't thinking about Texas and the national championship, those are the questions circulating through the minds of five USC juniors considering an early jump. Tailbacks Reggie Bush and LenDale White, receiver Steve Smith, offensive tackle Winston Justice and safety Darnell Bingall are considered NFL caliber.The particular caliber? The only ones who know are NFL personnel people who sneak peeks at juniors while they're scouting seniors - the only players they're told to scout. Those personnel people aren't talking. It's the agents who talk, but Carroll tells the players not to listen.
"I've changed my number, like, three times," Bush said.
"I direct everybody to my uncle and brother," Bing said.
Every year, Carroll said he gets information from close contacts with 10 teams. None of it reaches the ears of anyone but his players.
"I had great information," Carroll said. "In fact, we've been very accurate."
The NFL has more information on seniors than juniors and Carroll said the league doesn't start serious evaluations of underclassmen until after the declaration deadline, which will be Jan. 15.
"They don't trust it as much because they don't have enough time in making their decisions," Carroll said of those late evaluations. "And that causes them to be more cautious, and these guys get devalued because of that. It happens all the time."
Carroll points to defensive end Kenechi Udeze. He was expected to go among the top 10 picks in 2004, but missed an evaluation by the San Francisco 49ers and started free falling through the first round. Carroll was on the phone with Scott Studwell, the Vikings' director of college scouting, that morning, prompting Minnesota to take Udeze at No. 20.
"His value plummeted," Carroll said. "He probably dropped $4-5, $8 million. Like that! They were panicking because something was wrong they didn't know about. Because he missed a 49er evaluation. He didn't have a bad evaluation. He missed it."
Conflict of interest
Some might argue there is an inherent conflict of interest in what Carroll tells his underclassmen. Carroll knows it will benefit him if all five juniors return to USC next year. However, he will advise a player to come out early under certain circumstances.
"If a player is the best player at his position," Carroll said, "it's hard to get any better than that in another year."
That's a question any underclassman must ask. Assuming Bush comes out, he likely will go first overall and probably will attract more than the $57 million deal San Francisco gave Utah quarterback Alex Smith as the top pick last spring.
Sure, USC quarterback Matt Leinart returned for his senior year after winning the Heisman and passing up the opportunity to be the No. 1 pick in the draft and ... Whoa! Wait a minute, USC offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin said.
"I don't think anyone can even make that statement because nobody knows that," Kiffin said. "Once again, you're speculating what the media portrayed, or Mel Kiper. There's a ton of reasons he wouldn't have been the No. 1 pick."
Leinart had offseason elbow surgery. Who knows if he would have thrown at the NFL Combine in February or if more questions would have been asked about his already questionable arm strength.
While Bush evokes no such questions, White does. If Bush is the top tailback taken, where would White go? One NFL scout said White, a Chatfield High School graduate, likely would fall between the fourth and seventh running back taken.
In April, the top tailback taken, Auburn's Ronnie Brown, received a $33.67 million deal at No. 2 overall from the Miami Dolphins. The No. 4 tailback, California's J.J. Arrington, received a $3.22 million deal from the Arizona Cardinals.
If White stays, he'll be a Heisman contender next year with the entire USC offensive line coming back. Could he go No. 1 in 2007 and get Bush money? It's White's multi-million-dollar question.
"My situation is different from Matt Leinart," White said. "It's different from Reggie Bush. We all got different decisions and I'll talk it over with my family. Right now I'm 50-50."
If he talks to NFL players or certain agents, he might hear other stories. Denver-based Peter Schaffer is one agent who bristles at the stereotype that agents lurk around college housing trying to corrupt underclassmen.
"It runs the entire gamut," Schaffer said. "There are agents who are going to be honest with players and have resources and get real good information to players. Agents who are self-serving and tell players what they want to hear to secure a player will tell the player what he wants to hear."
Schaffer also debunks Carroll's theory that NFL teams don't have enough information on juniors and are scared to pull the trigger. There is information available, Schaffer said.
"The problem is teams don't make draftable decisions until after combines and workouts," he said. "Players have to make decisions before that. The NFL has this policy because they don't want to upset the apple cart by giving juniors grades, but that would alleviate agents being the sole sensor and resource sensor.
"Don't bury your head in the sand."
No looking back
Two Broncos who left college early have no regrets. Wide receiver David Terrell was close to his degree after only three years at Michigan and went eighth overall to Chicago in 2001. In 1997, Denver took defensive end Trevor Pryce 28th from Clemson. Pryce received conflicting reports before the draft.
"I was told I was going to be picked eighth, I was told I was going to be picked in the third round," Pryce said. "Everybody was dead wrong. But it's worked out for the best."
Pryce was starting in Denver by his second year and blossomed into a four-time Pro Bowler. In 2001, Schaffer helped Pryce negotiate a $60 million contract, including an $11 million signing bonus.
Terrell could be a guest lecturer on the NFL transition at Carroll's seminar. As a part-time starter his rookie season, he made 34 catches for 415 yards and four touchdowns. Then his production plummeted. A brief revival in 2004 didn't prevent him from being released in February, and the New England Patriots released him in training camp this year before the Broncos picked him up. He has been on the inactive list all season. What advice would he give the young Trojans looking at the NFL?
"It's a brutal league," he said. "You've got a lot of money. You've got a lot of decisions to make and a lot of times you've got to make them on your own."
To stay or not to stay. Five USC Trojans along with many other underclassmen nationwide have 35 days to answer that question.

Bush runs away with Heisman

Bush became the seventh Trojan to capture the illustrious award and the third in four years, after quarterbacks Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart took the trophy in 2002 and 2004, respectively. The other Southern California Heisman winners were all running backs -- Mike Garrett (1965), O.J. Simpson (1968), Charles White (1979), and Marcus Allen (1981). Bush, who received 784 first-place votes and 2,541 total points, easily outdistanced Texas quarterback Vince Young and Leinart for the award. "This is amazing," Bush said. "It's truly an honor to be elected to this fraternity of Heisman winners. "I've been in college for three years and this is the first time I'm getting invited into a fraternity. It's pretty good." On the season, the dynamic Bush has been one of the main reasons that USC (12-0) has won 34 straight games. The junior running back has rushed for 1,658 yards and 15 touchdowns on 187 carries while also hauling in 31 passes for 383 yards and two scores. Combined with his kick and punt returns, Bush has accumulated 2,611 all-purpose yards for the No. 1 ranked Trojans. In addition to winning the Heisman, the 20-year-old Bush also took home some other impressive hardware this season. He was named the Walter Camp Football Foundation's Player of the Year and won the Doak Walker Award, given to the nation's top running back. Bush became the first running back to win the Heisman since 1999, when Wisconsin's Ron Dayne took home the award. Young, a junior, is 182-of-285 for 2,769 yards with 26 touchdowns and 10 interceptions this season for the Longhorns (12-0), who have won 19 straight games. The mobile QB, who picked up 79 first-place votes and received 1,608 total points, has also rushed for nine touchdowns and 850 yards on 136 carries. Despite not winning the Heisman, the 22-year-old Young did receive other honors this season. Young captured the Maxwell Award as the nation's top college football player and also won the Davey O'Brien Award as the nation's top quarterback. Leinart, who was trying to join Archie Griffin as the only two-time winner of the Heisman Award, finished a distant third. The senior signal-caller, who earned 18 first-place nods and 797 total points, has completed 254-of-391 passes for 3,450 yards and 27 touchdowns to only seven interceptions. The 22-year-old Leinart did not repeat in his Heisman bid, but did capture the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, presented annually to the nation's top senior quarterback. "His decision to come back this year has changed my life so much," Bush said of Leinart. All three players will also be in action on January 4, as the country's top two teams will do battle for the national championship at the Rose Bowl. Southern California will be attempting to capture its third straight national title, a feat never before accomplished, while Texas will aim to win a national championship for the first time since 1969. Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn finished fourth in the Heisman balloting, while Penn State signal-caller Michael Robinson rounded out the top five.