Blog Zone: USC's big gamble

Editor's note: These excerpts are not edited for grammar or spelling.

There's no question about the success USC's football program has had in the Pete Carroll era.

Two national championships and seven consecutive Pac-10 titles (a league record), 11-win seasons, AP Top-4 finishes and BCS bowl appearances.

Throw in the fact that the Trojans have also produced three Heisman Trophy winners, along with a truckload of first-round draft picks every year, and it's easy to understand why any decisions Carroll makes with his program are rarely second-guessed.

Until now.

With USC's 2009 season opener less than two weeks away, Carroll shocked the college football world when he named true freshman Matt Barkley as the team's starting quarterback last week.

A bold move for any coach, but especially for Carroll, who has a roster stocked with talented All-American-type players still waiting for their chance to get on the field, starting with third-year sophomore quarterback Aaron Corp (who was expected to take over the position after 2008 starter Mark Sanchez left early for the NFL) and fourth-year junior Mitch Mustain (who started and won eight games for Arkansas as a freshman in 2006 before transferring to USC).

"I was totally surprised with the decision and the timing of when it was made," said veteran USC radio analyst Paul McDonald, a 1979 All-America quarterback who led the Trojans to a national championship and consecutive Rose Bowl victories.

John Jackson, a former USC wide receiver who has worked as a Trojans commentator since Carroll arrived at USC and has followed Barkley since he was a freshman at Mater Dei, added: "It certainly caught me off guard.

"Even though there's no doubt about [Barkley's] potential, you have to wonder if [Carroll] is patient enough as a coach to deal with some of the mistakes that a freshman is going to make. It doesn't matter who the player is. It could be Matt Barkley or Matt Leinart. You just know mistakes are going to happen with a young player starting at the position for the first time."

- http://ncaafootball.
fanhouse.com/

The NCAA has limits on the number of hours players can be required to do work within their given sport. These limits are designed to retain the perception that student-athletes are purely students first. . . .

If a group of current and former Michigan players have their way, football coach Rich Rodriguez is done getting away with breaking these rules. The Detroit Free Press has all the alleged details. . . .

The Free Press asked freshman receiver Je'Ron Stokes about Michigan's off-season program. Stokes, from Philadelphia, arrived at the Ann Arbor campus in June.

"Hooooo!" Stokes said. "A typical week is working from 8 a.m. in the morning to 6 or 7 at night, Monday through Saturday. . . . We do the weight room at least three times a week, and seven-on-sevens and one-on-ones. Speed and agility on the other days. Every day we have something new to get ready for the season." . . .

Rodriguez issued a statement to the Free Press, saying he follows the rules regarding practice and offseason workouts.

- http://ncaafootball.
fanhouse.com/