ESPN’s Outside the Lines, which broke the O.J. Mayo story, looks at Penn State coach Joe Paterno, who ”while celebrating his induction to the College Football Hall of Fame, is also facing questions about the spate of criminal charges against some of his players.”
The show examines the crimes, charges, and convictions among Penn State football players, reports on the spike in criminal activity.

Yogi Roth, the graduate assistant and assistant quarterbacks coach, has additional duties in the fall as he’ll work with kickers and snappers.

It’s time for questions. Barack Obama drew 200,000 for a speech in Berlin today. If USC did the count, it would have been 300,000.

Reggie who?
Pete Carroll praised Joe McKnight for having the ability to do it all out of the backfield. And he does something even better than Bush.
“Joe McKnight has gained 20 pounds since he showed up a year ago,” Carroll said. “He’s a big-play tailback who can catch the ball out of the backfield and line up as a receiver. He runs routes as a receiver better than Reggie did.”

ASU coach Dennis Erickson seemingly already conceded the Pac-10 title to USC, even though the Sun Devils shared the conference title with the Trojans last year.
“You don’t pay any attention to that,” he said. “One thing about how they rate ya is that it’s over the week when we start practice. Our league is so competitive. ‘SC has set a high standard. That’s the reality of it. Anybody can beat anybody, that’s why it’s such a great league. To pick who will be second is very difficult.”

Pete Carroll still can’t put his finger on others’ fascination with the plethora of running backs the Trojans have.
“They (each) have their ways, and we’ll continue to utilize them,” Carroll said. “It’s never been a problem for us. It’s a problem for everyone else that they can’t figure out why we do it that way. You saw for years that Reggie was the poster boy and Heisman Trophy winner. LenDale White set the record for Pac-10 touchdowns. Now, it may be a three-back deal or four-back deal. Who knows? Last year, we had 10 guys. Now we have six. It should work out fine.”

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel and Pete Carroll fielded questions about the crosstown rivalry on Thursday, and Neuheisel is embracing the challenge of living next door to USC.
“I think you have to embrace it,” Neuheisel said. “They’re the elephant in the living room. They’ve earned it. They’ve done an unbelievable job. Pete is to be commended what’s taken place there the last six to seven years. The transformation from middle of the pack to not just leader of the pack but leader of the country. You can’t be a coach at UCLA and not find a way to compete and be successful with USC. That’s part of the deal. The good news is that when we catch them and I say when, we’ll not only have caught the leader of the pack but the program that can rightfully challenge for the big prizes.”

The preseason media poll has picked the Pac-10 champion 25 of the last 47 seasons. Also, the media has picked the Pac-10 conference champs the last eight consecutive years.

Last year, Jim Harbaugh made a splash as Stanford’s new coach when he proclaimed USC to be perhaps the best team in college history. Asked if he had any more bulletin board material for this year, Harbaugh said: “Have I had any bulletin board fodder? I didn’t know I was a bulletin board guy.”

USC was picked to win the Pac-10 again. USC was voted No. 1 by 38 of the 39 voters. USC has won or shared the last five Pac-10 titles. Defending Pac-10 co-champ Arizona State is picked to finish second.

Here’s the poll with total points
1. USC (38) 389
2. ASU 330
3. Oregon 295
4. Cal (1) 274
5. UCLA 204
6. Oregon State 192
7. Arizona 185
8. Washington 139
9. Stanford 76
10. Washington State 61