Lane Kiffin said today he wants to sign 5 or 6 players as midyear exceptions to the 15 scholarship limit. He also said cornerback T.J. Bryant would graduate and transfer, which means USC would get another scholarship back. Kiffin said officially that Dillon Baxter is not part of the program “nor will he ever be in our program.”
Tailback Amir Carlisle will undergo knee surgery and wide receiver Robert Woods ankle surgery now that the season is over.
Good luck to T.J. Bryant. He put in his time and graduated.
Scott, I know this will crush you because of your love for Dillon Baxter and how you have used his multiple suspensions to hammer Kiffin and Co., but it was disclosed last night that the players actually told the coaching staff that Baxter had to go. You really picked the wrong side on this one Scotty Boy.
Great photo of Pac 12 South Championship T-Shirt
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_college/2011/11/photo-usc-wears-pac-12-south-champions-t-shirts-after-ucla-win.html
Nice to see Kiff can clean house and free up some spots for some REAL football players. Too bad Scotty can’t do the same for this blog, getting rid of SlobDucky, WEBfoot, DynoDick, ThaiBean, etc.
Hey Brent –
Thanks for that info. That really interesting. Can you say where you read/heard that? If not, no worries. I wish Dillon Baxter well.
Fight On!
So all the wisdom in the AP poll kept us at 10. College Football News on the other hand moved USC to 3. Polls suck. Didn’t see fucla on any of them, will have to look closer. roflmao
1.LSU
2.USC
3.Stanford
4.Alabama
5.Houston
6.Virginia Tech
7.Oklahoma St.
8.Wisconsin
9.Oregon
10.Michigan St.
11.Georgia
12.Boise St.
13.TCU
14.Oklahoma
15.Arkansas
16.Michigan
17.Kansas State
18.Baylor
19.Clemson
20.Nebraska
21.West Virginia
22.Florida State
23.Cincinnati
24.Penn State
25.Texas
Isn’t the bigger problem going to be staying at 75 scholarships? Saying goodbye to Baxter helps, but how does signing a few mid-year enrollees help with that?
I think the most initial scholarship players USC can bring in between Jan & Aug is 19. 5 initial scholarship players (Heidari, Kessler, McBride, Vainuku & Wittek) enrolled last AY so their scholarships counted against AY ’10-11. 20 FR & 1 JC TR (Wiley) enrolled in Aug so USC should have 4 initial scholarships to offer mid-year enrolless that would count against AY ’11-12. USC is limited to 15 remaining initial scholarships. Of course any of those 15 could enroll in Jan but their scholarships would count against ’12-13, no? Even so, USC would have to make room for all of them since the sacntions limit the roster to 75 total scholarship players before the start of the ’12 season.
There are currently 80 scholarship players on the roster including 9 RS SRs who have exhausted their eligibility (Coleman, Carswell, Ellison, Tyler, Harris, Tupou, Galippo, Horton & Jones). Pousson & Cumming have exhausted their eligibility & Bryant will transfer. If Armstead doesn’t get cleared he’ll probably follow Bryant out the door. Former WOs Markowitz, Boyer & Burnett are academic SRs who should be graduating so their scholarships probably won’t be renewed. I think Andrew will be allowed to keep his for 1 more year since he should graduate next year. McDonald is surely going pro early. I think Kalil probably will too. I think Barkley & Perry will return. That leaves 60-64 returning scholarship players depending on whether Kalil, Barkley, Perry & Armstead return. USC would have to cut another 4-8 to make room for 19 new players.
I guess 5 of Carroll’s holdovers will probably be encouraged or forced to leave. Like Bryant & Armstead, Butler & Baucham could transfer without penalty & they’re academic SRs. And neither Flournoy nor Simmons nor Vehikite have made a dent on the depth chart. Everybody else is on the 2-deep or was signed by Kiffin.