Pio Vatuvei, a defensive end who originally committed to USC and changed at the last minute, has been dismissed from the Washington football program for a violation of team rules, coach Steve Sarkisian announced Tuesday.

The San Diego Chargers signed former USC safety-linebacker Tony Burnett to a free-agent contract. Burnett had participated in the Chargers’ rookie mini-camp in April but was still looking for a team to play for this summer.

Last week Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said all coaches and athletic directors dropped DirecTV. And here is USC athletic director Pat Haden’s testimonial.
“I switched from DirecTV to Time Warner Cable and I’m incredibly happy,” Haden said.
But what if you have DirecTV and do not get the Pac-12 Network and are incredibly happy? Or don’t like the idea of Larry Scott telling you what to do?

NFL star Adrian Peterson finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting to Matt Leinart when Peterson was a freshman at Oklahoma. They spent the weekend together in New York City at the Heisman Trophy ceremony and hit various clubs. But Peterson is unhappy nine years later about losing the Heisman race.
“I look at that [Heisman] trophy now and knowing that Matt Leinart has it, with how his career went, I would rather him have it,” Peterson told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune “At least he has something positive to look back on and say, `I won the Heisman.’ I feel good that he has it. Even though I know it should have been mine.”

USC formally announced today that it would have closed practices with the chance a couple training camp practices would be open to the public. UCLA announced that its training camp practices in San Bernardino will be open to the public.

Photo/Jack Haley

Former USC WR Robert Woods was involved in a scuffle today in Bills training camp with cornerback Crezdon Butler. Wide receiver Stevie Johnson is pushing Butler off Woods.

The media might pick USC to finish third but the betting site, Bovada.lv, favors the Trojans at 2/1 odds. UCLA is 5/2, Arizona 3/1 and Arizona State 4/1.

All of Bovada’s Pac-12 odds after the jump:
Continue reading “USC Favored To Win Pac-12 South” »

Lane Kiffin’s decision to close practices is disturbing for one reason. The idea that Kiffin learned from last year and would focus on the important stuff, to paraphrase Pat Haden, took a big step backwards.
With this decision, he crawled back into his paranoia-bubble. That matters because if he acts paranoid, it can have a negative effect on players. If you observed their reactions last year to his media-practice restrictions, you would know it affects the respect they have for him in other areas.
This also reveals the efforts to makeover Kiffin’s image as media friendly only go so far. I know some readers will automatically assume I am writing this because I an upset with Kiffin’s decision. But I stopped attending practices last season along with the Times and Register and was not going to start attending this year. So yesterday’s announcement does not affect me.
It affects USC’s image, however. And it will give players, who like the media attention, another reason to grumble about Kiffin.

The New England Patriots announced defensive tackle Armond Armstead underwent surgery for an infection and was in good condition. Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Armstead’s current condition is unrelated to any health issues he had at USC. He is expected to make a full recovery. Armstead is suing USC after he alleged USC team doctors gave him painkillers that caused him to have a heart attack that effectively ended his college career.