Scott:

Why has Carmen Trutanich started representing USC players again after he said that he would never do so again? If there are administrators opposed to his involvement with USC athletes, what's in it for him? Where does his daughter currently go to college and is she planning on applying to USC as a transfer student?

Which true freshmen will likely be named starters this year?

Thanks in advance for your answers, Scott. Your answers are always informative and entertaining. Keep up the good work!

Scott-

What does Dallas Sartz think about Natalie Nelson marrying Ryan Kalil, and is he planning on attending the wedding?

Hey, at least it's not a question about internal punishments!!!!!

Who is Mitch Mustain's favorite Spice Girl?

Scott, I have a few questions about the physical state of the quarterbacks.

Has Booty put on a lot of weight, in particular fat, in the off-season? I have seen pictures of him with a huge beer gut, but cannot figure out if it is because of the angle the pictures were taken and his shirt was blowing in the wind, or he really has become fat and out of shape.

You said that Mustain looked very skinny compared to Booty, but is that simply because Booty is overweight or is Mustain really skinny and needs to put on weight? From pictures that I have seen of him, Mustain looks to be very muscular and fit, so what's your opinion?

Does Sanchez need to lose any weight? He looks fairly hefty and slow, so have the coaches told him to get in better shape?

Has Corp been put on a diet to beef up and has he started working out yet on campus?

Thanks for this forum, Scott.

Scott: Who has better athletic department sources at SC, you or Petros Papadakis? What do you think about his assertion that unless someone was a football player, they are not qualified to be a coach? For Petros, that includes Charlie Weis. What do you think Petros' legacy as a Trojan football player is?

where did michael coleman transfer?
Why did tatum transfer?

What players due to injury will not be ready to go when camp opens?

Anyone that has attended workouts have any comments or opinions on Everson Griffin and/or Broderick Green?

Do you suspect any Silent Commits right now?

If so, who?

SW, is PC still having as much fun coaching as he did when he first started at Troy? What is your relationship like with Coach? Great job on the Forum SW. Keep it up. Fight On!

Scott, you already said that you would ban anyone on your blog who was disruptive and engaged in race baiting, so why have you not already banned Door Prize? All of your readers want you to have him banned, yet he is still engaged in attacking other with his race baiting garbage that adds nothing to your blog, except ruining it and making it unreadable.

Door Prize has nothing whatsoever to do with USC and just comes on your board and accuses everyone of being anti-Latino, while hurling profanities and disgusting comparisons to Hitler, while throwing around vile language. He adds nothing at all to your blog. He never talks about football, USC, or anything that is not race-based garbage or filled with profanity.

You have to ban him already, or he will continue to ruin your blog for all those who enjoy reading it and contributing. He has nothing to do with USC and his race baiting garbage has to stop!

Who is on your all-time USC all-NFL team, offense and defense?

Who do you predict the starting five on the men's basketball team will be?

Do you think OJ Mayo will be named a first team All American as a freshman?

How far do you think the team will go in the NCAA Tournament?

If Mitch Mustain was always going to end up with his usual No. 16 jersey, why was there even an issue with No. 13 to begin with?

I was a little surprised Chauncey Washington stayed after being so frustrated last year and even more backs coming in. Is he trying to get his degree after overcoming his academic difficulties or did he come back primarily for draft reasons? He seems like someone to root for after all his struggles.

Scott:
In a recent O/NSO column it was noted that Trojan recruit Daniel Campbell wasn't in as good shape and wasn't as impressive as expected at the recent Rising Stars Camp, and therefore the Trojan coaching staff will have some "interesting decisions to make on this kid." Robbie Green was also less than impressive. But since both Campbell and Green both have scholarship offers what "interesting
decisions" are there to make?

Do three (3) star recruits really make a contribution at USC and are you surprised that Drew McAllister, a 3 star recruit was given an offer (which he accepted) this early? It seems to me that
in the past 3 stars were normally offered very late in the recruiting year to fill up unused scholarship spots.

Lastly, is Jordon Cameron from BYU a legitimate possible future starter? I know he has to sit out
next year.

Terian, USC has had a ton of 3 star players - many of them quite successful. Justin Wyatt, Chris McFoy, Ryan Kalil, Des Reed, Terrell Thomas, The Ting Bros, Eric Wright, Josh Pinkard, Kevin Ellison, Garrett Green and Travon Patterson were all 3* recruits.

Scott, could PC be going after more 3 star players now because he wants to balance the team out with some players that are willing to play hard to get where they need to be rather than the 5 star players who just often want it handed to them. I trust that they have talent but it seems like he wants some guys willing to prove themselves. I'm not saying he doesn't need 5* players but maybe he sees that the 3*s set a better tone for the team in the way they attack practices.

Scott:

Do you think that Mustain will be able to memorize and master the entire play book by the time spring training comes around?

Scott:
Yours is the best blog on the planet !!!!!
How about some ink/love for Moody...
I think he was the star when healthy last year.

Scott:
Yours is the best blog on the planet !!!!!
How about some ink/love for Moody...
I think he was the star when healthy last year.

Who do you think will be the scout team QB? Any big names that will end up on the scout team that will make their move like Ausberry did last season?

In your opinion, what are some of Mitch Mustain's strengths as a quarterback (other than the usual starting record, game experience, etc.)?

I hear the radio announcers make fun of the west coast offense so much--but didn't Norm Chow run the west coast offense? And how would you characterize the offenses run by Kiffin, Sarkisian and then Hue Jackson and Mike Riley back in the 1990s? Thanks Scott!

I hear the radio announcers make fun of the west coast offense so much--but didn't Norm Chow run the west coast offense? And how would you characterize the offenses run by Kiffin, Sarkisian and then Hue Jackson and Mike Riley back in the 1990s? Thanks Scott!

I am going to second what DavefromCDM says...I realize leaving this blog open creates alot of good arguments and raises the number of readers and probably makes Scott laugh sometimes while he is sitting at home.

But (And I have posted this before) it mostly just ruins the experience for us USC fans who log on and have to read "13-9" for the 100,000th time or more insults/trash talking about Pete Carroll and USC. That's the main thing I learn from this site, what UCLA fans think of USC.

I am not into trash talking or getting into arguments with other teams' fans I work alot and have things to do and don't have time for it.

So c'mon Scott, how about delivering on that promise of banning some people?

:o)

Of the incoming freshmen, do you know yet who is fastest: Joe or Ro-jo? Any 40 times available yet?

Scott-

What is going to happen to NFL Europa players now that the league has been disbanded? I know there were a few USC alums playing there.

Scott, What's up with Jeff Byers? Is he healthy? Likely to play center this year? Could he get another year of eligibility?

Also, do you think LenDale would have been a dominant go-to back had he'd stayed for his final year? If so, what makes him that much better than the slew of talented backs we have?

Scott:

When do you think Everson Griffin will get his first start as a Trojan. Will it be the season opener?

Scott - more kudos on the blog. I know that it is tough to be informative and popular, so thanks for what you do.

1. Lawrence Miles - what's the story here?
2. How are the young DT's looking to pick-up the slack? Several Sophmores in the group (Simmmons, Parsons, Spicer) - any comments on readiness to contribute? Is it realistic to expect anything from the incoming Freshmen here?
3. Do you think there may be some influence from Coach Morton - sets where we use 2 RB's in place of a RB/FB formation? What are your thoughts on this for this SC team?
4. Based on remaining scholarship openings for 2008, what do you feel are the greatest positions of need?

Totally, 100% concur with CDM...Get that clown that posts from the ip address under the names of el capitan and door prize, the hell outta here! This is a must to keep your fine blog readable and decent. This sicko us using you, your fine blog and us your participating readers for his personal sick and contrary game playing. This sicko needs permanent banishment!
Gillyking

Let me chime in, too, and state my complete support that you ban that poster called Door Prize (also goes by El Capitan). He is a truly sick race baiter who is mentally disturbed and has ruined many of your blog threads. He is an insult to those of us who come on this board to read about USC, only to have this mentally deranged person attack everyone in sight with his very poorly written race-filled diatribes. Why he has chosen to come on a USC board to spread his sickness is unknown to me and I do not want to know. I do know he needs to go.

Ban him forever and maintain the integrity of your blog before he completely ruins it forever with his sick, racially disgusting rants.

Will Damian Williams have recuperated from his injury in time for spring practice? Do you think he will start in 2008?

Do you think that Mitch Mustain will start at quarterback for all three years of his remaining eligibility, or will he leave to go to the NFL after two years as a starter, as he will be on course to graduate in 2010 after sitting out this year?

Will Booty continue to struggle with batted down passes or have the coaches addressed that? If so, how?

Hi Scott: Greatjob as always last week--sincere thanks. First, if I may, my sincere thanks also go to reader jay#42 for all the kind words you said about me. Second, I read the first comment this week about kicking the stupid "door prize" and all his aliases off and my first reaction was to say just ignore him like I do, but after seeing the comments of USC1966 and Gillyking {readers I have come to admire for their intelligent posts, along with terian, Tyler, Morantz and others], and seeing all the other negative comments from readers about him too, I have changed my mind. Kick him off!

Now for my questions: 1. I promise this will be my last question about Norm-but for closure-What was he like in private one-on-one conversations with you? I'm sure you must have had some--I'm thinking stuff like friendly, easy-to approach, shy, bitter at his fate, easy to like, introverted, or, just to make it short, we all know he was an offensive genius, but what adjectives come first to your mind to describe him, ,Scott? if not in private, which I prefer, then overall.

2. Second and last question: If you had to name 6 or 8 recruits, besides the ones we already have for 2008, and besides Beal and Brown,--- recruits whom the coaches really want to have, and whom the coaches[or yourself] feel we really have a good chance to get a commit from, who would they be? [Feel free to name 10 or 12 if you want, but the question is probably too hard as it is!

This isn't a question, but I've noticed the archives sometimes have a much longer comment from you than the original post--I'm thinking of the Manning visit where he threw to some receivers. I just mention this in case you want to explain to us what happens in those cases. Finally, your blog is the best on the internet-it makes my day!

Scott:

I also want to cast my vote for you to ban Door Prize IMMEDIATELY and have his IP address banned from registering any future accounts under different names, which he has done before. He is a deranged man who never went to SC and simply comes on your blog to attack everyone with his racially charged sickness.

Ban him IMMEDIATELY!

Scott,

Read your article about the PC-NC break-up back in Feb ’05. As you know better than me, football coaching is heiarchial, normally the head coach gets ALL the credit, praise, criticism, blame, etc. When it comes to PR recognition, there’s a wide chasam between him and his assistants. The offensive and defensive guru’s are exceptions, and when the spotlight of fame shines on them for long, if they’re good enough, they move on to HC positions. So it seems natural that PC would need to become more involved with the O to prepare for Norm’s eventual departure. But the market kind of told him he wasn’t HC material. Did Norm take it the wrong way or is Pete really that egotistical that he make life a living hell? Personally to me, Norm seems more prideful than Pete, that maybe he couldn’t let go of a perceived slight or offense.

Scott -
What do you make of Pete Carroll's comments during his recent coach's tour where he said "Mitch Mustain will be the best quarterback on the scout team this year and more"?

It sounds quite definite and positive to me, even though you say that we should not read too much into anything Pete says during Trojan Club events. What say you?

Thanks for everything you do with this blog, even if there is the odd person who has to ruin it for everyone. So if you ban him, there will be no complaints from me.

Fight on!

Scott,
After watching the Freshman a little what is your opinion of Joe McKnight does he look like the real deal, and what about other Freshman, any standing out that you have seen so far?

This is America and we just celebrated having independence, which means tolerating people who make ridiculous comments. So, Mr. Wolf, I for one do not support censorship in any form (with few exceptions), so let the "extremists" say their piece. If we don't like what they say, then ignore them, and don't mention them by name on this blog, because it only lights their fire to continue.
Preaching aside, how many games do you believe SC can lose this year and still qualify for the National Championship Game?

If it is coming down to a vote of readers to ban Door Prize, then consider this my ballot to have this despicable and deranged maniac banned for his race-filled diatribes (although I suspect that LAWYER JOHN above is yet another one of Door Prize's many pseudonyms).

LAWYER JOHN, second your opinion.

For some others, knock it off with the lynch-mob nonsense. The guy you’re bashing didn’t even post in this thread. If you don’t like what he writes, ignore him. It takes two to tango. What’s worse, one bad inflammatory post, or one bad inflammatory post followed by a half-dozen rebuttals? You may personally feel better, but it just further detracts from Scott’s blog. Do your own part if you want this blog to be better.

Re BeverlyHills post 2 or 3 above mine,[this one] it seems to be true that Norm was not HC material anywhere-possibly because of his age, personality[maybe] and the fact that he had been an OC for such a long time. All that being said, I am happily married to an Asian[Filipina], and to Asians, FACE is so important. I would imagine that when NORM learned his coveted OC position was to be taken away from him without his permission, it came as a tremendous blow to his ego. If only Pete had left everything remain 'STATUS QUO', we had a tremendous thing going--the best offensive and defensive coaches around. Why mess with success?

Re door prize; As I said, I ignore him, but one day last week there were about 40 posts--none having to do with Scotts' post, but just a filthy comment by door prize, followed by an equally filthy[tho sometimes decent] comment by a reader, then back to door prize, then reader ad infinitum. As I've said, I can take it, but apparently enough good readers, who make good posts can't.

TIREBITER1, I concur with your sentiments, but to your rhetorical question "why mess with success?", I think that train was probably leaving the station irregardless of what Pete could'a, would'a, should'a done. But Scott can answer that better than I.

OK OK ...for all you guys waving the fifth amendment here...

Freedom of speech is a good thing and everyone is entitled to it.

HOWEVER

NOT when it consists of subjects like race baiting and racial slurs and offends other people. Every lawyer knows that, "Lawyer John" (or is that "doorprize"?)

BTW, this isn't the supreme court this is a USC football blog give the amendments a rest.

It might be hard for Scott to ban him though because he could use a proxy server or something that generates IP addresses....

:o))

BeverlyHills: I agree with you completely--if Norm was shopping around for a different job,then it's a whole new ballgame. You are right that Scott is the one to tell us both the truth. By the way, I liked your question--it should 100% clean this up once and for all. A final thought I have here is that if Norm was job-hunting, I would strongly guess that it was because of the power that Pete gave to little kiff.

Lawyer John and Alwaysbeatnd, The types of venomous and mostly racist so called free speech that spew from door prize is just innappropriate in a USC football blog. The vast majority of the participators want this person permanently GONE! It's really nothing to do at all with the 5th Ammendment, it's more to do about common decent actions on this USC football blog. I feel that just ignoring this person is not enough. I hop into a thread because the topic peaks my interest, then to get into 3,4,5,etc continuing posts that are created soley by the game playing door prize, makes the entire thread totally something that it was not intended by Scott to be. There are plenty of places on the internet for a sicko like him to prowl into...Why should our outstanding Trojans football blog be defecated on by door prize? The comedic ucla trash talk by Bill Miguelito et/al is of a far far at least more civilized nature with basically good natured ribbing than the filthy foul degenerated vile venom that is spewn from door prize. This is why so many of us don't want what door prize dumps upon us! It would make a massive improvement here and we all deserve that. I cannot tell you how great I feel when I drop into this blog, get my nice Trojan football fix and all is decent. We've lost that by the presence of doorprize, and the positives (such as the many postings from the mass of regulars who all care deeply about SC ball) all go away when the doorprize contaminates Scott's great USC Football Blog. So I re-itterate..Get that guy the heck outta here!

Regarding Chow... I have also wondered if one of the reasons that NC has not gotten a HC job is because of a perceived inability at recruiting. Anything to that Scott?

Gillyking:

Concur 100%. Door Prize, AKA El Capitan, simply has to go. He is a degenerate race baiter and his posts are so sick and vile, they have made Scott's blog unreadable on numerous occasions.

BAN HIM ASAP!

Mr Tirebiter...your quote "I can take it, but apparently enough good readers, who make good posts can't." is outstanding. I also can take it sir.. but why the heck should I or should anyone of us who logs into this blog have to? I don't come into here to "have to take it", I come here for my Trojan football daily fix! I'd expect to have to endure that BS if I were to log into a website something similar to doorprize.com for example... but not when I log into Scott's Blog.
I really find what you post very interesting and thought provoking most times. This is the stuff that I'm interested in. I'm glad that you're out there, along with about 30 others that I tremendously enjoy reading in this blog..
Gillyking

Gillyking,

Norm Chow may not be a good recruiter, I don’t know, but he did pull a seven-year-long stint as recruiting coordinator while at BYU. So he knows the ropes. After all his success with the BYU QB’s, Philip Rivers, Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, and now Vince Young, I would tend to think he’d carry a lot of weight recruiting for the offense. Much like Weis at ND, who is also perceived to be an offensive genius. Any wonder why the top Cali QB’s of the last two classes (Clausen & Crist) have left the sunny west coast for the Indiana cow pastures? I hope Matt Barkley doesn’t follow suit in ’09.

Yeah I got a big Q Scott-

What are we doing with all the safeties?

I can understand the RB's-last year alot of them were hurt and we were desperate for any kind of RB-FB or TB. At one point we were down to CJ Gable and that's about it, which is inexcusable for a top ranked program like USC. So they brought in a shit-pot of new talent at that position.

But what in the sam hill are we doing with all the safeties? I mean, we ALREADY have K. Ellison, T. Mays, J. Pinkard, W. Harris, G. Green, M. Jones, A. Rowe and M. McCurtis. We would of had 1 more if A. Perez would of stayed. Drew McAllister and M. Simmons already commited who will play safety, AND we offered D'Anton Lynn, a Safety from TX.

OK Scott, that is TWELVE safeties..Are we expecting a run on safeties? Switching to a 4 safety Secondary? Abolishing the LB position and playing 7 safeties? Going to the New Mexico/BYU 3-3-5 defense?

Scott, you wrote last week: "Do you seriously think a question is too hot for me?"

Is that really true? The reason I ask is because I want to find out about how a certain player who is currently on the roster managed to get out of a lot of legal trouble (and, no, it is not regarding an "internal punishment"), but don't want to put you in an awkward position that you would rather not be put in. If really any question is not too hot to ask, I'll ask it next time; but if you don't want to delve into very dark, almost secretive, waters, just say so and I'll leave it be.

Re: Door Prize
I join in with everyone else demanding that he be banned. He is using your blog to further his ridiculous Latino race baiting agenda, and accuses anyone who says anything positive about a white player of being anti-Latino, while bringing up completely unrelated situations to engage in disgraceful race baiting.

The sooner he is gone from your blog, the better. He won't be missed.

Gillyking: I must say, in all deepest humility, that your last post was magnificent! Sir, re door prize, you are 100% right--why should we have to put up with that filthy trash? Count me fully in with you on that.

66 you gotta believe that you can never have enough secondary help. The injury bug made that area iffy last year. We should have a glut of RBs this season barring too many unforseen injuries there also. I think that you just may be a little impatient and should wait to watch a probable marvelous season unfold.

TrojanSAEinNYC, Man do I ever concur with all of you guys. This doorprize creep must get gone! Permanently!I cannot tell you how many times I get into a topic here and then the Bull Pucky starts up. The nasty connotations of some of the names of contributors,the innuendo of rampant racial tension and the obvious description of foul language changed ever so slightly but with easily understood meanings. I agree with all of you that want to see the end of el capitan door prize!! Knock this turkey out of the box please Scott!!

Beverlyhillsboys, I kind of agree with you about Chow's success at BYU and developing QBs..but Gillyking has a point about the recruiting. I don't really know but have also wondered if that is the reason he seems to come out of HC interviews on the losing end. I hope that Scott will put some insight on this aspect of NC.

Scott, is Marc Tyler in summer classes? At workouts? and fully recovered from his High School Playoffs leg injury?
Your take on his outlook this freshman season?

also your outlook and status on RB Broadrick Green

AMEN Tire

I am rather surprised with Mcalister's sudden offer and commitment. Who is this kid? Is he really SC quality? We usually offer them towards the end of the recruiting cycle, basically to fill up open slots, not so early in the calender.