LOS ANGELES -- USC was picked to win the Pac-10 football title for the seventh consecutive year by the media, and yet the coaches from all nine competitors -- including Arizona's Mike Stoops (right) and even USC coach Pete Carroll -- touched on the uncertainty of the Trojans this season.
USC received 28 of the 32 votes with California receiving three while third-place Oregon collected one vote. The Trojans will be breaking in a new quarterback and several new defenders since 11 players were taken in the NFL Draft. Perhaps this is the year another school emerges and takes the crown out of Los Angeles, but they approached Thursday precariously and with respect. There were no declarations that USC is going down or the reign is over -- not even from UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel.
LOS ANGELES -- Perhaps there was a reason Pete Carroll pleaded with Mark Sanchez to return to USC for his senior season. He knew his Trojans would lose their gorilla grip on the Pac-10, and that is the enduring theme entering the conference's media day Thursday at the LAX Sheraton Hotel.
The Trojans are not the prohibitive favorites, but the precarious favorites with a slew of teams chasing them. But there's one major catch in their pursuit, most of the conference teams -- outside Washington -- are breaking in a new or less experienced quarterback. USC should be voted the favorites Thursday, but who is second?
Since 2002, the Pac-10 has been derisively called USC and the nine dwarves. Its more than a little unfair, but that's the prevailing wisdom. Although the conference is consistently among the deepest and most competitive around, USC's monopolized that top spot. Any chance of that changing this year begins with decisions those programs make this spring.
Washington State is allowing 55.6 points/game through four league games and faces mighty USC next. The Cougars are 116th in scoring at 15.9 points/game despite playing the No. 100, 69, 68, 66, 55 and No. 27 scoring defenses as well as lower division Portland State. Overall in conference play against the impotent Pac-10 this year they have been outscored 223-33. Among those scores was a defensive touchdown, a garbage-time score and a field goal on a drive that went for negative four yards.
As is the norm, there are big names who have moved on down the road in the Pac 10. From bowl-winning QB's to standout running backs, the list is a long one. But clearly one of the most exciting things about an upcoming season of college football is always the element of the unknown. What young players are waiting in the wings? What hotshot recruit with all the whispers that he is going to be special will finally be unleashed for public consumption? But as is usually the case, the young replacements come in to take the spots of some pretty established players who leave a large body of work behind them. With that, we look at the five biggest Pac 10 shoes that must be filled and the candidates to replace them.
JOHN DAVID BOOTY, QB, USC
The QB position for USC is always a glamor spot, and a perfect place to start. John David Booty came into the 2007 season as everyone's Heisman favorite, and for good reason. Booty was coming off a 2006 breakthrough performance, throwing for over 3300 yards and 29 TD's. But while USC went 11-2, won a share of the conference title, and Booty capped off his senior season with a fine performance in a Rose Bowl blowout of Illinois, still, things didn't quite work out. He threw for nearly 1,000 fewer yards in 2007 than he had the prior year. A broken finger on his throwing hand had a lot to do with it, and he even missed three games due to the injured digit. But that said, Booty was more about stats. He was a leader and a winner, and could be more difficult to replace than originally thought.
This year we find out if Mark Sanchez is the answer. Or will we? Sanchez, as was reported last week, suffered a dislocated knee cap during non-contact drills. While still not 100% officially ruled out for the season opener at Virginia, the latest report has his status very much up in the air. Meanwhile, Arkansas transfer Mitch Mustain and redshirt frosh Aaron Corp will run the offense in a job that suddenly appears wide open.
It could be worse though. Mustain didn't go completely bananas at Arkansas, throwing for a modest 894 yards in eight starts as a true frosh year in 2006. But he did go a perfect 8-0 as a starter, so, he's got that going for him. Which is good.
Some of it was your run-of-the-mill incidents that occur at campuses across the country. You know, underage drinking, marijuana possession, assault. Not to excuse the behavior, but pretty standard stuff for 18-22 year-olds. But some of it was, well, a little odd. For example, standout defensive end/linebacker Andy Mattingly attacked a five-foot-ten soccer player. With a frying pan. And the soccer player? He had a butter knife to try and fend off the 6-4, 245-pounder who notched 91 tackles and eight sacks as a true sophomore last season. Predictably, the soccer player took the worst of it, suffering a two-inch gash and was "bleeding profusely" according to the police report. As the old saying goes, never bring a butter knife to a frying pan fight.
All that said, the vast majority of these assorted misdeeds happened under the previous coaching regime of Bill Doba. Doba was relieved of his duties in December after a modest 30-29 record. But the real issues surrounding Doba and his coaching staff appears to be what was, or wasn't, happening off the field.
As the dust settles after the hiring of Paul Wulff at WSU, many fans have weighed in on the selection. Some absolutely love it, based on his excellence at the Division-1AA level (or is it the Football Sub-Division, to be politically correct?). But there are some that don't like it, and the leg they are standing on has to do with no success at the Division-1A level as either an assistant, a coordinator or a head coach.
But to understand that Wulff is the right choice, there are a lot of facts to consider beyond just dismissing his lack of Division-1 successes. Wulff did turn in a 53-40 record at Eastern Washington University, a program with a tiny budget and a stadium smaller than many high school stadiums in Texas (capacity: 8,000). Out of eight seasons as head coach at EWU, he had seven winning years, and has taken the Eagles to the playoffs in three of the last four years. He's won Big Sky Coach of the Year honors on three occasions. His offenses are exciting and explosive, and he and his assistants have great reputations for "coaching 'em up". This year, his true sophomore QB, Matt Nichols, threw for an astounding 3744 yards and 34 touchdowns running a no-huddle spread offense. And the Eagles lost by just three points in the playoffs at Appalachian State, your three-time defending Division-1AA/Football Sub-Division champions.
All that stuff is great, but that's just what he's done on the field. Off the field, Wulff is a fascinating story of overcoming adversity at a very early stage of life.
After a couple of weeks of rumors, lists, phone calls and interviews, Washington State finally has their man. Several media outlets are reporting tonight that WSU will hold a press conference tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM to introduce Paul Wulff as the next head football coach. He reportedly beat out former Michigan State coach John L. Smith and Oklahoma assistant Kevin Sumlin for the head job.
While Wulff hasn't coached at the division-I level, he does come to WSU with an impressive record of 53-40 at Eastern Washington, where he's been the head coach the last eight seasons. If you aren't too familiar with EWU, you aren't alone. Cheney, WA is one of the most difficult places to recruit to in the nation, and they have one of the smallest venues (8,000 seats) and football budgets in college football. Yet Wulff has won coach of the year honors in the Big Sky on four separate occasions in those eight seasons. Wulff's EWU Eagles just wrapped up their season a week ago, where they lost 38-35 at Appalachian State (remember them?) in the Football Subdivision Playoffs.
Wulff is a former center at WSU, where he started for the last three years of his career and earned All-Pac-10 honors in 1989. He's one of the only WSU players to ever play for WSU coaching legends Jim Walden, Dennis Erickson and Mike Price in his playing career. He is known for exciting offense, where his Eagles led the nation in total offense on two occasions, and finished second in total offense in two other seasons. And for those hoping for a reunion from glory days gone by, former coach Mike Price publicly pulled out of the running on Saturday, a day before things started to finalize for Wulff and WSU. While not exactly the splashy hire that some Cougar fans were hoping for, Wulff at age 40 is seen as a coach on the rise, and should inject some energy and passion into the program.
LOS ANGELES -- USC was picked to win the Pac-10 football title for the seventh consecutive year by the media, and yet the coaches from all nine competitors -- including Arizona's Mike Stoops (right) and even USC coach Pete Carroll -- touched on the uncertainty of the Trojans this season.
LOS ANGELES -- Perhaps there was a reason 
College Football Spring Storylines 2009
It ain't pretty. On ESPN's Pac-10 blog today are 
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As the dust settles after the hiring of 
After a couple of weeks of rumors, lists, phone calls and interviews, Washington State finally has their man. Several media outlets are reporting tonight that 
