USC turns attention to QB battle
Posted: Sunday, March 23, 2008 3:58 PM
A year after advancing to the Sweet 16 and despite the presence of O.J. Mayo, the USC men’s basketball team wasn’t able to even get out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The sting is still in the air, but Tim Floyd doesn’t have to worry. It won’t last long.
Spring practice is just about here.
Football -- even if just the spring version -- supersedes everything at USC.
Anything else, no matter how upsetting, falls quickly into a dimly-lit background. And that’s especially the case at this moment in time, which is a little different for the Trojan footballers.
It has been a long time since Pete Carroll and his legions of fans haven’t known who their starting quarterback will be.
During this century, USC’s field general has been someone named either Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart or John David Booty. Not a bad trio, creating quite a comfort zone as a team enters a season.
It’s not that USC doesn’t have a suitable successor to Booty for the 2008 campaign. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. The Trojans have more than one.
Los Angeles is no stranger to quarterback controversies. Dating back to the days when the Rams had a pair of Hall of Famers in Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin, Los Angeles had more quality QB quandaries than any other city.
This latest one features Mark Sanchez and Mitch Mustain. All eyes will be on that duo as they share the snaps during USC’s spring drills, which begin on Tuesday.
Sanchez, a junior who signed with USC out of high school, has been with the program longer. He even started three games last season after Booty broke a finger. So, if there needs to be a frontrunner, you can consider him slightly ahead.
But Mustain, a sophomore who redshirted last season after transferring from Arkansas, is sure to get a long look from Carroll and his staff during the Trojans’ 15 practice sessions. As a true freshman in 2006, Mustain was 8-0 as a starter for the Razorbacks.
Even on the West Coast, where fans don’t automatically regard the SEC as the nation’s elite conference, Mustain’s undefeated mark as a starter at Arkansas has people talking. Perhaps they even remember his sensational collegiate debut when he came off the bench and mopped up for the Hogs against USC in the 2006 season opener for both schools.
The score was already 44-7 in favor of the Trojans when Mustain entered the game and he wasn’t going against all of USC’s first-teamers, but his first drive was a thing of beauty. It even included a 42-yard pass completion to Damian Williams, a fellow true freshman at the time who also transferred to USC. And after completing all three of his passes, Mustain provided the exclamation point with a slick four-yard touchdown run.
USA Today’s “National Player of the Year” in 2005, Mustain was an absolute Arkansas cult hero while at Springdale High School. He was even rated by many to be a better college prospect than Tim Tebow.
Sanchez has a similar pedigree. He was the 2004 Parade Magazine “Player of the Year,” and the jewel of Carroll’s 2005 recruiting class, which also featured linebackers Rey Maualuga and Brian Cushing, and wide receiver Patrick Turner.
But, Sanchez might actually have a little less to hang his helmet on as he enters spring ball. He was 2-1 as starter last season. Sanchez’s victories came against Arizona (USC had to rally to win, 20-13, at the Coliseum) and Notre Dame (four touchdown passes), which aren’t exactly a pair of world-beaters. The loss was a 24-17 setback at then-No. 2 Oregon, which came to an end when Sanchez threw his second interception of the fourth quarter in the final moments.
Actually, if that game had ended differently, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Sanchez would have raised his stock considerably and one-loss USC (the Trojans dropped that shocker at home to Stanford three weeks prior to their loss in Eugene) would have probably played for and won the national championship.
Under that scenario, Carroll would have likely rewarded Sanchez for his role in bringing another title to USC and Mustain would have had to wait his turn, like Booty did behind Leinart.
But here we are with a good ol’ fashion quarterback controversy at the top of the collegiate football food chain.
Ah … spring time. Don’t you just love it?
