NFL draft yet another USC recruiting tool
Posted: Sunday, April 27, 2008 3:54 PM
Nearly seven months after it occurred, USC’s loss to Stanford got even more amazing on Saturday.
A new addition to the legendary tale about the 41-point underdog Cardinal, playing without their starting quarterback and ending the Trojans’ 35-game home winning streak at the Coliseum, is that there were four NFL first-rounders on the field for USC that night.
Stanford, trying to merely find its way under new head coach Jim Harbaugh, had none. That, of course, shouldn’t be a surprise. “The Farm” has produced only five first-round picks since 1983, when John Elway was the first overall selection, and only one since 1993 (tackle Kwame Harris in 2003).
USC, on the other hand, has always had a solid pipeline to the next level and accounted for no less than seven of the 63 players selected on Saturday, the first day of the 2008 NFL Draft, which constitutes two rounds.
Amazing … even by USC’s standards, setting a school record for picks in the first two rounds.
And now, not that he needs it, Pete Carroll’s recruiting pitches get stronger by the moment.
If they were totally honest, all those top-level high school blue-chippers out there would tell you that few things mean more to them than what college and/or coach is going to prepare them best for the NFL.
Before he accelerated USC’s reputation as a feeder outfit for the NFL, Carroll would visit with prep stars and sell his knowledge and experience in the pro game, having spent 16 years working in the NFL, including four seasons as a head coach.
That worked well enough as he produced national championship squads in 2003 and 2004.
But now, Carroll can pitch truly eye-popping production.
In seven seasons at USC, Carroll has seen a whopping 42 of his players get drafted by NFL clubs, with 11 of them being selected in the first round.
Imagine him going into living rooms later this year able to say that he coached twice as many first-rounders last season as the nine other Pac-10 schools combined. Arizona cornerback Antoine Cason and Oregon running back Jonathan Stewart were the only other two first-rounders from the Pac-10.
Furthermore, outside of USC’s seven selections, the Pac-10 can boast of only four additional picks in the first two rounds, as Arizona State and California each had a second-rounder with center Mike Pollack and wideout DeSean Jackson, respectively.
That’s a pretty tough pill to swallow, especially for the five teams in USC’s league that didn’t have a single first-day selection, including crosstown rival UCLA.
Even nationally, the scorecard doesn’t match up well against the Trojans.
Other than USC, only three teams -- Arkansas, Boston College and Virginia -- had more than one player picked in the first round. And each of those schools had to have one of its all-time best players -- Darren McFadden, Matt Ryan and Chris Long -- in this year’s draft pool to get that done.
It was just another day at the office for USC. There were no real headline stealers or early-entry juniors in the first round this season, just a quartet of seniors who are good bets to have solid impacts and big paychecks for several seasons at the next level.
It’s scary to think of what might have been if Trojan linebackers Rey Maualuga and Brian Cushing, both seniors-to-be, threw their names into the hat for this year’s draft. Five first-rounders? Nine on the first day?
They’ll just have to wait until next year to lead the next truck load of Trojans at the 2009 NFL Draft.
But before that and more importantly, they’ll be counted on to make sure there are no more slipups along the way this fall.
