2 Weeks Til Kickoff

I've had USC football on the brain so much recently, it's only fair if I get the rest of my readers in the correct mindset as well as kickoff is just 15 days away.  The dog days of summer (Read: baseball) flew by even faster than normal.  I saw someone cleverly refer to this as Sark Week to Steve Sarkisian, and I couldn't agree more.  Shark Week seems stale and unoriginal, thus I need more.

Las Vegas has USC's season win total at 9 games right now.  Given our depth, I think winning 9-10 games is quite a longshot.  I expect our team to be a the mercy of our offensive line for a 7-8 win season in 2014.  We have one redshirt freshman and three true freshmen expecting to play on the O-line this season.  If we stay healthy, I fully expect us to have the best defense in the Pac-12.  With the exception of Jabari Ruffin, the defense is shaping up even better than I could've imagined.  Leonard Williams is getting spoken about in some circles like a smaller JaDeveon Clowney who the college football world has yet to see at 100%.  Juju Smith and Adoree Jackson are pushing for playing time on both sides of the ball.  USC is so loaded at wide receiver that players are looking for alternatives to get on the field.  Hopefully one of them can eat themselves into a backup tight end.  If we can run the ball behind this line, Buck Allen should have an electrifying year, with bruiser Tre Madden finishing off the Thunder & Lightning duo.  If Kessler can keep his head on straight, Nelson Agholor could have video game numbers this season as well.

I didn't even mention George Farmer, Sports Illustrated's comeback player of the year candidate.  I didn't even mention Darreus Rogers, who plays like Dez Bryant and was recently awarded the #1.  That number has essentially been retired since Mike Williams left school too early.  And I didn't mention Steven Mitchell, debatably the 2nd best high school football player I've ever seen.

I officially made the move from Rivals to Scout.com today, so the jury is still out on the new website.  I'm sure I'll get used to it like I always do with Facebook, but it sort of feels like the end of an era.  Although not fair, leaving Rivals at the end of the sanctions with the team on the upswing just seems right.  We're on to bigger & better things.