Scouting the Trojans

Quarterback
Mark Sanchez came into the season as a question mark because he had hurt his knee in practice. He looked great in the first and only game so far this season, throwing 26 of 35 for 338 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception at Virginia. Last year Sanchez was 60.5% for 695 yards, seven touchdowns, and five interceptions, backing up and filling in for John David Booty. Sanchez is a pocket quarterback, not known to run, but he is able to move around in the pocket to avoid tackles.

Runningbacks
Gone is Chauncey Washington and in his place are four capable backs. Starting is Joe McKnight, but he splits time with CJ Gable, Staton Johnson, and Allen Bradford. Gable led the team in the opener with 73 yards and one touchdown, while McKnight had 60 yards. USC is expected to use 3-4 of these guys in the OSU game.

Receivers
The three starters are Vidal Hazelton at flanker, Anthony McCoy at tight end, and Patrick Turner and Damian Williams both work out of the split end position. Williams led the team two weeks ago with 91 yards and Johnson had 78 yards with one touchdown. The other three touchdowns were Turner, McKnight out of the backfield, and Tyler. The wide receivers returning this season only accounted for half of USC's receptions last year.

Defense
The defense is led by returning linebackers Rey Maualuga and Brian Cushing. There are also returning starters Cary Harris at corner, safety Taylor Mays, safety Kevin Ellison, tackle Fili Moala and end Kyle Moore. As you can see this defense has a lot of experience returning.

This season
USC scored quickly, with a 21-7 lead in the first quarter, but they only had one more touchdown before halftime. In the second half they had four more touchdowns. The defense only allowed one touchdown and 187 yards, forced four turnovers, and Virginia only had 32 yards on 21 carries. However USC was not perfect, with seven penalties and two turnovers.

As good as these runningbacks are, and with a high scoring game, I was surprised to see only 208 of the 558 yards were in the running game and none of the backs had over 100 yards. Now, most teams would be satisfied with a 208 yard running game, but consider the fact that it was a 500+ yard game and that USC is known for their running game with any of those guys being capable of having a 100 yard game on their own. Also, Gable only had nine carries, while McKnight had only six.