Fresh off their stunning upset defeat against Stanford, USC came out and gave Arizona a wrecking...at least that's what was thought to be. USC again came flat at home, and barely escaped with a win over Arizona. Freshman runnigback Joe McKnight had a breakout game setting up USC's final two scores with a 45 yard punt return and a 54 yard run. Mark Sanchez played quarterback for the Trojans as John David booty sat out because of a broken finger.

USC PP's:

Sam Baker, OT, USC- left game with injury

John David Booty, QB, USC- out with broken finger

Rey Maualuga, LB, USC- left game with injury

Fred Davis, TE, USC- Fred has improved a lot from last year when catching one ball seemed to be a good day for him, he finished with 6 receptions for 63 yards with 1 touchdown. Still a ***** sketchy blocking however: B

Sedrick Ellis, DT, USC- One of my favorite DT prospects for the upcoming draft, big and slides off blockers extremely well. Had a very quiet day though, with only 2 assisted tackles. Arizona oline did a great job controlling him: C

Lawrence Jackson, DE, USC- Had 1 unassisted tackle. Not much pressure, but Arizona did get rid of the ball quickly on screens and slant routes: D

Josh Pinkard, S, USC- did not play

Keith Rivers, LB, USC- The Trojans senior leader linebacker had a somewhat quiet day with 6 tackles, however credit him on making his tackles in the open field alone. Also forced a fumble and had 1 TFL on a run up the middle: B+

Terrell Thomas, CB, USC- Thomas finished with 6 tackles and did a good job covering downfield. His intermediate and short range coverage however needs a little bit of work. The corner I was really impressed by was the other USC corner Carry Harris: B-

Chauncy Washington, RB, USC- In the runningback carousel that is USC's backfield, Chauncy took a backseat to today's special star McKnight, however he did start the game and finished with relatively good stats(61 yards and a touchdown). He didn't perform in his normal close yardage situation role as McKnight even took that away from him: C-

Thomas Williams, LB, USC- 6 total tackles, 2 unassisted. Pretty average day for him needs to work on pass coverage and covering the short slant routes: D

Arizona PP's:

Antoine Cason, CB, Arizone- Anyone doubting his ability is now just plain stupid. He had a pick on a badly overthrown Sanchez pass down the sidelines. He also showed some nice tackling ability with a solo tackle in the open field to prevent the Trojans from getting a first down. Absolutely shuts down his side of the field and even hung with Patrick Turner on a couple fades. THE top corner in the country right now in my opinion: A

Wilrey Fontenot III, CB, Arizona- Finished with 5 tackles, pretty good in deep coverage but did benefit from safety help(because lock down Cason is on the other side): B

Louis Holmes, DE, Arizona- Finished with 5 tackles and 1 sack. Came on really strong after Sam Baker went out with an injury: B

Chris Jennings, RB, Arizona- only 7 runs for 16 yards because the Wildcats abondoned the run real quickly. Did have a decent day catching the ball with 5 receptions for 68 yards: C+

Spencer Larsen, LB, Arizona- Finished with a team high 17 tackles and 4.5 TFL. Had a huge day except for getting beat on a touchdown to Fred Davis in the 2nd half. Was challenged to play hard by his coach and stepped up to the plate except for that one play: B

USC moves on to play Notre Dame while Arizona can now focus on the only team to beat USC this season, Stanford.

Is Holmes starting to look like more of a finished product to you, Sam? Did he do anything at all against Baker?

How big is Larsen?

TIA...

Baker was in for only a short time, but no Holmes didn't do much against him while he was in. Holmes looks a little more polished this year opposed to last year, but still hasn't filled his enormous potential yet.

Larsen is listed at 6-1, 240, but is more likelay to be in the 6-0 225-230 range.

USC could end up back in the thick of things, by being forced to develop depth due to recent injuries: OT Sam Baker, QB John David Booty, Josh Pinkard S, LB Rey Maualuga will all play on Sundays and played little or did not play, if they can survive until all are back USC could close strong, but if ASU takes the PAC 10 and is undefeated the could be in a position to play for the BCS championship, what kind of odds could have gotten on that in August!

Arizona St. will not be there in the end, I can almost gurantee that. Their signature win right now is over Colorado.

OUCH! Colorado the schizo program!