Starting cornerback Shareece Wright will miss “a number of weeks” because of a neck injury, Trojans coach Pete Carroll announced after practice Monday.

Tests revealed a hairline fracture in one of Wright’s vertebrae. He originally suffered the injury against Ohio State on Sept. 13 when he collided with a teammate.

Senior Josh Pinkard will start in Wright’s place opposite Cary Harris when USC visits Oregon State on Thursday. Pinkard started three games in 2005 at cornerback and the season opener in 2006 at free safety. He missed most of the past two seasons because of knee injuries.

Kevin Thomas, who moves up to the No. 3 cornerback spot, is also a former starter. Both he and Pinkard played extensively in the first two games.

“Luckily we have some depth this year at that position, so hopefully there’s no drop-off,” defensive coordinator Nick Holt said. “I feel comfortable with whoever’s in there.”

USC will miss Wright on its punt-coverage team. Carroll called Wright “a great gunner.” Receiver Ronald Johnson will get first crack at that spot, with Thomas also in the mix, against Oregon State’s Sammie Stroughter, who returned a punt 70 yards for a touchdown when the teams met in 2006.

Wright participated in non-contract drills Sunday after sitting out the previous three practices but reported lingering soreness. Carroll said that if the injury is like other broken bones, it could take six weeks to heal.

Carroll said Wright would have played against Oregon State if healthy despite facing a felony charge of resisting a police officer in connection with a party that got out of hand earlier this month.

Freshman T.J. Bryant will serve as the fourth cornerback against the Beavers.

Related links:

• LBs Brown, Galippo won’t play at Oregon State
• Garrett Green nudges ahead of Corp, Mustain

“The past Sunday when I got out of bed I could barely walk. I rehabbed all day,” he said. “On Monday morning I felt good. I was running.”

His status was uncertain for much of this week after he suffered a strained hip flexor last week that extended to his groin and abdomen.

He spent Sunday and Monday doing lunges and other strength drills, while sitting out practice. With the Trojans four-deep at cornerback, he might not have been able to afford to miss another day.

Wright, along with cornerback Cary Harris, is listed ahead of former starters Josh Pinkard and Kevin Thomas.

(more…)

Ted Miller has a spot-on look at the entire Pac-10. It is concise and worth a read.

In it he sites USC possibly owning a Firstary?

He is talking about the Seconday. He is talking about Kevin Ellison, Taylor Mays, Cary Harris and Shareece Wright. (Josh Pinkard could be in the mix as well, but we expect to see him lose a step or two from not playing for the past couple years due to injury.)

This physical crew gave up only nine touchdown passes a year ago -- the second-best total in the (Pac-10) conference was 17.

This is arguably the best secondary Pete Carroll, a DB himself, has ever had.

We sat next to USC's Firstary coach, Rocky Seto, at the A Better LA charity event a couple weeks ago. He spoke modestly of the group, but agreed it could be the key component to USC's defensive success.

As the night wore on, and the drinks kept coming, all we could say is more CB blitzes, more CB blitzes, more CB blitzes. It really is the most exciting defensive play. And a balls out, risk everything moment that captures the spirit of recent Trojan championship teams.

Breaking down the Pac-10 [ESPN]

Probably the best moment of the game came when RB Hershel Dennis scored his last touchdown for the Trojans. Dennis, a 6th year senior who battled knee problems and an ever-growing line of 5 star running backs never gave up and ended his Trojan career on a good note. I know I wasn't the only USC Sports Talk contributor who had a tear in the eye when Hersh scored. If he had scored on the last play of the game, I might have erupted in tears in joy.

Fight On!

"When they were beating people, they had a swagger when they went on the field. It's missing a little bit, like they've been wounded a bit. They have plenty of playmakers, but when they had Reggie Bush and those guys they had a determination."

USC is now missing a national title hope too. A long shot, but USC could still win the Pac-10 title if Oregon loses 2 of its final 4 conference games.

Otherwise, USC fans are rooting for Oregon to play in the national title game so USC could have a chance to play in the Rose Bowl.

Time to reminisce about better times...

It was a historic day for the Irish and one they would likely wish to forget. The USC Trojans beat Notre Dame 38-0 Saturday, in what has become the worse loss suffered by the Fighting Irish against the Trojans in their 79-year rivalry. And to pile it on it was the Trojans' sixth-straight win over the Irish, setting a new school record.

Backup quarterback Mark Sanchez could add another notch to his belt, after leading to the Trojans to a successful second-straight win as a starter. Sanchez replaced once Heisman-hopeful John David Booty, who has been resting his broken finger since USC's upset loss to Stanford weeks earlier.

But if you look at it closely, or did so at the end of Saturday's Arizona game, of the 16 original starters on that poster, guess how many were up and active, healthy and unscathed, at the end of the game?

Let's do the math.

Josh Pinkard and C.J. Gable are gone for the season.

Sam Baker limped off with a hamstring pull, more serious than the one that hit Terrell Thomas at the end of the game. Oh, and Kevin Ellison broke his nose. And Rey Maluaga had his hip speared by Cary Harris and is out with a painful hip pointer.

That's six.

Then there was John David Booty, out for the game with his fractured finger.

Brian Cushing didn't go either, with his ankle sprain that's kept him out more than 21 of the 24 quarters this season.

Neither did Chilo Rachal with his sprained knee.

Lost count by now? Well, it's nine.

That leaves the seven hanging in there: Taylor Mays, Chauncey Washington, Lawrence Jackson, Keith Rivers, Fred Davis, Patrick Turner and Sedrick Ellis.

And of that number, three (Rivers, Turner and Washington) have all missed time with injuries.

So when USC comes calling for the cover guys for next year's schedule poster, maybe you might just want to think twice.

Make that a thin cardinal line protecting USC's backfield, which also happens to be hamstrung by injuries. While every team looses players during the season (Cal lost to Oregon State without their starting QB, Stanford beat USC without their's), can anybody in the nation match up with the Trojan's carnage?

From USC football's weekly press release:

Already this season, 11 starters or projected starters have missed games with injuries:  S-CB Josh Pinkard (6 games), C Matt Spanos (3 games), TB C.J. Gable (3 games), LB Brian Cushing (3 games), CB Shareece Wright (2 games), OG Chilo Rachal (2 games), C Kristofer O’Dowd (2 games), QB John David Booty (1 game), CB Cary Harris (1 game), WR Patrick Turner (1 game) and TB Chauncey Washington (1 game).

Also, a number of key backups have missed games due to injuries: CB Kevin Thomas (6 games), OG-C Nick Howell (6 games), TB Broderick Green (6 games), TE Jimmy Miller (5 games), LB Chris Galippo (3 games), TB Stafon Johnson (2 games), WR Travon Patterson (2 games), OT Butch Lewis (2 games), OT Charles Brown (1 game), QB Mark Sanchez (1 game), S Will Harris (1 game) and CB Vincent Joseph (1 game).  Pinkard, Gable, Thomas, Howell, Green, Galippo, Patterson have season-ending injuries.

The impact of these injuries has been enormous. The team could be one fractured finger or a healed foot away from a 6-0 record.

Looking ahead to Notre Dame, here's more from the Sports Information Department:

POSSIBLE:  TB Stafon Johnson (foot), OT Sam Baker (hamstring), S Kevin Ellison (nose), OT Charles Brown (ankle), LB Rey Maualuga (hip), OG Zack Heberer (shoulder), QB John David Booty (finger), LB Brian Cushing (ankle), OG Chilo Rachal (knee), CB Shareece Wright (hamstring), C Kristofer O’Dowd (kneecap), TE Jimmy Miller (back).

OUT:  TB C.J. Gable (abdomen), WR Travon Patterson (foot), LB Chris Galippo (back), S-CB Josh Pinkard (knee), OG-C Nick Howell (hernia), TB Broderick Green (foot), CB Kevin Thomas (shoulder), OT Martin Coleman (shoulder), DE Trey Henderson, WR Damian Williams (shoulder).

That ignores all the players who are just dinged up (see Jeff Byers, pictured above) and leaves out two recently announced injuries to Kyle Moore and Terrell Thomas (hamstring).

Here's what John David Booty's hand looked like after practice today. He didn't throw at all, but he's supposed to try tomorrow with a glove.

Harris did participate in the team sessions.

USC 47, WSU 14

Last year a similar Washington State team nearly pulled a fourth quarter upset of topped ranked USC. After the opening series of this 2007 game, with a tied score of 7, it looked like it could be another contentious battle.

Instead the WSU offense folded, the defense crumbled, and USC's prized cougar hunt became something more of a methodical kitten slaughter...