Davon Jefferson is another story.

• Vegas still favors Trojans to win BCS, while Bruins are hard to peg. [LA Times]
• In addition to their "Face of the Program" series, ESPN also has a "Face of the Decade." USC was honored for the 2000s, though based on the way the other decades were done I'm surprised  Pete Carroll wasn't chosen. At the same time, it seems as if they wanted to name Matt Leinart. [ESPN]
• Here's a tribute video in honor of Pete Carroll's volunteer work. [Summa Children's Foundation]
• Another Trojan/coach, Jack Del Rio, is up to some serious do-gooding for the kids. [Times-Union]

Hoops

• More of Brian Scalabrine fooling around with the press corps. [TrojanWire]
• Evan Smith is USC's first commit from the class of 2009. [WeAreSC]

Elsewhere

• Did somebody say Song Girls? [Prep Ticket]
• Questions are cropping up about OJ's car. No, not that one. The other one. [Gutty Little Bruins]
• What were they thinking? NBC extended its contract with the Fighting Irish. [Notre Dame]
• According to a court of law, Duke sucks. [Da Wiz]

It's never too early to promote the upcoming NFL season, even overseas.

This week, two of the NFL's most recognizable faces, LaDainian Tomlinson and Reggie Bush, were in London to promote October's game between Tomlinson's Chargers and Bush's Saints.

The Chargers and Saints will continue the NFL's new yearly tradition of playing a regular season game on foreign soil. While some players groan about the idea of having to fly across the pond during the season, Tomlinson is looking for lightning to strike twice.

The Giants played against Miami in London last season on their way to a Super Bowl winning season.

What's in a name?

Are USC football players destined for greatness at birth? Some of their names seem to imply it. The Trojans have had some real humdingers in their 120 year program. Here's a list our favorites in a Trojanwire yearbook of sorts.

The McGeiver/McGreuber Award. Most likely to save your life with a paper clip and rubber band:

Marlin McKeever, DL
Mike McKeever, G

Most likely to kick your ass and steal your milk money:

Morris Badgro, E

Most likely to become a comic book superhero:

Winston Justice, OT

• Thomas Williams is learning what life is like as an NFL rookie. [Times-Union]
• Recruit #12: USC signs 4-star wide receiver out of South Carolina. [SC Playbook]
• USC is a popular bet to win the national championship. [MR. SEC, h/t Da Wiz]
• Somebody's taking a really, really early look at USC-Virginia. [RF365]
• Oregon State could be the big sleeper game of the year. I couldn't agree more. [Coaches Hot Seat]
• With Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen joining a couple other key college football figures in retirement, could the BCS change? Not likely. [NYT Quad Blog]
• If not the BCS, could expansion be on the table? Probably not, but here are the contenders. [Fanblogs.com]

Hoops

• Ready for another mock draft? Here's O.J. Mayo at #3 again. [ESPN]

Elsewhere

• The NCAA track and field championships start today. [Daily Trojan]
• Football player Ron Mix and swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg were inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. [NJSHOFAM]
• Oregon State is bigger, meaner, oranger. They might want to have that looked at. [Building the Dam]
• Los Angeles is TitleTown, obviously! [ESPN]
• Are Bush and Tush hearing wedding bells? Run, Reggie, run! [Larry Brown]

The safety's rare combination of size at 6-3, 226 pounds (only 6% body fat) and speed (a 4.32 electronically timed 40) has Bruce Feldman's attention in his piece devoted to the workout warriors.

Asked if he's even seen anything that big, move that fast, USC strength coach Chris Carlisle paused for a few moments: "Maybe when I walked by the cheetah cage at the wildlife park."

Taylor Mays and Kevin Ellison should have fun preying on anything stupid enough to run across the middle.

College football's top workout warriors [ESPN]

• Reggie Bush is proving to be as elusive off the field as he is on it. The trial has been postponed. Again. [LA Times]
• However, Bush's side is seeking arbitration and that could involve a serious admission. [Yahoo!]
• In case I forgot to mention it earlier, a USC commit is officially the fastest in the state at the 100m and 200m. [LA Times]
• John David Booty is getting solid reviews. [NFL]
• Jeff Tedford has joined the blogosphere. It's less "bells and whistles" than Pete Carroll's, but also a bit more personal in tone. [Cal]
• Looking to get in a flame war with USC haters? Here ya' go. [Bleacher Report]

Hoops

• O.J. Mayo may sign with an agent from CAA. [Draft Express]
• Tim Floyd had a lot to say about O.J. Mayo, though nothing new to regular readers of this blog. [Timeberwolves]
• Kentucky transfer Derrick Jasper is looking at USC. [SLO]

Other Sports

• Another reminder that USC allegedly gave a really good baseball coach the boot. [LA Times]
• Basketball isn't the only sport struggling to hang onto talent. High school phenon Tim Beckham had signed to play baseball at USC, but was the #1 overall pick in yesterday's MLB draft. Don't expect to see him play an inning of college ball. [ESPN]
• Ditto for #14 Aaron Hicks. [MN Star Tribune]
• And #56 Jay Austin. [Houston Chronicle]
• And #110 Jon Pettibone. [News Journal]
• The women's tennis team had two All American nods, while the men equaled that and had the ITA Doubles Team of the Year. [USC]

Now there's a new name on that list. USC's 11th addition to its already stellar '09 class is Tongan native Hebron Fangupo. A JC transfer out of Mt. San Antonio College, the 6-2, 330-pound defensive tackle has the raw size, speed and talent to become the next Polynesian super star. As reported on Scout, Fangupo had this to say of his new-found home:

"I like the tempo. I just like the coaching environment. I like coaches that get a little crazy because I like to get crazy....As a Polynesian, we have a scream that we do before we go into battle, and he (Coach Watson) just kept doing it. I liked that because he has been around a few Polynesians and knows how we work."

By the time you hear that war cry...it will already be too late.

• Still bitter that USC got left out of the national championship game in January 2005? In retrospect, it was still the biggest BCS slight of the decade. [ESPN]
• On the plus side, Pete Carroll is the coach who has most defined the BCS era. [ESPN]
• Here's a Vegas-style analysis of USC's national title chances. Be forewarned, the language is R-rated. While there are a couple errors (some self-admitted), it's still interesting to think about the odds. [Money Line Journal]

Hoops

• No big surprise, the NBA Players Association is investigating BDA and O.J. Mayo. [ESPN]
• Chad Ford says watching DeMar DeRozan is like stumbling into a diamond mine. "From what I saw in roughly an hour, he's the real thing. Playing against college veterans three to four years older than him, he was dominant. He already has a pro body and a very smooth offensive game. He reminds me a lot of Dwyane Wade." [ESPN Insider, subscription required]

Not Sports

• Holly Ashcraft pleaded guilty to dumping her newborn in a dumpster behind a USC hangout. [LA Times]
• USC is home to a vibrant Indian community. I tried the naan at Manas yesterday -- tasty! [LA Times]
• Topping has been toppled. [TrojanWire]

The national championship game comes early this season. According to ESPN the two head-coaches that most define the BCS's first ten years, the two coaches that have withstood the test of time are USC's Pete Carroll and Ohio State's Jim Tressell (in that order). Carroll's Trojans have gone 70-8 in the past six years, winning 5 of 6 consecutive BCS bids (including going 2 for 3 on National Championships). Tressell's Buckeyes have gone 66-11 in the past six years, winning three of five BCS bids (including going 1 for 3 on National Championships). Tressel's recent image has been tarnished after back to back blowout losses to Florida and LSU in the '07 and '08 BCS championships.

For Tressel it's a chance at redemption. For Carroll, it's further proof that USC has merely reloaded its weapons. The Game of the 2008 Season, USC vs. Ohio State, goes down 9/13/2008 at the Coliseum.

Some of the suggestions that have come up for USC:

• Pete Carroll
• John McKay
• Tommy Trojan
• Traveler
• #55
• Mike Garrett
• 4th and 9

To submit your own suggestion, click here.

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]

Cleveland Browns outside linebacker Willie McGinest recently announced his retirement following the 2008 season and elaborated on the subject today after Cleveland's second day of organized team activities.

"I accomplished a lot and I just felt if it was time, this will be it,'' McGinest said. "You hear different guys like (San Diego Chargers tailback) LaDainian (Tomlinson) talk about sometimes you just gotta walk away from the game. I want to leave the game in good shape. I want to feel good. I want my body to feel good, and I want to leave productive."

McGinest, who is in the final year of his contract, added that the reason he returned this season was because the Browns have a chance to contend. The team went 10-6 last year, just missing the playoffs, and come into 2008 with high expectations.

If the current lottery standings stay true (meaning the odds play out), ESPN's Chad Ford thinks the Memphis Grizzlies will draft O.J. Mayo with the #4 pick.

But armed with the #3 pick, the Grizzlies, the Clippers and the Knicks are all assumed to go after Mayo in this years NBA Draft.

NBA Lottery Mock Draft 2008 [ESPN]

• "I don't know anything about it. It caught me by surprise. I've got to get to L.A. to see what's going on. I'm just focusing on the draft."
• "I had no knowledge of anything like that. I'll find our more when I meet with Mr. Duffy and Mr. [Calvin] Andrews [of BDA]," Mayo said.
• When asked specifically if he received any money from Guillory, Mayo said, "No sir, I did not receive any money from Calvin or Rodney or anything. It all caught me by surprise."
• "I would just like to know if I did [get money] where did the money go. I was a struggling college student like everyone else. I bicycled to class. The truth will come out, even though the perception is reality."

I've been around Mayo on quite a few occasions, though always in some sort of basketball arena. He's very composed. He strikes me as a good kid. It's entirely possible that he's wrongfully getting his name dragged through the mud.

At the same time, ESPN has gone so far as to check with employees at clothing stores that Mayo allegedly frequented. USC has had previous bad experiences with Guillory. There's a lot of investigating yet to be done.