• Is this new California running back -- Trajuan Briggs -- the next Marshawn Lynch?
• A year after rebuilding, Oregon looks strong on its offensive line.
• An updated Oregon State depth chart, with new heights and weights.
• More UCLA Bruins to watch this spring.
• What's USC's status at quarterback, and is there really a competition to unseat Matt Barkley?
• More Washington questions, more Washington answers.
• Washington State lost its best chance at a deep threat this year, but, hey, no worries.
• Who's wealthy at defensive end entering spring practices.

Leinart

"He is fired up about where he is and about getting in here in the offseason program and working with the guys," Whisenhunt told reporters in Arizona.

"That indicated to me that Matt was in a good place with it and today was another example of that," Whisenhunt said. "I don’t know necessarily that it was a function of any announcements about us reaching an agreement with Derek as much as it was just Matt staying in communication. That is what we want from our players and I was excited to see that."

Here are highlights from Will Harris' senior season, brought to you by TrojanWire.

Taylor Mays and Everson Griffen show you how they are preparing for the NFL draft. It's super freaky...

Nothing But Freaks Training For Combine [espn]

At the bottom of the post, readers can vote to select the most classless act. One vote per IP address, so give it careful consideration.

Let's get to the finalists:

1. Chip Kelly, Oregon

Oregon leads punchless Washington State, 45-0, in the third quarter of an Oct. 3 game at Eugene, when the Cougars recover a fumble at the Ducks' one-yard line. It takes three plays, but quarterback Marshall Lobbestael sneaks in for a touchdown, cutting Oregon's precious lead to 45-6.

Kelly should have other things to worry about — like keeping his players out of trouble. Instead, he decides to challenge the touchdown call. Although he loses the challenge, the Ducks somehow hang on for a 52-6 victory.

Washington State's Paul Wulff says afterward, "We'll have plenty of motivation moving forward, believe me."

2. Randy Edsall, Connecticut

Connecticut defeated Syracuse, 56-31, on Nov. 28, but the Orange won't forget what happened in the final minute. The Huskies led, 42-31, and were facing fourth and 11 at the Orange 28 with 53 seconds remaining. Syracuse was out of timeouts.

Instead of calling a run play to help bring this to a merciful end, Edsall calls for a pass. Zach Frazer throws a touchdown to Marcus Easley, putting Connecticut ahead, 49-31. The Huskies would return a fumble for another score with eight seconds remaining.

Syracuse's Doug Marrone didn't comment afterward, but his postgame handshake with Edsall was described as being "uncomfortable." Orange safety called Frazer's pass "a little cheap shot."

3. Lane Kiffin, Tennessee

The first-year Volunteer coach's body of work was a classless act, from accusing Urban Meyer of cheating to his one-minute farewell press conference, featured above. But with his 4-4 team entertaining an overmatched Memphis on Nov. 7, Kiffin made several jackass decisions.

After taking a 14-0 lead less than six minutes into the first quarter, the Volunteers tried an onside kick.

Leading 35-0 late in the first half, Tennessee called a timeout when Memphis faced a third-and-eight play at the Tigers' 14.

The Volunteers went for it three times on fourth down in the first half.

The take-no-prisoners approach paid off. Tennessee built a 49-7 lead and held off a late Tiger charge for a 56-28 victory.

A smug Kiffin said afterward: "It came to me during the week that I had to make sure they felt my intensity — we're really going after this thing."

4. Jim Harbaugh, Stanford

The Nov. 14 "double nickels" game. The Cardinal were steamrolling USC, 42-21, when Toby Gerhart rumbled into the end zone. Instead of kicking the extra point, Harbaugh decided to go for two — probably because he couldn't go for three. The try failed, but Stanford tacked on one more score for a 55-21 bludgeoning of Pete Carroll's Trojans.

Carroll was not happen with Harbaugh, asking him in the postgame handshake, "What's your deal? What's your deal?"

Harbaugh retorted, "What's your deal?"

Carroll, when asked about Stanford's try for two, said: "I don't know what they were thinking with that."

Harbaugh offered this: "I thought it was an opportunity, the way we were coming off the ball, the way our players were playing — that it was the right thing to do."

5. Pete Carroll, USC

One would think Carroll would have learned a lesson about being a good sport after what Harbaugh did to him, but USC's coach failed to rise above it in his team's next game on Nov. 28. With the Trojans holding a 21-7 lead over UCLA with 52 seconds remaining, Carroll decided to stick it to the Bruins, calling for Matt Barkley to throw deep to Damian Williams. The play worked for a 52-yard touchdown and Carroll celebrated like a 13 year old at a Miley Cyrus concert.

The benches emptied and the teams nearly went at it. When things settled down, USC held on for a 28-7 victory.

Carroll and USC said afterward that Rick Neuheisel and UCLA deserved it because they were using timeouts with the verdict already decided. Of course, Carroll didn't feel the same way two weeks earlier when Stanford rolled it up on USC.

6. Max Hall, Brigham Young

The Cougar quarterback let his feelings be known after a 26-23 overtime victory over rival Utah.

"I don't like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, their fans. I hate everything. It felt really good to send those guys home."

Video later surfaced of Hall landing a cheap shot to a Utah player after his winning touchdown pass.

7. Mike Leach, Craig James and Texas Tech

Plenty of blame to go around. Leach allegedly put receiver Adam James in an electrical closet off the press room at Jones AT&T Stadium. That resulted in a complaint by James' dad, Craig, an analyst for ESPN. Leach was suspended and eventually fired, a day before he was due an $800,000 bonus. Leach then said Adam was a slacker and that Craig was a always calling and acting like a LIttle League dad.

Craig said he was merely protecting his son, but documents suggest he threatened the university with a lawsuit for improper treatment of a student-athlete, i.e. his son, who was recovering from a concussion. The only winners here are Tommy Tuberville, the new Tech coach, and attorneys. The fans? The heck with them! Tech just announced a hike in ticket prices for 2010!

Leach's appearance on "Friday Night Lights" was filmed in Austin on Sept. 18, the night before his team played Texas and lost, 34-24. No wonder he lost control of the team in midseason.

8. Rich Rodriguez, Michigan

You can't do this list without Rich Rod, who continues to drag this storied program to new, embarrassing lows.

No stranger to litigation (see West Virginia), Rich Rod was sued for allegedly defaulting on a real estate loan to build condominiums near Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium. One of his business partners in the failed venture is facing five felony counts and possibly 50 years in prison.

Michigan has gone to 33 consecutive bowl games until Rich Rod arrived. Now they've missed the postseason two years in a row. If that's not bad enough, the NCAA alleges that Rich Rod's program committed five potential major rules violations. Somehow, he's still the coach.

9. Mike Locksley, New Mexico

Nothing quite like punching your receivers coach in the face after a coaches meeting. That's what Locksley did, landing a blow to Jonathan "J.B." Gerald in September.

Locksley showed more fight than his team, which finished 1-11 and ranked near the bottom in nearly every NCAA offensive and defensive category.

Former Trojan fullback and the father of Lofa Tatupu, Mosi Tatupu, died yesterday. Mosi was a member of the 1974 national championship team and played in the NFL for 14 years.

Mosi was born in Pago Pago, American Samoa. He played at USC from 1974-1977. In 1977 he won the Offensive Player of the Year and Most Inspirational awards.

He spent most of his NFL career as a New England Patriot (1978 - 1990). He played on their Super Bowl team in 1986 and made the Pro Bowl that same year as a special teamer.

The Mosi Tatupu award is given every year to the best special teams player in college football.

His cause of death is yet to be determined. He was 54 years old.

Mosi Tatupu's cause of death not given [espn]

So to help break it down, here’s one man’s take on three key developments:

1. Todd McNair, star witness
According to reports, the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions spent the better part of two days grilling Todd McNair, the incumbent USC running backs coach. That’s a clear indicator that the Reggie Bush situation is the centerpiece of the NCAA’s probe. McNair was Bush’s position coach in 2004 and ‘05, so if any school employee knew what Bush and his family were up to, it had to be McNair, who’s like a father figure (or at least a big brother) to his charges. The extent of what he knew is critical to the case, particularly in determining how severely USC should be punished. This was extremely serious stuff, so much so that McNair “lawyered up” for the hearing. It’ll be interesting to see how, if at all, McNair’s involvement affects his future at USC. He technically remains part of the staff, but Lane Kiffin hasn’t finished putting it together, and it’s conceivable he will be “encouraged” to sever all ties to Bush (although Kiffin was part of that staff as well, and he will insist that all staff decisions were made solely for football reasons).

2. Floyd: Friend or foe?
Among Saturday’s star witnesses was former basketball coach Tim Floyd, who appeared on behalf of USC but also to defend himself. Given that he steadfastly has denied the allegations against him and reportedly continued to do so Saturday, one has to wonder if Floyd’s version of events was consistent with the school’s — and if there were discrepancies, how much that will work against USC. Floyd didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms with Mike Garrett, although the two shook hands at the hearing, according to this story. (We can only presume that handshake rivaled Bill Belichick-Eric Mangini I on the awkwardness scale.) Regardless of how the committee viewed Floyd’s testimony, my best guess is that the NCAA won’t penalize the basketball program beyond the self-imposed sanctions already in place. At the time, Garett said they were “consistent with penalties imposed at other NCAA member institutions which have been cited with similar rules infractions.” If they weren’t, someone should be fired.

3. Longest. Hearing. Ever.
The quote of the weekend came from David Price, the NCAA’s vice president of enforcement, who, besides having a cool job title, described the meeting as “my longest in 11 years” of duty. That, plus the ballyhooed seven boxes of documents wheeled out of the conference room, has led to speculation that USC could get hit harder than Garrett and others anticipated. (This New York Times account delves into the more-boxes theory and includes a quote from recruit Seantrel Henderson’s father, who says his son’s decision about a school might, for lack of concrete information, come from the gut.) But given that the investigation took nearly four years, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that the hearing felt that long. It’s obviously a complex case, perhaps one whose outcome hinges on witness testimony. The results might not be revealed for 10 weeks, also an abnormally lengthy period, at which time USC finally will learn its fate. My prediction, for whatever it’s worth: The football program will lose scholarships and will have to vacate victories — including the Jan. 4, 2006, BCS title game — but won’t face a postseason ban.

More USC football posts:

USC vs. the NCAA: What does it all mean? is a post from: USC

USC (16-9, 8-5 Pac-10) upset the Huskies (17-9, 7-7) at home last night 67-64. This was only the second time Washington had lost at home this season. Dwight Lewis led all scorers with 22 points, 16 in the first half. The Trojans are now only a half game back of Cal for first place in the Pac-10.

No one expected anything from the Trojans this season after losing Taj Gibson, DeMar DeRozan and Daniel Hackett to professional basketball. This year has been a pleasant surprise and a majority of the praise must go to coach Kevin O’Neill. It is very disappointing this team won’t get an opportunity to play in the post season, but with O’Neill running the program the future looks bright.

USC next game is at Washington State on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Southern Cal 67, Washington 64 [espn]