Thirteen down, two to go. The countdown of the 15 USC players to watch in spring practice is nearly complete.

For Nos. 3-15, see below. For No. 1, check back in a couple of hours.

NO. 2 — RB ALLEN BRADFORD

Profile: 5-11, 235, redshirt senior

2009 stats: 13 games, 115 carries, 668 yards, 5.8-yard avg., 8 TDs

Why he’s one to watch: USC fans finally might get what they have been clamoring for — Bradford in the lead-tailback role. I’m saying “might” for now because all positions are open to competition under the new coaching staff, and there are plenty of tailbacks eager to snatch carries. But Bradford is the heavy favorite, and with good reason.

Thanks to good health and playing time, Bradford had by far the best year of his career last season. He showed he could be both punisher and finisher, particularly against Oregon State, when he rumbled for a career-best 147 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries.

That was Bradford’s only 100-yard performance, not altogether surprising considering he never had more than 17 carries. If Lane Kiffin uses Bradford the way he used Montario Hardesty at Tennessee, Bradford could have 10 100-yard games. But Hardesty didn’t have C.J. Gable, Marc Tyler and Curtis McNeal behind him. So the carry distribution is still to be determined.

What isn’t is Bradford’s other role on this team. When times were tough during the Pete Carroll-Kiffin limbo period, Bradford became one of the Trojans’ primary leaders. That he took that sort of initiative tells me he’s ready to step up and have a breakout season.

PLAYERS TO WATCH SCHEDULE

• Monday, March 8: No. 15 — DL Armond Armstead
• Tuesday, March 9: No. 14 — QB Mitch Mustain; No. 13 — OLB-DE Devon Kennard
• Wednesday, March 10: No. 12 — WR Brice Butler; No. 11 — RB C.J. Gable
• Thursday, March 11: No. 10 — TE Blake Ayles; No. 9 — WR-RB Dillon Baxter
• Friday, March 12: No. 8 — WR Kyle Prater; No. 7 — OT Matt Kalil
• Monday, March 15: No. 6 — WR Ronald Johnson; No. 5 — CB Shareece Wright
• Tuesday, March 16: No. 4 — LB Chris Galippo; No. 3 — S T.J. McDonald
• Wednesday, March 17: No. 2 — RB Allen Bradford; No. 1 — QB Matt Barkley

USC football: 15 players to watch in spring (No. 2) is a post from: USC

USC safety Knight returns as graduate assistant

Former USC safety Sammy Knight was hired by Trojans coach Lane Kiffin as a graduate assistant coach and will work with the secondary.

Knight spent 12 years in the NFL after he left USC, playing for New Orleans, Miami, Jacksonville, Kansas City and the New York Giants. He made the Pro Bowl in 2002 while playing for the Saints.

Knight replaces another former USC player, Kris Richard, who was hired by Pete Carroll as an assistant with the Seattle Seahawks. Knight's older brother, Ryan, was a USC tailback from 1984-87 while his younger brother, Darryl, played linebacker from 1998-2000.

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.

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

In the meantime, here's a refresher course on the most high profile, longest-running college football scandal of the decade:

• The Charges: Documents and numerous sources have connected Bush to more than $300,000 in improper benefits from competing camps attempting to woo one of the nation's biggest stars as a client during his sophomore and junior seasons in 2004-05. Between marketing pro Mike Ornstein (an ex-con for whom Bush interned in 2005) and fledgling partners Michael Michaels and Lloyd Lake (another ex-con), Bush was reportedly funneled airfare, limo rides, clothes, expensive hotel stays, $13,000 to buy a Chevrolet Impala and weekly payments of at least $1,500. There was also the infamous 3,000-square-foot home in Spring Valley, Calif., purchased by Michaels, where Bush's mother and stepfather allegedly lived for a year, amounting to about $54,000 in free rent they promised to repay when Bush turned pro.

Michaels and Lake raised reporters' eyebrows after Bush chose Ornstein as his agent in 2006, evicting Bush's parents from the home and preparing multimillion-dollar lawsuits against Bush for fraud. Michaels eventually settled out of court for $300,000; Lake's case against Bush is still creeping forward through a thicket of appeals and depositions reportedly halted by gun-wielding goons.

The most stinging charge the NCAA can levy against USC itself is "lack of institutional control," which became a very real possibility when investigators reportedly combined the Bush probe with their investigation into former Trojan hoops star O.J. Mayo, whose already-notorious handler was caught so red-handed in alleged cash exchanges with ex-coach Tim Floyd that the school went ahead and preemptively flogged itself with a self-imposed postseason ban in exchange for (they hope) leniency from Big Brother. Combined with the program's unusual openness to celebrities and outsiders of all stripes under Pete Carroll, the longstanding innuendo about its generally cozy relationship with agent-type life forms, the fishy rent arrangement between Bush teammates Matt Leinart and Dwayne Jarrett and its own investigation into a suspicious SUV driven by outgoing tailback Joe McKnight (who forebodingly arrived at SC labeled as "the next Reggie Bush"), it's not hard to come to the conclusion that the athletic department is (or was) something of an open market.

• The Defense: The hitch in the "prosecution," from the NCAA's perspective, has always been less about proving Bush was on the take -- almost no one at this point would even attempt to make that argument with a straight face -- than making the crucial leap from innuendo to proof against the university itself. Both Carroll, as he was leaving the school to take over the head coaching job at Seattle, and new coach Lane Kiffin (Bush's offensive coordinator in 2005) have recently pleaded ignorance; Kiffin, attempting to quell the doubts of top recruit Seantrel Henderson earlier this month, reportedly told Henderson's family the program should be fine "because there was no knowledge of anything going on by the staff." New Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott, who can presumably cite the results of the conference's internal investigation in his sleep, said earlier this week he doesn't expect serious sanctions.

If the NCAA is able to tie the Bush and McKnight cases to the more brazen Mayo hijinks under a single, "lack of control" umbrella, it may not have to charge USC with anything except negligence -- i.e. not knowing that ex-cons are buttering up star players is as bad as ignoring or facilitating it -- to justify a heavy-handed response. If not, the burden is much tougher; as NCAA Executive Director David Price reminded Don Yeager for Yeager's book on the scandal, Tarnished Heisman, the NCAA wasn't able to go after Michigan when it learned former Heisman winner Charles Woodson had accepted money from an agent while playing for the Wolverines because it couldn't prove anything against the program: "We had no information that there was any institutional knowledge; therefore, we did not take any action against the institution or even bring charges."

On that front, the most damning claim against USC is Lake's allegation in Yeager's book that he was in the room with Bush's stepfather as he discussed the sketchy housing arrangement with Carroll over the phone. Other evidence is similarly vague and circumstantial, such as various rumors that coaches and administrators (including Carroll and athletic director Mike Garrett, another former Heisman winner) were tipped off about Bush's arrangements, were well-acquainted with the sleazier elements on the fringes of the program and were often in position to notice Bush and his family spending well above their means. Running backs coach Todd McNair (twice convicted himself on suspicion of breeding dogs for fighting during his NFL career) has been accused of socializing with sketchy characters who wanted access to players and with Bush during at least one of his high-priced hotel stays.

Even if you could prove that kind of chatter, it doesn't amount to much in the way of a smoking gun. So far, there is no firm evidence in any published reports to date that anyone at USC had direct knowledge of improper benefits to any football player, which probably means the NCAA doesn't have it, either.

• The Fallout: Long-held visions of white-gloved men marching out of Heritage Hall with Bush's 2005 Heisman Trophy and/or the 2004 BCS championship trophy are misplaced, not least because the NCAA has no control over either. BCS power brokers or the Downtown Athletic Club of New York may confer later to dole out their own brand of justice, but the worst the NCAA will do in the way of that kind of symbolism is "vacate" wins from the wildly successful 2004-05 seasons -- a popular punishment lately, employed against Oklahoma, Florida State and Alabama in the last four years, but a relatively empty one when it comes to deterrence. If this case is about anything from the NCAA's point of view, it' has to be preventing a dozen more like from breaking out across the country.

As pointed out earlier this week, and the L.A. Times chronicled on Wednesday, significant sanctions -- postseason bans, television bans, aggressive scholarship reductions -- are almost unheard of against Division I-A football programs, Florida States and Central Floridas alike, over the last decade. After 20 years of consistent, meaningful probation against powerhouse programs (outstanding teams from Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Miami, Texas A&M and Washington were all held out of bowl games in the eighties and nineties, to name only a few, and SMU's program was famously disbanded for two years at the height of its success), the heavy hand disappeared almost entirely under late president Myles Brand, who came into office in 2002 with two major teams (Alabama and California) serving bowl bans and oversaw the administration of exactly zero over the next seven years. If the Infractions Committee finds USC guilty of any serious infraction, it could easily look to make an example of the Trojans to rebuff that increasingly soft image. There's no evidence it's prepared to do that.

If they get off scott-free, or with just a token slap on the wrist, well, I'll be getting a lot of infuriated comments about the miscarriage of justice, and the NCAA's credibility as a consistent, potent enforcer of its own regulations -- rightly or wrongly -- will be at an all-time low. That's not a comment on anyone's innocence or guilt; behind closed doors, the actual facts may not warrant a significant punishment. But when a case is allowed to sprawl and flourish for this long as the exemplar of open, arrogant defiance in the eyes of fans and media, anything less than a sledgehammer is inevitably going to be greeted like the O.J. verdict. Even if it wins in front of the NCAA, I don't think there's any way SC can come on top of the PR battle.

Here is the Shelley Smith interview with Lane Kiffin where Kiffin talks about receiving death threats after it was announced he was leaving Tennessee.

Kiffin says he received death threats [espn]