In what’s become an annual tradition, the Trojans received their Pac-10 and Rose Bowl championship rings before the end of Spring Practice. And wow, what a ring. As reported by Ben Malcolmson for USCRipsIt and PeteCarroll.com, the USC Trojans' personalized rings feature 74 diamonds and six rubies set in an elaborate design.

A 14-foot-by-14-foot mural is being installed at the edge of the stadium's tunnel and will be visible to most of the crowd during football games. Dubbed "Tradition," the artwork features USC's mascot being ridden back from another championship at the Rose Bowl (symbolized by a bed of roses on the horse's back) and the Roman numerals for 1888 -- the year of USC's first football game.

This is the third large-scale sports mural done by local artist Mike Sullivan. Trojan faithful are sure to remember the Mario Danelo tribute he created last year at San Pedro High School. Posters of that mural can be seen hanging in a number of restaurants and other local venues, and proceeds from their sale have gone to the Mario Danelo Endowed Football Scholarship Fund.

"The greatest thing was talking to a couple of students at San Pedro High School, who said they may feel like things are against them, but they can look up and say, 'Hey, here's a guy who came from this school and these hallways and did something with his life,' " Sullivan said. "Hopefully that can inspire some of them."

Danelo was a USC football player from San Pedro who died shortly after USC's 2007 Rose Bowl victory.

Sullivan also created a Pat Tillman memorial at Arizona State University. He has at least 15 more murals scheduled in the coming year at places such as Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska. Most are football related, but UCLA will be getting one honoring its basketball team and Coach John Wooden. Asked if he has a favorite team, Sullivan joked that even though he's a huge sports fan, "We didn't have a really good football program at art college! I'm kinda neutral."

A mural series in Laguna Beach gave Sullivan the inspiration to create sports murals at stadiums. After developing an initial concept for each piece, Sullivan spends two to three weeks painting before having the design transferred onto tile for a two- or three-day installation. The tiles are supposed to be maintenance-free and create a dramatic lighting effect under sun or night lights. "They photograph well," he added.

The official dedication at the Coliseum will be at 10:15 a.m. Saturday, just before kickoff of Trojan Huddle, USC's annual spring football game. USC football alums Paul MacDonald and Anthony Davis will be on hand, along with Traveler.

Poster versions of the mural are available online and should be in retail locations (such as the USC bookstore) soon. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the USC Alumni Assn., which is an important element of Sullivan's art. "When we do these murals with the colleges, we really try to develop a relationship with the alumni association, with the bookstore, and other people at the university to create a fundraising aspect."

Sullivan's own path to college took an interesting twist. "An art teacher submitted my portfolio to an art college without telling me, and I won a scholarship to an art college in Detroit."

You may have seen Sullivan's work before and not realized it. Early on, he did graphics and animation for Sega and Nintendo. Today, he's the official artist for "The Best Damn Sports Show Period" on FSN.

To see photos of the installation, click here.

It was bad news bears, or Bruins rather, for UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell. He had hoped to go into the Coliseum and repeat last year's upset win over the Trojans. Instead he left the Coliseum with another loss, a 6-6 season, and a possible end to his UCLA coaching career.

Many critics had proclaimed this season to be the Fall of Troy. With the regular-season closing win over UCLA, USC improves to 10-2 for the season, clinches its 6th consecutive Pac-10 title, and secures its place at the BCS Rose Bowl. Not too shabby.

California wide receiver DeSean Jackson took this kick back for a touchdown--but got much more than six points. The Bears' Heisman Trophy Candidate also racked in the Pac Ten Special Teams Player of the Week honors as a result of gaining 142 all-purpose yards on but six touches.

Although Jackson takes the ball to the end zone one out of every five times he returns a punt, he will not be guaranteed Special Teams POTW honors week in and week out.

Although Trojan fans are bemoaning the uninspired play of John David Booty and porous nature of the Men of Troy's defense, one player made an impact in his first start. David Buehler played double-duty at place kicker, filling in for the academically ineligible Troy VanBlarcom and the late Mario Danelo handling kickoffs, field goals and PATs.

Although Buehler's reputation was "long but not so accurate" he managed to make 5 PATs and a field goal, while booming the ball into the Idaho end zone three of six times and limiting the Vandals to but 16 yards per return--signaling that, perhaps, the Trojans have found a solution to the kickoff woes which have troubled them in the Pete Carroll era? Perhaps.

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Well done, gentlemen...

Well Done.

Something special happened Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum; something that carried more weight than USC's 38-10 victory over the Idaho Vandals. After holding the Vandals to a punt in the opening drive of the game, the Trojans set in motion a ten play, 80-yard drive that was capped off by 3-yard touchdown run by sophomore Stafon Johnson. It was the first touchdown of the season and the coliseum roared with applause. The first of a long line of touchdowns that, many hope, will culminate in a national championship for the USC Trojans.

But it wasn't the first touchdown that will resonate in the minds' of those in attendance. It wasn't Booty or Stafon Johnson or any other Trojan who played at the coliseum that September 1st...but rather who was missing from the roster that will be remembered. Immediately following the touchdown, everything seemed normal. The Trojan extra-point unit ran out, taking the usual formation on the field. But something was missing -or rather somebody.

There was no kicker to be found.

A ceremony honoring the late Mario Danelo will be held tonight before USC’s season opener against Idaho. Danelo, a record-setting kicker for the Trojans in 2005 and 2006, would have been a senior this season. He died last January from a fall from a cliff near his home in San Pedro… continue

(credit to Joe Andras for photo)

RIP. 

This means the hype machine gets cranked up earlier and earlier, but in the case of USC, it’s been running on overdrive since their Rose Bowl win over Michigan. After a comparatively disastrous 11-2 campaign last year, USC is finding itself back in familiar territory: ranked number one in the nation and the odds-on favorite to win the national title.

Oh, and the object of nationwide scorn.

It’s not much of a stretch to say that most of the nation is utterly sick of USC by this point. Want proof that Troy is getting under the collective skin of college football? Why else would Les Miles (whose own LSU team looks, on paper at least, every bit as title-worthy as the Trojans) take some unprovoked shots at USC’s conference schedule? Why else would Jim Harbaugh appoint himself the Official Press Secretary of Trojan Football with his own equally outlandish comments? Why else would the star playmaker of another ranked power, DeSean Jackson of Cal, take his own cracks at the Trojans months before the two teams lock horns in Berkeley? (Actually, we know the answer to that one: Jackson’s mouth doesn’t have an “off” switch, even when he’s completely disappearing against the team the SoCal native claimed he was ready to show up.)

Obviously anointing any team the greatest in the history of the sport is a foolish exercise; the last team to get that hype, the 2005 Trojans, were such a powerhouse on offense that most of its drooling admirers overlooked a tremendously spotty defense, one that became increasingly depleted as the season went on and seemed destined for the knockout blow that Vince Young finally delivered. Greatest offense ever? You can make a great argument. Greatest team ever? Not even the best team of the Pete Carroll era.

So that brings us to this year’s team. Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times speculated back in May that this could be Carroll’s best team. And it seems reasonable that, considering what his program has accomplished over the past five years, the best Carroll team could be in the “best team ever” conversation.

So how good will they be?

The realist says that, Les Miles be damned, the road schedule is downright brutal: every trip away from the Coliseum is a potential land mine. Nebraska. Washington (don’t snicker, Ty Willingham’ Huskies were a play away from dumping Troy at Troy last season). Notre Dame. Oregon. Cal. Arizona State. The guess here is that five of those six road opponents will be ranked at some point in this season. And that’s not even mentioning the two teams that beat SC last year, Oregon State and UCLA. Both come to the Coliseum, but both should also be better than the Trojan-killers of 2006.

And common sense also says that a team with John David Booty and a crowded, unproven backfield can’t possibly be as good as one with Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and LenDale White. That there’s very little experience at wide receiver. That the play calling since the departure of Norm Chow has been very suspect. That the tragic loss of Mario Danelo means they’ll be relying on a kicker who hasn’t been battle-tested. That special teams has always been a thorn in the Trojan side, so much so that they resorted to squib kicking each kickoff in the 2005 season. That the specter of an NCAA investigation into the Reggie Bush allegations (one breathlessly chronicled by every nonbiased justice-seeking fan all over the country) could become a major distraction. That, as Harbaugh claimed several months ago, Carroll is already looking to jump ship to the NFL. And that these are too many obstacles for even a loaded team like SC to overcome.

But that defense…

Anyone who’s followed this program knows that the key to its resurgence has been the defense. Even that stunning Orange Bowl rout of Oklahoma was keyed by a D that forced turnovers and constantly put pressure on the Sooner line. With the most returning starters on that side of the ball that Carroll has ever had, it’s not a stretch to believe that this will be Carroll’s best defensive unit. If the defense plays up to its NFL-caliber potential, you won’t see many opponents break 20 on them. So what you’re looking at, potentially, is a Pac-10 offense with an SEC defense.

So they’ve got that going for them, which is nice.

One thing this team doesn’t have is offseason buzz, the type of tabloid white noise that fuels nonsense like ESPN’s “Who’s Now.” Booty isn’t cavorting with Hollywood “actresses.” Those 57 prep All Americans fighting for the tailback spot aren’t ready for their endorsement money close ups (and not allegedly taking money from would-be sports agents, we hope). The likes of Will Ferrell and Snoop Dogg are still around, but even the celebrity sideline stalking feels like it’s scaled down from seasons past. And while many around the nation feel like taking potshots at USC, the coaches and players, so far at least, aren’t saying much at all.

The question remains: how good will they be? The smart money says: very. Will they win the national championship? Anybody who says they know is reaching, because college football is too lovably unpredictable for any team to be called the “greatest ever” a month before any games have been played. The roster is as stacked as it’s ever been, maybe even more so, but until they face adversity and get it done in a hostile road environment, they could very well be a paper, uh, Trojan.

Just as in 2005, a 12-win season would be viewed as a disappointment. How’s that for expectations? And make no mistake, this USC team is definitely beatable. But it will probably take another off-the-charts, Vince Young-esque performance to score enough on that D to get it done. Will they get hit by a once-in-a-lifetime performance for the second time in three seasons? It’s certainly possible. The feeling around the program is that last year was the chance for everyone to get their licks in.

There are two things of which you can be certain: one, that Carroll’s team fully expects to be back in the national title game. And two, that those who have made hating USC their life’s passion should be getting much more fuel for their inner fire.

Sounds like business as usual.