Stanley Havili gets some love in the W post!

"He's versatile; he is our offense," junior running back Stafon Johnson said of Havili.

The Trojan rushing attack amassed 128 yards/game sans Havili in 2006 and 197.2 yards/game with him in 2007.

Havili Makes the Trojan Horse Go [Washington Post]

Mitch Mustain in the game. Stafon Johnson loses 4 yards and then Mustain finds Vidal Hazelton for 15 yards. Mustain is then hit as he throws and the ball dies in the air but no one sees for the possible interception. Stafon Johnson then fumbles and Drew McAllister recovers. That's the end of Mustain's drive and back to the well-used Garrett Green.
Maybe to get Mustain some time, Johnson's fumble is ruled a dead ball after a long delay.
Joe McKnight gains 11 yards. Mustain throws a 23-yard pass to Hazelton, who extends his arms and drops it. Mustain comes back and finds Anthony McCoy for 7 yards. Two false starts against the offense. It's 3rd and 20 and Mustain hands off to McKnight, who gains 15. On fourth down, Mustain finds Hazelton for nine yards. Mustain to Hazelton again, for nine yards.
TOUCHDOWN: After a personal foul on the defense, McKnight runs it in from 6 yards. White team 14, Cardinal 7.
It's halftime. Unofficially, we have Mustain 4-7 for 39 yards and Corp 3-4 for 14 yards. Green is 4-9 for 90 yards with a TD and INT.

Allen Bradford 4.46
C.J. Gable 4.68
Broderick Green -- injured
Stanley Havili -- injured
Stafon Johnson 4.44
Joe McKnight -- did not run
Marc Tyler 4.59

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.

I left the TV for about a minute to get my second-plate of Thanksgiving dinner sometime in the third quarter. By the time I got back to the TV, Arizona State had their backup quarterback in the game, and their starter, Rudy Carpenter, was on the sideline cursing and spitting up blood.

It was that sort of night for Carpenter, who was sacked six times. Four of those sacks belonged to defensive-end Lawrence Jackson, who delivered the lip-busting hit in the third. #11 USC Trojans went on to beat the #6 ASU Sun Devils, 44-24.

It was a dark and stormy night. Rain drenched the 72,516 sell-out crowd. The ball was water-logged. Fumbles were lost. Tackles were slipped. The field was slick. And Cal's defense again and again saw a dark figure pounding out of the backfield. Guess who?

For the Bear-D the game went a little something like this: See Chauncey Washington. See Chauncey Washington run. See Chauncey Washington run past you. Wave goodbye to Chauncey Washington. Step and Repeat.

#12 USC Drowned #24 CAL, 24-17

The game plan was simple. The USC defense was to limit Oregon's stellar offense; the Trojan defense would do the heavy lifting. All the Trojan offense needed to do was keep the field for as long as possible, keep control of the ball, and keep pace with the Ducks scoring.

The Trojan-D played their part, limiting the Ducks total offense to 339 yards. That doesn’t seem like much of an accomplishment, until you take into consideration that Oregon had been averaging more than 200 yards plus that amount previously this season. Still, everything seemed to start in the Trojans favor. Two Oregon first-half special teams turnovers, one on the opening drive, gave USC near red-zone field position. All the Trojans needed to do was put the ball in the end-zone and dance.

But USC's offense, led by backup Mark Sanchez, couldn't capitalize on Oregon's mistakes. Those two turnovers led to a mere 3 points for the Trojans. Not enough when trying to match the juggernaut yardage of Oregon. And unfortunately for USC, Oregon didn't have the same problem capitalizing on Trojan turnovers.

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.

A lot of people thought USC answered all the big questions after going to the air last week to take down the Cougars. There may not be many questions for this Trojan squad to answer at this early stage of the season, but there are some. These are nit-picky considering how embarrassingly good the team is, but still need to be asked ...

• Can anybody make the BIG play? Some people have started grumbling that Booty hasn't hit any deep bombs this year. Truth be told, nobody has busted out with any mind-numbing long play in the first three games. While there have been a few big, exciting gains, nobody has gone more than half the field in one down. The longest run of the year was a 50 yard rumble by Stanley Havili -- a fullback. The longest reception of the year was a 35 yard pickup by Fred Davis -- a tight end. The longest interception return was 24 yards by Kyle Moore -- a defensive end. Those are three positions you wouldn't expect to making the team's longest plays, especially considering the speed and talent USC has at their other positions. On special teams, Desmond Reed has a 44 yard punt return and a 14 yard punt return, both team highs. There haven't been any fumble recoveries run back to date. Will anybody make a Reggie Bush style highlight?
• Can USC turn around turnovers? About a month ago, Art from Trojan Football Analysis taught us about the significance of turnovers. So far, USC hasn't given him many more data points -- and the ones he has aren't pretty. With just four takeaways (3 interceptions, 1 fumble) to six giveaways (4 interceptions, 2 fumbles), the team is on pace for its first negative turnover margin in the Pete Carroll era. His teams have been legendary thanks to a +1.5 per game margin in his first five years. Last season, his sixth, it was a mere +0.3. This year, it's an ugly -0.7.
• Will the Trojans survive a game? Without injury, that is. It's a good thing this team is so deep, because their training room is stocked with more talent than many other teams have in their entire locker rooms. Football is a grinding, physical sport. But how many teams could lose 4 starters in their first three games and barely blink?
  
• Can Greg Woidneck punt? Does it matter? Nobody can fault this guy for wasting opportunities -- he's barely had any. He didn't get to take the field against Washington State and is averaging just two kicks per game. With a respectable 41.7 yard average, long of 51, and 33% inside the 20, he may be on pace for a decent season. A few years ago, lack of opportunity made Tom Malone ineligible for NCAA record books -- and derailed his faux Heisman Campaign.
• Is USC's schedule the toughest? People are starting to rethink the SEC hype. Here's another fact for your next debate with a Southerner:  Only five NCAA Division 1-A schools have never scheduled a lower-tier patsy since the divisions were established. Those schools are USC, Washington, UCLA, Notre Dame, and Michigan State.
• Will it rain? OK, maybe there aren't many questions! The answer to this one is yes. And USC is 20-21-2 all-time on rainy days. Things should even up this weekend.

He is, to grab an old movie title, the man who wasn’t there. And now he’s back. And the USC offense is changed in countless ways. He is Stanley Havili, a redshirt freshman the top-ranked Trojans list as their fullback, but who lines up almost everywhere and does just about everything. “Fullback, of course,” the 6-foot-1, 222-pound Salt Lake City native said when asked where he lines up. “And tailback, tight end, slot receiver, wide receiver.” You name it, Havili, healthy after breaking his leg in his first college start a year ago at Arizona, plays it… continue

Stanley Havili gained more yards on USC's first play than the Nebraska team did all game.