Oct. 11, 2008 | Article written by Drlw322

Maualuga lays a lick on Herring

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Los Angeles, CA -
Trojans came into this week as the #2 rank team in the AP coaches poll and #1 team in all media polls. Trojans preparing to make a bid at this years national title game looked strong against the Arizona St. Sun Devils going into the 1st week of BCS polls next week. ASU proved they were not match for the Trojans by losing 59-20

"We try not to look at the polls. We know all that poll stuff doesn't matter if we don't take care of business now. That has been our mentality since I have been at SC." - Brian Cushing.

The Trojans came out a bit sluggish on both sides of the ball and gave confidence to a Rudy Carpenter less team. Carpenter is sideline by a broken rib and was said to be a game time decision. Carpenter did not end up playing but back-up Danny Sullivan filled in nicely given the circumstances.

USC was not able to take advantage of good field position on their 1st possession and ended up with a 36 yards FG. Sun Devils fired back with a 51 yards FG on the next drive to tie the game at 3. It was a back and forth contest into the late 1st half with 1:57 to go, ASU's Mike Jones scored on a 2 yard run making the game 17-13 lead by USC. That seemed to woke the sleeping giant up as they went on a 42-0 scoring run and the Sun Devils could do nothing about it.

The scoring run was highlighted by a 55 yards Mark Sanchez pass to Patrick Turner. Turner took a medium length to the house by breaking all kinds of tackles. That made the game 45-13 Trojans.

Mark Sanchez threw 3 TD passes during that span and finished the game with 5 TDs to 1 interception. That makes his season total to 12 TD passes. Senior Josh Pinkard had a awesome 77 YDs interception return to seal the game. Sure to be seen on ESPN top plays of the year.

"It's great to finally feel healthy and be able to contribute on the field. This help all my hours of rehab feels worth it." - Josh Pinkard

Next Game -

Trojans travels to Pullman next to face the (2-4)Washington St. Cougars. USC needs to be careful and not let down in this game. The Cougars played SC tight last season.

Recruiting Notes -

8/30 Trojans lands 5 star offensive lineman Kevin Graf out of CA. Consider to be one of the best lineman from this years prep class. Graf is a athletic 6'5" 301 pounds that is very mobile, resembling Jeff Byers. He is able to get out and pull from a offensive guard position and have great feet during pass protection.

8/30 5 star WR Patrick Hall (6 ft, 181 Ibs) committed to USC over the weekend. Hall caught 87 passes for 1243yds and 12 TD. Hall has 4.44 speed and run great routes. A fair comparison would be Steve Smith. If he has anywhere of a career like Smith did at SC, it would be a great treat for SC fans.

9/17 #1 5 star DE Donny Grigsby from Friendswood, TX committed to USC this past week. Grigsby is a very athletic DE at 6-5, 262 pounds. He lead his team to the semi-finals of the Texas state playoff last year. Grigsby recorded 18 sacks and 80 tackles last year as a Junior.