Sports

Psu football

By Derek Levarse dlevarse@timesleader.com
Sports Reporter
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It’s true that USC won’t have a Marcus Allen or an O.J. Simpson to line up at tailback on Thursday.

That still doesn’t make Tom Bradley feel that much better about the job ahead of him.

Penn State’s defensive coordinator knows he’s still going to have his hands full with the Trojans’ running game, even if Tailback U hasn’t been relying on a single feature back these days.

Bradley looks at USC’s three-headed monster of C.J. Gable, Stafon Johnson and Joe McKnight and sees a collective threat instead of three separate 600-yard rushers.

“We’re not going to decipher between the three of them,” Bradley said Sunday. “Totaled up, they’ve run almost 2,000 yards. Carries-wise there’s not much of a difference, it’s pretty much even. Yardage-wise, it’s pretty much even. It’s like tailback by committee. They’re all great running backs.

“If you put them in the game and didn’t know their numbers, it would be hard to tell them apart. If you start watching them over and over, they’re the same size. They’re the same speed. They’re almost like clones of each other.”

And that’s the truth of the modern-day USC juggernaut – the Trojans simply have more elite talent at most skill positions than they know what to do with.

In reality, any one of the three backs could probably star at a program as a workhorse back and rack up some All-America-type numbers.

But when you have the kind of incredible success in recruiting that USC has maintained in recent years, you have to keep your promises. For head coach Pete Carroll, that’s making sure that plenty of different names get to touch the ball.

“They have so many good players as far as depth,” Penn State senior linebacker Tyrell Sales said. “Playing in the Big Ten, you see a lot of good athletes, a lot of good quarterbacks, running backs and receivers. But when you look at someone’s roster and you see that they have three guys in every position, that’s not something you see a lot. Not only in our conference but nationwide. Not a lot of teams have that depth.”

Somehow, depth doesn’t quite describe it.

Penn State lost a high-profile recruiting battle to the Trojans right on national signing day in the class of 2006 and 2007. In ’06 it was receiver Vidal Hazleton and the following year it was tailback Broderick Green. Both were projected to be immediate impact players for the Nittany Lions.

But for USC, they were both just faces in the crowd – a pair of blue chips in a pile that fills the L.A. Coliseum. Neither saw significant playing time this season and both may be transferring to other schools in the near future. Green was just the Trojans’ fifth leading rusher this year with 168 yards on 32 carries.

As for the guys who are left, McKnight narrowly won the team rushing crown with 646 yards on just 84 carries (7.7 average). He serves as the speedster of the group and also the best option in the passing game with 20 receptions.

Johnson (642 yards, 9 TDs) and Gable (604 yards, 8 TDs) are right behind him and are the guys who the Trojans count on to keep the chains moving.

“You have to prepare for all three,” Sales said. “But they can only play one guy at a time. You can’t have all three players out there running a route. You can prepare for their basic schemes and you have to be aware of what guy is in the game. But they’re all very similar and you’re going to get a lot of the same things.

“It’s not so much preparing for each guy individually but preparing for the whole system. They just have the luxury to plug different guys in.”

Paterno coming along

Though nothing is official, Joe Paterno is still working to try and get back to his familiar spot on the sideline for the Rose Bowl.

The 82-year-old coach spent the majority of the season overseeing things from up in the coaches booth, but hip replacement surgery on Nov. 23 has him up and about once again.

Paterno has been building his strength back up and has been trying to walk around for longer and longer at practices since coming out to California, relying less on a golf cart to get around.