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Sunday evening was all about Chip Kelly, as the Oregon coach was reported to be close to accepting the head coaching job for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Such a move this late in the recruiting season would've shaken up the entire Pac-12 and given USC an immediate and serious advantage for the 2012 season. But that's not to say that every Trojan wanted him gone -- in fact, a number of USC players on Twitter expressed emotions far different than what one might expect.

And the most visible Trojan of all, quarterback Matt Barkley, had an interesting reaction when Kelly officially revealed Monday morning that he was choosing to stay with the Ducks to pursue "unfinished business."

Barkley re-tweeted ESPN's Joe Schad and added on a bit of his own commentary to Kelly's reasoning: "Looks like we both do."

The tweet went viral as it brought people back to Barkley's December news conference in which he announced he was staying for his senior season. That day, in front of a crush of reporters at Heritage Hall, Barkley cited "unfinished business" on more than one occasion as the biggest reason why he decided to come back to USC.

Well, on Nov. 3, Barkley and Kelly with go head-to-head at the Coliseum in what will probably be hyped as the unfinished business bowl.

We've looked at the USC Trojans' top 10 moments from 2011 and the top 10 performers as well. Now, with the final days of the year approaching, we take a look at the five most pressing questions surrounding Lane Kiffin's Trojans in 2012. We'll unveil one each day this week, counting down from No. 5 today to No. 1 on Friday.

It's also worth looking back at our five questions for 2011 from this time last year. Most of them were answered definitively in one direction or the other. Here are No. 5, No. 4, No. 3, No. 2 and No. 1.

Here, then, is No. 5: Where will USC rank in the 2012 Associated Press preseason top 25?

The Trojans finished their 2011 regular season ranked fifth in the country by the AP -- in a definite surprise to those not following the team. It was a quick rise, to be sure, as USC had been ranked 18th just three weeks earlier and unranked a month before that.

But the 10-2 Trojans were deserving. Only two teams with fewer losses were below them in the top 25, and one of those was a Houston team that had just been markedly upset.

So, with this season now out of the way, where is USC going to start next year? It's important to note that the previous season's end-of-year rankings consistently play a large role in each preseason edition. Each of the top-five teams this year, for example, finished last year in the top 10.

Let's pencil in the winner of the upcoming national championship game, then, as the likely No. 1 -- especially if it's LSU, who returns a large portion of its lineup. Even if Alabama pulls off the win, the Tigers will be hard to overtake, actually.

But the other top teams all lose a lot, including No. 3 Oklahoma State (likely Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon) and No. 4 Stanford (Andrew Luck). No. 6 Oregon returns plenty, but LaMichael James may not be returning, and it's somewhat unlikely voters would place the Ducks over the Trojans to start the year -- even if Chip Kelly's squad does beat Wisconsin in next week's Rose Bowl.

The Badgers also lose their quarterback -- and potentially their running back, as Montee Ball has said he'll determine whether to declare for the draft based on the draft grade he receives from the NFL.

There just aren't too many more teams to compete with. Ohio State was a possibility under Urban Meyer, but they'll see a drop-off because of NCAA sanctions. Georgia has a lot of 2012 potential, but not enough to jump a 10-2 team returning its best player in Matt Barkley.

The short answer, then, is this: Expect USC to be ranked either second or third in the country next August, behind LSU and maybe Alabama, depending on what happens in next month's national championship game between LSU and Alabama, who returns at Alabama and Oregon and spring practices at USC and those schools.

Check back Tuesday for question No. 4, which deals with NCAA-sanctioned scholarship limits and how they'll affect USC next year.

As USC quarterback Matt Barkley's Heisman Trophy campaign heats up this week with the Trojans days away from concluding their 2011 regular season, it's interesting to see where he stands with a number of college football figures who don't have a vote but have plenty of opinions.

USC coach Lane Kiffin has already said he'd vote for Barkley to win the Heisman.

And a number of Pac-12 coaches said Tuesday on the conference's weekly conference call they would vote for him as at least a finalist. All who answered said he at least deserved consideration for the award.

Colorado coach Jon Embree, Oregon State coach Mike Riley, Arizona interim coach Tim Kish and California coach Jeff Tedford gave him glowing endorsements. Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson, Washington State coach Paul Wulff, UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel and Stanford coach David Shaw said he undoubtedly deserved to be in the conversation.

Washington coach Steve Sarkisian and Oregon coach Chip Kelly said they'd need to look into the other candidates more to properly comment but continued to speak highly of him. Utah coach Kyle Whittingham wasn't available for comment.

"I'm one of those guys that doesn't think the Heisman goes to the best player on the best team," Embree said Tuesday. "I think it goes to the best player. And he definitely needs to be in that conversation. He's put that team on his back and has taken them to a very good year. What he has done and how he has matured through this season and career says a lot about the kid.

"He's one of those guys that has always been overshadowed. He doesn't go away."

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USC released an official promotional video for quarterback Matt Barkley's fledgling Heisman Trophy campaign Monday following the signal-caller's impressive performance in a weekend win over Oregon.

The minute-long video highlights a number of Barkley's touchdown passes this season, including the record-breaking sixth scoring throw to running back Amir Carlisle in the Colorado game earlier this month. It also contains commentary from broadcasters Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit and Pete Arbogast talking up his postseason award candidacy and NFL readiness.

Barkley's 2011 numbers -- 67.6 completion percentage, 3,105 yards, 33 touchdowns and seven interceptions -- are displayed, as is his status as a semifinalist for the Maxwell, Davey O'Brien and Walter Camp postseason awards and a Pac-12 all-academic honoree.

Video of Barkley's offseason trip to Nigeria is also included, and the video concludes with comments from local media relating to his Heisman campaign and Oregon coach Chip Kelly's comments that Barkley was the best quarterback the Ducks faced this year.

The Heisman presentation in New York City is scheduled for Dec. 10. Five finalists are invited to the ceremony each season.

The full Barkley video is available here.

Notes and quotes from Trojans head coach Lane Kiffin's conference call Sunday looking back at USC’s 38-35 win over Oregon in Eugene and looking forward to the season-ending matchup against UCLA:

• Kiffin had mostly positive things to say about his team's victory, as to be expected, but he did harp on one part of the game as an area for improvement in the coming years: the fourth quarter. He was displeased with how USC allowed the Ducks to score 21 straight points beginning with De'Anthony Thomas' kickoff return for a touchdown late in the third. "That was shades of last year, what we were doing offensively there," he said. But he ultimately concluded that it was sort of par for the course when dealing with coach Chip Kelly and Oregon. "Any time that you end the nation's longest home winning streak, it's tough to complain," Kiffin said.

• On the topic of Kelly, Kiffin said the Ducks' head coach was "very classy" to come into the USC locker room following the game and congratulate USC assistant coach Monte Kiffin. The two didn't meet on the field in the postgame aftermath because the Trojans' defensive playcaller operates in the upstairs coaches' box during the game.

• Kiffin was proud of his team for not getting caught up in the hype of having NBA stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Co. in attendance. Oregon hosted the players on their sideline during the game in what bore multiple similarities to USC and the Pete Carroll era -- as a couple of USC players pointed out after the game -- but the Trojans weren't negatively distracted in any way. "I think it was great for us, really,” Kiffin said.

• After subtly calling quarterback Matt Barkley a Heisman Trophy candidate in his postgame news conference Saturday, Kiffin expanded more on that topic Sunday, saying the third-year signal-caller should certainly finish in the top-5 of the voting come the end of the regular season. "If you look at the way he's played in big games and you don't vote based off sanctions and probations and dark clouds, I don't know how he's not in New York," Kiffin said. "If anything, it should help him, that he's had all this stuff around him, and he's still succeeded."

• After shying away from commenting on ranking-related questions all season long, Kiffin has started to perk up about the Associated Press poll of late. Last week he called out a voter from Tennessee for leaving the Trojans out of the top 25 when they were ranked 18th nationally; Sunday he said he didn't understand why USC was one spot behind Oregon (10th to 9th) despite beating them the night before the latest ranking was released. "The polls are confusing to me," Kiffin said. "You would think if you beat someone 24 hours ago at their place, you'd be ahead of them."

• Asked about a questionable first-half intentional grounding call on Barkley, Kiffin first said he didn't want to be fined "$10,000 more," then carefully commented while trying to avoid directly criticizing the Pac-12 officiating. "I'm not [being] negative," he said. "I'm just saying I've never seen that at any level of football...Have you?"

• Injury updates: Several players got hurt during Saturday's game, but Kiffin said he didn't think anyone would be held out of Saturday's UCLA game based on weekend injuries. Among those who came out for a time were linebackers Dion Bailey (ankle) and Lamar Dawson (ankle), fullback/tight end Rhett Ellison and fullback Ross Cumming, defensive tackle Christian Tupou and safety Drew McAllister.

• Amid reports and rumors that UCLA will break out alternate all-white jerseys for Saturday's game, Kiffin said the Trojans would be sporting their traditional home uniforms at the Coliseum. "I don't really care what they wear," he said.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Marc Tyler fumbled, Oregon recovered and the Autzen Stadium crowd went wild.

Down three points, the Ducks had two and a half minutes -- 151 seconds -- to score, needing a field goal for overtime and a touchdown for the win.

In Oregon-land, that's an eternity. And Chip Kelly treated it like one, declining to use a single timeout as his Ducks marched down the field with the game in the balance. He wasn't even afraid to run the ball, either. On the final drive, Oregon ran four run plays and got first downs on three of them.

The Ducks were more successful running than passing, really. But they couldn't get past the USC 18-yard line and were forced to kick a 37-yard field goal, and Alejandro Maldonado's attempt went wide left to give the Trojans the win.

For a team that so often scores so quickly, 151 seconds wasn't quite enough.

"We told them they were going to have to beat us with their kicker," cornerback Nickell Robey said afterward. "And that's what it came down to tonight.

"They tried to beat us with our kicker. We beat them with our defense."

If there were a win probability generator in college football like there is in baseball, the algorithm would have said the Ducks were favored when they picked up Tyler's fumble -- meaning there was probably about a 60-70 percent chance Oregon would win once it got that ball, statistically.

But the game's played on the field, and USC didn't give up any gigantic plays to the Ducks, so they were forced to try to grind it out. Kelly ran 15 plays on the final drive -- more than the Ducks had run on any other series in all of Saturday's game.

They weren't well-equipped to succeed in that situation, and they clearly didn't expect to be kicking the field goal. But USC expected them to.

"We have confidence in our special teams and our field-goal block team," safety Jawanza Starling said. "If the game's on the line, we're gonna make a play."

Maldonado was all set to kick a 42-yarder after Lane Kiffin used his last timeout to ice him, but USC left tackle Matt Kalil jumped offsides trying to block it and and the ball was moved five yards closer to the goalposts.

But it didn't matter. A number of USC players said the Oregon kicker was too flustered -- by the situation and by the prospects of USC's best-in-the-country field goal block unit -- to make the kick anyway. His attempt had the distance but hooked wide left late.

The Trojans didn't block it, but the players on the block unit didn't see the kick. Because they all went to the line, none of them knew what happened until they saw their teammates react.

"Once I saw our sideline and realized how quiet it was, I knew he missed it," Starling said. "Or it got blocked. One or the other."

EUGENE, Ore. -- Matt Barkley said this wasn't the best game of his college career, but it most certainly was his biggest win.

At Autzen Stadium against the No. 4 Oregon Ducks, he completed 26-of-34 attempts, threw for 323 yards and had four touchdowns and just one interception -- on a pass Robert Woods should have caught. He made one bad throw the entire night and several elite ones. And, most importantly, he led the now-surging USC Trojans to a season-defining 38-35 victory.

In arguably the biggest situation he's faced yet in the college sphere, the third-year Trojans quarterback produced one of his best games to date and -- perhaps in vain -- made a case that he should be considered among the rest of the bowl-eligible candidates for the Heisman Trophy come the end of this season.

"I thought Matt was outstanding," Oregon coach Chip Kelly said, adding that he thought Barkley was better than Andrew Luck and better than any of the quarterbacks his Ducks have faced this season. "He always seemed like he had the answer.

"Every time we came back and scored he came right back with an answer."

He did. Oregon got big plays from a number of sources throughout the game -- quarterback Darron Thomas, running backs Kenjon Barner, LaMichael James and De'Anthony Thomas. USC only had Barkley, receiver Marqise Lee and a less-than-full-strength Woods.

Barkley's first half was outstanding, as he staked USC out to a 14-point lead by completing all but three of his 18 passes, including a 59-yard touchdown throw to Lee. And, in a crucial fourth quarter -- a time where Barkley struggled so significantly his first two seasons -- he completed 4-of-5 passes for 57 yards, with his only incompletion the tipped pass off the hands of Woods.

This was a signal-caller at his best. This was a quarterback quarterback-ing his team to a win on the biggest of stages in the toughest of environments.

Yet he said he didn't think he "played that well." He said the feeling he had after the game didn't feel like he had just played the best game among his 32 career starts at the college level.

But he did. And, in the same place where a USC quarterback won himself the Heisman Trophy nine years ago this month, Barkley proved himself to be a viable candidate for the award.

He won't win it -- no way, not with the Trojans ineligible for the postseason and some of the other top candidates likely to play in a conference championship and bowl game. But he deserves to be in the top 5, and it now seems like a legitimate possibility he could do so.

"Look at what Matt's done with a bunch of young people," USC coach Lane Kiffin said following Saturday's game. "I can't imagine those other guys out there putting up numbers with a bunch of young guys around them."

There's some validity in that argument. But then there's also the fact that -- despite their age -- Woods and Lee are much better than Luck's receivers over at Stanford and better than Landry Jones' receivers at Oklahoma now that Ryan Broyles is out for the year.

But forget the Heisman politicking and arguments. Those will have their time in the sun soon. And forget that Barkley might have just played his penultimate game in a USC cardinal-and-gold uniform.

For right now, realize this: Matt Barkley just led his USC Trojans to an upset win over the Oregon Ducks.

And he did it better than he's ever done before.

PASSING ATTACK
It doesn't get much better than this. Matt Barkley had an absolutely splendid day -- his fourth-quarter interception notwithstanding, because it was Robert Woods' mistake that led to it. True freshman Marqise Lee proved to be a dominant presence on a big stage.

RUSHING ATTACK
They weren't asked to do much until later in the game, but Curtis McNeal and Marc Tyler were once again an effective duo for the Trojans. But while McNeal didn't do anything to hurt USC's cause, Tyler's fumble late was a crucial mistake that almost cost the Trojans.

IN THE TRENCHES
USC's defensive line built on last week's terrific performance against Washington and again produced pressure on Thomas and the Oregon offense. And while the Trojans' O-line did have a few false starts, the big guys kept Barkley off the ground and gave him time to operate.

DEFENSE
Considering Oregon's track record -- pun intended -- this was a solid performance by the Trojans' defenders, demonstrating clear improvement from the beginning of this season. Darron Thomas did fine at quarterback, but LaMichael James wasn't allowed to run wildly, as he often is.

SPECIAL TEAMS
For the umpteenth time this year, coordinator John Baxter's unit produced a big play with the third-quarter punt block that netted USC some points, but it also allowed a couple big kick returns by De'Anthony Thomas, including the 96-yard touchdown later in the third.

COACHING
Lane and Monte Kiffin out-coached Chip Kelly and his crew, plain and simple. The Trojans' offensive gameplan was solid, and USC also knew what to do to stop Oregon's top offensive options. Kiffin is going to gain a lot of national respect for this.

1. The implications: As is the case with most late-season contests between top-25 teams, Saturday's USC-Oregon will have quite a few long-lasting after-effects. If the Ducks do win, as they are expected to, they'll put themselves in a serious conversation for the national championship game with only a game against lowly Oregon State. If they lose, it'll be a role reversal of epic proportions as the Trojans turn the tables on the Ducks and do what teams tried to do to them for so many years: ruin their BCS bowl aspirations. And, for USC, a win over Oregon coupled with a season-ending win over UCLA just about ensures that the Trojans will finish the season in the national top 10 -- really a remarkable accomplishment considering all the circumstances surrounding USC's 2011 season.

2. USC's No. 1 receiver: USC pass-catcher Robert Woods isn't fully healthy -- that much we know for sure. But what we'll see on the field Saturday is exactly how healthy he really is, and whether he can actually help the Trojans upset Oregon at Autzen Stadium. Lane Kiffin says he's 70 percent recovered from ankle and shoulder injuries that have bothered him, in one form or another, all season long, but Woods insists he's further along. Last week's game against Washington, when he had just two catches for five yards, indicated he wasn't feeling too great. Also, a corollary to this item: If Woods can't go or can't be at full strength, is there any possible way USC can still compete? Brice Butler would be the next in line to line up across from Marqise Lee, and he has had some success of late.

3. The conditions and the crowd: The snow some projected for this weekend in Eugene has been pushed back to Sunday, but, even now, Weather.com projects a 50 percent chance of rain on Saturday and a high of 45 degrees. USC's had to play in some tough places this year -- windy Tempe, loud and cold South Bend and new Boulder -- but Autzen is likely to take the cake. In the Trojans' final road game of the year, expect 60,000 Duck fans to create by far the loudest experience yet of the 2011 season. Autzen only fits 54 thousand in seats, but Oregon filled it up well past its capacity last month against Arizona State, and it's likely the Ducks will do the same Saturday.

4. De'Anthony, Darron, Kenjon and LaMichael: Oregon has so many weapons. Any one of those four guys -- plus receiver Lavasier Tunei, really -- could be many teams' No. 1 offensive options. The Ducks have all of them, and Chip Kelly is sure to make good use of all his available players on the offensive end. LaMichael James, of course, is probably the biggest cause for concern from USC's perspective, but, as Kiffin said this week, the Trojans have to approach all of the Oregon runners in the same manner. They can't key in on James, because then De'Anthony Thomas and Kenjon Barner will go off. They can't key in on Thomas, because it's impossible to predict how he'll be used each week. And Thomas continues to quietly post solid numbers -- he has thrown fewer interceptions than both Matt Barkley and Andrew Luck this season.

5. The fourth quarter: All season, USC has talked up its supposed improvements in the final 15 minutes of games. We have seen signs of small improvements over the course of the year, but we've yet to see real, tangible evidence that the Trojans have fixed all that has ailed them in the past. As the fourth quarter began last season during the USC-Oregon game at the Coliseum, the Trojans were driving past midfield and on the verge of scoring a touchdown to put themselves within a field goal of the Ducks. Then they turned it over on downs and gave Oregon an easy field goal, and then, within another touchdown of making it a one-score game, Barkley was picked off by John Boyett in the red zone. Three minutes later, it was game and the final score (53-32) made it looked like Oregon had dominated the entire game. In reality, the Trojans weren't far away from making it very, very competitive.

Shelley Smith talks to USC players about the speedy Oregon Ducks and the challenges of playing in Autzen Stadium this weekend.

Every Tuesday morning, all of the Pac-12 coaches talk to reporters across the region for a designated 10-minute period on a conference call open to all conference media members.

Certain coaches -- Lane Kiffin, Chip Kelly, Steve Sarkisian -- use the full 10 minutes each week. Certain other coaches -- Jon Embree, Paul Wulff, Kyle Whittingham -- almost never do.

Tuesday, Kiffin learned how it felt to be a member of the latter group. Always the last one to go each week, he was asked just one question during his segment, leading the whole call to end before he was even due to start.

"That’s what happens when you’re 18-point underdogs," Kiffin said in response to the lack of interest. "Nobody cares about you."

He was joking, obviously. But there is something to be said about USC's underdog status heading into this weekend's game against Oregon. For quite some time under former coach Pete Carroll, the Trojans were never underdogs, no matter the opponent, no matter whether they were playing at home or on the road.

Now, they've been projected to lose a number of times in Kiffin's 23 games as the head coach. But they haven't been 14 or 15 point underdogs -- like they are this weekend, according to most sports books -- in a long, long while. Las Vegas Sports Consultants said it's been 14 years since a USC opponent was favored to beat the Trojans by that much in any given game.

Does that matter? Kiffin says no -- despite the fact that he brought it up, unprompted, during the conference call.

"Oh I don't know," Kiffin said earlier Tuesday to that very question, speaking to the media after the Trojans' practice. "Those things are wrong, right, whatever. I can see why it would be like that. Look at what they've done at home to almost everybody.

"It is what it is."

In fact, Kiffin spinned it off as a positive -- as in, the Trojans will have less pressure on them because of their underdog status. And there's some truth to that: It's typically easier to play under zero pressure than under a ton.

And USC has beaten the spread in each of its last five games, dating back to the October road win over Cal. Notre Dame was favored by more than a touchdown against the Trojans last month in South Bend, but USC won that game pretty handily, 31-17.

Kiffin brought that game up as an example of what being an underdog can do for a team.

"We've been pretty heavy underdogs a few weeks ago when we went to the Midwest so sometimes you can take it as motivation," Kiffin said. "Also, the pressure is off in those types of games. Like I told our team today, when we were here before with the great runs and the 34-straight, the pressure was always on us. We were the No. 1 team and we were the ones that had to play well to stay up there.

"So, a lot of times in these games, the pressure goes the other way with the team that's got a chance to go to the national championship still. We just go up there and have some fun and see what happens."

As the weeks count down until USC football fall camp begins on Aug. 4, we've been offering up an early first look at the 12 scheduled opponents for the 2011 season, in chronological order. We began back in May with Minnesota, Utah and Syracuse, continued the next three weeks with Arizona State, Arizona, and Cal and added Notre Dame, Stanford, Colorado and Washington recently. We now present Oregon, who the Trojans will play on the road on Saturday, Nov. 19:

History: Oregon has won seven of the last 11 games played between the schools, a period of dominance unmatched in the Ducks' history against the Trojans.

All-time, USC still leads the series 37-18-2. This is a matchup of, at this point, teams on opposite trajectories. Oregon is on the way up; USC is on the way down. Look at the last two head-to-head matchups -- Oregon 47, USC 20 and Oregon 53, USC 32 -- for evidence of that.

Of course, a game like this can help reverse things.

An interesting note about the schools' recent histories: Of the last seven Oregon-USC games, only one has been decided by 10 points or fewer -- and none by less than a touchdown. Five of the last six have also been won by the better-ranked team entering into the game.

Offense: Darron Thomas and LaMichael James are the stars, at quarterback and running back, respectively.

Thomas, a redshirt junior who played his first year and sat out his second, is a true talent who had a very, very good season as a first-year starter in 2010. Coach Chip Kelly didn't ask him to do too much, and he didn't try to. His touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio was a healthy 30-to-9, and he was 17th nationally in passing efficiency. There's also, of course, his running ability -- he carried the ball 93 times for 486 yards and five touchdowns last season.

Oregon's running back corps is probably the best in the nation. James, also a redshirt junior, was a unanimous first-team All-American last season with more than 1700 yards rushing. Then there's Kenjon Barner, a dynamite returner who quietly accumulated 551 yards on the ground as a backup last year. The Ducks also add redshirt freshman Lache Seastrunk and true freshman DeAnthony Thomas into the mix, both five-star prospects out of high school who USC recruited heavily.

Oh, and then there's senior tight end David Paulson, an all-conference first-team pick. He was the Ducks' representative at Pac-12 media day last week.

But, hey, their two top receivers and three starting offensive linemen are gone, so it's not all a nightmare. Oregon will need production from junior college transfer receivers Lavasier Tuinei and Rahsaan Vaughn, plus sophomore Josh Huff, who had a 57-yard catch against the Trojans last season.

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Lane Kiffin's going to stick with the morning practices in the fall after trying it out twice this spring and apparently liking what he's seeing.

"We just had a few final schedules that we had to work out, work through," Kiffin said Thursday when asked about his practice plans for the 2011 season. "It looks like that we are -- we just need to make sure that we can get everybody's schedules blocked out in the fall."

USC has started practice the first two days of spring practice at 7:25 a.m., pushing the players through nearly a two-and-a-half hour workout before letting them loose for the day. Many players have classes scheduled for 10 a.m. -- they leave a bit earlier, around 9:35, before the final team drills are completed -- but the rest of the Trojans have gotten to exit the practice fields around 9:50 a.m.

Those times don't sound that crazy, but the early-morning report times for players to get ready for practice are a little unusual. Mandatory meetings begin at 6 a.m., so players roll in during the 5 o'clock hour to get taped and do some of their own stretching. Freshman quarterback Cody Kessler said Thursday, with a tired grin on his face, that he has set his alarm for 4:30 a.m.

The idea is to get players in bed early and keep them out of trouble during the night-time, and that does make quite a bit of sense. But the only way to do it in the mornings and allow players to maintain fairly normal class schedules is to do it super-early.

So that's what they're doing.

“I think it’s very beneficial to our kids," Kiffin said. "They have great energy. They’re here at 5 a.m. for the most part getting ready. It’s a lot easier, I think, for their bodies to have good practices that start at 7 in the morning as opposed to going through the day of class and lunch and getting here at 4 in the afternoon."

The other aspect of it is, of course, classes. 4 p.m. practices, with meetings beginning at 2 p.m., allowed players to take classes anywhere from 8-2, typically. Now a lot more Trojans will be enrolled in afternoon and night classes, it appears.

Class registration for the fall begins next week. Making sure players could take the right classes in the afternoons was the final obstacle for Kiffin to get his way with the morning sessions.

Said Kiffin: "It just seemed to work out better, and I think it benefits them academically, because they’re up right now going to class at 10, 11, 12 o’clock, as opposed to maybe first thing in the morning.”

Another program which has switched to morning practices recently? Chip Kelly's Oregon Ducks. But Kiffin said this week his new plan has nothing to do with Kelly's success with the schedule in Eugene.

A few notes from Galen Center practices this week as the Trojans prepare to play Oregon on Thursday at the brand-new Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Ore.:

• So USC's coming off a big rivalry win and heading into perhaps the easiest conference road game it'll play this season. All signs point to a letdown possibility, right? Not according to Trojans coach Kevin O'Neill, who said his guys proved to him Tuesday they are clearly focused on the Ducks. "I'm sure that that's the question everybody asks after every big win or rivalry win, but I wouldn't think so," O'Neill said. "Our guys practiced hard today. There shouldn't be any letdown. We lost to Bradley and Rider, so I don't think we're above losing to anybody, to be honest with you."

• The Ducks are an interesting team, with a first-year coach in Dana Altman who has found previous success at the college level but inherited a clearly talent-deficient team this season. Altman has only eight scholarship players on his roster after four chose to transfer when former coach Ernie Kent was dismissed at the end of last season. Junior guard Malcolm Armstead, a sometimes-dominant player last season in his first year with the program, no longer starts. Instead the Ducks' top scorer is 6-foot-6 big man Joevan Catron, a 245-pounder who missed almost all of last season with a back injury. Catron has clearly rebounded well from his injury and is averaging 15.9 points per game this season on 52 percent shooting -- an impressive mark for a player who also operates outside of the key frequently. It's also worth noting that Catron, a fifth-year senior, is coming off his worst game of the season -- a four-point, four-rebound performance against Washington State last weekend.

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There are five days left in 2010, so we figured now is as good a time as any to begin our Five Questions for the New Year series, which we’ll continue through Friday.


Every day, we’ll tackle one key question facing the USC football team in 2011 and attempt to answer it. Feel free to leave your answer in the comments section each day.

The first of our five questions: Will Lane Kiffin’s pro-style offense stay (relatively) the same next season, or will he switch to a more spread-based style? What’s the better option?

On the lone bye week of the 2010 season, Trojans coach Lane Kiffin threw a wrench into USC’s normal schedule by scheduling three 6 a.m. practices to prepare for high-flying No. 2 Oregon the next week.

Then he threw in an even bigger wrench, casually mentioning that he had entertained thoughts of switching to a spread-based offensive attack in the future because of a lack of depth at certain spots.

“Look at what we have,” Kiffin said on that Thursday morning in mid-October. “We have a bunch of really good receivers and backs and tight ends, and we don’t even have a fullback on our roster that’s on scholarship two months from now. We’ll have to make the best of whatever we’re dealt with.”

Was he serious, contemplating switching from an offense the Trojans have become nationally known for to a sometimes-stigmatized specialty scheme?

Was he joking, maybe with the half-hearted intention of making Oregon coach Chip Kelly think a little bit about how to defend a spread offense the next week?

Or was it a bit of both? We’ll never know what his thought process was at the time, but we can certainly assess the likelihood -- and the feasibility -- of a USC spread in 2011.

First of all, it’s important to note Kiffin was right about the lack of depth at fullback. In redshirt sophomore Simione Vehikite and freshman Soma Vainuku, USC’s only two scholarship players at that spot will be completely inexperienced.

Compare that to what USC can offer at receiver: Robert Woods, Brice Butler, Brandon Carswell, Kyle Prater, Thearon Collier and De’Von Flournoy. Even with Prater a redshirt in 2010, that makes five receivers who are more experienced than any Trojan fullbacks.

Given that information, the spread -- and by spread, I mean a true, shotgun-formation, four-receiver set spread -- starts to make some sense. But what about the playcalling, the offensive line assignments and the running backs -- how different are those in the spread as compared to the pro-style?

Pretty different. First of all, in a true spread quarterback Matt Barkley would have to develop the ability to make a lot of calls at the line of scrimmage -- something that, with all of his improvement from 2009 to 2010, he couldn’t do much of this season. Second, the emphasis on offensive line assignments would be placed on speedily getting to the outside, not holding long blocks on the interior to allow runners to get tough yards. And, third, the tailback spot at USC would lose a lot of its glamour, with guys like Dillon Baxter and D.J. Morgan spending time serving as flex players instead of lining up in the backfield.

In all, it’s something that would certainly take some time to perfect. And, as we learned this season with Monte Kiffin’s defense (we’ll go over this in tomorrow’s question), college players tend to take quite a while to pick up on new schemes -- especially schemes they don’t prefer.

Think about it: if a recruit wants to run the spread at the college level, they choose a school that runs the spread. If they want to run a pro-style offense, they choose a school that runs a pro-style offense.

It makes sense. But do you know what else makes sense?

Instead of switching to a true spread entirely, adding in bits and pieces of the offense -- I’m talking like 15 or 20 plays -- into USC’s current offense may be a much more realistic option for 2011.

Yes, those 15 or 20 plays would still take quite a while to install and could end up being a colossal waste of time, but it would likely be a good way to experiment with the spread with the current squad without adopting it completely.

They work well, and Jesse Scroggins could find himself spearheading a spread offense in 2012. (Never mind that he chose USC partly for its pro-style offense.)

They work poorly, and, well, who knows?

Tomorrow's question for the new year: Will Monte Kiffin stay on staff as the assistant head coach and de facto defensive coordinator? Will his defense improve in 2011?