ESPN

One of the benefits to getting USC coach Lane Kiffin in a room for 30 minutes where he's obligated to listen to a never-ending stream of questions and answer most of them is it equals an opportunity to get some long-standing questions answered. Here are notes going off of his most interesting answers:

Scholarship count

By now, it's well-known that the Trojans have to be at 75 total scholarships or fewer by the time fall camp comes around in August. Kiffin has said it over and over in recent months as a reminder that his USC team is still very much under sanctions.

But he refuses to reveal where his squad is at right now, after taking on 12 more signees this week and five as January enrollees. The only hint he would give to the team's roster status was telling a reporter who asked about it Wednesday that it's not quite as grim as he might imagine.

Luckily, we can do the math and get a tentative number for where the Trojans stand right now.

With the 17 new players added to the 60 scholarship returners, USC has 77 players on scholarship as of now, as far as we know. That number does not include players like Armond Armstead but does include the former walk-ons who were given scholarships, like linebacker Will Andrew.

We'll get into who else is no longer part of the program further down. But 77 is a manageable number.

Scroggins' future?

It might end up being 76 if Jesse Scroggins can't get his academics together. The redshirt sophomore quarterback from nearby Lakewood High has "fallen behind" in school, per Kiffin, and "has a lot of work to do" to become eligible for the 2012 season.

Of course, the Trojans also put on a huge late recruiting push for Colorado prep quarterback Cyler Miles, a similar signal-caller to Scroggins. So it's obvious that USC isn't exactly counting on Scroggins being a part of the team in the long term.

And, in front of him on the depth chart Cody Kessler and Max Wittek, who are both a year younger too. That could be an issue.

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The latter half of USC's Signing Day took a turn for the worse in the 10 o'clock hour when four-star offensive tackle Andrus Peat (Tempe, Ariz./Corona Del Sol) chose Stanford over the Trojans in a live announcement on ESPNU.

And it hasn't turned up since. Four-star quarterback Cyler Miles (Denver, Colo./Mullen) picked Washington over USC in a decision that clearly went down to the wire, and four-star offensive tackle Kyle Murphy (San Clemente, Calif./San Clemente) also picked Stanford, giving the Cardinal one of the best recruiting classes of offensive linemen in recent memory.

Where does this leave USC? In an interesting position, to be sure.

It's clear the Trojans did not count on losing out on Miles, Peat, Murphy and fellow offensive tackle Kyle Dodson (Cleveland, Oh./Cleveland Heights). Now, they have four open scholarship slots under their 15-man maximum and only one player expected to fill one in receiver Darreus Rogers (Carson, Calif./Carson).

If Rogers does end up signing with the Trojans, that still leaves three more empty spots, which gives USC some freedom in the coming weeks. It could do one of two things or a combination of the two: (1) Save the slots and be a lot closer to the 75-man overall scholarship limit come the fall, then add on a few more early enrollees in January 2013, or (2) Offer them to recruits who have yet to pick a school and hope to seize on some last-second decisions.

As of right now, with 11 players signed and the current roster as projected, USC has exactly 75 players on scholarship. Rogers would push that one over the limit, but that's easily fixable.

As of 10:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, 11 players have officially signed their letters of intent to attend USC.

The 11, listed in alphabetical order, are receiver Nelson Agholor (Tampa, Fla./Berkeley Prep), offensive tackle Zach Banner (Lakewood, Wa./Lakes), safety Gerald Bowman (Philadelphia, Pa./Pierce College), tight end Jalen Cope-Fitzpatrick (Rocklin, Calif./Whitney)running back/fullback Jahleel Pinner (Mission Viejo, Calif./Mission Viejo), defensive end Jabari Ruffin (Downey, Calif./Downey), cornerback Kevon Seymour (Pasadena, Calif./Muir), cornerback Devian Shelton (Inglewood, Calif./Inglewood), offensive guard Jordan Simmons (Encino, Calif./Crespi), offensive tackle Max Tuerk (Santa Margarita, Calif./Santa Margarita) and defensive lineman Leonard Williams (Daytona Beach, Fl./Mainland).

That is according to their respective announcements and Twitter accounts. USC has made only seven of the signings -- Banner, Cope-Fitzpatrick, Pinner, Ruffin, Seymour, Simmons and Tuerk -- official as of 10:30 a.m.

Cope-Fitzpatrick, Pinner, Ruffin, Seymour, Simmons and Tuerk had been longtime USC commits. Williams and Agholor were known to be interested in the Trojans but had never publicly committed and ended up both picking USC over Florida. Banner announced on Monday he'd be attending USC. Shelton was offered a scholarship only on Tuesday; Bowman was supposed to enroll in school in January but didn't qualify in time and pushed it back to the summer.

Two players who USC had been seriously recruiting ended up not picking USC: offensive tackle Kyle Dodson (Cleveland, Oh./Cleveland Heights) and defensive lineman Pio Vatuvei (Patterson, Calif./Patterson).

Receiver Darreus Rogers (Carson, Calif./Carson) is still committed to USC but is known to be seriously considering Arizona State. He'll make his official announcement at 3 p.m. PT Wednesday.

Other expected announcements that could affect USC are those of offensive tackle Andrus Peat (Tempe, Ariz./Corona Del Sol), quarterback Cyler Miles (Denver, Colo./Mullen), offensive tackle Kyle Murphy (San Clemente, Calif./San Clemente), defensive tackle Aziz Shittu (Atwater, Calif./Buhach).

Peat will announce just after 10:30 a.m. PT. Miles has said he will announce at 1 p.m. Murphy will announce at 1:30 p.m. and Shittu is scheduled for a 2 p.m. announcement at his high school.

With the Monday commitment of four-star offensive tackle Zach Banner (Lakewood, Wa./Lakes), USC now has nine Class of 2012 prospects committed to sign with the school out of 14 available spots.

NCAA sanctions limited the Trojans to 15 signees. They can actually only take 14 because safety Gerald Bowman (Philadelphia, Pa./Pierce College) signed as an early enrollee but didn't finish up his junior-college requirements in time to actually enroll early. So, with barely 36 hours remaining until the faxes will begin rolling in to Heritage Hall on Wednesday morning, let's take a look at which players could potentially fill those five spots.

The following 10 prospects are the candidates. They are listed in a rough order of the likelihood they will sign with the Trojans, from most likely to least. Then we'll go over some of the other things that could still affect the final formulation of the recruiting class, like current commits defecting to other schools and last-second, under-the-radar signees.

WR/RB Nelson Agholor (Tampa, Fla./Berkeley Prep)

Although not yet on campus, Agholor has quickly become Robert Woods' understudy at the receiver position, through social media and his official visit to the Trojans earlier this month.

He seems like a perfect fit as the next top-recruit receiver at USC after Woods and Lee. And he has gotten rave reviews on his character and attitude from all over the country. The only other school he could choose at this point is Florida, but he seems very likely to pick USC.

DE Leonard Williams (Daytona Beach, Fl./Mainland)

Williams is also down to just USC and Florida, according to a recent interview with Rivals.com. An interesting aspect of his recruitment is that he is originally from Los Angeles, which would ease the cross-country transition.

One question: Is a third (or fourth) defensive end really the Trojans' biggest need in this limited class? One could make a convincing argument that a running back would be a better use of the scholarship offer. But Williams is also big enough to make a potential transition to defensive tackle possible, and depth is needed there.

OT Andrus Peat (Tempe, Ariz./Corona Del Sol)

Peat is arguably the second most-important recruit remaining for USC, and he has the Trojans in his final three alongside Nebraska and Stanford. Now that he's gotten in at Stanford and with his brother heading into his second season at Nebraska, it's really an unknown how interested he is in USC.

But he has a ton of potential as a tall, room-to-grow player who could easily bookend USC's line with Banner for two or three seasons.

OT Kyle Murphy (San Clemente, Calif./San Clemente)

Let's put it this way: If the Trojans don't get either Peat, Murphy or Kyle Dodson (more later) to go along with Banner, something went wrong in the final week of the 2012 recruiting season.

He has USC and Stanford as his final two schools, and many recruiting analysts have speculated that Peat and Murphy will pick different schools, which would obviously help USC's cause. But there's also the worst-case scenario of Murphy picking Stanford and Peat joining his brother as a Cornhusker.

An item of note on the 6-7 Murphy: His high school teammate and good friend, Christian Tober, announced over the weekend he'd be coming to USC as a preferred walk-on in the fall.

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