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Six 2011 USC Trojans have latched on to NFL teams via the undrafted free-agent wire as of Sunday morning.

Those include defensive tackle DaJohn Harris, who signed with the Tennessee Titans, and linebacker Chris Galippo, who agreed to terms with the Indianapolis Colts. Harris had been projected as a potential mid-round pick in the 2012 NFL draft but slipped because of health concerns, and Galippo had an outside shot of being selected entering the weekend.

The four others: receiver Brandon Carswell, who signed with the Oakland Raiders, long snapper Chris Pousson (Tampa Bay), defensive tackle Christian Tupou (San Diego) and running back Marc Tyler (Green Bay).

Nine players from the 2011 USC squad will have the opportunity to play in the NFL next season, with the six undrafted signees plus first-round draft selections Matt Kalil and Nick Perry and fourth-round pick Nick Perry.

The Trojans could have close to that many drafted next season, led by potential first-round selections Matt Barkley, T.J. McDonald and Robert Woods.

The 2012 NFL draft begins tomorrow, Thursday.

USC has two players expected to be taken in the first round, two more players who should definitely be picked at some point over the draft's three days and three other prospects who stand a chance of being selected.

We break down those seven players' draft stock here, in order of their projected selection:

LT Matt Kalil

The two-year USC starter was looked at as a virtual lock to go No. 3 overall to the Minnesota Vikings for quite some time, but there has been recent speculation that his stock is dropping. Still, an absolute worst-case scenario would have Kalil going sixth to St. Louis or seventh to Jacksonville. There's no way he falls out of the top eight, which would make him the highest USC selection since Mark Sanchez went fifth to the Jets in 2009.

DE Nick Perry

Scouts' and experts' opinions on Perry appear varied. Some have him scratching the top half of the first round and some have him falling near the end of the bottom half. The physical specimen still seems like a great bet to be picked at some point among the top 32 picks. One of the factors that will decide how he goes is whether teams will select him as a 4-3 end or 3-4 outside linebacker, which are both possibilities considering his skill set.

DT DaJohn Harris

Harris has some work-ethic issues and medical concerns with sleep apnea and a patent foramen ovale, but he also has the potential to be a starting defensive tackle at the next level, and that should get him picked somewhere in the fourth or fifth rounds, which means he'll probably have to wait until Saturday to be selected with the draft's format. Harris never had a truly consistent long stretch with the Trojans, but he showed flashes on a number of occasions.

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What did Kennedy Polamalu, USC's second-year running backs coach, think about how his players performed Thursday, the second day of 2012 spring practice?

"Hey, we got through another practice," Polamalu said. "I'm happy about that. We got through another practice and we didn't have to throw anyone back there that didn't know what they were doing, so I'm happy."

It's not that Polamalu's expectations are lowered. He just has to be very, very careful about keeping his guys healthy. Polamalu has only three scholarship tailbacks with whom to work this spring and few reinforcements are coming in the fall.

It'll be Curtis McNeal, D.J. Morgan and Buck Allen carrying the ball for the Trojans. That's it. Soma Vainuku might get a few carries, but he's a fullback, not a tailback, and incoming recruit Jahleel Pinner's much of the same. Nelson Agholor might get some time there in the fall, but no one else is even a possibility.

"Yeah, that's very scary for us," Trojans coach Lane Kiffin said this week. "We have so little experience and numbers there in general and really nothing coming to help that very much."

The good thing: Talent isn't an issue. Morgan started USC's season opener last year over McNeal, Marc Tyler, Dillon Baxter and Amir Carlisle. McNeal himself ended up surpassing 1,000 yards on the season and has inherited the starting spot. Allen's an unknown but has shown serious potential.

"I believe we have the talent," Polamalu said.

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USC had seven players participate in the NFL combine, which officially concluded Tuesday in Indianapolis. Some of those players helped their stock significantly and some hurt it sizably. In order of projected draft selection, let's break down the performances:

LT Matt Kalil

Kalil did absolutely nothing to hurt his status as arguably the top non-quarterback in the draft and did a good amount to help it. Scouts were impressed with the 306 pounds on his 6-foot-7 frame, and his official 4.99 40-yard dash time was among the best for offensive linemen.

Reports from Indianapolis had him as the top performer in position-specific drills, too.

DE Nick Perry

We wrote a month ago that Perry could stand to benefit more from the combine than any other player in the country. That turned out to not be too far-fetched.

The defensive end bulked up to 270 pounds on his 6-3 frame for the event and managed to keep his 40-yard dash time under 4.6 seconds, according to multiple reports. An official time of 4.64 is still darn fast, especially when considering his 38.5-inch vertical leap.

Compare those numbers to what DeMarcus Ware, a college defensive end who now plays 3-4 outside linebacker in the NFL, put up in the 2005 combine: He measured in at 6-4 and 256 pounds, ran a 4.56 40 and jumped 38.5 inches.

Those are very similar. Ware beat Perry in the 20-yard shuttle and three-cone drill, but Perry comfortably beat Ware in the bench press.

Ware went 11th overall to the Cowboys in 2005. Perry's going to go in the first round too.

DT DaJohn Harris

Harris didn't do the 40 or bench press or any of the other drills because of an unspecified injury, but he did measure in at 6-3 and 306 pounds, meaning he likely lost a good five or 10 pounds from his 2011 playing weight.

Still a potential third-rounder, USC's March 7 pro day is now an absolutely crucial event for Harris.

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Last we wrote, running back Marc Tyler and defensive tackle DaJohn Harris were the only two 2011 Trojans to receive official invitations to the NFL Combine later this month.

Now, we know, there have been three other former USC players invited to participate in the Feb. 22-Feb. 28 event: defensive tackle Christian Tupou, linebacker Chris Galippo and tight end/fullback Rhett Ellison. The three were asked later in the process than Tyler and Harris.

Left tackle Matt Kalil, a sure top-10 pick in April's NFL draft, has not yet been officially invited but is just about a guarantee to end up in Indianapolis for the festivities. Defensive end Nick Perry's situation is the same way.

Last month in Florida, Tyler and Harris played in the East-West Shrine Game, considered the second best college All-Star game played each offseason after the Senior Bowl. No Trojans were invited to that game, although Galippo and receiver Brandon Carswell did play in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl Game in Carson last month as well.

The 2012 NFL draft begins April 26.

USC has seven players who stand at least a decent chance of being selected in April's NFL draft. With none of them participating in this week's Senior Bowl and the four who played in all-star games already done with their commitments, we figured it's time to delve into where they could be selected and what kind of players they could be at the next level -- starting with the clear-cut top prospect.

LT Matt Kalil

Kalil is going to be a top-10 pick, no doubt about it. The only question with him is how high he'll go. Some draft prognosticators have him firmly entrenched in the No. 2 overall spot of the St. Louis Rams, where new coach and USC alum Jeff Fisher would use him to protect quarterback Sam Bradford, who is said to be the reason he picked the Rams job over other options.

He could also go third, sixth, ninth or 10th -- the teams picking in those spots all need offensive tackles. And potential pick trades could leave him going at any of the other slots, too.

DE Nick Perry

All season long, Perry was projected as a second- or third-round selection. Now that draft analysts are seeing his film, though, Perry has moved right up into the thick of the first-round mix. It's gotten to the point now where it'd be a surprise if he wasn't selected in the first round -- especially after next month's NFL Combine.

Is there anyone who stands to benefit more from next month's festivities than Perry? It's doubtful. He could run a sub-4.5 40-yard dash, based on what he's run in college testing. And he'll put up superb bench-press and weight-room numbers for his 6-3, 250-pound frame.

There are only two questions, then: (1) Can he play defensive end in the NFL or is he better suited to a 3-4 outside linebacker spot? (2) How come he didn't produce a bit more with the Trojans? He never had the monster year he and others predicted he would have.

DT DaJohn Harris

It looks like Harris is going to be taken fairly high, which is interesting, because the 6-4, 310-pounder never produced on a consistent basis until his senior season at USC -- and, even then, he wasn't all that consistent in 2011.

But he is exactly the type of player who could emerge into a starting-caliber defensive tackle in the league. And, based on what he did over the weekend in the East-West Shrine Game, it appears likely he'll be a third- or fourth-round selection in April's draft.

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CARSON -- On the same day former USC Trojans Marc Tyler and DaJohn Harris competed in the East-West Shrine Game in Orlando to mostly-positive reviews, two ex-teammates played in a similar but less-heralded game in Southern California.

Linebacker Chris Galippo and receiver Brandon Carswell were both members of the winning National team at the first NFL Players' Association Collegiate Bowl in L.A. on Saturday, held at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

Known as the Texas vs. the Nation game until 2011, the NFLPA game allowed select underclassmen to participate and NFL scouts were not allowed to attend because of a rule preventing them from scouting such players at college All-Star games. But all teams are getting copies of the game film from the game, and, in past years, a number of the players who took part in this game ended up being late-round selections in the NFL draft.

Galippo, projected as a late-round selection, played much of the game at middle linebacker for the 20-14 winners. He talked after the game about his life since his USC football career ended in November and how he's been preparing for the draft, among other topics.



Carswell, considered unlikely to be selected in April's draft, recorded one reception for 22 yards and also showcased some of his trademark blocking. During the week of practices, he made noise with his willingness to go deep down the field to block for his teammates, and he did the same thing in Saturday's game.

Here he is on the field after the game, talking over his pre-draft regimen, the one class he has to finish in the spring semester to get his college degree and what he thought of the bowl-game experience.

USC running back Amir Carlisle is transferring to Notre Dame, according to a report in the South Bend Tribune.

Carlisle, who battled injuries as a 2011 freshman but earned plenty of praise from Trojans coach Lane Kiffin for his efforts, will enroll in school in South Bend beginning Jan. 17 and sit out the 2012 season before retaining three years of eligibility.

“It’ll be good,” Duane Carlisle said, according to the report. “He’s got a real clear picture with how he’ll be used, and he’s excited about getting on the field.”

Carlisle was a Stanford commit during the 2011 recruiting season but changed his mind and committed to USC fairly late in the process, after his father was let go as the San Francisco 49ers strength and conditioning coach. His father was then hired to a similar position at Purdue in March.

Notre Dame and Purdue are just over 100 miles apart.

“It was our intention to stay (in California), but circumstances changed,” Duane Carlisle said. “We’re a close-knit family.”

Carlisle's departure leaves USC fairly thin at the running back position. Starter Curtis McNeal returns and D.J. Morgan will also be back, but three of the top five backs from the start of last season are now gone, in Carlisle, Marc Tyler and Dillon Baxter.

Redshirt freshman Javorious 'Buck' Allen is the only other scholarship player at the position and USC doesn't have any highly-recruited players at the position committed in the 2012 class.

Remember what the feeling was like around this USC team in late September and early October, when the Trojans lost by 21 points to Arizona State and then followed it up by barely beating lowly Arizona at home?

Suffice to say, it was nothing like the feeling around the same team following Saturday's 50-0 win over UCLA. By season's end, Lane Kiffin and his staff molded USC from a middling Pac-12 squad into a top-10 team in a matter of weeks and, in the process, instilled a ton of hope for the future of the program.

So, what did they do? What changed so drastically?

It starts on defense. The biggest problems USC had in the early part of the season -- against the Arizona schools and against Utah earlier on as well -- all traced back to defense. Even then, Matt Barkley, Robert Woods and Marqise Lee were working just fine together. They got better, sure, as part of an expected progression.

The defense went from terrible to quite good, all in about eight weeks. Monte Kiffin's unit gave up 43 points to Arizona State and 0 to UCLA. It gave up 41 to Arizona and, later in the year, a combined 34 to two legitimate teams in Notre Dame and Washington.

Three smaller developments this season helped that process.

USC's defensive line started to produce pressure in the passing game as the year went on, Nick Perry finishing with 9.5 sacks and Wes Horton and Devon Kennard adding six more.

The Trojans also made the right adjustment at middle linebacker when they moved Lamar Dawson into the starting lineup and pushed Chris Galippo to the bench, motivating Galippo to come in as a super-sub of sorts in the final few games and play some of his best football.

And cornerbacks Nickell Robey and Isiah Wiley -- the latter being probably the team's biggest in-season surprise -- evolved into players who could take on receivers one-on-one in a pinch, giving the Trojans so many more options than in the past in trying to defend high-octane offenses.

And that's just on defense. Offensively, USC benefited handsomely from Curtis McNeal finally getting serious chances to carry the ball. He rushed for at least 74 yards in the eight games he got seven carries or more. And McNeal and fellow runner Marc Tyler were arguably USC's best 1-2 punch out of the backfield since Reggie Bush and LenDale White.

John Baxter's special teams unit was a difference-maker throughout the year, but even moreso later when teams realized how likely they were to get their field goals blocked by the Trojans. Game tapes show how many kickers purposely avoided the outstretched arms of Matt Kalil and subsequently missed because of it. When Woods was healthy enough to return kicks, he did so well. When he wasn't, McNeal and Lee handled the duties just fine.

But enough about the unit-by-unit breakdowns. Those matter, but the single biggest reason why USC finished its regular season 10-2 and ranked ninth in the Associated Press poll is this: The players played hard throughout the year, whether because of Lane Kiffin's many motivating techniques or because they did it for themselves.

There were no letdown games, and now USC looks ahead at a 2012 season where it will face an relatively easy schedule and a potential preseason top-10 ranking.

Kiffin has clearly gained the fans' trust -- and his players' trust, too, if that was ever in doubt. Now the question is: Can he complete the evolution from middle-tier Pac-12 team to serious national-championship contender?

It's possible.

LOS ANGELES -- USC coach Lane Kiffin said his Trojans "felt disrespected" by UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel's comments this week that the Bruins had closed the gap between the two schools in Los Angeles.

The Trojans agreed, saying they used the quote -- posted on the doors at Heritage Hall earlier in the week -- as motivation in their 50-0 win over UCLA on Saturday at the Coliseum.

“I was just waiting until after the game so I could speak on the quote. Now I can speak on it: They haven’t closed the gap on us,” Tyler said. “I don’t know what their coach was talking about. 50-0, that doesn’t look like much of a gap closed.”

"That quote really got to me."

Neuheisel didn't outright say that the gap had been entirely closed. He said the Bruins were getting it closer based on the fact that they were eligible for the Pac-12 championship game heading into the last regular-season game of the season.

"We get to line up against them again, so we'll see where the gap is after the ball game, but the gap has closed," he said in his Monday press conference. "We're much closer to them then we were when I first got here. I don't know that it's all the way done, we'll talk after the ball game."

Afterward, he said the Trojans were "clearly superior" to his Bruins during Saturday's game but said he didn't believe "that's the case at all times."

"I believe we can close the gap and believe we will," he said.

But the quote that USC's players saw was significantly different. Someone within the athletic department modified the quote significantly to say that "USC is not who they used to be," which Neuheisel did not say. But that made no difference to the Trojans, who were clearly offended by the comment -- or what they thought the comment was.

Said Tyler: “I wish their next coach much success.”

A number of USC's players said the Trojans similarly used the new jerseys UCLA broke out for the game as motivation. Cornerback Nickell Robey said Kiffin gave them a full report on what the Bruins would be wearing so they weren't surprised when they saw them in warmups.

“I felt like that was a desperation (move) for them,” Tyler said. “I guess they thought the white jerseys were going to be special for them.

"They’ll probably never wear those again.”

PASSING ATTACK
That was, uh...almost perfect from Matt Barkley. He was on his game from the start Saturday, completing 16 of his first 17 passes. Freshman Marqise Lee had another ridiculous game and Robert Woods fought through injuries to post a double-digit, double-TD catch performance.

RUSHING ATTACK
Lane Kiffin didn't want to run the ball much in an obvious attempt to get Barkley, Woods and Lee their records, but Curtis McNeal and Marc Tyler both did well with their brief chances. McNeal wasn't touched by a UCLA defender on his 73-yard scoring run.

IN THE TRENCHES
USC allowed one sack Saturday, meaning the Trojans allowed only eight all season, meaning this rag-tag group broke the record for fewest sacks given up in a year. Combined with the defensive line's consistent pressure on Kevin Prince, that's certainly worth an 'A.'

DEFENSE
Completing a steady course of improvement throughout the 2011 season, the USC defense shut down the Bruins' productive pistol offense whenever it got close to the end zone. This was Monte Kiffin's famed bend-but-don't-break style perfected. Johnathan Franklin and Derrick Coleman couldn't get going at all.

SPECIAL TEAMS
The kickoff-return team that has been a bit of a dark spot for the Trojans this season didn't have any big mis-haps this time. Punter Kyle Negrete boomed the ball whenever he was called onto the field. USC's kicker and punter will be serious strengths in 2012.

COACHING
Maybe Kiffin's sportsmanship can be questioned after he refused to let up on UCLA in the second half, but his play-calling certainly can't. He knew exactly how to beat the Bruins' defense time and time again and didn't shy away from doing so whatsoever.

PASSING ATTACK
It took a little while to develop a dependable second option, but the Robert Woods-Marqise Lee tandem has really worked quite well for Matt Barkley this season. And Barkley has proven over the last couple of weeks to be one of the best quarterbacks in the country.

RUSHING ATTACK
Curtis McNeal emerged midseason as USC's No. 1 running back and has had six straight games of 85 or more yards rushing. Marc Tyler was suspended and hurt but didn't disappoint on the field. Dillon Baxter and D.J. Morgan were busts -- Baxter obviously moreso.

IN THE TRENCHES
In USC's first few games, the offensive line performed to the caliber of a 'D' grade. But the Trojans have put up multiple 'A'-quality games over the last month of the season, including at Oregon. The defensive line finally started to produce pressure toward the end of the year.

DEFENSE
Turnovers are still lacking, surely, but USC began to perfect the bend-but-don't-break style of defense late this year. Exhibit A: Oregon's final drive last week, when everyone at Autzen Stadium expected the Ducks to drive down the field and score a touchdown. The Trojans held them to a field-goal attempt.

SPECIAL TEAMS
John Baxter's unit was consistently great in 2011, producing big plays week in and week out. The Trojans were buoyed to victories by big special-teams plays on more than one occasion. Walk-on punter Kyle Negrete was solid and kicker Andre Heidari is a future Lou Groza award-winner.

COACHING
Lane Kiffin took a lot of flak throughout the year -- especially after the Trojans' September loss to Arizona State -- but he's one win away from finishing the season comfortably in the top 10 nationally. USC's crack staff of assistants may get head-coaching looks.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Whether the USC Trojans win or lose, Lane Kiffin's usually all business after his team's games -- in and out of the press room, in and out of the locker room and so on.

Not Saturday. After his Trojans topped No. 4 Oregon, Kiffin lingered around Autzen Stadium much longer than normal. He smiled. He looked like a man pleased with his accomplishments -- and justifiably so, for his team had overcome its two-touchdown underdog status to beat the mighty Ducks.

"He enjoyed it today," safety T.J. McDonald said. "I think everybody enjoyed it."

That said, the win wasn't about now -- it was about later. Sure, it pushes the Trojans to a No. 10 ranking in Sunday's Associated Press poll, helps Kiffin's approval rating in the immediate and pleases program donors worldwide, but what it really does is put USC near the top of voters' minds come next preseason.

Never mind the low expectations of the last year and a half. Beginning as soon as next week's game against UCLA ends -- assuming it's a win, of course -- these Trojans are going to have high expectations around them for 2012 and beyond.

"The main thing this game does," safety Jawanza Starling said Saturday, "is set us up for next year.

"It shows that 'SC is back."

A number of players uttered those same final three words. Cornerback Nickell Robey said the same thing, apostrophe and all. Running back Curtis McNeal used "USC." McDonald and linebacker Hayes Pullard said similar statements with slight variations.

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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."

PASSING ATTACK
Matt Barkley didn't mess up at all, save for a couple overthrows. But he didn't do anything worthy of netting the passing game an 'A' grade, despite the dominant win over Washington. Marqise Lee showed up just fine, but where was Robert Woods?

RUSHING ATTACK
Curtis McNeal hasn't had a bad game since September. He certainly didn't have one Saturday, with his beastly 79-yard run in the third quarter and 148-yard day in total. Marc Tyler also had himself a quiet 50 yards in his return from a shoulder injury.

IN THE TRENCHES
Finally, for the first time in Lane Kiffin and Ed Orgeron's tenure at USC, the Trojan defensive line produced consistent pressure on an opposing offense. And look what happened -- USC won going away. The O-line also kept Barkley off the ground except for his Jim Kelly-esque sack.

DEFENSE
There were plenty of positive signs defensively. Even when USC took a big lead the Trojans didn't just crumble like they have on so many other occasions. Washington got some late yards, sure, but it wasn't a complete free-for-all like it has been in the past.

SPECIAL TEAMS
If we could give out pluses, this unit would be the first ever to earn one. John Baxter's players made a difference in Saturday's game, from Lee's second-half-opening kickoff return for a touchdown to Kyle Negrete's key 35-yard run on a fake punt.

COACHING
Kiffin's team was prepared, as it almost always is, but there were a couple late-game decisions that prevent this from being a top grade. For one, why wasn't Barkley out as soon as the Trojans got the ball back with a 30-point lead in the fourth quarter?