2014 PRESEASON
Summer, 2014
Spent much of the early summer setting up player's academics and schedules. As we continue to attract a better quality of student to the program, a lot of the intensive time management tends to go away - the kids basically start coming in with almost the settings they'll carry for all four-five years in the program.
Going to open up the offense a little more so that QB Malcolm Moreno can use his strong arm to make better use of wideouts Ronnie Wheeler and Willie Davison. Also using three running backs int he backfield, as future Tailback Gabe Whalen will be starting at Fullback because of his strong clutch running skills.
Our starters this season will be redshirt senior Malcolm Moreno at QB - though redshirt junior Mark Rayburn may see some increased time there as well. In the backfield will be 5th year senior Tailback Junior Coffey, redshirt senior Aaron Castillo at Wingback and Whalen at Fullback - though Warren Guthrie and Ross Berberich will see some time at FB and Whalen at both TB and WB as well.
Moreno's primary targets this season will once again be wideouts Ronnie Wheeler and Willie Davison, capably backed up by senior Brian Robinson, redshirt junior Richie Warrick and redshirt sophomore Sammy Heekin, all of whom hope to see a little time this season.
Blocking for this group will be an offensive line anchored by 5th year senior tackles Joe Shipman and Warren Taggart. At the guard spots will be true senior Ricky Estevez and junior Ed Fuller. And in the middle at OC will be rising star Chester Hoffman, a true sophomore who is developing very quickly.
This unit has the ability to be a very good offense this year. Much will depend on how well Moreno responds to the added responsibility allowing him to throw deeper adds to his game management, and how well Whalen and Castillo handle a running game which takes a tad bit of emphasis off the Tailback and puts it on them. If Moreno has a solid season and the backs respond well, this offense could take us a long way this year.
Our defense will be led this season by redshirt senior Alonzo Chevrier, who had an outstanding season rushing the passer last year. At the other DE post will be sophomore Tracy Aalders, and in the middle at NT will be sophomore Tracy Dragon.
Up the middle at SILB will be rising star sophomore Tyrell Vaughn. Vaughn really developed well in his freshman year and this will be his second year as a starter. Beside him at WILB will be freshman Brett Vinnick, who steps right in to a starting job based on a great summer camp. At the OLB spots will be senior WLB Junior Morrison who we plan to blitz a bit more this year, and redshirt sophomore SLB Riddick Taylor. This shapes up to be a pretty solid linebacking corps with a bright future, and aside from Morrison, all will return next season as well.
In the secondary third year starter redshirt senior Tyrell Lyons will be manning the shutdown corner position. Across the field from him will be junior Mo Napiecek, who has served as our nickel back the past two years. Filling that role this year will be 5th year senior Max Galloway. Second year starter sophomore Louie Finch moves from Free Safety to Strong Safety to take advantage of his strong run-stopping abilities. And last year's starting Strong Safety, senior Claude Horn, moves to Free Safety. Freshman Chris Griffin backs them up as he gets ready to move into the starting lineup next year.
From the looks of it, this looks like a solid defensive unit once again. They'll have time to grow together as we'll only be graduating Morrison and Horn next year, so the defense, despite being solid already, looks to have considerable room to grow.
We're expecting big things out of our special teams this season. We have explosive punt and kick return men as Ronnie Wheeler will be our primary punt returner (98) and Tyrell Lyons will be handling most kickoff returns (90). Freshman Brett Thornton won the punting job away from the year senior Rickey Johnstone this summer, and redshirt junior Walter Perez replaces the graduated all conference kicker Max Elstrom at kicker.
I'm very excited about the potential of this year's team. Given our performance last season and the fact that many key players are back this year, I don't think another run at the PAC-10 championship and a BCS Bowl game are out of the question.
Here's a look at this year's roster.
Code:
The College Years
The University of Southern California Trojans
2014 Roster/Scout Overview
From the Desk of Bubba Embry, Lead Scout
Player # Pos Elig Current Estimate Future Estimate
Bernard, Walt 18 QB Jr* 32 86
Bjorke, Wayne 10 QB Fr 19 94
Checkovich, Nicky 6 QB Sr 29 68
Donaldson, Irving 13 QB Sr 49 85
Krieger, Jason 19 QB Fr 32 73
Moreno, Malcolm 14 QB Sr* 47 100
Rayburn, Mark 8 QB Jr* 43 100
Berberich, Ross 34 RB Jr* 45 89
Castillo, Aaron 21 RB Sr* 59 99
Coffey, Junior 35 RB Sr 66 79
Whalen, Gabe 25 RB So* 50 98
Vanderlaan, Levon 46 RB* So* 31 46
Guthrie, Warren 33 FB Jr* 41 69
Finley, Jeffrey 30 FB* Fr 7 22
Irwin, Marty 80 TE* Sr* 12 17
Raymond, Colin 81 TE* Sr 4 15
Shreves, Maurice 89 TE* So* 2 12
Davison, Willie 7 WR Sr 66 80
Heekin, Sammy 86 WR So* 49 73
McConnell, Cole 2 WR So* 51 75
Robinson, Brian 85 WR Sr 67 73
Warrick, Richie 1 WR Jr* 43 73
Weiler, Darren 5 WR Jr* 30 70
Wheeler, Ronald 4 WR Sr* 91 91
Erickson, Vinny 83 WR* Sr* 6 10
Turnbull, Dexter 9 WR* Sr 4 4
Adams, Adrian 51 C Jr* 38 100
Blackburn, Mitchell 58 C Fr 39 71
Connell, Tim 53 C Jr* 18 64
Cook, Glenn 57 C Fr 27 62
Hoffman, Chester 56 C So 49 92
Powell, Mark 52 C Sr* 19 93
Rodriguez, Tony 50 C So* 26 87
Cheatham, Ernie 72 G Fr 34 57
Estevez, Ricky 64 G Sr 72 100
Fuller, Ed 73 G Jr 34 62
Pilgrim, Ty 68 G* So 10 38
Quinn, Leland 69 G* So 1 8
Blount, Hunter 67 T Fr 11 79
Greene, Howie 76 T Sr* 29 93
Harnisch, Vernon 62 T So* 13 61
Kaplan, Gabe 63 T Fr 16 72
Padgett, Nathan 61 T Sr* 44 85
Shipman, Joseph 74 T Sr 69 75
Taggart, Warren 77 T Sr 38 100
Johnstone, Rickey 15 P Sr 37 40
Thornton, Brett 12 P Fr 48 81
Perez, Walter 11 K Jr* 43 79
Samuels, Zach 3 K Fr 28 87
Buckley, Victor 16 K* Jr* 10 10
Aalders, Tracy 78 DE So 39 79
Chevrier, Alonzo 79 DE Sr* 61 99
Newman, Walt 94 DE Sr 32 62
Stender, Freddie 90 DE Fr 29 93
Cobb, Colin 70 DE* So* 7 7
Choate, Clarence 71 DT Sr* 24 69
Dragon, Tracy 92 DT So 38 83
Duncan, Bert 91 DT Jr* 31 90
Rogers, Arnie 75 DT Sr 21 40
Berg, Chad 45 ILB Fr 16 74
Boone, Eric 96 ILB Sr* 23 81
Sankey, Mo 55 ILB Jr* 33 83
Vaughn, Tyrell 41 ILB So 67 90
Vinnick, Brett 49 ILB Fr 34 66
Warren, Geoff 99 ILB Sr* 33 56
Buckley, Reggie 48 OLB So* 35 100
El Nino, Johnnie 95 OLB Fr 36 96
Holmes, Rick 47 OLB Fr 27 92
Morrison, Junior 93 OLB Sr 64 85
Taylor, Riddick 98 OLB So* 42 95
Thomas, Lester 44 OLB Jr* 33 82
Thomason, Korey 97 OLB Sr 32 66
Stagg, Jake 42 OLB* So* 12 62
Alexander, Sam 43 CB Fr 24 59
Galloway, Max 23 CB Sr 46 79
Lyons, Tyrell 29 CB Sr* 84 84
Majka, Roger 36 CB Jr* 44 85
Napiecek, Maurice 26 CB Jr 55 84
Flowers, Tracy 32 CB* Jr* 20 44
Finch, Louie 38 S So 57 61
Griffin, Cris 24 S Fr 29 77
Horn, Claude 40 S Sr 38 100
Nordskov, Shaun 20 S So* 31 67
Etaton, Vinny 22 S* Jr 9 25
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