Allen Bradford

It seemed like a no-brainer, but USC Coach Lane Kiffin waited until Thursday to make it official. Senior Allen Bradford , who rushed for 223 yards last week against Washington, will start at tailback Saturday against No. 16 Stanford. "Hopefully, he'll be a big part of the game," Kiffin said. "We're going to need to run the ball. We're going to need to run it a lot. " Bradford was No. 1 on the depth chart at the start of training camp, but he was displaced by junior Marc Tyler , who started four of the first five games, including last week's 32-31 loss against Washington.

With Matt Barkley enjoying a record-breaking season and Washington coming to the Coliseum sporting a porous pass defense, USC hopes to pick apart the Huskies. The No. 18 Trojans also will try to assert their rushing attack Saturday. USC had success running the ball against the Huskies last season, with since-departed tailback Allen Bradford rushing for 223 yards and two touchdowns in a 32-31 loss. Senior tailback Marc Tyler , sidelined last week against Colorado, said Thursday that his balky left shoulder was sound and that he was looking forward to playing against former Trojans assistants Steve Sarkisian and Nick Holt . Sarkisian, Washington's head coach, recruited Tyler for USC out of Westlake Village Oaks Christian High.

Allen Bradford spent four seasons trying to earn his way into USC's tailback rotation. Now the senior would like to eliminate it altogether. When the Trojans practice in pads for the first time on Saturday, Bradford intends to continue his push to be a starter who can carry the ball more than 20 times a game. "I'm still at 235 [pounds] but I feel like 220," Bradford said Thursday after demonstrating quickness and breakaway speed in the Trojans' second spring workout.

USC took Monday off from practice, but players still attended meetings in preparation for their Sept. 3 opener against Minnesota. That gave USC's running backs coach another chance to quiz and encourage his charges. "I've finally got the [meeting] room the way I always had it," the coach formerly known as Kennedy Pola said last week. Much has changed since the former Trojans fullback returned to USC in 2010 for his second stint as an assistant coach. His name, for one. It won't be official until all of the legal paperwork he initiated has been processed, but he already is listed as Kennedy Polamalu in the school's 2011 media guide.

Allen Bradford is hoping for a final opportunity Saturday night when USC plays UCLA at the Rose Bowl in what will be the last game of his college career. The senior tailback rushed for 131 yards against Minnesota in September and 223 yards against Washington two weeks later, but his carries have diminished since. He had none against Arizona or last week against Notre Dame. "I had a good week of practice," Bradford said. "Whenever I get in there, I'm going to try and make the most of my opportunity.

A look at USC's running-game options: Dillon Baxter, 6-0, 195, Fr.: Multipurpose threat showed flair for the spectacular during spring practice. Suspended for season opener at Hawaii for violating team rules. Allen Bradford, 6-0, 235, Sr.: Entered training camp No. 1 on the depth chart after rushing for 668 yards and scoring eight touchdowns in 2009. C.J. Gable, 6-0, 205, Sr.: Appears energized by new coaching staff after being seemingly buried in Pete Carroll's doghouse last season.

USC tailback Allen Bradford enjoyed a breakout game against Minnesota, but Coach Lane Kiffin reiterated Sunday that no decision has been made regarding a change in the starting lineup for Saturday's Pacific 10 Conference opener at Washington State. "It's still early," Kiffin said. Bradford, a fifth-year senior, became the Trojans' featured back in the second half of the 32-21 victory. He averaged 10.9 yards for his 12 carries and scored on a 56-yard run. "If you can get him a crease, he's so unique," Kiffin said.

USC tailbacks Marc Tyler and Allen Bradford rank seventh and eighth, respectively, among Pacific 10 Conference rushing leaders. But their standing in the game-day rotation has not been nearly as close of late. Tyler started last week and carried a career-high 31 times for 160 yards in a USC victory at Arizona. On Tuesday, he was still feeling the effects of his workhorse effort, but it was a marked improvement over how his body responded the day after the game.

Maybe a year without bowl games wasn't such a bad idea for USC and UCLA. There was little the Bruins and Trojans did Saturday night at the Rose Bowl that seemed to scream "encore. " But what an evening of gaffes did was reaffirm the pecking order in the city. USC, as it has done 11 times after the last 12 meetings, will spend the year on top of the L.A. heap following a 28-14 victory over UCLA. Allen Bradford finished his Trojans' career with a career night, scoring the Trojans final two touchdowns to keep the "victory bell" in South Los Angeles.

USC tailbacks Marc Tyler and Allen Bradford anxiously awaited word from their coaches Thursday as the Trojans concluded preparations for Saturday's Pacific 10 Conference opener at Washington State. In this case, though, it might not be best to hear the news first. Coach Lane Kiffin said that as important as it was for him to inform a player that he is starting, it was perhaps more important to tell the players who are not. "I think you make a mistake in coaching if you're afraid to … and the guy goes out there all jacked up [for a game]

It wasn't an overwhelming NFL draft for USC, but it was a history-making one. In the seventh round Saturday, three Trojans were selected in consecutive order: running back Stanley Havili to Philadelphia (No. 240 overall), receiver David Ausberry to Oakland (241) and linebacker Malcolm Smith to Seattle (242). The closest USC has come to a run like that in the NFL's modern era was in 1977, when Ricky Bell was picked first overall, Marvin Powell went fourth and Gary Jeter fifth. Other Trojans taken Saturday were tight end Jordan Cameron (fourth round, Cleveland)

Allen Bradford tried hard to find the words. After five years of frustration, USC's senior tailback finished his career with a performance that will become part of the lore of the USC- UCLA rivalry. Bradford rushed for 212 yards and a touchdown and also scored on a long touchdown pass play to lead USC to a 28-14 victory over the Bruins on Saturday at the Rose Bowl. "I couldn't have dreamed it, but I'm glad it happened," Bradford said. "To go down in history like this, just to top off my career, I couldn't ask for a better stage.

Allen Bradford made the most of his chance Saturday night at the Rose Bowl. The senior tailback rushed for 212 yards in 28 carries and scored twice in the fourth quarter of USC's 28-14 victory over UCLA, on a 73-yard run and a 47-yard pass play. Bradford, starting for the first time since the California game on Oct. 16, became the eighth player to rush for more than 100 yards against the Bruins this season. Early in the fourth quarter, he took a swing pass from quarterback Matt Barkley , hurdled a would-be tackler and rumbled into the end zone to give the Trojans a 21-7 lead.

Maybe a year without bowl games wasn't such a bad idea for USC and UCLA. There was little the Bruins and Trojans did Saturday night at the Rose Bowl that seemed to scream "encore. " But what an evening of gaffes did was reaffirm the pecking order in the city. USC, as it has done 11 times after the last 12 meetings, will spend the year on top of the L.A. heap following a 28-14 victory over UCLA. Allen Bradford finished his Trojans' career with a career night, scoring the Trojans final two touchdowns to keep the "victory bell" in South Los Angeles.

Allen Bradford is hoping for a final opportunity Saturday night when USC plays UCLA at the Rose Bowl in what will be the last game of his college career. The senior tailback rushed for 131 yards against Minnesota in September and 223 yards against Washington two weeks later, but his carries have diminished since. He had none against Arizona or last week against Notre Dame. "I had a good week of practice," Bradford said. "Whenever I get in there, I'm going to try and make the most of my opportunity.

USC, which needs to win its last three games for a 10-win season, returns to the scene of two of its most costly losses in the last decade. Meanwhile, Oregon State tries to end a two-game skid, including last week's home loss to Washington State. Staff writer Gary Klein looks at the game's key matchups and issues: Backed by speed USC's Marc Tyler is coming off the best game of his career, a 31-carry, 160-yard effort that helped the Trojans hold off Arizona. Despite a sore ankle, Tyler ran with speed, shake and grit.

USC goes into survival mode Saturday, Coach Lane Kiffin hoping his team can get through a limited-contact scrimmage without major injury in the final workout before classes begin. Kiffin was holding his breath Friday when senior tailback Allen Bradford went down because of an apparent knee injury. Bradford was carted out of the practice facility at the end of the workout with an ice bag wrapped around his left knee. Bradford said later that doctors told him he suffered no ligament damage.

Dave Roberts , USC's vice president for compliance, said Saturday that he expected suspended tailback Dillon Baxter to be reinstated after he repays the value of a golf cart ride on campus. Baxter did not make the trip to play against Oregon State after school officials discovered that he had accepted a ride from other USC students, one of whom Roberts said is a registered financial advisor with the NFL Players Assn. Roberts said a USC compliance director saw Baxter riding on a cart emblazoned with a logo for 1st Round Enterprises.

USC tailbacks Marc Tyler and Allen Bradford rank seventh and eighth, respectively, among Pacific 10 Conference rushing leaders. But their standing in the game-day rotation has not been nearly as close of late. Tyler started last week and carried a career-high 31 times for 160 yards in a USC victory at Arizona. On Tuesday, he was still feeling the effects of his workhorse effort, but it was a marked improvement over how his body responded the day after the game.