Emerald Bowl

A USC season that went south in the second half will conclude with a bowl game up north. The Trojans will play Boston College in the Emerald Bowl on Dec. 26 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, it was announced Sunday. Kickoff is at 5 p.m., and the game will be televised by ESPN. Both USC and Boston College are 8-4. The Trojans are playing a postseason game somewhere other than the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 2004 season. "I think it's a good matchup with Boston College, a good chance to get a new setting for us," said Coach Pete Carroll , who was born in San Francisco and grew up in Marin County.

Ponce de Leon could sail up and down these rankings for days and wouldn't discover Florida. Who would have thought the Potato State would have more teams represented than one of the top football-player producers in the world? The only Florida school that made an upward move anywhere was Central Florida, expected to receive an invite from the Big East. Otherwise this week's rankings are as stagnant as a Tallahassee bog. Kansas State got a six-spot bump to No. 17 as Bill Snyder continues his remarkable comeback tour in Manhattan.

USC utilizes early bowl-game practices to ready young players for possible starting roles the following season. On Sunday, a starting opportunity came early when Coach Pete Carroll announced that senior cornerback Josh Pinkard would not play in the Dec. 26 Emerald Bowl against Boston College because of a knee injury suffered in the regular-season finale against Arizona. T.J. Bryant , Shareece Wright and Brian Baucham are the leading candidates to replace Pinkard.

On a hot summer afternoon four days before college football's first broiling weekend, I'm hanging out with this town's marquee college football player, looking for a shady spot to sit and talk. Matt Barkley knows just the place. "There's a bench over there," he says, pointing to a tree-covered spot on the USC campus that I've passed dozens of times but never noticed. "That will work. " Matt Barkley knows this place. He loves this place. He embraces the nooks, immerses himself in the crannies.

It's a fresh start for Matt Barkley . USC's freshman quarterback said Wednesday that he regards the Dec. 26 Emerald Bowl against Boston College as an opportunity for "a new beginning." Barkley, who has passed for 13 touchdowns, with 12 interceptions, has tried to forget about much of the season -- "even the good wins," he said -- as he readies for a performance that he hopes will carry into 2010. "It's huge for me personally," he said of the game at San Francisco's AT&T Park.

Justin Medlock, UCLA's All-American kicker, was pleased when the Bruins accepted a bid to play Florida State in the Emerald Bowl on Dec. 27. That's because Medlock, a senior who grew up in the Bay Area, will get a chance to finish his college career in front of family and friends at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

The Emerald Bowl will be a new experience for USC, which is accustomed to playing higher-profile games during the bowl season. That doesn't mean, however, that the Trojans will throw caution to the wind. Asked Thursday if the Dec. 26 game against Boston College would provide an opportunity to experiment, offensive play-caller Jeremy Bates was steadfast. "We're not going to change and go to the spread offense," Bates said after practice. "This offense has been successful.

LITTLE CAESARS OHIO (9-4) VS. MARSHALL (6-6) Kickoff: 10 a.m., Ford Field, Detroit. TV: ESPN. About Ohio: The Mid-American Conference East champion Bobcats bring the conference's No. 3 pass defense and the top positive turnover margin. About Marshall: The Thundering Herd is led by tight end Cody Slate, a Mackey Award finalist, and running back Darius Marshall. Bowl records: Ohio 0-3; Marshall 5-3. Previous meetings: Marshall leads the series, 29-17-6.

It isn't supposed to be this way. The sun comes up in the east, and USC goes to a big, big bowl game. Maybe the Emerald Bowl, which is 7 years old, looks big to the other contender, Boston College, but not to USC fans -- not compared to the Rose Bowl game, which is 107 years old. To them, when some other Pac 10 team gets into the Rose Bowl, it's a fluke, like a two-headed calf. When USC qualifies, it's the natural order. Anything less is just the trinket in the Cracker Jack box. But today Pete Carroll -- winner of seven consecutive Pac 10 titles and three consecutive Rose Bowl games and two national championships, and USC's head coach for nine years -- must lead the Trojans, with their 8-4 record, into the Emerald Bowl.

The field will be wet and rain could be falling. Those are the conditions USC expects to face today when it begins practice on campus for its game against Boston College in the Dec. 26 Emerald Bowl at AT&T Park in San Francisco. It remains to be seen whether the inclement weather further dampens the Trojans' enthusiasm for their first non-Bowl Championship Series bowl appearance since 2001. USC has not practiced since its season-ending defeat to Arizona last Saturday at the Coliseum.

The Lakers' strong play without Kobe Bryant probably only reinforces the notion in many voters' minds that the NBA's most valuable player is LeBron James . ... On a more important note, it bodes well for the Lakers and their hopes of winning another championship. ... Sign spotted in New Orleans this week: "Lombardi Gras." . . . Maybe it wasn't so surprising that the pivotal play in the Super Bowl was an interception of a Peyton Manning pass: The four-time MVP had 16 passes picked off in 2009, more than any other quarterback ranked among the top 20 in passer rating.

Pete Carroll buttoned his jacket, straightened his cardinal-colored tie, clipped on a microphone and settled into a seat on ESPN's "GameDay" set. It was Jan. 7, the day of the Bowl Championship Series title game between No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas. USC's telegenic coach, winner of two national titles and the leader of perhaps the decade's most high-profile college football program, was at the Rose Bowl to provide guest commentary, his Trojans having finished a disappointing season two weeks earlier at the Emerald Bowl.

Highly successful USC football Coach Pete Carroll was close to reaching an agreement with the Seattle Seahawks on Friday evening, headed toward a job switch that would deliver yet another blow to the university's besieged athletic program. While USC has come under fire for not properly monitoring athletes -- with two investigations involving football -- Seattle is offering big money and wide-ranging control. The 58-year-old Carroll has been offered the job of both coach and president at an annual salary of $7 million for five years, according to a source close to the negotiations who was not authorized to comment on the situation.

USC ended a 9-4 season with a victory in the Emerald Bowl, but there are still plenty of questions heading into what could be a tumultuous off-season. Times staff writer Gary Klein takes a look at what's ahead for the Trojans: Who's going? Everson Griffen is gone, the junior defensive end saying he would make himself available for the NFL draft before a giddy but drawn Coach Pete Carroll even hoisted the Emerald Bowl trophy. Junior receiver Damian Williams is going home to Arkansas to discuss his future with his family, but he has already graduated and is almost certainly bound for the pros.

USC tailback Joe McKnight, who has been the subject of a USC compliance investigation for more than a week, did not suit up for Saturday's 24-13 victory over Boston College in the Emerald Bowl at AT&T Park. McKnight, USC's leading rusher, was held out of the game by USC officials as they continue to explore the junior's relationship with a Santa Monica businessman who owns a sport utility vehicle that McKnight has been observed driving on campus. Coach Pete Carroll said the school was ready to clear McKnight, "if the information came in, but cooperation wasn't exactly what we needed from the other side, not Joe, the other people."

It wasn't the game or the setting they wanted to play in. The lineup missing several key players. And their pride, not to mention their motivation, was in question after a season that fell well below expectations. But the USC Trojans found enough to finish on a high note, beating Boston College, 24-13, in the Emerald Bowl on Saturday at AT&T Park. "We had an opportunity to play one more time and we needed to do something good," Coach Pete Carroll said. With only a generously announced 40,121 on hand in the converted baseball stadium, the game had more of a high school feel than a bowl game.

USC quarterback Matt Barkley is prepared to put the finishing touch on his first season. Barkley, a true freshman, will make his 12th start Saturday against Boston College in the Emerald Bowl at AT&T Park. It has been an up-and-down season for the 8-4 Trojans and their 19-year-old quarterback. Barkley has passed for 13 touchdowns and had 12 passes intercepted. But he has had three weeks to get ready for his final game in what has been a season-long learning experience.

LITTLE CAESARS OHIO (9-4) VS. MARSHALL (6-6) Kickoff: 10 a.m., Ford Field, Detroit. TV: ESPN. About Ohio: The Mid-American Conference East champion Bobcats bring the conference's No. 3 pass defense and the top positive turnover margin. About Marshall: The Thundering Herd is led by tight end Cody Slate, a Mackey Award finalist, and running back Darius Marshall. Bowl records: Ohio 0-3; Marshall 5-3. Previous meetings: Marshall leads the series, 29-17-6.

USC's leading rusher is in limbo because of a school compliance investigation. Three other key players are academically ineligible. And the Trojans, who thought playing in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day had become old hat, have a history of struggling in some December bowl games. Not exactly the most desirable set of circumstances, but USC players said they were motivated for today's Emerald Bowl against Boston College. "To the outside person that's not on the team, who has a normal job everyday, they talk like it's distracting," senior safety Taylor Mays said.