USC football players: overrated

The last few years, the media has been worshipping at the altar of USC as a great football factory. But, has the media gotten it wrong, has Brent Musburger had undo influence over the rest of the media with his mancrush on Pete Carroll? Are USC football players just products of hype? YES, here's why.

On CBSSportsline.com this week, Mike Freeman argues that Reggie Bush is not a great NFL player, in fact he's another Heisman Winner who might be like the rest of them, good college players but pitiful pros. He can't outrun linebackers or DBs in the NFL and is not able to use his speed to get outside or change fields like he did at USC.

LenWhale White has not produced too much so far for the Titans. He has shown that he can run but has also shown a habit of being out-of-shape and easily dinged. He is averaging less than 3 yds per carry and if his coach wasn't a former Trojan, Chris Brown might be getting the bulk of the carries in each game.

Leinart is fast getting the rep that he wants to party alot more than he wants to study film and get ready for the next opponent. From Yahoo Sports:" Leinart plans to be more conscientious in his game preparation from now on, according to the Arizona Republic." That paid off in week 2 but last week he was benched in favor of Kurt Warner who is much better than Leinart in the 2 minute drill.

Finally, the man who has caused all this is Pete Carroll, a two-time loser as an NFL coach. His rep in the pros was that he was a great guy to play for because he wasn't real strict and let the players play. He was a players coach, he didn't demand too much of them and they liked it. As the head coach of USC, noone can deny that he gets talent at USC, the problem is, he cannot prepare his players for the NFL, they do not know how to work hard enough to be good NFL players. Until Carroll learns how to do this, we'll see the same old thing, another great player at USC who can't get it done on the next level.