The Air Apparent: Trojan Tuesday Workout

With just a few weeks to Spring Camp, the Trojan football team has been fully involved with off-season conditioning and throw-arounds. SCPlaybook brings you coverage from Tuesday's workout session.

Mark Sanchez: The Air Apparent

Sanchez Takes Control…

What has become apparent in the past couple of weeks is that Mark Sanchez has taken the leadership role for the team. He leads and directs the team during informal throwing sessions and the team defers to his direction. Mitch Mustain also defers to Sanchez. That may change when Spring Ball comes around and the competition heats up, but probably won't. It’s a long way to football season, but at this time it looks like Sanchez will be the man.

Let’s Get this Going…

Feeling the heat, finally. After a somewhat cool for Southern California winter and spring, the sun decided to come out and warm up Howard Jones – Brian Kennedy Field. Temperature at workout: 78 degrees.

7-on-7’s

Players are gearing up and competition is starting to heat up. Offensively, all the quarterbacks have found Ronald Johnson to be an easy target. Stafon Johnson appears to be fully healthy once again.

As 7-on-7’s got underway today, in a crowd, Ronald Johnson, caught a short 15-yard pass from Sanchez. This set the tone, as all three quarterbacks (Sanchez, Mustain and Corp) went to Johnson early and often.

With Kris O’Dowd doing all of the center duties, the quarterbacks worked both under center and out of the shotgun.

Since Sanchez is one of the veterans of the Trojan system, Mustain deferred to Sanchez and asked for direction at times.

Looking Sharp

Mustain sent passes to Johnson, to Broderick Green and Damian Williams. Williams has had a couple of nice workout sessions.

Aaron Corp got in on the action and his first pass was to Johnson, as could be expected.

Defense Wins Championships

Kevin Ellison is taking the leadership in the defensive backfield. Kevin Thomas is getting a lot of work and it’s nice to see him back on the field. Josh Pinkard is also back, but doesn’t appear to be working out 100% as of this time. Shareece Wright has been in the backfield as well as Will Harris.

Random Notes

Joe McKnight will be getting X-rays. He’s had a slight problem with his AC joint (shoulder) all season. The joint pops in and out, and he’s looking to get it repaired. McKnight said he’d get it fixed and be 100%.

C.J. Gable, whom elected to have corrective surgery in October is looking good and seems to be recovering well. Said Gable, “I’m doing alright. I’m recovered now.” He says he is 100 percent and ready to go.

Off-Topic But Fun

Walked by Heritage Hall and shared pleasantries: player of the week O.J. Mayo. Mamadou Diarra, the 7’1 center also from the basketball team said they will be leaving for the Arizona desert tomorrow, looking to play Arizona on Thursday (7:00 p.m. PST) and Arizona State on Saturday (4:00 p.m. PST).