Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

USC senior outside linebacker Devon Kennard has been named to the Lott IMPACT Trophy Watch List, given to the nation’s top defensive player that exemplifies strong character on and off the field.

The award is named for former Trojan standout Ronnie Lott, a two time All-American and College Football Hall of Famer. In the pros, he won four Super Bowl rings with the San Francisco 49ers, was sellected for the Pro Bowl ten times and also earned a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The IMPACT portion of the award stands for Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community and Tenacity, traits that the award recipient is to embody.

Aside from Kennard, the Pac-12 has 10 other athletes in contention for the award, including UCLA’s Anthony Barr.

Of being named to the watch list, Kennard said, “that is a huge national award, and I am honored.”

In 2012, former Trojan T.J. McDonald also received a nomination for the Lott IMPACT award, but Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o took home the hardware.

Though the trophy is named for a man of Troy, no Trojan has won the award in its nearly 10-year history. Only one athlete from a a Pac-12 school has ever won it, with Cal’s Dante Hughes earning the honor in 2006.

For a complete look at the Pac-12 athletes in consideration for the Lott IMPACT award, click here.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

A year ago, USC fans were booking hotel rooms in South Beach for New Years. This year, there’s been some concern about the Trojans faltering in Week 4 against Utah State. But don’t tell Utah Utes’ head coach Kyle Whittingham about the plight of the 7-5 Trojans, as he still puts USC on top of the Pac-12 South, per The Salt Lake Tribune.

“From a talent standpoint, SC is still the benchmark,” Whittingham said during the Pac-12’s spring teleconference. “I don’t think there’s any question. They’ve had the most talent in the league for a lot of years. … You still have to say the Trojans are the guys that everyone’s trying to catch.”

Talent wise, it’s hard to argue against Whittingham. USC brings in a handful of five-star recruits for the 2013 season, and have arguably the most dynamic skill player in college football, in Marqise Lee.

Comparing Utah’s talent to USC’s talent pool is like comparing apples to oranges or Sprite to Safeway Select, but are the Trojans still the benchmark in the division as a whole? Maybe not, given the wide range of variables to take into account, such as coaching, luck and administration.

Arizona State returns a slew of talent including the best defensive player in the country not named Clowney, and UCLA has a talented quarterback in Brett Hundley, with both of teams sporting better records than the Trojans in 2012. Even internally, you would have to think that there would debates.

Last season, Lane Kiffin made remarks that it’s hard to compete at a top level with the recruiting sanctions in place, alluding to the idea that guys who normally would have been projected to go to USC, are finding themselves at other Pac-12 schools. That sense of entitlement to the riches and excuse would imply that Kiffin wholeheartedly believes that USC should be the benchmark but aren’t in the position to truly be.

Whether or not that’s the case, the Trojans seem to play well of late when the spotlight isn’t on them, like in 2011. Perhaps the pressure on ASU and UCLA could allow USC to reassert themselves as an obvious benchmark. Or, they could continue the troubles of 2012 and decide it in a much different way.

* * * *

What say you? Despite the tumultuous 2012 campaign, are the Trojans still the deciding peg in the Pac-12 South? Vote in our poll and discuss it in the comments below.

Dr. Dre | JASON PERSSE (Creative Commons via Flikr)

The rich get richer as today USC will formally announce a $70 million donation from music mogul Jimmy Iovine and award-winning rapper Dr. Dre to create the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts. But other than giving the school access to high-priced headphones and even more industry connections, the academy’s impact on football and basketball recruiting will be an interesting subplot to watch unfold in the coming years.

While the initial intake of students for the academy will be just 25 in the fall of 2014 –which all but eliminates the notion of frivolous majoring practices– the Trojans have had a recent history with musicians that has to make one think that the academy could be another ploy for Lane Kiffin and Andy Enfield to play up, if needed.

Within the last calendar year, USC has been the landing spot for two athletes with music industry aspirations, Tennessee basketball transfer Renaldo Woolridge and five-star safety Leon McQuay III.

The pair, who go by stage names SB Babyy and LM3 Beats, have been featured on big outlets as student athletes. Woolridge’s ‘Fight On (We Play to Rise)’ became the musical theme of USC’s 2012-13 athletics year, and McQuay produced a song by Infinite Skillz that was used heavily in the promotion of the Under Armour All-American Game on ESPN.

For McQuay specifically, who enrolled at USC in January, academics played an enormous role in his recruitment. While on a recruiting trip in December, McQuay got to show his music to faculty within USC’s Thornton School of Music, with a video of his portfolio review hitting YouTube three weeks before officially enrolling at USC.

Without saying, the opportunities at USC to study and produce music with industry connections while playing football at a major program was the ultimate reason he decided to make the 3,000 mile from Tampa to Los Angeles, rather than going to Vanderbilt, whom McQuay also considered. And that was five months before Dr. Dre and Iovine even entered the mix.

Now, players like Woolridge and McQuay are among a select few athletes that try to excel in music and sports simultaneously. McQuay, as a five-star safety and record producer, is even a rarer commodity.

That said, the academy is immediate name recognition for recruits who have grown up listening to Dr. Dre on their iPods. In a recruiting world where uniforms and spring games at NFL venues have more stock in recruiting decisions than they should, the opportunity to study at a school named after a world famous rapper probably won’t fall on deaf ears of recruits that have a legitimate interest in the music industry.

Plus, it comes at a remarkable time for recruiting in Southern California, with multiple sons of rappers having emerged as recruiting targets at USC, including Snoop Dogg’s son Cordell Broadus and the son of the late Nate Dogg, Naijiel Hale. Even UCLA has Justin Combs, the son of P. Diddy.

Expecting Broadus and Hale to go to USC solely because of Dr. Dre is silly, but recruiting is hands down the silliest aspect of American sports, and Kiffin isn’t doing his job if he doesn’t at least once mention that Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and Dr. Dre have all worked together. Multiple times.

“OK, Cordell, let’s Lay Low. Here’s the playbook. It’s like this and like that and like this and uh, it’s like that and like this and like that and uh.”