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Leonard Williams Tops NFL Mock Drafts and More USC Football News

By Hank Shaw

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Can’t get enough USC football? We’ve got your morning dose of all the best content from around the web concerning the men of Troy.

1st & 10:

Leonard Williams is a hot commodity…With the NFL combine just about a week away, we’ve reached the heart of mock draft season.

USC defensive lineman Leonard Williams has been consensus Top 5 pick for over a year now, but now his potential suitors are starting to become clearer.

Despite CBSSports.com having him ranked as the No. 1 overall prospect, it appears that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers could be prepping for a selection of either Jamies Winston or Marcus Mariota.

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The Bucs released Josh McCown on Wednesday, a longtime journeyman quarterback who started 11 games last season. With that in mind, there’s perhaps more realistic landing spots for Williams right now.

ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. released his second mock draft on Wednesday, with the Trojan going second overall to the Tennessee Titans.

RELATED: Six Trojans that could win awards in 2015

More telling however, is that Kiper has three of the top five teams taking defensive linemen, with Missouri’s Shane Ray and Nebraska’s Randy Gregory going third (Jacksonville) and fifth (Washington), respectively.

With a run on lineman looking likely, next week’s Combine and subsequently USC’s Pro Day on March 11th could ultimately shake out the order.

In Other USC Football News…

  1. Speaking of the NFL combine, USC running back Buck Allen could have the most to prove of all of the Trojans’ seeking to be drafted. Our combine previews continue with a look at his current draft stock. (Reign of Troy)
  2. The big news on Wednesday was that USC finally announced the hiring of offensive line coach Bob Connelly, nearly two weeks after the first report of his hiring surfaced. (Reign of Troy)
  3. USC’s look at Black History Month continued Wednesday with an examination of the school’s black quarterbacks, starting with NFL Hall of Famer Willie Wood. (USC)
  4. Andy Enfield’s boys got back on the court at Galen Center last night but couldn’t find a way to end their now nine-game losing streak. The Trojans were beaten 80-75 by the Oregon Ducks. (Conquest Chronicles)
  5. Steve Sarkisian added plenty of weapons on Signing Day, including Ronald Jones II and De’Quan Hampton. But next year could be an even bigger class for the USC offense. ESPN takes a look at the Trojans’ crop of offensive targets in 2016, including a host of local receivers. (ESPN)
  6. More on RoJo II… Mike Piellucci of TrojanSports.com looks into the depth of the USC running back class in his weekly column. (TrojanSports.com)
  7. Sark gets the main credit for the big recruiting haul last week, but fellow 1990s quarterbacks Tee Martin and Marques Tuiasosopo did a lot of the dirty work. The pair both made Rivals‘ list of Top 25 recruiters of the year. (Rivals)
  8. Last week, we looked into how both USC and UCLA partook in an arms race on Signing Day, without battling for any recruit outside of five-star linebacker Keisean Lucier-South. That tactic landed both on a list of schools that most out-recruited their respective conference. (SB Nation)
  9. Have you noticed how long college football games have started to take? The Holiday Bowl alone extended past the four-hour mark. Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott is out to change that, as he’s part of a group of college football suits that are looking to improve running time by adopting an NFL style of time management. (College Football Talk)
  10. Bleacher Report says that 2015 will be the ‘year of the running back’, highlighted by a bunch of elite sophomores like Georgia’s Nick Chubb and Oklahoma’s Samaje Perine. Tre Madden got a mention as a possible breakout candidate, coming off his foot injury. (Bleacher Report)

Stat of the Day:

In 1969, USC’s Jimmy Jones was the first black quarterback to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. (via USC)

Tweets of the Day:

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