Afternoon Kickoff 8/20

Last year's Rose Bowl showcased two teams with very different personalities, with the very laid back USC program and its close to unlimited access taking on Penn State and its much more private, business-like approach.

Penn State fans in Pasadena got plenty of glimpses of USC's team personality with all the jumping around and dancing going on along the sidelines.

And USC is also known for its pranks at practice, the most famous being LenDale White and Pete Carroll in 2005, when White pretended to quit the team and proceeded to throw a dummy wearing a No. 21 jersey off the top of a building.

Tuesday, several Trojans came up with a prank on Pete Caroll, and although it wasn't as elaborate as the White dummy, they still got their coach.

From Michael Lev in the Orange County Register:

Allen Bradford and Everson Griffen were jawing at each other from the start, prompting some of us who cover USC on a regular basis to ponder who'd win a fight between the tailback and defensive end. (The consensus: Bradford, despite a major size disadvantage.)

Sure enough, about halfway through Tuesday's practice, a brawl broke out. Almost the entire contingent of Trojans gathered in a midfield scrum as players shoved one another and coaches tried to separate them. Coach Pete Carroll told Bradford and Griffen they were kicked out practice. Then tailback Joe McKnight told Carroll something:

He'd just been punked.

Whatever one may think of Carroll and USC, the program knows how to have some fun, and the laid back approach has certainly been effective during Carroll's tenure.

A few days earlier at Miami on Sunday, defensive end Adewale Ojomo broke his jaw, according to the Miami Herald.

``He was horsing around in the locker room with a couple players last night, got a little injury,'' Shannon said. ``But it's not a season-ending injury, nothing like that. So, he'll probably be back the first game or the second game.''

Also sustaining an injury: Olivier Vernon, a 6-3, 250-pound freshman defensive end. He was limping heavily at Greentree Field.

``Olivier is a little nicked up, but he should be back probably [Tuesday],'' Shannon said. ``Probably [Tuesday] he'll do a little bit more.''

If the Hurricanes want to "horse around," they should probably take a page out of USC's book and go the fake fighting route.

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Quick Hits:
-Oregon coach Chip Kelly has added a new position to the offense: the "tazer." From ESPN.com's Ted Miller:

"According to Coach Kelly," tazer Kenjon Barner said. "It's a position where we could play X, Y, Z or tailback or the R."

-The Big East appears to be the biggest loser in the current bowl shuffle. After already losing the Gator Bowl to the Big Ten, the Big East is now out of the Sun Bowl picture with the ACC kicking it out of El Paso.

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Video of the Day:
Another USC practice prank, this one involving Will Ferrell:

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-Matt Brown