Wednesday Hot Links

As we inch toward the start of football practice ...

Football

• The WWL says USC's 2009 recruiting class is the second best in the nation. That's even more impressive when you consider USC has "only" 15 recruits at this stage. Top-ranked Texas has 19 and third ranked Ohio State has 25. [ESPN]
• Terry Bowden believes UCLA can make a run at USC, maybe sooner than many expect. [Rivals]
• USC's first opponent of 2009 is ranked 51st in this evaluation, which is one of the most detailed looks at Virginia you'll see before kickoff. [NYT Quad Blog]
• Another hometown paper writeup, this time about Kaluka Maiava. [Honolulu Advertiser]
• Steve Smith is being honored tomorrow at Taft High School. [LA Times]
• The 1970 USC-Alabama game has been well-documented for its role in desegregation, but I hadn't seen this video before. [Trojan Wire]

Hoops

• O.J. Mayo is now officially really, really rich, though we're not sure how rich, yet. [LA Times]
• Of course, Mayo is still just a rookie. He'll be playing on the Memphis summer league team. That may pit him against Davon Jefferson -- if Jefferson makes the Lakers squad. [Memphis Business Journal]
• Congrats to a certain USC beat writer who just became a proud papa. [No link]

Elsewhere

• Brandon Jennings is skipping college, will play in Europe for a year before trying to make the NBA. [Fox Sports]
• More development around campus, University Gateway is about to break ground. [Downtown News]