All eyes on football as season draws closer

To say that this has been an eventful offseason for the USC football team would be a vast understatement.  Since their last game, a 24-13 Emerald Bowl victory over Boston College, the Trojans have weathered a change in coaching staff, several defections from both teammates and heralded recruits and a stunningly severe set of punishments imposed by the NCAA — including a postseason bowl ban, reduction in scholarships and forfeiture of wins from the Reggie Bush era.

The aftershocks of this hammer blow are still being felt, with team awards being stripped and individual honors — namely Bush’s Heisman Trophy — in jeopardy of being rescinded as well.

And yet, amid all the chaos, this year’s team will try to take the first steps toward restoring the program to a state of normalcy in their season opener versus the University of Hawai’i on Thursday night.

We want to know:

Will the mood on gameday be noticeably subdued this year?  Or, will the Trojan spirit continue to pulse through the campus in spite of a season with a known expiration date?

Taking all of the events of the offseason into consideration, most notably the NCAA sanctions, what is your level of excitement for the upcoming football season?

—–

To participate,  submit a comment in the entry form below.