USC Recruits 7th Grader

Lane Kiffin sure seems to do things in unorthodox fashion. Couldn't he at least wait until this kid gets to high school?

Pete Carroll created a stir last season when he tabbed a true freshman to start at quarterback for USC.

New Coach Lane Kiffin might have topped his mentor Thursday, offering a scholarship to a 13-year-old quarterback -- and receiving a commitment in return.

David Sills is only a seventh-grader, but he said in a phone interview from Delaware, "It's always been my dream to go to USC."

Kiffin could not be reached for comment.

College coaches are targeting athletes at younger ages, but Sills is believed to be among the youngest to receive a scholarship offer from a major-college football program.

"It just happened out of nowhere," said Sills, who is not scheduled to graduate from high school until 2015.

Actually, the offer came about by way of Steve Clarkson, a private quarterbacks coach who tutors Sills and also has coached Matt Leinart, Jimmy Clausen and Matt Barkley, among others.

Clarkson said he phoned Kiffin on Thursday to inform him that one of his pupils, Santa Ana Mater Dei quarterback Max Wittek, had received a scholarship offer from Florida.

"While we were talking, I said, 'I'm going to give you the scoop on a kid,' " Clarkson said.

Clarkson told Kiffin that the 6-foot, 145-pound Sills might be better than Clausen or Barkley, who started 12 games for USC in 2009. Then he instructed Kiffin to watch a video of Sills on his website.

"He calls back . . . after going through all the NCAA stuff, and says, 'I'm prepared to offer this a kid a scholarship right now. Will he commit?' " Clarkson said.

Sills doesn't have to formally commit until 2015, by which time Kiffin may not even be around, given his track record.

'Maybe Obama Will Change That Rule and We Can Talk'

It's come to this. Basketball coaches now pleading their case for Obama to change the rules.

And just what rule is he looking for to be changed?

Freedom of speech. Go figure. If you're looking for Obama, or any Democrat for that matter, to facilitate freedom of speech, you're barking up the wrong tree, pal.

Hard to say whether he was being facetious, angry as he was.

Scroll ahead to about the 2:00 mark, unless you're into boilerplate coachspeak.

"I Thought I Was Going to Die"

Dropping in the polls pales in comparison to the drop in altitude for the USC Trojans Thursday night.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- The plane carrying USC's football team to South Bend plummeted during a severe thunderstorm, forcing the pilot to abort his first landing attempt.

There were about 125 people, including 82 players, on the chartered flight Thursday night for the cross country trip for Saturday's game.

"That was terrifying," fullback Stanley Havili told the Los Angeles Times. "I thought I was going to die."

Some passengers were thrown from their seats by turbulence as lightning crackled around the storm-tossed plane, USC sports information director Tim Tessalone told The Associated Press on Friday. Safety Taylor Mays was screaming.

"It was a little bit of a roller coaster drop there for a minute," Tessalone said. "We had some people fly out of some seats. Everybody is fine, but it was a frightening little dip there."

The pilot aborted the approach and circled around the storm before landing without incident about 20 minutes later to the relief of the shaken team and the spouses of some staff members also on the flight, Tessalone said.

More from the LA Times.

USC players and team personnel were still talking about Thursday night's harrowing plane ride into South Bend, which featured a major drop during a lightning storm.

Several passengers were thrown from their seats and hit their heads on the ceiling during an initial approach that was aborted before the plane circled and landed safely.

"There was a bunch of guys that couldn't wait to get down that ramp and get their feet on the ground," Carroll said. "Some of the guys were kissing the ground.

"We're thrilled to be here. I don't know if anybody's going to get on the plane on the way home, though."