World's Worst Place to QB - USC

In light of the recent draft, and another top QB coming out of USC, I thought this topic would be most fitting. Over the years USC has sent numerous quarterbacks into the draft and some have made the NFL.

• Sean Salisbury- Bust, bust, and more bust. High school coaches thought he should have pursued basketball over football. Maybe he would have found great success in the NBA, instead he stuck around for ten seasons only to amass 3,600 yards and 17 TDs, a quality QB can eclipse that in a single season. He was a better sportscaster then a pigskin-caster, even then he couldn't keep a job with ESPN because he felt his pay was equivalent to that of a back up broadcaster. Not to mention he was accused by female co-workers of emailing his little "Salisbury" via phone. 

• Rodney Peete- Huge NCAA career in his 4 years at USC, first to win the Johnny U award for best senior QB later joined ironically by Leinart and Palmer. Finished second to Barry Sanders for the Heisman Trophy, and twice beat rival UCLA while Troy Aikman was leading the team. Also played baseball well enough for three separate teams to try to draft him from high school through college. His biggest achievement in the NFL, playing well enough to hold a clipboard for 16 seasons. Finally, Rodney is a much better tv personality/sportscaster then he was a player. 

• Pat Haden- Another bust and another sportscaster. 

• Bill Nelsen- An marginal player, good enough to start 5 of his 10 seasons and have a win/loss record of 40-31-3.  

• Pete Beathard- 11 pro seasons to acrue 16 wins and just as many losses. Only one season of his career did he appear in at least 10 games.  

• Vince Evans- Once again another bust going 14-25-0 for his career. Are you beginning to see a pattern here?

• Paul McDonald- Oh surprise, surprise, another bust.

• Todd Marinovich- Not only a bust in the NFL, but also often busted by the police. His rap sheet is more accomplished then his stat sheet.

• Rob Johnson- Again a QB with high expectations and given a chance to start in Buffalo only to play so horribly it opened the door for Doug Fluite to return to football. OK, so Johnson did accomplish something.

Still active, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart can full fill their careers... or not

• Carson Palmer- Has the better opportunity to change his legacy. He has thrown for 4000 yard twice, but has a tendency to throw INTs as often as TDs which can be a death sentence in this league. Spending most of last season on injured reserve, Palmer's best chance for a turn around is to get out of Cinncinatti, but from all reports that is not happening as he has painted himself in a corner.  Made a lot of money but still only 2 good years is not a career.  If it ends without him playing again, in my opinion, bust.

• Matt Leinart- Yet to live up to potential.... future bust for sure. Leinart played the most games of his 3 year career in his rookie season going 4-7 in 12 games played. The 2007 season was a battle with Kurt Warner from the gates, ultimately losing his starting position to Kurt for the 2008-09 season and beyond.  Left AZ for Houston and Matt is starting for the 3-1 Texans who just beat Pittsburgh... only not Matt Leinart. Matt Schaub.  He is likely a career backup in the NFL, not a bad paying job but a good case for a bust.
• Mark Sanchez- He has been solid for the Jets, o.k. solid might be a strong word.  Acceptable.  While the Jets have been winning it is more a credit to the otherside of the ball with their defense carrying a load of their success.  Still Sanchez has shown signs of success and played well at times, but more so his stats speak for themselves in  2009 he stated the majority of the season and had a QBR of 63.0, his   2010 was only slightly better at 75.3.  He is not a bust, he has some years to grow and put up solid numbers, or he could go the way of Carson Palmer.  Here is the interesting part, he also only started 2 seasons for USC... which brings us to our even more surprising stat.

Last but not least... The most likely to succeed and maybe break the curse.

• Matt Cassel- Never played in college for USC, still his pedigree was so strong he was drafted by the Patriots and continued to fight for a back up role with the team. In 08-09 Brady went down and Cassel was given the opportunity to lead the Pats to 12-4 and making 14 million for 2009. Eventually traded to the Chiefs where he signed a 6 year deal and has put up very respectable numbers and continues to prove USC was wrong to keep him in the dark while they started Palmer and Leinart ahead of him.

So I guess the trick to succeeding in the NFL is to not go to USC for your college career, well unless your ultimate goal is to go onto a career in broadcasting.