USC football: What about Mitch Mustain?

August 13th, 2009, 8:00 am · Post a Comment · posted by Michael Lev, staff writer

mustain The other offshoot of Aaron Corp’s leg injury is that it gives Mitch Mustain a chance to get more meaningful reps.

Remember him?

Mustain came to USC amid much fanfare but twice lost spring battles to become the Trojans’ starting quarterback, first to Mark Sanchez, then to Corp.

Mustain entered summer third on the depth chart behind Corp and Matt Barkley — despite having more experience than the two of them combined — and only now, with Corp out, is the junior transfer moving up the depth chart.

The reason he hasn’t before is inconsistency. Two plays from the past two practices exemplify that.

On Tuesday, during 7-on-7 passing drills, Mustain rifled a touchdown pass to freshman De’Von Flournoy in the end zone as fellow freshman T.J. McDonald closed in for a kill shot. Mustain made a quick decision and delivered an accurate ball.

On Wednesday, during 11-on-11 team drills, Mustain ran a bootleg play to the left. He had tight end Blake Ayles open for about a 10-yard gain but didn’t see him. Mustain ended up throwing the ball out of bounds.

At least he’ll have more chances while Corp’s out.

“I don’t know what anybody else’s attitude is,” Mustain said, “but I’m going to go out at it like I’ve got an opportunity to pick something up and run with it … and leave the truth of that to the guys who are in charge.

“I’m excited about it. However long it is, it may only be two days, I’m going to take advantage of it.”

(NOTE: With USC practicing at 9 a.m. today [and again at 4 p.m.] we’ll have earlier-than-usual updates here on the blog, as well as on Twitter at twitter.com/ocruscblog.)

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