Learn about USC’s travel roster for the season-opening trip to Virginia
By Ben Malcolmson
USCRipsIt
PeteCarroll.com
The Trojans are taking advantage of loose travel restrictions for their cross-country road trip this weekend.
The travel roster for Saturday’s game at Virginia includes 80 players, 16 more than they’re allowed for in-conference road trips. The 80 traveling players will fly on the team charter, participate in all team activities during the weekend and dress for the game at Scott Stadium on Saturday.
The Pac-10 limits the travel squad to only 64 players for conference games, but the out-of-conference road trip permits a roster limited only by travel costs and coaches’ discretion.
“We just need enough seats on the plane,” Coach Pete Carroll said.
Coaches take advantage of the roster freedom by putting more players on this weekend’s travel roster as a way of rewarding hard-working players who won’t get to travel with the team when conference play begins. Also, it gives the coaches more flexibility with substitutions during Saturday’s game.
The 26 players not on the travel roster — including transfers and injured players — stay in Los Angeles and will watch the game on television.
Virginia Travel Roster: By the numbers
Offense – 43 players
Defense – 32 players
Special teams – 5 players
Total traveling squad – 80 players
Staying in L.A. – 26 players
The Travel Roster:
Quarterbacks (4)
Aaron Corp
Garrett Green
Mitch Mustain
Mark Sanchez
Running backs (10)
Allen Bradford
Chris Fornataro
C.J. Gable
Adam Goodman
Broderick Green
Stanley Havili
Matt Hillier
Stafon Johnson
Joe McKnight
Marc Tyler
Wide receivers (11)
David Ausberry
Brice Butler
Jordan Cameron
Brandon Carswell
Vidal Hazelton
Ronald Johnson
Travon Patterson
D.J. Shoemate
Scott Stephens
Patrick Turner
Damian Williams
Tight ends (4)
Blake Ayles
Rhett Ellison
Anthony McCoy
Jimmy Miller
Offensive line (14)
Charles Brown
Jeff Byers
Martin Coleman
Steve Gatena
Zack Heberer
Thomas Herring
Khaled Holmes
Nick Howell
Matt Kalil
Butch Lewis
Kris O’Dowd
Alex Parsons
Derek Simmons
Tyron Smith
Defensive backs (12)
Brian Baucham
T.J. Bryant
Kevin Ellison
Daniel Harper
Cary Harris
Will Harris
Marshall Jones
Taylor Mays
Drew McAllister
Josh Pinkard
Kevin Thomas
Shareece Wright
Linebackers (9)
Jordan Campbell
Brian Cushing
Dan Deckas
Nick Garratt
Uona Kaveinga
Kaluka Maiava
Clay Matthews Jr.
Rey Maualuga
Malcolm Smith
Defensive linemen (11)
Armond Armstead
Jurrell Casey
Everson Griffen
DaJohn Harris
Wes Horton
Malik Jackson
Fili Moala
Kyle Moore
Averell Spicer
Christian Tupou
Gerald Washington
Special teams (5)
David Buehler
Joe Houston
Chris Pousson
Cooper Stephenson
Greg Woidneck
• Ben Malcolmson is the Director of Online Media for USCRipsIt/PeteCarroll.com. You can contact him at Ben@PeteCarroll.com.
