Matt Hayes

Todd McNair is driving and talking and recruiting. He's always recruiting. Running backs, wide receivers, defensive backs. Even occasional doubters.

How in the world does Southern California, with a depth chart that wound up 10 deep -- yep, that's 10 deep -- at tailback, convince high school All-American after high school All-American to sign with the school and believe, beyond a doubt, they'll play from the moment they step on the field?

"None of these guys are afraid of competition," says McNair, USC's running backs coach and special teams coordinator.

What other reason could there be? The No. 1 recruiting pitch most coaches use when selling their programs is playing time. Come to State U. and if you work hard enough, you'll play right away.

McNair and the USC staff said those identical words to four high school All-American tailbacks in 2006 and got every one to sign. A year later, they said the same thing to three more high school All-American tailbacks, including consensus No. 1 recruit Joe McKnight. All three signed with USC to push the tailback depth chart to ridiculous proportions going into fall camp.

How deep, you say? If forced to choose between USC's 10 or the rest of the Pac-10 tailbacks combined, no coach in his right mind walks away from the Troy 10.

"You would think," says one Pac-10 coach, "one or two of those guys would see the numbers game and go somewhere else."

Why would they when they hear McNair, the ultimate NFL overachiever, constantly chirping in their ears? Here's a guy who played eight years in the NFL by doing anything and everything he could to stick. He was a lead blocker, a special teams ace, a third-down back. You name it, he did it -- and always had a roster spot when The Turk showed up.

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"I know what these kids are thinking, what they're feeling about competition," McNair says. "When I was in Kansas City, we had Christian Okoye and Barry Word, and then we drafted Harvey Williams in the first round. Those guys were great friends of mine -- and I watched all of them clean out their lockers."

Translation: Why would any other player at your position scare you from competing? It's an easy sell for McNair when you think about it. USC clearly is the nation's most talented team, yet 15 true freshmen played last season -- including all four tailbacks. Everyone got his chance.

So it's not so hard to see why McKnight, who grew up an hour outside Baton Rouge and LSU, chose to go cross-country and jump into the toughest and deepest position competition in the nation. Even though five-star tailback recruits Marc Tyler and Broderick Green already were on board at USC. Even though all three players would be stacked behind the class of 2006 (C.J. Gable, Emmanuel Moody, Allen Bradford, Stafon Johnson).

"If you make it here," McKnight says, "you know you're the best."

Who can doubt that?