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Everson Griffen provides some youth to a USC defense that is stacked with experience, including six returning third-year starters.

This is a defense so talented that ...

• Sophomore linebacker Chris Galippo, the Defensive MVP of the Army All-American Game as a high school senior, cannot crack the starting lineup.

• Senior free safety Josh Pinkard, who started as a sophomore and was once called by Carroll his team’s best defensive player, is no longer a starter. Pinkard is attempting a comeback after sitting out most of the past two seasons with injuries.

• Linebacker Clay Matthews, whose namesake dad was one of the Trojans' iconic players at that very position in the '70s, can’t even start as a senior.

overall, the Trojans have more defensive playmakers than even the Buckeyes, who returned nine starters. And more speed. Ten years from now you’ll be looking at the former Trojans headed to the Pro Bowl — or the NFL Hall of Fame — and you’ll be amazed that at one time they were all part of the same defensive huddle.

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