Eight former members of the USC Trojans football program have been invited to take part in the NFL Combine.
Each year, the NFL chooses roughly 300 or more college football players to showcase their skills in front of scouts and executives in attendance at the scouting combine held annually in February at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Last year, Charles Brown, Jeff Byers, Alex Parsons, Anthony McCoy, Stafon Johnson, Joe McKnight, Damian Williams, Everson Griffen, Taylor Mays, Josh Pinkard and Kevin Thomas all took part in the scouting combine festivities.
This time around, the eight participants representing the Trojans include tailback Allen Bradford, tight end Jordan Cameron, defensive tackle Jurrell Casey, fullback Stanley Havili, wide receiver Ronald Johnson, center Kristofer O'Dowd, offensive tackle Tyron Smith and defensive back Shareece Wright.
Casey and Smith both opted to leave after junior seasons in which each received All Pac-10 First Team honors and are potential first-round draft picks.
Johnson, O'Dowd and Wright recently took part in last month's 2011 Under Armour Senior Bowl and all three came away with some positive reviews.
Two apparent snubs from the list of combine invitees are tailback C.J. Gable and offensive guard Butch Lewis.
Gable looked like he was on the verge of breaking out in a big way for the Trojans after rushing for 617 yards and 8 touchdowns as a red-shirt sophomore in 2008, but was phased out over the past two years and was featured primarily as a kick returner.
Keep in mind that Gable, despite only having 77 rushing attempts over the past two seasons, was one of the most highly decorated tailbacks coming out high school in 2005 and could make good on that potential in a new environment.
Lewis, also a highly touted recruit coming out of high school, was a key contributor at both offensive guard and tackle for the Trojans for the past four seasons, and was an All-Pac-10 honorable mention in 2009.
The NFL Scouting Combine is scheduled to begin on February 24th and runs through March 1st.
