If It's Friday, It's Time For A USC Notes Column

Will there be a spring football season for USC?

If you talk to a USC coach these days, it almost feels like they know more about what they don't know than they know.

They don't know if there will be a spring season. They don't know how many key players would skip the season to prepare for the NFL Draft. They don't how all of this would affect Clay Helton's status. They don't know how many games a spring season would last or when it would start.

Other than that, they feel pretty good.

• Safety Talanoa Hufanga was asked about playing spring football or preparing for the NFL Draft: "“That’s a discussion down the road with (my) coaches and my family.”

• Maybe the best news for USC right now is that Kedon Slovis is a true sophomore and can't go anywhere.

• It looks like the Pac-12 Network let studio host Mike Yam go this week. Now you can argue there are no sports right now so who needs a studio host? But you could also argue Larry Scott could easily cover Yam's salary out of the $5.8 million Scott somehow makes as commissioner.

• It's difficult being a USC student these days. All classes are online. Tuition went up 3.5 percent. And the university waited until July 1 after many students were locked into off-campus apartment leases to announce most classes were online (later changed to all classes).

And now for some history:

• Here is a picture of a book exchange at USC in 1967, which students initiated to compete against the bookstore buy-back schemes. In the middle is USC student president Taylor Hackford.

He later became a movie director. Some of his best-known films are "An Officer and a Gentleman," "Against All Odds," "Dolores Claiborne" and "Ray."

• In 1971, USC students could go see the Bee Gees and Staples Singers at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. But they would have to go to the 11 p.m. show if they watched No. 3-ranked USC defeat Oregon, 63-55, at the Sports Arena that night. Paul Westphal led the Trojans with 15 points.

It's sad that two of the best basketball players in USC history (Westphal, Gus Williams) are battling serious health issues. Westphal has brain cancer while Williams suffered a stroke.

Here is a memorable play between the two in the dramatic Game 7 of the 1979 Western Conference finals between the Seattle SuperSonics and Phoenix Suns. Williams had 29 points and was named Game 7 MVP by CBS while Westphal had 25 and nine assists.