When he first arrived at USC last January, Bryan Jackson was still a few months short of his 18th birthday. The bright-eyed freshman running back had graduated from high school early, in the hope that he’d hit the ground running at USC. And right away it was clear how quickly that ground was moving beneath his feet.
But Jackson, a 230-pound power back, resolved not to let the speed of it all swallow him up. He watched closely as Woody Marks, the Trojans’ workhorse and Jackson’s roommate on the road, worked his way through a stellar season.