Countdown to Kickoff: 47 Days

As we continue on our daily countdown towards the 2007 season, we have arrived at 47. Junior linebacker Clay Matthews will be wearing jersey number 47 for the Trojans this season...

The 6'3" 230 pound linebacker comes from a strong football pedigree. His grandfather Clay Sr. played football at Georgia Tech and in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers. His father Clay was a 4 year letterman linebacker at USC (1974-1977), a member of the 1974 national championship team, an All-American selection in 1977, and played 19 seasons in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns (1978-1993) and Atlanta Falcons (1994-1996). His uncle Bruce Matthews was an All-American offensive lineman at USC in 1982, and was a 14-time Pro Bowler in the NFL as a member of the Houston Oilers franchise.

Clay Matthews (the third) certainly has the bloodlines to be great. The former walk-on earned himself a scholarship in 2006 and should be ready to become a key contributor this season, not only on special teams (a.k.a. White Nation), but also provide solid depth at strong-side linebacker. As long as he stays away from social websites like facebook and myspace, he should be fine. Though I was not offended by Coach McNair and other USC players referring to a group of student-athletes as "white nation" (it was actually pretty amusing because I recall the days when we used to kid around with teammates about each other's race in high school), it's clear to me why it was offensive. This was something that should have been kept under wraps and was just a poor case of judgment by Matthews and Co. But we're all past that now (except for those losers at BN) and it's time to look forward to seeing this guy on the field.

Fight On!