USC will be operating without the services of 2012 leading rusher Silas Redd for the near future. (AP)

A USC Trojans squad aspiring to live up to — and perhaps even surpass — last year’s 7-6 record and Sun Bowl loss will have to make strides without running back Silas Redd, for the time being. The Penn State import, last season’s leading rusher with an average of 75 yards per game, has sustained a torn meniscus and will miss the remainder of spring practice. Redd will undergo surgery on the injured knee on Tuesday; Lane Kiffin expects him to be healed up for preseason practices later this year.

We have finally figured out what’s bothering us about the concept of being buried in sports attire or in a team-branded casket or whatever, and it’s the same reason raising statues to living heroes makes us nervous: The capacity for future disappointment. We’ve talked in this space about what might happen to Nick Saban’s statue if he ever exits Tuscaloosa under a dark cloud. Now imagine you’re a Texas A&M devotee, looking down from an idyllic Aggie heaven years from now, only to discover you’re buried steps away from a stadium where they’re finally allowing female yell leaders. You’ll have to start haunting the stadium, and once you start, you can’t really stop until you get what you want. That’s just bad ghosting.

• How long to grow Landry Jones an adamantium exoskeleton? Oklahoma’s offensive line is dropping like, uh, a defensive line playing OU. Veteran center Ben Habern had to call it a career last week over injury concerns. Redshirt freshman Dylan Dismuke has been knocked out of the game for good by a traitorous knee. Starting guard Tyler Evans tore his ACL Friday, and freshman John Michael McGee, according to his Twitter account, seems to be headed back to his home state of Arkansas.

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Silas Redd has been hounded by fans and recruiters since the NCAA announced sanctions against Penn State. (Mike DiNovo-US PRESSWIRE)

When following coverage of the roster carnage at Penn State this week, you’d be forgiven for perhaps thinking you’re watching the Nature Channel instead. Vultures circle State College! Many-toothed carnivorous fish are devouring the Nittany Lions’ 2012 recruiting class! Is Bill O’Brien more of a badger or a porcupine? Of course, these metaphors are not wholly inaccurate.

For the most prominent example of the crumbling ecosystem in Happy Valley, peruse the case of running back Silas Redd, who practically has been tagged and tracked like an endangered shark for all we know about his movements over the past few days. The Nittany Lions’ leading rusher in 2011 (ranked No. 30 nationally in total ground yardage) was a no-show at a re-commitment ceremony staged by a couple dozen of his teammates.

This didn’t cause an immediate stir, as Redd was reportedly headed to Big Ten Media Days as part of the Penn State delegation. Only now he’s not there — and Colin Cowherd thinks he knows the reason why:

Silas Redd, sitting down w USC coach NOW. That sort of explains why he isn’t at Big 10 Media Day

— Colin Cowherd (@ESPN_Colin) July 26, 2012

Based on yesterday’s Twitter antics, on the part of both the Penn State faithful and ardent devotees of other schools currently thin at running back, and we’re uncomfortably certain that Redd is in for an unpleasant social media day. This might be asking too much of the internet, but let’s take a few deep breaths and remind ourselves that we grown-ups could do everybody some good. That includes you, actual grown-ups:

We have chosen to stay at Penn State and opposing coaches are outside our apartment, was that the intention of the NCAA? #comeonman

— Adrian Amos (@PSU_Amos_4) July 25, 2012