Once pegged as a future star at USC, wideout Markeith Ambles is headed to Houston. (Marin Media/Cal Sport Media)

By Zac Ellis

A former blue-chip prospect appears to have found his way back into major college football. Bruce Feldman of CBSSports.com reported Monday that former five-star wide receiver Markeith Ambles, a onetime USC Trojan, has signed with Houston.

Ambles originally committed to Lane Kiffin at Tennessee but flipped to USC after Kiffin accepted the Trojans’ head coaching job in 2010. The Atlanta native left the USC program just before the 2011 season after a tenure in Los Angeles that included several off-field incidents, including brief a departure from the team in 2010. Ambles made his way to Arizona Western junior college in 2012, catching 44 passes for 757 yards and six touchdowns.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this story comes when considering what the USC receiving corps could have become had Ambles remained in L.A. Partnering Ambles with the likes of Marqise Lee, who led the nation in receptions and was second in receiving yards in 2012, and the departed Robert Woods, a preseason Heisman candidate last season, could have deepened an already explosive group of wideouts. That doesn’t even mention Kyle Prater, Rivals’ No. 1 overall receiver from the 2010 recruiting class, who transferred to Northwestern in January after two banged-up years with USC.

While we’re on the subject, here’s a look back at the top 10 receivers from the ’10 recruiting class, and what they’re doing now:

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By Zac Ellis

With spring practice in full swing, here’s a glance at some of the nation’s most noteworthy recent developments:

• Nebraska: The feel-good story of the week came out of Nebraska’s spring game. Seven-year-old cancer patient Jack Hoffman, a lifelong Huskers fan, took a handoff from quarterback Taylor Martinez in the waning moments of the scrimmage and scampered 69 yards to the end zone (video above). Huskers players mobbed Hoffman as more than 60,000 fans cheered for the youngster, who befriended running back Rex Burkhead last year while battling brain cancer. What was Hoffman thinking as he took the field? In his words: “Scoring a touchdown.”

• Florida: The Gators limped into their spring game on Saturday with a banged-up group of offensive linemen. The unit was so injury depleted (four linemen were out), in fact, that Will Muschamp changed the format from a traditional spring game to an open practice with scrimmage-type situations. But some good news came out of Gainesville: Quarterback Jeff Driskel, who is aiming to improve his decision-making in his second year as the starter, showed significant signs of development.

• Florida State: Following the departure of E.J. Manuel, the Seminoles’ quarterback situation features plenty of new faces. And while it’s looking like Clint Trickett has the slight edge to become the Seminoles’ man under center, Jacob Coker and Jameis Winston are giving Trickett a run for his money. Still, Trickett is showing the experience that comes with having played in Jimbo Fisher’s system the longest.

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We have no idea what this entails, but it sounds terrifying:

Lane Kiffin says tight end Xavier Grimble is out for the remainder of spring practices with a "fractured chest". #USC—
Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) March 29, 2013

Yiiiiikes. Get well soon, Grimble.

Steve Spurrier, your thoughts on media coverage of South Carolina’s pro day?

Steve Spurrier: “I noticed both USCs had their pro timing day today. One of them finished No. 7 in the country, the other was not (1/4)—
Josh Kendall (@JoshatTheState) March 27, 2013

in the Top 25, yet ESPN decided to go out to the one in California which did not finish in the Top 25 and televise their day live. (2/4)—
Josh Kendall (@JoshatTheState) March 27, 2013

It’s interesting that (ESPN) doesn’t come around here on signing day, they don’t come around here on pro timing day, and yet (3/4)—
Josh Kendall (@JoshatTheState) March 27, 2013

they want us to play all these Thursday night games. Maybe we need to consider playing on that new network, FoxSports 1" (4/4)—
Josh Kendall (@JoshatTheState) March 27, 2013

The OBC has clearly not been briefed on the WWL’s Take A Sun Bowl Loser To Work Day initiative.

Los Angeles football will be short two McDonald brothers next season, with T.J. departed for the draft and Tevin for parts unknown. (AP)

The UCLA Bruins have announced the dismissal of starting safety Tevin McDonald for the Ever-Popular-And-Mysterious Violation of Team Rules. McDonald, last seen missing the Holiday Bowl for failing a drug test, is the brother of USC safety and NFL draft hopeful T.J. McDonald, and the son of former Fresno State and current Jets position coach Tim McDonald. Also officially be-goned are lesser-known wide receiver Ricky Marvray and Jerry Rice Jr., whom some of you may have heard of. Those two players intend to transfer.

A felicitous March Madness to all! The NCAA round of 64 commences today, and we’ll gladly cede the floor to hoopyball for its duration. While there is much we do not understand about basketball, including but not limited to its history, rules, strategies, players and coaches, the tournament does come along at a dreadful lull in the calendar for our beautiful game, and it gives us something to watch on television that is not the Cakes And Skanks Channel.

We harbor a particular fondness for the first day of March Madness, for it was on this date five years ago that we first journeyed to Las Vegas to take in the massive multi-day basketball betting spectacle, and it was there on March 21, 2008, that we spied an Illinois fan wearing a commemorative Rose Bowl shirt in public:

At the time this photo was taken, less than three months’ time had elapsed since Illinois faced utter obliteration at the hands of USC, falling 49-17 to the Trojans in Pasadena. This anonymous gentlemen is the bravest football fan we have ever met, and without college basketball, we’d never have known he existed. For this we give thanks.

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.

Is this the real Kliff Kingsbury, or an incredible simulation? (AP)

• Kliff Kingsbury is on Twitter. His hair does not look artfully tousled. He is wearing a suit and tie, and that tie is not a skinny tie. No v-necks are immediately visible. This may in fact be a wax dummy of Kliff Kingsbury pictured here, which would go a long way toward explaining why it hasn’t tweeted yet.

• We are now contractually obligated to call him Bear O’Brien for one calendar year. Penn State’s head coach has been bestowed with the Bear Bryant College Coach of the Year Award, marking him as the most alliterative winner in the award’s history. Congratulations, Bill O’Bryant!

• Coach-hirin’ follies! Florida defensive coordinator Dan Quinn is leaving to rejoin the Seattle Seahawks; Gators assistant D.J. Durkin has been elevated in his place … per our express wishes, Clancy Pendergast will replace Monte Kiffin as USC’s DC … Rutgers will reportedly lose offensive coordinator Dave Brock to Delaware … Rick Smith, who’s coached defensive backs at South Florida since 2010, will join Ruffin McNeil’s staff at East Carolina as defensive coordinator … now-former Boston College OC Doug Martin (not, so far as we know, nicknamed “Muscle Hamster”) is headed back to New Mexico State in the same capacity.

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“Chip, I’m coming for your Ducklings. They’re so succulent. Do you like Chinese food?” (AP)

We’re still really hoping this Clancy Pendergast thing pans out for USC, because a name like that following “Monte Kiffin” makes writing Trojans football/The Thorn Birds fan fiction that much easier. But until Lane Kiffin actually lands a defensive coordinator for 2013, we’re going to have to work with what we have. And what we have, in this case, is Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti turning down the gig, per a report in The Oregonian:

The Trojans recently reached out to Aliotti, who just completed his 21st season as an Oregon assistant. He began his career as an Oregon graduate assistant in 1978; he became best known for coordinating the “Gang Green” defense that helped the Ducks reach the Rose Bowl after the 1994 season. Aliotti’s defenses have been overshadowed by Oregon’s “blur” offense in recent years, though Kelly praised Aliotti and the defense virtually every chance he could.

That celebrated unit had its most alarming night of the 2012 season in the Coliseum last November, allowing the Trojans to amass 51 points and 615 net yards, albeit in a losing effort.

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• You a Terp? Maryland has announced walk-on football tryouts for Wednesday, January 30. You must be a full-time, currently enrolled student to be eligible for consideration.

This is also your reminder that heading into Maryland’s last regular-season football game of 2012, this is what Maryland’s injury report looked like. So if you’re an aspiring quarterback, we’re honestly not sure whether to tell you to show up or stay away.

• Meanwhile, while the internet was caving in on itself …  Lost yesterday in the avalanche of news shocks was the announcement that the Mountain West has retaken San Diego State. (We’re choosing to picture this as a giant Risk board in action. The Big 12 is clearly Australia.) We have an MWC source who’s promised to tell us the second the conference poaches UCLA, and y’all will be the first to know after that.

• Coach-hirin’ follies! Go right on ahead and apply for Chip Kelly’s old job, and be sure and let us know how that works out … here is a magnificent lead followed by Rob Mullens’ insistence that he has no clubhouse leaders in mind for Kelly’s vacant seat … John-El lands at DII Fort Lewis College … Utah passing coordinator Aaron Roderick will take the OC slot at BYU [UPDATE: No he won't!] … Louisiana Tech won’t have to re-glaze any of its “I <3 OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR TONY” mugs … Tim Rosenbach joins the UNLV staff as OC.

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