USC Football: Here's Hoping That D.J. Morgan Gets Another Chance

As plays go, it was fairly innocuous.

Mop-up time in the fourth quarter, the suddenly fourth-string running back runs off tackle and, fighting for yardage, puts the ball on the ground where the opposing team gobbles it up like so many hungry hyenas.

It happens all the time in stadiums throughout the country.

Except for redshirt freshman running back D.J. Morgan, it meant more. So much more.

In that one instant the former starter only two games ago may now find himself buried so deeply on the Trojans bench that he will need a map just to find the bathroom.

You see, his coach, Lane Kiffin, doesn't tolerate fumbles.

And for the kid who has worked so hard to get back to the field of play, that may spell big trouble.

Kiffin has often gone on record as saying ball security is the one trait that must be observed at all times.

Sadly for Morgan, he has committed a violation of this golden rule two times in a row.

His last carry before the Syracuse fumble was a miscue against Utah the week before.

For that transgression, Morgan was demoted from being the starter to the third string.

And then came the single-carry debacle against Syracuse.

Needless to say, that was the last Trojans fans saw of him Saturday.

Of course, from Kiffin's point of view, there really wasn't any choice. He had to bench Morgan.

After all, he is right of course. Ball security is paramount in the game of football.

And Kiffin, always one to send "messages," sent this one loud and clear to his offense: Put the ball on the carpet and you are done.

It happened to Allen Bradford last year, and it will be a continuing theme for Kiffin for as long as he is the head man for the cardinal and gold.

Hold on to the ball, dammit!

But for D.J. Morgan, who has worked his butt off to get back to the gridiron after suffering a major knee injury during his senior season in high school, it has to be particularly disheartening to see all that effort be defined by two unfortunate carries of the ball.

And let's not forget that there was a reason that Morgan was a starter in the first place.

Fastest of all the Trojan running backs, he is probably the only threat USC has to go all the way every time he touches the ball.

Ultimately, Lane Kiffin will have to choose between two unenviable choices: play Morgan and risk another miscue, or sit a kid who has worked so hard to come back from a horrible injury.

Whatever the decision will be, it must be made soon, because for Morgan those last two carries will fester like an open sore.

Certainly, he has lost his starting job, and rightfully so.

But let's not have two bad plays define a young man who has overcome so much just to see the field of play.

Get Morgan back out there as soon as you can and give him an opportunity to prove that those fumbles were just an aberration.

Or, if he is just a "turnover machine," let him prove that too.

Either way, it's a question that must be answered eventually.

Morgan deserves at least that much.