[y66]

Good story here about USC quarterback Mark Sanchez by Billy Witz.

Excerpt:

Long before he became a quarterback at Southern California, Mark Sanchez endured countless tests dreamed up by his father.

When Sanchez took batting practice as a teenager, his father quizzed him on the periodic table as each pitch was about to arrive. While gauging the speed and location of a fastball, his brain was also attempting to recall the atomic weight of magnesium.

When he was younger, he dribbled a basketball while wearing glasses that blocked his view of the ball — all the while facing rapid-fire questions on multiplication tables.

And when he dropped back to pass a football, working on his touch by lobbing the ball over a goal post, he had to know who the 13th president was. Answer: Millard Fillmore.

This work was often done after practice, once others had gone home.

“It was this time,” Sanchez said as dusk closed in after a recent U.S.C. football practice. “Practice had just ended, and we wouldn’t leave until it was dark. My mom would be in the car, screaming from the parking lot that dinner is getting cold. I’d say: ‘Nobody else is here. Let’s go home. This is crazy.’ ”

...

“Leinart and John David were very methodical, in-control guys,” said Jeff Byers, a fifth-year senior guard. “Mark knows what’s going on, but he’s got a much higher energy. He’s very charismatic. The O-line, we love him.”

If there is a question about Sanchez — one that Ohio State may pose with its pass rush — it is whether he is too excitable. Last year, Sanchez appeared poised to rally the Trojans from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit at Oregon, but he threw an interception that sealed a 24-17 loss. Afterward, he blamed himself for the defeat, which knocked the Trojans from the national championship picture.

But U.S.C. Coach Pete Carroll warned not to confuse an abundance of passion with a lack of poise.

“I like a guy who plays the game with his heart,” Carroll said. “Mark is that kind of player, someone who can feel the game and adapt. The best example we’ve ever seen is a guy like John McEnroe — the more crazy he’d get, the better he’d play. A great example is Brett Favre. All the emotion, all the fire — that is an engaging manner that affects everybody. I’m not saying there won’t be times when he’s too pumped, but I like his way. Even last year, people loved it when they saw him play. It’s interesting that for some guys, that translates to the crowd.”

...

When the Ohio State defense begins throwing more than quadratic equations at him, it will be asking a lot of a quarterback making his fifth career start. But this one has spent a lifetime preparing for it.

Question

Are Buckeyes the same as conkers?