John David Booty.  Todd Marinovich.  Matt Leinart.  The Sanchize.

And Pat Haden.

None of those guys were very good NFL quarterbacks, but they were very good USC quarterbacks. 

Haden, for his part, was never prolific for the Trojans in the tailback-oriented offense of the early-70s Trojans under John McKay.  His USC career numbers of 51.4% completions for 3288 yards and just 33 touchdowns against 25 interceptions look entirely pedestrian, but they may mask the role he played on one of the greatest teams ever.  The 1974 Trojans were one of the greatest teams of all time, and while Haden's duties were primarily limited to handing or tossing the ball to Anthony Davis, he did engineer one of the greatest wins in school history.  Trailing to fierce rival Notre Dame at half, 24-6, McKay let Haden turn it loose to engineer a monstrous 2nd-half onslaught the ended in a 55-24 Trojan win.

It was largely on the strength of this game that Haden's stock shot up in the 1975 NFL draft, when the Rams took him in the 7th round.  Within two years, Haden was starting, as he was the perfect "game manager" to hand the ball off to Lawrence McCutcheon in the "Ground Chuck" offense of Chuck Knox.  Sadly for Haden, an injury early in 1979 sidelined him for the one Super Bowl the Rams actually appeared in during the 70s, despite being the 2nd-winningest team of the decade.

So what's the deal with USC quarterbacks?  It's certainly not as if the school hasn't had guys who appeared to be NFL-ready: Rob Johnson, who is notorious to me as a Bills fan, looked like an NFL prototype: tall, strong-armed, apparently mature.  And he was incredibly successful at Southern Cal, and you can say the same of Leinart, Booty, Marinovich, and many of the others.   I'm not trying to form much of a theory here, but a lot of those guys have seemed a little weak between the ears despite their physical gifts; maybe USC with its beaches and bikinis attracts a sort of quarterback who lacks a certain toughness to make it in the pros?  Hard to tell.

At any rate, here's the list of USC quarterbacks who have played in the NFL and their "accomplishments," ranked by career passing yards:

Player	G	Cmp%	Yds	TD	Int	W	L	T
Carson Palmer	138	62.58%	33739	213	152	54	67	0
Rodney Peete	104	57.29%	16338	76	92	45	42	0
Matt Cassel	87	59.01%	15302	93	66	29	33	0
Bill Nelsen	90	50.55%	14165	98	101	40	31	3
Mark Sanchez	62	55.06%	12092	68	69	33	29	0
Vince Evans	100	50.65%	9485	52	74	14	25	0
Pat Haden	65	53.63%	9296	52	60	35	19	1
Rudy Bukich	103	52.61%	8433	61	74	21	14	3
Pete Beathard	110	44.85%	8176	43	84	18	16	1
Rob Johnson	48	61.29%	5795	30	23	12	17	0
Jim Hardy	69	46.38%	5690	54	73	4	11	0
Paul McDonald	85	53.59%	5269	24	37	8	13	0
Matt Leinart	33	57.10%	4065	15	21	8	10	0
Mike Rae	28	49.80%	1536	12	14	4	4	0
Todd Marinovich	8	50.73%	1345	8	9	3	5	0
Rob Hertel	3	25.00%	9	0	0	0	0	0

For one week, at least, Haden looked like he came straight out of Quarterback U, bombarding the Niners by going 10/13 for 235 yards and a whopping five touchdowns in an easy 42-0 win for the Ram-its.