In the 2008 season, Mark Sanchez stepped up into the role as the dominant college quarterback people have come to expect out of Southern Cal. He began the season strong as he torched a supposedly dominant Ohio State team in week 2 for 4 touchdowns.

Leading his team to the Rose Bowl, Sanchez brushed aside another strong Big Ten opponent as the Trojans dismantled Penn State with 413 yards passing and 4 more touchdowns.

His junior season was a coming out party, but his early entry to the NFL draft was questioned by his USC coach Pete Carroll. Carroll wrote that Sanchez was going "against the odds" and implied that Sanchez did not have a complete body of work with his lone complete season as the Trojan starter.

The controversy appeared that Carroll's actions at the January press conference were more of a recruiting ploy to encourage more of his NFL ready athletes to remain in the program for as long as possible. Or maybe he genuinely felt that Mark Sanchez would legitimately have a tough transition to the pros. Either way, it was inevitable, Sanchez would challenge at the professional level.

Mark Sanchez may be "challenging the process" as his former coach would go on to say, but there are reasons why Pete Carroll didn't want him to go to the draft; He'd be losing a hell of a quarterback.

Sanchez became extremely close to leading the Trojans to another undefeated season (minus the road loss to Oregon State where Sanchez played admirably to bring the Trojans back, nearly winning the game).

He demonstrated extraordinary toughness coming back from a knee injury at the beginning of the '08 season to lead the Trojans with 34 Touchdowns to only 10 interceptions.

The record of USC Quarterbacks in the pros does not currently bode well for Sanchez (Palmers injuries, Leinart struggles behind Warner, Booty 3rd string in Minnesota). Yet coming out early did not hurt his draft stock, chosen 5th, or the expectations that the Jets have put on him in replacing Brett Favre and becoming the future-face of the franchise. What makes his situation complicated is the good battle going on between Sanchez and Kellen Clemens for the starting job.

A little competition should help both quarterbacks, but Sanchez could get discouraged if he isn't named the starter immediately. He has a good downfield throwing arm and a more professional mentality than Matt Leinart, but he would not want to fall behind the 26 year old Clemens on the depths chart.

The battle rages on, but many tip Sanchez to win and show Pete Carroll that maybe it wasn't such a bad decision to head to the NFL.