It's been four weeks now since USC began spring ball and offensive coordinator Graham Harrell says he has a new standard for judging wide receivers in practice. There are two reasons for that:

Michael Pittman and Amon-Ra St. Brown.

"They give you everything they got every play that they're in there," Harrell said. "They're as competitive as I've ever been around. They play as hard as any receivers I've ever been around. I told them this the other day, the standard that I hold all receivers to now on has changed. I think more is possible because of how hard they go."

Even more impressive is the fact USC doesn't even have the numbers it needs to play at the pace and with the personnel Harrell wants. The Trojans on Tuesday were down to seven receivers, counting walk-ons. He is used to having 14-18. And yet Pittman and St. Brown, despite the added work, haven't let up.

"We're probably killing them," Harrell joked. "The amount of running they're doing, the amount of reps that they're taking and still going as hard as they can go, the standard that I hold all receivers to from now on has changed."

What remains to be seen is whether what we're seeing in spring will look much different come fall. I've personally wondered if USC hasn't been employing four wide receivers at the same time because it wanted to hide it during a time when every practice is open to the public. Harrell said the primary reasons we haven't seen that are the lack of bodies at receiver and the defense's need to face certain looks and personnel groups.