Trojans QB Sanchez Suffers Knee Injury; Mustain Waiting in Wings

Here's the bad news for the USC Trojans: Projected starting quarterback Mark Sanchez suffered a dislocated left kneecap during practice on Friday.

Here's the good news: Miraculously, doctors say Sanchez's knee didn't suffer any major damage, and so he might be back in time for the season opener, Aug. 30, against Virginia.

Oh, and here's more good news: Even if Sanchez can't play, the Trojans have Mitch Mustain waiting in the wings. One of the nation's biggest recruits a few years back, Mustain started his career at Arkansas -- and played pretty well -- before transferring to USC.

Leave it to USC to have a potential superstar at backup quarterback.

"My thought is we have a guy like Mitch and a guy like Aaron [Corp] that can jump in and take their shots at this thing until Mark's back in here and battling with them," USC Coach Pete Carroll told the Los Angeles Times. "This is an opportunity and how we deal with it and how we handle it is important. Not the fact that something happened."

Photo: USC quarterback Mark Sanchez suffered a dislocated knee cap, but may be back in time for the season opener against Virginia (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)