BREAKING NEWS: Down Goes Dirty Sanchez, dislocates kneecap?

Well, this certainly throws a bit of a wrench into the the way we're covering USC at this point.

With more questions surrounding the quarterback position than when Matt Leinart took over for Carson Palmer in 2003, it looked like it was Mark Sanchez' job to lose in SoCal.

Errrrrr.

ESPN and the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Sanchez fell to the ground just before stretching started for afternoon practice today in L.A. He was carted off the field with a suspected left knee injury.

A witness at practice says Sanchez was going through a carioca drill (if you haven't done one since high school...it's the one where you're moving laterally, crossing over your feet and twisting at the hips), then when he tried to put weight on it to throw a pass, he crumpled to the turf.

Mitch Mustain, the Arkansas transfer, will undoubtedly get the majority of the reps with the first team until they figure out what the hell went wrong with Sanchez. Seeing as that Mark went down seemingly without contact, for now we'll have to chalk this up to the powers of gravity.

Arizona State plays at USC on October 11. I know this story doesn't have a DIRECT influence on ASU and this allegedly is a Sun Devils blog, but when the QB of the 6-time defending conference champion goes down, it's worth a mention.

UPDATE (6:31 PM): The LA Times and the LA Daily News have differing accounts on what happened. What's mentioned above is from the Times, but Scott Wolf at the Daily News says Sanchez was playing catch with Clay Matthews and came down awkwardly on his left leg. He left the X-ray room at USC on crutches with a "huge" brace on the injured knee. HC Pete Carroll says it doesn't sound like "a typical ACL injury." Stay tuned.

UPDATE (6:42 PM): Oh boy. Conquest Chronicles says latest word from campus is that Sanchez DISLOCATED HIS KNEECAP. Now, never having sustained an injury (luckily) more severe than a grade 2 concussion, I had to do some reading. Our good buddies at the University of Michigan Health System has the simplest to understand write-up about patellar subluxation. Every article I skimmed mentioned surgery as a last resort, with one of them mentioning a recovery timetable of 6 to 8 weeks.

UPDATE (7:05 PM): Scott Wolf of the Daily News is reporting that a doctor is on his way to USC to examine Sanchez. We'll probably know more around 8:00 PM.