Hershel Dennis

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Hershel Dennis
College	Southern California
Sport	Football
Position	TB
Jersey #	34
Class	Senior
Career	2002 – present
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)
Weight	205 lb (93 kg)
Nationality	United States
Born	July 12, 1984 (age 22) Long Beach, California
High School	Long Beach Poly, Long Beach, California

Hershel Dennis (born July 12, 1984) is an college football running back, currently a student athlete at the University of Southern California.

[edit] High school career

Dennis prepped at Long Beach Polytechnic High School with current NFL players Marcedes Lewis, Darnell Bing and Winston Justice.

[edit] College career

As a freshmen in the 2002 season, Dennis redshirted behind a stable of experienced seniors including running backs Justin Fargas and Sultan McCullough as well as fullback/tailbacks Malaefou MacKenzie and Sunny Byrd. In 2003, he started in all 13 games over current NFL players Reggie Bush and Lendale White. Dennis lost the starting spot for the 2004 season, having been suspended from the first two games due to violations of team rules and then losing the position to the emerging combination of Bush and White. Dennis did appear in a total of 9 games in the 2004 season, but was beset by a serious, season-ending torn knee ligament in practices before the 2005 Orange Bowl. The same torn knee ligament kept Dennis from participating in the entire 2005 season, having already used his redshirt year he lost a year of eligibility. Going into the 2006 season, Dennis was the leading career rusher among current student athletes. Unfortunately, in spring practice Dennis was again beset by season-ending knee injury, causing him to entirely miss a second year in a row. While this would have eliminated his final year of eligibility, Dennis and USC applied to the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility, given the extreme circumstances, and it was granted. To keep from re-injuring the knee, Dennis has been kept out of 2007 spring practice and will compete for the starting position in the fall.^[1]