Editing Carson Palmer (section)

===Freshman season===

{{See also|1998 USC Trojans football team}}

Palmer entered the [[University of Southern California]] in 1998, where he played for head coach [[Paul Hackett (American football)|Paul Hackett]] the first three years of his college career. He began the season as a back-up to Mike Van Raaphorst. They split time throughout the first 8 games, with Palmer mainly coming in during the second half. The Trojans' season opener was played against [[1998 Purdue Boilermakers football team|Purdue]]. Palmer only played for three series in the second half and went 3-of-6 and 79 passing yards. The next week, he came in at quarterback during the third quarter and threw his first career touchdown pass while playing against [[1998 San Diego State Aztecs football team|San Diego State]]. In week 4, he almost played the entire second half in a 30–10 loss to the number-10 [[1998 Florida State Seminoles football team|Florida State]]. He bounced back the next week in a comeback win against [[1998 Arizona State Sun Devils football team|Arizona State]], finishing the game with 4 completions for 69 yards and a touchdown. In the week-8 match-up with [[1998 Oregon Ducks football team|Oregon]], he came in sporadically but finished the game with a season-high 10/19 completions for 179 yards. After losing to Oregon, Palmer got his first career start the next week against [[1998 Washington Huskies football team|Washington]], making him the first true freshman quarterback to start for USC since [[Rob Johnson (American football)|Rob Johnson]] in 1991. He finished the game with 18/31 completions, 279 passing yards, and 1 touchdown. He continued as the starter the next week, racking up 19-of-26 completions, 203 yards, and a touchdown in a win against [[1998 Stanford Cardinal football team|Stanford]]. In week 11, Palmer started against number 3 [[1998 UCLA Bruins football team|UCLA]], in what was his toughest test yet. Although his team lost, he had a career-high 28/43 completions, 252 yards, and 1 passing touchdown. The Trojans won 10–0 against #9 [[1998 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team|Notre Dame]] in their regular season finale, with Palmer finishing with 14/32 completions, 188 passing yards, and his first career rushing touchdown. Palmer started his first career bowl game against [[1998 TCU Horned Frogs football team|TCU]] in the [[1998 Sun Bowl|Sun Bowl]]. He was sacked 6 times and completed 17-of-28 passes, 280 passing yards, and 1 touchdown. He ended his freshman season with 130 completions, 235 attempts(55.3%), 1,755 passing yards, 116 rushing yards, 7 passing touchdowns, 6 interceptions, and a rushing touchdown.<ref name="Toeknee44">{{Cite web |title=Carson Palmer Bio |url=http://www.usctrojans.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/palmer_carson00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526081806/http://www.usctrojans.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/palmer_carson00.html |archive-date=May 26, 2011 |website=University of Southern California}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=1998 USC Trojans Stats |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/southern-california/1998.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105180518/https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/southern-california/1998.html |archive-date=January 5, 2018 |access-date=January 5, 2018 |website=[[Sports Reference]] |language=en}}</ref>