Take this for what you will, but I attended Pete Carroll's event at USC the other night.
As you might expect, competition came up, and Pete made a point to rave about Byron Maxwell. He described him as a 'happy go lucky' type of guy the first couple of years. Then Maxwell started to notice Earl Thomas' work ethic, and began to follow him around all day, picking up all of Earl's habits. Pete then said when the opportunity came up, Maxwell played at an "all-pro" level. I thought that was high praise, coming from Pete.
It's not really news to you guys, but I found it interesting that Pete would bring up a player most casual USC students wouldn't know about. It made me think that Maxwell has 'overtaken' WTIII in the pecking order, making Thurmond less of a priority than before.