Thursday News and Notes

USA TODAY has reconfigured the preseason coaches poll, using Jeff Sagarin's preseason computer ratings, and come up with the ranked teams facing the toughest non-conference schedules.

Southern California, which was tied for third in the coaches voting, comes out with the toughest non-league schedule, playing Arkansas, Nebraska and Notre Dame -- an average of 30 in terms of places in the Sagarin ratings.

The Fighting Irish's schedule is rated the second-hardest. Because Notre Dame is an independent , all 12 games on the Irish slate were factored in. They are tied with USC for third in the coaches poll.

USC linebacker Rey Maualuga said he is only focused on football and winning a starting spot for the season opener against Arkansas.

Those are easy things to worry about compared to the drama of last year, when Maualuga dealt with just about everything but football as a freshman. He was arrested the week of the Stanford game for punching another student at a party. His father was incapacitated most of the season and died two days before the Rose Bowl.

And in between, he played football.

"I'm a lot more mature now," Maualuga said. "I've learned my lessons. I'm just here to play football."

Maualuga is competing against senior captain Oscar Lua at middle linebacker, and based on practice snaps, USC coaches would like him to start. But whether or not he wins the job, Maualuga said he is no longer battling his personal demons.

LOS ANGELES - USC will practice briefly this morning before flying to Fayetteville, Ark., in the afternoon.

But Pete Carroll wasn't about to kid anyone. Nothing major will be decided at today's practice. The evaluations have been completed, and the results are in for the four or five positions where the starting spot was still in doubt for Saturday's opener at Arkansas.

"There's no way of going any further (in the evaluation process)," Carroll said after practice Wednesday.

But there was one more thing to do, Carroll said: "Telling the kids before I tell you."

Starters had yet to be announced from the middle linebacker duel between senior Oscar Lua and sophomore Rey Maualuga, the kickoff contest between David Buehler and Troy Van Blarcom, or the rest of the close calls at tailback, receiver and defensive tackle.

Lua (6-foot-1, 245 pounds), who has been sharing first-team snaps with Maualuga (6-3, 248 pounds), said he was confident it wouldn't go the way the quarterback battle did at Arizona State, where Coach Dirk Koetter reversed field on his starter.

"Coach Carroll is smarter than that," Lua said. "He won't announce anything that way."

But so far, Carroll has said nothing, Lua said.

Most of the time, it seemed as if the Trojans were playing a different style of football than their Pac-10 colleagues, a very un-Pac-10 style of football. In other words, the Trojans were actually good at running the ball and playing defense.

While the SEC had 14 teams rank in the top 10 in total defense from 2002-05, the Pac-10 only had three: the 2002 and 2004 USC teams and Oregon State in 2003. The Pac-10 also had only three teams in the top-10 rush offense rankings the last four seasons: USC and Cal in 2005 and Cal in 2004.

So what happens when a swarming defense and gut-pounding offense from another conference face off against pass-oriented, not-so-hot defensive teams from the West Coast?