Friday Notes

Booty arrived here with hoopla over the top even for Troy. The Booty name in football is golden. Brother Josh was a star at LSU who played in the NFL. Abram Booty was a record-setting receiver. Little brother Jake is a senior quarterback at Calvary Academy in Shreveport.

The signing caused ripples across the country, not just because Booty arrived so early. USC lost out on Chris Leak (who event ually went to Florida and won a national championship) and Kyle Wright (Miami).

How hard can it be to pick the nation's top group of linebackers?

Try counting to three, as most of the preseason pundits have done, and you come up with USC's Keith Rivers, Rey Maualuga and Brian Cushing.

Rivers already is one of the nation's best going into his senior season, while the 250-pound juniors, the hard-hitting Maualuga in the middle and ball-hawking Cushing on the outside, appear ready to join the elite.

"They're beasts," said Trojans assistant Rocky Seto, who has coached them the past three seasons. "So big, so fast."

There's not much debate about the nation's best linebackers -- except at USC, where they don't stop counting at three.

McKnight, the River Ridge, La., product considered the nation's No. 1 high school prospect a year ago, handled himself well.

A flash of the panache he demonstrated in high school came up when he was asked if his punt return touchdown in Sunday's scrimmage was a confidence builder.

"A big confidence builder," he said.

Then, after thanking his blockers on the play for opening the way, McKnight added that "I feel like I could do it to any team in the Pac-10."

His most difficult moment to this point?

"Trying to block (linebacker) Brian Cushing," he said, without giving up any details on the outcome of his attempt.

"Guys have really taken him under their wing, accepted him and tried to show him the way," Booty said.

Players have extended their welcome to the highly decorated recruit in another way, too: by pounding him all over the field.

The defense has been relentless in hitting McKnight. Cornerback Terrell Thomas tackled him into a wood fence that lines the practice field, producing a loud thump. Brian Cushing flattened him on a quarterback rush.

"I figure the defense is just doing what they do every day at practice," McKnight said. "From what I heard, C.J. (Gable) went through the same thing last year."

Thus far, McKnight has distinguished himself from a group of 10 tailbacks with his open-field moves, his elusiveness and his speed. He clearly has a role on the offense, but how big?

The 6-foot, 180-pound McKnight acknowledges he doesn't have the size to be an every-down back yet. The Trojans plan to work him in gradually, thinking he can provide a spark similar to the one Reggie Bush produced as a freshman in 2003.

The Trojans can pack a meeting room with high-school track champions. They have monster dunkers and former soccer stars, even an ex-boxer. They have a parade of hulking behemoths jogging around the practice field.

But if they were asked to produce one character to slide into the next "X-Men" movie, they might send Sedrick Ellis into the audition room. Ellis moves things few men can.

[...]Think this Trojans team has some talent?

The bulk of it is on the defensive side. The bulk of the defense is Ellis, both literally and emotionally. He has become the man the coaches can count on to police the players. After a fight broke out between defensive ends Everson Griffen and Kyle Moore this week, coaches asked Ellis to pull Griffen aside and cool him down.

He is the enforcer on the field, too. Ellis knocks linemen around, clogging up holes and setting up linebackers for tackles. Without him, the USC linebackers wouldn't be gaining this much acclaim.

Holt loves the way Ellis actually shows enthusiasm for practice. He's no Allen Iverson.

Cornerbacks in man-to-man coverage are often said to be on an island.

When they play USC this year and they're backed into their own end zone, they might feel like they're on a tiny island with the tide rising fast.

The Trojans are planning to use receivers Patrick Turner and David Ausberry - called the Twin Towers by some of their teammates - on the field at the same time. Turner is 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds. Ausberry is 6-4 and a lean 225.

Both of them have basketball backgrounds and explosive leaping ability.