Booty is concerned only with winning

USC quarterback John David Booty began the season as a Heisman Trophy front-runner, but the campaign has not exactly started off with a bang.

With receivers dropping passes and the offensive line blowing open holes, Booty took a back-seat to the running game against Nebraska. In two games, he has completed 65% of his passes for 350 yards and five touchdowns with one interception.

“If we’re winning, I’m thrilled to death -- that’s all I’m worried about,” Booty said Tuesday.

Former Trojans Carson Palmer in 2002 and Matt Leinart in 2004 passed for more yards than Booty in the first two games of their Heisman-winning seasons. Palmer threw for 546 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Leinart passed for 503 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions.

Booty said he would be honored to be among the Heisman finalists invited to New York in December, but he would not evaluate his career on it.

“If it [happens] great. If not, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it,” he said.

Booty said he welcomed a strong rushing attack, which produced 313 yards and five touchdowns against Nebraska.

“It makes the offensive line’s game easier, and the play-action, and the passing game,” he said. “It slows the [pass] rush down.”

Booty, however, expects the Trojans will start to strike more through the air when they play Washington State in their Pacific 10 Conference opener on Saturday.

“I still feel our passing game hasn’t opened up like it’s going to the rest of the season,” he said.

When linebacker Rey Maualuga cut his hair a few weeks ago, it eliminated some of the disconcerting effect his appearance could have on opponents.

Maualuga, however, was flagged for a “disconcerting” penalty against Nebraska when instructions to his linemen on a field-goal attempt were interpreted by officials as an attempt to confuse the Cornhuskers.

The penalty helped Nebraska eventually score a touchdown.

“I never heard of a disconcerting penalty in my life,” Maualuga said. “Growing up, I always thought you could mess with the O-line, but that’s not what I was trying to do, that wasn’t the deal.

“I just went up to our line and said, ‘At their cadence, move.’ I guess [the official] thought I was trying to get their O-line to jump offsides.”

Said Coach Pete Carroll: “It’s something we do on a regular basis so we have to be more careful with that.”

Linebacker Brian Cushing (ankle) went through part of the practice and said he would “definitely be good to go” against Washington State. . . . Carroll said the coaching staff might have been “putting too much” on freshman running back Joe McKnight, who has struggled to get on track. “We didn’t really start at the beginning and let him creep along. We started knowing what he could do and threw a bunch of stuff at him,” Carroll said. . . . About 700 tickets remain available for Saturday’s game, according to USC officials.

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gary.klein@latimes.com