THE NFL DRAFT : Seau Goes High, Likes Where He’s Going : Southland players: Trojan linebacker is the fifth player chosen and will stay close to home. Carrier is selected sixth by Bears.

Junior Seau got his wish and the San Diego Chargers got their man, which at the conclusion of Sunday’s NFL draft, turned out to be the same thing.

Seau, the USC linebacker who chose to forgo his senior season, was selected by the Chargers as the fifth player overall and the first of five Trojans to be selected by day’s end. It concluded a frenzied effort by Seau and his agent to convince the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who picked fourth, that a prolonged contract holdout was likely should the team take the USC star.

The strategy/threat might have had some effect as the Buccaneers selected Keith McCants of Alabama, leaving the Chargers with the player they said they wanted most, but least expected to be available. By doing so, Seau received the bonus the Buccaneers could never provide: a 40- minute drive to work from his family’s Oceanside home.

“It all fell into place,” said Seau, one of three players invited to New York for the NFL’s first day of drafting. “It was just one of those things where it worked out as well as planned.”

Entirely unexpected was the fate of USC safety Mark Carrier, another junior, whom draft experts figured to go late in the first round or early in the second round. Carrier himself, who conducted his own mock drafts, said he hoped to be chosen “between 10-20.”

“I took a realistic view of it,” he said.

But that was before the Chicago Bears contacted Carrier’s agent, Jeff Irwin, on Thursday and said they were seriously considering the Trojan All- American with the sixth pick.

“Out of the blue skies,” said Carrier, who watched Sunday’s draft at a hotel near LAX. “I was shocked.”

Between Thursday and Sunday, Irwin and the Bears began contract negotiations. The Bears, sensitive to the possibility of a holdout, wanted a deal in place before they made their final choice. That done, the Bears then whittled their first-round candidates down to two: Carrier or Ray Agnew, a defensive lineman from North Carolina State, who would have filled a pressing team need.

Ta-da, Mike Ditka’s Bears surprised everyone, including Carrier, with the pick.

“We said all along we need somebody who will turn some heads,” Ditka said Sunday. “This kid will turn your head. If you don’t watch where you’re going, he’ll knock it off. That’s why we picked him.”

Shortly after the selection, Bear assistant coach Vic Rapp, who had been dispatched to Los Angeles just in case, presented Carrier with a pen and contract. According to Irwin, the five-year deal will pay his client in excess of $3.5 million in salary and bonuses.

Of course, don’t ask Carrier about much of this. He was so nervous Sunday that he can’t recall the name of the Bear assistant.

“I feel ashamed that I forgot his name,” he said.

Nor can Carrier remember what a full night’s sleep is like. He slept one hour, if that, the evening before the draft.

“And I’m still wired,” he said.

Not since 1985, when Duane Bickett and Ken Ruettgers were taken by the Indianapolis Colts and the Green Bay Packers, respectively, have two USC players been selected in the first round. And it marked the first time since 1986 that a Trojan (James FitzPatrick) went in the first round.

“When Junior got picked, I was very excited for him,” Carrier said. “But to see myself get picked after him, well, it was just like when we played: Junior started it and I finished it.”

Seau’s pre-draft ordeal was only slightly less taxing than Carrier’s. He and his agent, Steve Feldman, knew that quarterback Jeff George was bound for the Colts and running back Blair Thomas was the probable choice of the New York Jets, who picked second. But what about the New England Patriots, followed by the Buccaneers? Both teams needed linebackers.

Enter the Seattle Seahawks, who arranged a deal sometime Saturday with the Patriots. Seattle would, among other things, give New England its No. 8 and No. 10 picks for the Patriots’ No. 3 choice overall, as well as a second-round selection. This was great news for Seau, since the Seahawks made no secret of their affection for Miami defensive lineman Cortez Kennedy.

That left the linebacker-needy Buccaneers, who would choose between Seau or McCants, the Alabama star whose prospects had been dimmed by persistent rumors of knee problems.

Faced with the possibility of going to Tampa Bay, Feldman and Seau started telling anyone with a notepad or minicam that the Buccaneers were asking for contract trouble if they chose Seau.

“It was a night of confusion,” Seau said. “It was a night where we had to make sure that Tampa Bay got a hold of our comments.”

The reason? Seau wanted to remain in Southern California.

“It’s geographical,” he said. “When you’re one pick away from home, why not go (for) home?”

One other geographical note: The Chargers hope to locate Seau in the starting lineup, say, at weakside inside linebacker.

The USC roll-call didn’t end with Seau and Carrier. The Detroit Lions selected Dan Owens, a Trojan defensive lineman in the second round with the 35th pick overall. Lion Coach Wayne Fontes, a former USC assistant, made the call to Owens.

“Like you guys, all we want to do is win,” Owens recalled Fontes saying. “Do you want to be a Detroit Lion?”

“Sure do,” Owens said.

And that was that. Owens is expected to challenge for a starting defensive end job.

“I was watching the first round, but I knew I wasn’t going to get picked there,” he said. “I figured third to fifth round . . . something there.”

Fellow Trojan defensive lineman Tim Ryan was taken by the Bears in the third round, the 61st pick overall.

The Trojan run continued in the fourth round, as the Colts selected offensive lineman Bill Schultz, a one-year starter at USC.

“Oh, gawd, I’m extremely happy right now,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Schultz wasn’t so pleased. He had spent $360 for a room at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna--all to watch other players get drafted.

“(The $360 bill) isn’t bad now,” he said. “About two hours ago, it was real bad.”

So excited was Schultz that he didn’t have the foggiest where the Colts might use him.

“I’ll play wide receiver if they want me to,” he said.

Other local players popped up in the fifth round. Cal State Fullerton offensive lineman Reggie Redding was the 12th pick, going to Atlanta, New Orleans made UCLA tight end Charles Arbuckle the 16th pick, and Miami took USC fullback Leroy Holt with the 28th and final choice of the day.

Among players of note who went undrafted were UCLA offensive lineman Frank Cornish, Cal State Fullerton running back Mike Pringle, and two more Trojans, center Brad Leggett and tight end Scott Galbraith.