KEEPING TABS

This has been a year of transition for Terry Barnum, and the former Alemany High football standout appears to be handling the changes well.

Barnum is one of four true freshmen to have played for 15th-ranked USC this season, playing on kickoffs and punt returns.

“He’s doing a great job,” said Kevin Wolthausen, the Trojan assistant who oversees those units. “He’s really great at studying what he’s supposed to do and he picks up things real quickly. He’s going to play a lot of football for us in the future.”

Barnum made a sudden impact. He sat out USC’s opening 31-31 tie with San Diego State then played against Oklahoma, making the tackle on the opening kickoff.

“I told the coaches the night before I’d make the first tackle of the game, and sure enough, I made it,” Barnum said. “That definitely will be a moment I’ll never forget.”

At 5-foot-10, 175 pounds, Barnum doesn’t fit the mold of the traditional kickoff unit player, but the coaches were won over by his speed, hitting ability and aggressiveness.

“We’ve put him in the wedge-buster position,” Wolthausen said. “The way people are blocking now, there’s more man-to-man blocking, so we’ve put (Barnum) and Scott Fields inside and try to let them run by those guys to get deeper before the return is set up.

“Basically, he runs down, stays in his lane, and has the quickness and speed to adjust to where the football is going.”

Recruited as a tailback after rushing for 1,058 yards and 13 touchdowns as a senior, Barnum has been asked to move to defensive back because of a shortage at that position.

Barnum agreed to the switch, although he said the transition was “kind of shaky” at first.

Barnum hasn’t played on defense yet. He was supposed to enter the final moments of the Trojans’ 32-10 victory over Oregon on Oct. 10, but when the Ducks were called for roughing punter John Stonehouse and the Trojans kept possession, Barnum missed his chance.

Hometown pride: Ontiwaun Carter is not only playing for Arizona, but Pacoima as well.

Kennedy High’s all-time leading rusher says he has additional motivation to succeed because of the community he grew up in.

“I take it personally each week because of a lot of the stuff I went through back home,” he said. “People think that people from Pacoima can’t do anything positive, but I always want to give something back to the community.”

After being the ninth-leading rusher in the Pacific 10 Conference as a freshman in 1991, Carter is seventh this season, with 479 yards in six games.

“I know the game more than I did a year ago,” he said. “I’m a little bit faster, I cut on the ball faster than I did. Everything is just an improvement, and I’m pretty sure it shows in the games.”

Saturday, Carter had a game-high 97 yards in 20 carries as the Wildcats upset eighth-ranked Stanford, 21-6.

“We came out there and did what we had to do,” Carter said. “I practiced hard and hopefully it gave me (some attention) in my home town.”

Arizona is 3-2-1, 2-1-1 in conference play and 21st in this week’s Associated Press poll. Carter believes the team has not gotten its due.

“People said the Miami game was a fluke,” Carter said of the Wildcats’ 8-7 loss to the Hurricanes last month. “People said UCLA had a bad day. (The Bruins lost to Arizona, 23-3.) What do they have to say about us now?”