Fields Is Finally Positioned Properly : USC: After time at tailback and safety, he finds a home at linebacker in Trojan defense.

It’s good to be 4-0.

It’s good to be a starter on the nation’s No. 1-ranked defense.

It’s good because it’s fun.

“For the first time, I’m enjoying everything about SC . . . football, my classes . . . everything,” said senior Scott Fields, a linebacker who until now has been a vagabond, bouncing all over the USC football depth chart and tripping over his broken dreams.

After three previous position switches in three years, Fields has finally found a home at linebacker. At first he was a safety, was briefly the starting tailback in John Robinson’s first season back at USC, 1993, and played safety again last season.

“We’ve finally found Scott Fields’ true position. . . . It took me long enough,” Robinson said recently, after praising Fields’ work.

Fields was in on eight tackles, including five solos, during USC’s 31-0 victory over Arizona State last Saturday. But the best number of all, he said, was Arizona State’s: Zero.

“Zero is a great stat, if you play defense,” Fields said.

“It’s the ultimate. Nothing tops zero. We’d talked about getting a shutout for three weeks, and finally we kind of said, just before the [Arizona State] game: ‘Hey, let’s get one!’ ”

The shutout strengthened USC’s status as the nation’s top-ranked scoring defense, lowering its average to 6.8 points per game. The Trojans have yielded three touchdowns in four games.

Fields began his linebacking career in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2 against Texas Tech after spending the season as a backup to strong safety Sammy Knight.

He’s a 6-foot-3, 220-pounder with exceptional linebacker speed. He used to be a tailback who dreamed of going to USC and winning a Heisman Trophy. At a prominent high school football program, Bishop Amat, he averaged 6.5 yards per carry.

He played on special teams and was a substitute in the secondary before Robinson tried him at tailback in 1993. Fields got his chance when starter Dwight McFadden broke his ankle in the first quarter of the opening game against North Carolina.

He ran well, with a slashing, charging style that seemed to have promise. But there was a problem.

Fumbles.

They became too frequent, and back to defense went Fields.

Then as now, Fields leaned on his personal booster club, older brothers Arby, 35; Artie, 33, and Arnold, 31. Arby is a Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Dept. supervisor, Arnold runs a house-painting business with their father, Norman, and Artie is the assistant city manager for San Leandro, Calif.

“Arby was a big help to me when I was moved back to defense,” Scott said.

“He said to me: ‘Look, you’ve got a lot going for you. You’re on the SC football team, for one thing. How many guys can say that? Now you can either sulk, or get your head up and be successful.’

“Arby is kind of tough on me. Tougher than the coaches, in fact. If I get eight tackles, there’ll be a message on my machine to call him. He’ll tell me I should have had at least 12 tackles. But that’s good.”

Said Arby Fields: “I don’t give Scott a lot of breaks. I expect a lot of him, because he’s a gifted athlete. He knows he has to deal with me before his weekend is over.

“He’s picked up playing linebacker pretty fast, but he can be a lot better. Scott’s in a perfect position. In the NFL, with all these 300-pound offensive linemen, linebackers need to be smaller and faster. And Scott’s biggest asset is his speed--he can catch people.”

Maybe so, but Fields plans to add some strength and bulk. He wants to grow from 220 pounds to about 235.

As for NFL talk, Fields prefers USC talk.

“I try not to think of pro ball because those are selfish thoughts,” he said.

“If I’m thinking only of USC’s next game and my assignments, then I’m part of an 11-man unit. But if I think selfish thoughts, I’m a 10-plus-one guy.”

Nevertheless, Robinson has a thought or two about Fields’ future. He said Tuesday he thinks Fields should be chosen in the middle rounds of the NFL draft.

“His inherent nature is to go forward, to attack you,” Robinson said.

“He’s a tough, smart guy.”

Fields, second in team tackles with 24 (Knight leads with 28), says his teammates will play 1-3 Cal Saturday as if the Golden Bears are undefeated.

“They’ve hurt themselves with mistakes; they dropped eight passes last week,” he said. “But I doubt they’ll drop eight balls against us.”

The Trojan defense, he said, has a big edge over opponents: the Trojan offense, the Pac-10’s leader at 479.5 yards per game.

“We compete against the best every day,” he said.

“When you defend against Keyshawn [Johnson], Johnny [McWilliams], Brad [Otton] and Kyle [Wachholtz] every day . . . they make us better. I’ve seen good offensive linemen this season, but none as good as ours.”

Fields’ position coach, Tim Prukop, says when Fields is reading his “keys” properly, he’s at his best.

“Scott came over from offense, so he had a lot of catching up to do on reading keys,” he said. “We looked at a lot of film, looking at offenses in that first tenth of a second after the snap, which way players are leaning . . . and looking for keys before the snap too.

“When he’s not reading his keys, he sometimes tries to make plays that aren’t there.

“What he does best is run to the ball. His role for us is to defend against the run on both sides and be a major factor on weakside pass defense.

“He’s been successful at this changeover because he’s a football player. He understands the game.”

All this and it’s fun, too.