Claiborne Expected to Officially Go Pro

USC linebacker Chris Claiborne is expected to announce he will skip his senior season to enter the NFL draft today at a news conference scheduled for 3 p.m. at Heritage Hall.

Claiborne repeated his criteria for selecting an agent as he watched USC’s basketball game against Arizona at the Sports Arena on Monday, and smiled, saying, “After tomorrow, I’ll probably be going away for a little while.”

Claiborne’s mother, Millie Perkins, said recently she expected her son to leave for the NFL “unless he changed his mind” and said Monday “no one has convinced him to stay.”

The Trojans should get some good news at the press conference, since Claiborne said receiver R. Jay Soward told him he’ll stop by to make an announcement of his own.

Soward also had considered leaving, but his father, Rodney, said as he traveled to Los Angeles after the Sun Bowl that his son had told him he will stay for his senior year, although he considered the decision tentative.

“I’d wait for the day,” he said.

After a season in which Claiborne became USC’s first Butkus Award winner and first unanimous All-American linebacker, USC has been prepared for some time for him to leave.

Claiborne, a projected high first-round draft pick, met with Coach Paul Hackett on Monday.

“He’s always been a straight-shooter,” Claiborne said. “We had a good talk, a very good talk.”

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Defensive tackle Aaron Williams, arrested for prowling last month in Orange County in an incident in which USC officials say he was simply lost, was formally charged with disorderly conduct last week and is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 19 at Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.

In addition to that misdemeanor offense, Williams was charged with driving while unlicensed, not having a license in his possession, and failure to signal.