Freshman Kelly Looks Like Real Catch

Kareem Kelly lost his helmet but never lost his grip on the ball. Nor did USC’s precocious freshman wide receiver lose his poise when he eluded the clutches of San Diego State cornerback Kevin Burton to haul in Carson Palmer’s 13-yard touchdown pass Saturday at the Coliseum.

“It was pretty difficult,” Kelly said of his leaping catch and helmet-popping collision with 10:16 left in the fourth quarter, “but it was just a matter of me wanting the ball more than he did. I wanted it more, so I caught the ball.”

It was hardly as simple as that. USC’s 24-21 victory over the scrappy Aztecs was no easy matter, either.

The third-down Palmer-Kelly touchdown combination gave the Trojans a 24-14 lead, which the Aztecs narrowed in the closing minutes. By then, even Kelly acknowledged he felt some trepidation behind his cool exterior.

“I started getting a little bit scared when we were up, 24-21, and they had a chance to tie it with a field goal,” said Kelly, who finished with a game-high six catches for 98 yards. “God was on our side today. . . . I don’t think we took them lightly. They played exceptionally well. I don’t think we played as well as we can.”

Kelly, however, played well enough to earn praise from his coach and his teammates in a game that tested the Trojans’ tenacity as much as their talent.

The Long Beach Poly High graduate was supposed to be the Trojans’ third receiver, behind seniors Windrell Hayes and R. Jay Soward. But after Hayes sprained his ankle in the first quarter Saturday and Soward had trouble reading coverages and breaking free of the two defenders sandwiching him on most plays, Hayes became a vital and viable option.

“He had a lot of pressure on him to come in and do well, and he did it,” Palmer said.

Kelly played well in the Trojans’ season-opening 62-7 rout of Hawaii two weeks ago, making five catches for 104 yards. That reaffirmed what Coach Paul Hackett knew about Kelly’s blazing speed and good hands, but Kelly’s clutch performance Saturday shed new light on the 6-1, 185-pound speedster’s nerves. After two games, Hackett said he’s still getting a read on his team--but he got a decisive and pleasant reading Saturday on Kelly’s steeliness under pressure.

“What Kareem Kelly showed today is that all the things we’ve been looking at in training camp, in practice and in Hawaii are all Kareem Kelly,” Hackett said. “All of a sudden, a young guy has to go in and play in big situations and he does. I don’t know that we knew that until today.”

Kelly caught one pass for 31 yards in USC’s first-possession touchdown drive, on a second-and-19 at the Trojans’ 24-yard line. And in the drive leading to his touchdown, he made two third-down catches to sustain the Trojans’ momentum. His first Trojan touchdown capped the 18-play, 93-yard drive.

“I knew my role coming in and when Windrell went down, I had to step it up,” Kelly said. “The route was a fly route and I gave the defensive back an inside move and faded out.”

He made it look easy, although he insisted that was an illusion. “It’s a lot of hard work,” he said. Nonetheless, he had a feeling he would have a successful home debut.

“I had a pretty decent game against Hawaii, and I felt I had to come back and work pretty hard during the bye week,” he said. “With me, if I practice good, I tend to play well. I practiced well this week. I caught the ball and listened.”

Listening to teammate Chad Morton’s praise, however, embarrassed him. “He’s modest. He’s going to be one of the greats,” Morton said as Kelly left the postgame interview room. “That’s a Biletnikoff winner right there.”

The Biletnikoff Award is given annually to college football’s top receiver. Before he can dream of that, though, Kelly has another triumph in mind: winning a foot race with teammate Sultan McCullough. Kelly won the 100- and 200-meter dashes at the 1999 California state meet after winning the 200 in 1998, and he has clocked personal bests of 10.28 in the 100 and 20.53 in the 200. McCullough won the 100 at the 1999 Pacific 10 Conference meet and has posted bests of 10.17 in the 100 and 20.61 in the 200.

“Coach Hackett won’t let us get started until spring,” Kelly said. “It doesn’t matter, the 100 or the 200--I just want to race him.”

The way he played Saturday, he can’t lose.