Some Freshmen Making Marks

It was the type of play that might normally fool a freshman defensive end. But when the USC offense ran a quarterback bootleg in practice Monday, Shaun Cody held his ground and made the tackle.

“He saw it exactly as you’re supposed to,” Coach Pete Carroll said. “He made a critical play.”

Cody and quarterback Matt Leinart have received most of the attention among the Trojans’ true freshmen, but they aren’t the only ones who have played well. Defensive tackle Mike Patterson has gotten noticed. Defensive end Jason Wardlow has shown the speed to make coaches think of him as a situational player, perhaps coming in on third down.

Also Monday, defensive back John Walker ran some plays with the second team.

“That surprised me a little bit,” Walker said. “Hopefully I showed them a taste of what I’ve got.”

Said associate head coach DeWayne Walker: “Some of these freshmen are showing promise. It’s just a matter of how they develop.”

Cody appears to be on an accelerated pace, already a fixture on the second team and a threat to challenge Kenechi Udeze for a starting role.

“I don’t expect anything,” Cody said. “I just want to show them I’m a hard worker whether it’s on the scout team, the second team or the first team. I just want to show them what I’m about.”

His performance is compensating, to some degree, for the absence of three recruits.

Linebacker Marvin Simmons and defensive lineman Ray Tago, both from Long Beach Poly, are still awaiting the results of an investigation into their scholastic test scores. Junior college transfer Daniel Pryor, who took summer classes to qualify academically, is not expected to join the team.

“We still support them in any way we can,” Carroll said. “But we’ve moved on.”

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USC will scrimmage in the Coliseum tonight so players can get reacquainted with their home field. They won’t dress in the locker room but will run through other parts of the game-day regimen.

Carroll hopes the change of scene might also add some excitement to training camp.

“Now we’re in the stadium,” he said. “We take it up a notch higher.”

The scrimmage will be closed to the public.

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The defense had the upper hand in practice, intercepting several passes. Safety Troy Polamalu made a reaching, bobbling grab. “Yesterday [the offense] did really well,” Carroll said. “Today we changed the way we played them.” . . . Linebacker Matt Grootegoed was taken out of practice so doctors could run tests. The redshirt freshman originally suffered a hamstring injury and is now nursing a sore back. Freshman linebacker Bobby Otani also sat out much of practice because of nagging injuries. . . . Injured offensive guard Faaesea Mailo has responded well to treatment and is expected back soon, Carroll said.