MacKenzie Injures Right Knee

After missing the first two games of the season because of an injured knee, then spending more than a week away from the team to attend his father’s funeral in Western Samoa, USC tailback Malaefou MacKenzie wanted nothing more than to get back to football. But at practice Tuesday, the senior made a hard cut upfield and heard a pop.

“I just tried to test it,” he said. “It was like ‘Not again.’ ”

Team trainers suspect a reinjury of the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, he said. When asked if MacKenzie will miss Saturday’s game against Stanford, Coach Pete Carroll said: “Maybe.” Offensive coordinator Norm Chow sounded even less optimistic.

“We felt if there was one guy we could not afford to lose, it was Malaefou,” Chow said of the versatile back. “He’s having a tough time.”

Safety Antuan Simmons also stopped midway through practice to ice the left ankle he injured Saturday against Oregon but said he expects to play this week.

The no-huddle offense the Trojans employed for much of the first half against Oregon wasn’t the only new wrinkle they tried. For the first time this fall, Chow called plays from the coaches’ booth.

The coordinator spent the first two games working the sideline, all the better to tutor players in the spread offense he instituted this season. “We knew he would move up to the booth eventually,” Carroll said.

Said Chow: “I’d rather be upstairs. You stay out of the emotional part of the game.”