Not Down and Out

USC receiver Kareem Kelly could not help sneaking a peek over the fence during the Trojans’ first official Orange Bowl practice on Friday. The lure was too great.

The Miami Dolphins’ training complex sits only a short pass away from where USC is preparing for Iowa.

“I just picture myself practicing on one of those fields, competing against grown men,” Kelly said. “I’m focusing on the Orange Bowl game, but I put myself in a situation where I say, ‘I might be here next year.’

“You never know.”

Kelly possessed NFL talent when he arrived at USC from Long Beach Poly High as a freshman in 1999.

Work ethic and attitude were the question marks during and after his first three seasons. Kelly addressed the former by preparing zealously for his senior year and by practicing hard throughout it. He answered the latter by handling, without any outward signs of complaint, the emergence of freshman receiver Mike Williams.

Funny how things work out. Kelly thought he was going to be the man this season.

Instead, he became one.

“He really has matured,” USC Coach Pete Carroll said.

In the process, Kelly might have achieved a rare feat for a receiver: improving his potential NFL draft position by catching the fewest passes of his career. Williams has 75 receptions, a Pacific 10 Conference freshman record. Junior flanker Keary Colbert has 65 catches, 31 more than last season. Kelly, who averaged nearly 53 receptions in his first three seasons, has caught 43 passes.

“The most important thing is that we’re winning, and that’s something I didn’t get to experience a lot of at ‘SC before this year,” Kelly said a few days after the Trojans completed their 10-2 regular season. “My blocking got better and so did my route-running. I still need work on all parts of my game, but after going through what I have this season, I’m prepared better for the next level.”

The road to selflessness was not always easy for Kelly, who has 201 receptions in his career and needs one more to become the Trojans’ all-time leader.

“I wish I could have played the role Mike Williams played,” Kelly said. “I had to look in the mirror a few mornings and tell myself that everything was going to be all right. I looked at it like, ‘Mike is their future.’ ”

There was a time when elder Trojan receivers said the same thing about Kelly.

In 1999, he produced what was then the best freshman season by a receiver in Pac-10 history. Playing most of the season behind Windrell Hayes, he caught 54 passes for 902 yards and four touchdowns. He eclipsed 100 yards in four games and averaged a team-best 16.7 yards a catch en route to being named the conference’s freshman of the year.

In 2000, Kelly started eight of 11 games and caught a team-best 55 passes for 796 yards and four touchdowns. He sat out a game against Arizona because of the sprained ankle and strained hamstring, the only game in which he didn’t catch a pass in his career.

Last season, the first under Carroll and offensive coordinator Norm Chow, he caught 49 passes for 801 yards and three touchdowns.

Hoping to finish with a flourish, Kelly dedicated himself to the most intense off-season workout regimen of his career.

“I thought I was going to be the guy,” he said. “I just felt I deserved to be the guy.”

Kelly held the role at the outset. He caught six passes for 66 yards and a touchdown in the Trojans’ season-opening victory over Auburn.

But Williams had a team-high seven receptions in a rout over Colorado. Colbert had a career-best 11 receptions in a loss against Kansas State, and Williams was called on repeatedly despite numerous critical drops against the Wildcats.

“The Kansas State game opened my eyes,” Kelly said. “It showed me my role had changed.”

A few days after the game, Kelly sought out Chow.

“He asked me, ‘Where do I fit in?’ ” Chow recalled.

“It was pretty straightforward,” Kelly said.

Chow told Kelly that at 6 feet 5, Williams was going to get the ball.

“I also told Kareem that there were three receivers, and he had to contribute the best way he could, whether it was catching balls, blocking or whatever,” Chow said.

As the season went on, Williams established himself as one of the most productive receivers in the nation. He had more than 100 yards receiving in five games, including 226 against Oregon. Meanwhile, Kelly failed to register a 100-yard game for the first time in his career.

“I was concerned because we had to be in the same meeting rooms and we see each other on a daily basis,” Williams said. “You need the support of the guys in your group because they are the ones that take care of you.

“The thing about Kareem is, he had already proved himself as a big-time player. He’s been a mentor on and off the field. But the one thing he didn’t have was a winning season like this. In one way or another, my play helped us get that.”

In the end, so did Kelly’s.

Against UCLA, he made a leaping 34-yard touchdown catch 16 seconds into the game that started the Trojans on their way to a 52-21 rout. He also had a 41-yard reception that set up a 34-yard scoring reverse by Colbert in the third quarter.

In the regular-season finale against Notre Dame, Kelly caught three passes for 12 yards as the Trojans completed their best regular season since 1988. In the process, he also extended to 47 his streak of games with a reception.

“Kareem wasn’t selfish about it -- he knew all he had to do was play,” quarterback Carson Palmer said. “He had a great year and helped us get where we are.”

On Thursday, Kelly concludes his career against Iowa. A big individual performance would be a nice way to finish.

A victory better.

“The most important thing about this season is that we’re here in a BCS game,” he said. “I get another chance to show my true character again, a chance to make plays if my number is called.

“But the best thing is that I’ll be out there and be excited with my team.”