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Each morning, immediately after awakening, USC middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu sits up in bed and reads a letter tacked to the wall above his feet.

Tatupu calls it his morning wake-up call.

“I look at it for a little motivation -- to keep me going,” he said earlier this week.

The letter, Tatupu said, is from Jack Cosgrove, football coach at Maine, a Division I-AA program where Tatupu played as a freshman in the fall of 2001. Tatupu said he received it during the summer of 2002 after he requested his release so he could transfer to a Division I-A school.

Tatupu will not discuss specifics of the letter other than to say the request was denied. He subsequently appealed, got his release and last fall made his way to USC, where his father, Mosi, played fullback in 1974-77 before embarking on a 14-year NFL career.

“This is what I always thought college football was supposed to be like,” Tatupu said. “This is where I know I’m supposed to be.”

Tatupu has no intention of penning those thoughts and mailing them to Orono, Maine.

But he sent a pretty clear message to the nation Saturday in USC’s season opener at Auburn.

In his first game for the Trojans, the 6-foot, 230-pound sophomore recorded a game-high 12 tackles in a 23-0 victory that vaulted USC to No. 4 in the Associated Press poll.

“I’m pretty sure I was one of the question marks on defense coming into the game,” he said, smiling. “It’s just one game, but it was a pretty good way to start.”

Fellow linebackers Matt Grootegoed and Melvin Simmons said they were not surprised by Tatupu, who sat out last season because of transfer rules and won the starting job in spring practice.

“He never gives up on a play,” Grootegoed said. “It could be 50 yards away from him and he’s going full speed and sprinting to see how it came out.

“He helps you play more aggressively and freely because you know when one of those times you try to make a big play and miss, he’ll be there.”

Said Simmons, a team captain this season who transferred to USC from Washington State after the 2001 season: “That first game for a transfer is all about gaining trust. He certainly did that.”

Coach Pete Carroll, also the Trojans’ defensive coordinator, said Tatupu exceeded expectations in the opener. Tatupu helped the Trojans limit Auburn to 164 yards of total offense.

“Every player you bring into your program is a gamble to some extent,” Carroll said. “We just went on a feeling on [Tatupu]. You have to shoot from the hip a little and trust in the bloodline.”

Tatupu was not heavily recruited out of King Philip Regional High in Wrentham, Mass., where he was 210-pound quarterback and linebacker for a team that was coached by his father. He chose Maine because it was one of the few schools that saw him as a linebacker.

In 2001, Tatupu made 55 tackles and led Maine with three interceptions as the Black Bears finished 9-3, won a share of the Atlantic 10 Conference title and advanced to the I-AA quarterfinals.

But after the season, Tatupu said he questioned whether he was in the right place.

“There were more fans for hockey and basketball games,” he said. “I wanted a football environment.

“I felt I needed to step up and see what I could do at the highest level.”

Tatupu went through spring practice at Maine in 2002 before deciding to ask for his release. He said that Black Bear coaches tried to dissuade him from leaving but eventually agreed to release him.

A week later he received Cosgrove’s letter in the mail, triggering the appeal process.

Cosgrove could not be reached Tuesday. But in a July 2002 Maine news release announcing Tatupu’s departure from the program, Cosgrove said, “We thought Lofa had a bright future here with UMaine football but apparently he has other plans. Both Lofa and his father indicated the need for Lofa to be closer to his mother in San Diego and a desire to transfer to a West Coast school.”

Tatupu said he requested that Maine send transcripts to San Diego State, Oregon, Nevada Las Vegas and USC, but that USC was the only school to receive them. Training camp for the Trojans was about to start when he arrived in San Diego at his mother’s house.

“I’m sitting down there thinking I either have to get a job, go to a community college or just work out for a year,” he said.

Finally, he heard from USC and enrolled in school during the final week of camp. He underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in the fall and was expected to battle freshman Oscar Lua in the spring for the chance to succeed Mike Pollard as the starting linebacker.

Lua, however, suffered a knee injury during practice for the Orange Bowl and underwent surgery in December. Tatupu won the job in the spring and solidified his hold on the position during training camp.

Tatupu hopes to maintain his performance Saturday against Brigham Young and throughout the season.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Tatupu said. “I’m just glad that I was able to get this opportunity to show what I can do and help us win.”