Former Trojan Enrolls at UNLV

Former USC cornerback Eric Wright enrolled at Nevada Las Vegas on Wednesday, becoming the second former Trojan to join the Rebel program in the last month.

Although it was expected, USC Coach Pete Carroll arched an eyebrow when asked about Wright’s transfer to the Mountain West Conference school. Quarterback Rocky Hinds left USC in June and enrolled at Nevada Las Vegas in August. Both players are ineligible to play this season.

“I hope in the process of them finding their schools that everything was done properly and was in compliance with the rules and how it’s supposed to be handled,” Carroll said.

Carroll signed release papers for both players when they requested transfers, but in both cases he listed other Pacific 10 Conference schools and Nevada Las Vegas as programs to which they could not transfer. Both players won appeals before a USC panel and were allowed to transfer to UNLV.

Carroll said Wednesday that “there were rumors that there was contact prior to these guys enrolling.” He added, “Guys are not supposed to be influenced by people while they’re trying to make that decision.”

Carroll said he had not contacted the NCAA about Hinds’ or Wright’s situations.

Wright told Mark Anderson of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “I sought out UNLV.”

Wright started four games last season as a redshirt freshman and intercepted a pass in the Trojans’ national-championship game victory over Oklahoma. He was suspended from the team in March after he was arrested on suspicion of rape. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office did not file sex- or drug-related charges against Wright because of insufficient evidence. But police said they found 136 Ecstasy pills in Wright’s room in the apartment he shared with a teammate.

Wright told the Review-Journal that he visited Michigan State and Nevada Las Vegas after he decided to leave USC.

“Personally, I don’t feel like I need to convince anybody of anything,” Wright told the paper. “I just have to do what I’m used to doing, and that’s going to school and taking care of my academics and going on the field and taking care of the athletics.

“Everything will eventually speak for itself, so I don’t even focus my mind on changing people’s views or perceptions of me.”

Nevada Las Vegas Coach Mike Sanford told the Review-Journal that he and Athletic Director Mike Hamrick “wrestled with the decision” to allow Wright into the program.

“He made serious mistakes,” Sanford told the paper. “[Wright] had not had a history prior to this thing, and obviously hasn’t done anything since that time. This is not a pattern of something that’s been in his life. We are in a situation we thought it was the right thing to give him a second chance.”

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Backup quarterback John David Booty said his hometown of Shreveport, La., was not hit by the winds and floods from Hurricane Katrina, but his mother told him that people from New Orleans and other places have migrated to the city.

“She went to one of the hospitals today to try and help out,” Booty said. “She said there are people everywhere that have nothing, with nowhere to go and nothing to go back to. It’s terrible.”

Booty said he had not been able to contact one of his best friends from high school, who was near New Orleans when the hurricane hit.

“I’ve tried him several times today, and you can’t get through because the phones aren’t working,” Booty said. “I hope he’s all right.”

Carroll said he had spoken to former defensive line coach Ed Orgeron, a Louisiana native who is now coach at Mississippi. Carroll said Orgeron told him his family was fine but said his former assistant described the aftermath as “just raw, with all of the problems in all areas and everybody is just distraught and disoriented. I don’t know if the TV can do it justice. From what he was talking about, it’s just horrible.”

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After Carroll said Monday that the Trojans were finished practicing on FieldTurf, they returned to the surface at Cromwell Field on Wednesday.... Carroll said nearly 90 players would travel to Honolulu, including all first-year scholarship players.... USC will practice early this afternoon and then depart for Hawaii.