A Game Arkansas Won’t Forget

USC produced a memorable offensive performance against Arkansas last season, a 70-17 rout of the Razorbacks at the Coliseum.

Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt and his staff certainly have not forgotten.

With sixth-ranked USC set to open its season on Saturday against the Razorbacks in Fayetteville, Ark., Nutt said his assistants had never experienced anything like it.

“Whenever you get beat the way we got beat, that’s naturally going to be in the back of your minds,” Nutt said Monday during a conference call with reporters. “It’s filed away.”

Asked if he had ever suffered a similar kind of defeat, USC Coach Pete Carroll recalled his early days as a graduate assistant at Pacific.

“We got thumped a couple times,” Carroll said after Monday’s practice. “We had a couple other people’s homecomings and they made sure they had a great parade and a lot of fun with it.”

Carroll, citing the Trojans’ 41-38 Rose Bowl loss to Texas, said any loss is tough to absorb.

“I would imagine they’re not trying to make too much of it because it was yesterday, yesteryear, it’s over,” Carroll said of Arkansas. “It doesn’t help us any, so we don’t talk about it either. It’s nothing that we want to deal with. I would imagine they’re very similar in that regard.”

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All-American receiver Dwayne Jarrett said he would donate about $300 a month to the American Diabetes Assn. to comply with the NCAA’s condition for his reinstatement.

The NCAA ruled Jarrett ineligible in June because he paid only $650 toward a $3,866-a-month apartment he shared last season with former quarterback Matt Leinart. Leinart also paid $650 and his father paid the balance.

Jarrett, a junior, was reinstated this month, but must pay about $5,000 to a charity of his choice over the course of his eligibility. Jarrett said he chose the American Diabetes Assn. because he wants to help find a cure for a disease that afflicts his grandmother.

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Junior tailback Chauncey Washington participated in most drills but said today’s workout in full pads would be “the big test” to determine the condition of his injured left hamstring.

“I was making cuts and it didn’t bother me at all,” he said.

Washington said rehabilitation treatment has made him more flexible. He hopes to play Saturday against Arkansas.

“I’ve been in a stadium with a big crowd,” he said. “I haven’t had that many reps but I know what it feels like to go out there. I’ve seen it before. I’ve felt what it was.”

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Linebackers Brian Cushing (back spasms) and Kaluka Maiava (right shoulder) did not practice but said they would be ready to play against Arkansas. ... Sophomore running back Michael Coleman (hip) returned to practice after missing three days. ... Nutt said Darren McFadden, who rushed for more than 100 yards a game last season, has “gotten better” since he had a pin removed from a surgically repaired toe last week. But the coach said McFadden was day to day and could not predict what game he would be ready for.