Still Awaiting Their Passing Grade

They talked about it during pregame meetings and repeatedly on the sideline as last week’s game against Nebraska wore on.

Members of the Trojans’ young secondary, along with much of the sellout crowd at the Coliseum and a national television audience, anxiously waited for the supposedly balanced Cornhuskers to unleash a passing attack.

“I guess they were trying to lure us to sleep,” USC cornerback Terrell Thomas said.

Nebraska, however, never delivered a wake-up call.

Despite an ineffective running game and mounting scoreboard deficit, the Cornhuskers threw the ball only 17 times against a Trojans defense depending on Taylor Mays, a freshman safety making his first start.

Nebraska’s passive passing game disappointed members of a secondary eager to show they should not be considered a weak link in a defense that has mostly dominated in victories over Arkansas and Nebraska.

“A quiet game is a good game for a corner but it gets a little frustrating,” said sophomore cornerback Cary Harris, who was also making his first start.

Coach Pete Carroll does not expect the secondary to remain untested for long.

“Pretty soon we’ll get all we want,” he said.

Soon could be Saturday, when the third-ranked Trojans play their Pacific 10 Conference opener at Arizona.

Wildcats quarterback Willie Tuitama showed last season as a freshman that he was fully capable of shredding a defense.

“He is a very well-equipped kid,” Carroll said. “He’s a big, strong-armed guy.”

Tuitama, who played at St. Mary’s High in Stockton, burst onto the Pac-10 scene last season against Oregon. Richard Kovalchek started the first seven games, including a 42-21 loss to USC on Oct. 8, but Tuitama replaced him at home against the Ducks with Arizona trailing, 21-0.

“I remember being a little bit scared throwing a true freshman into an environment like that,” Arizona Coach Mike Stoops said.

The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Tuitama barely flinched. He drove the Wildcats to 21 unanswered points and finished having completed 18 of 34 passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns in a 28-21 Arizona loss.

“He struggled a little bit early, threw a couple bad passes and then he just caught fire,” Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti recalled this week. “You could see that he sort of put that team on his back and threw the ball really well, was aggressive with down-the-field throws and seemed to be ready beyond his years.”

Tuitama started the next week against Oregon State and passed for 335 yards and two touchdowns in a 29-27 victory at Corvallis, Ore.

But his national coming-out came one week later against previously unbeaten UCLA. Tuitama passed for two first-quarter touchdowns and finished with 204 yards passing in a 52-14 rout.

“[Against Oregon State] you could tell there was a lot of confidence around their offense, around him, with the plays he was making,” UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said. “And when we played them he was lights out again.”

Tuitama’s performance against the Bruins instantly made Saturday’s game against USC a marquee matchup, especially with USC’s penchant for falling behind in Pac-10 openers on the road.

Tuitama appeared poised for a great season at the end of fall camp.

“I don’t want to jinx him,” Stoops told the Tucson Citizen at the time. “He is throwing the ball as accurately as any quarterback I have ever seen.”

Tuitama, however, struggled a bit in a season-opening victory against Brigham Young, passing for 186 yards and a touchdown. He suffered a concussion on Arizona’s first series during a 45-3 loss at Louisiana State and wound up passing for only 50 yards, completing eight of 17, with two interceptions. Last week against Division I-AA Stephen F. Austin, he played in the second half and completed six of nine passes, including one for a touchdown.

Meanwhile, USC waited in vain for Nebraska to test its secondary. The Cornhuskers averaged 31 passes in their first two games but attempted barely half that many against the Trojans, and one was a 28-yard completion by the punter. Down 21-3 at the start of the fourth quarter, Nebraska threw only two passes thereafter.

USC lost two starters -- safety Josh Pinkard and cornerback Kevin Thomas -- to injuries in its season-opening rout at Arkansas.

Mays was hoping for a chance to show that going against Dwayne Jarrett, Steve Smith and Patrick Turner in practice every day had prepared him for the challenge.

But it never came.

“I guess it was a good way to get my feet wet,” said Mays, who had five tackles.

Harris and Thomas are looking forward to matching up against Arizona receivers Syndric Steptoe and Anthony Johnson. Mays and sophomore safety Kevin Ellison want to show they can do more than stuff the run.

Carroll is confident.

“I think these guys are going to play as well as any group we’ve had,” he said.

gary.klein@latimes.com