USC is big as the day is Long

NEW YORK -- An NFL draft day that started Long (Jake) and Long (Chris) wound up being very deep for USC.

A school-record seven Trojans were selected in the first two rounds. That eclipsed the previous mark of five, set in 1968 and 2006.

USC Coach Pete Carroll envisioned this type of NFL payoff when he took over the football program before the 2001 season.

“It seems like years ago, when we first sat around with the first group of guys, what we hoped was to make the mark of having four or five guys in the first round,” Carroll said. “That’s what we had seen was possible when schools have a good run. We’re right in the middle of that and we’re proud of it.”

On a day when no other school had more than two players taken in the first round, four Trojans heard their names called: defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis (seventh to New Orleans), linebacker Keith Rivers (ninth to Cincinnati), tackle Sam Baker (21st to Atlanta) and defensive end Lawrence Jackson (28th to Seattle).

Three more USC players were taken in the second round: guard Chilo Rachal (39th to San Francisco), tight end Fred Davis (48th to Washington) and cornerback Terrell Thomas, the final pick of the day (63rd to the New York Giants).

“The guys who came back for their senior year were rewarded for their hard work,” Jackson said in a phone interview. “It’s a great day for the school.”

Baker, a four-year starter, benefited from a run on offensive tackles in the middle of the first round, when the Falcons traded up to get him before Houston could take him 26th. Atlanta, which cut left tackle Wayne Gandy this off-season, needs a blind-side blocker to protect its biggest rookie investment: Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan, chosen third overall.

Rivers got a call from Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer, the former Trojans star, even before he got one from Cincinnati Coach Marvin Lewis.

“[Palmer] told me I’m what they need,” Rivers told reporters. “They’ve got the offense. They need a little help on defense and that’s what I’m trying to do to get us into the playoffs.”

The NFL, too, was focused on making upgrades. To speed along the draft process and improve the made-for-TV aspects of the event, the league trimmed the allowable time between first-round picks from 15 to 10 minutes, and had just two rounds Saturday instead of three. The final five rounds take place today.

The time trim worked. The first 31 picks were made in 3 hours 30 minutes, making it the fastest opening round since 1990. Last year’s first round was a record-setter at a glacial 6 hours 8 minutes. And that was with eight trades in the first round.

“We’ll take that as a sign of improvement,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said.

The day began with a foregone conclusion: Michigan tackle Jake Long, signed by Miami four days earlier, was introduced as the first overall pick. Next, St. Louis selected Virginia defensive end Chris Long, the oldest son of Raiders great Howie Long. That set the tone for a parade of big-man picks.

A record seven offensive tackles were chosen in the first round -- as many as all the skill-position players combined -- and that’s not counting guard Branden Albert, taken 15th by Kansas City, who can also slide over to tackle. The previous mark for most tackles in the first round was five, in 1999.

Some other notable developments:

* If there were any lingering doubts about the Michael Vick era having any life left in Atlanta, the Falcons put them to rest by drafting Ryan third overall.

* With the fifth pick, the Chiefs got the player who could be the most dominant force in this draft class: Louisiana State defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey. That could wind up being a steal.

* Oakland used the fourth pick on Arkansas running back Darren McFadden, whose blistering speed and open-field moves had some teams hoping to trade up to take him.

* To get Florida defensive end Derrick Harvey at the No. 8 spot, Jacksonville paid a breathtaking four-pick ransom to Baltimore: one in the first round, two in the third and one in the fourth.

* The Ravens, who were eyeing Ryan, then traded up to Houston’s spot at No. 18 to select Delaware quarterback Joe Flacco, whose stock had soared since the Senior Bowl.

* Some players went sooner than many scouts expected -- such as Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo (10th to New England) and Boston College tackle Gosder Cherilus (17th to Detroit) -- while others stayed around a bit longer than anticipated. Among the bargain shoppers, Pittsburgh got Illinois running back Rashard Mendenhall at No. 23, and Dallas took South Florida cornerback Mike Jenkins at 25, trading up two spots to secure him.

* For the first time since 1990, no receivers were selected in the first round. This, just four years after a record seven were selected in the first round of the 2004 draft.

It was an unusual twist that the first six players selected were the six invited to New York to participate in the festivities. So there was very little drama backstage, no one waiting for hours in the green room the way quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers, Matt Leinart and Brady Quinn did in recent drafts.

Still, it wasn’t paradise back there.

“Extremely hot, man,” Dorsey said. “You know, you’re nervous. Then you’ve got so many lights and cameras, the heat is rising.”

With all that money on the line, that’s only the start.

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Times staff writer Gary Klein contributed to this report.

sam.farmer@latimes.com