Coaches giving tailback Tyler a good long look

With the job legitimately open for the first time since 2003, this is the spring of the quarterback at USC.

But it also is an extended audition for tailback Marc Tyler.

“I’ll walk by Coach [Pete] Carroll in the hallway and he’ll say, ‘This is your spring,’ ” Tyler said.

With senior Stafon Johnson and junior C.J. Gable proven and juniors Allen Bradford and Joe McKnight sidelined or limited because of injuries, Tyler is getting perhaps the longest look of the spring.

The goal: to see if he is sturdy enough to contribute in the fall.

During the last two seasons, Tyler has made steps forward, but also taken steps back in his recovery from a severe leg injury suffered during his senior season at Westlake Village Oaks Christian High.

Tyler, 6 feet and 220 pounds, has impressed at times during the Trojans’ first four spring workouts. However, a significant test comes today when the Trojans don full pads for the first time.

“Hopefully, we get a long scrimmage at the end so I can get a lot of carries,” Tyler said. “I look at it as an opportunity to show coaches what I can do. That I can go out there and work harder than all the other running backs and do more than what they do in finishing.”

The coaching staff aims to give Tyler as much as he can handle. They want to see if he can withstand the pounding and recapture the form that made him one of the nation’s top prep running backs.

“It’s going to be a big test to see if he makes it through,” running backs coach Todd McNair said. “You have to see if he comes out the other side, but he needs the work, period.”

Tyler’s opportunities have been limited since arriving at USC in the fall of 2007.

He was still healing from a broken left leg suffered in the 2006 Southern Section playoffs and redshirted his first season with the Trojans. Last season, he played in eight games and gained 198 yards in 36 carries and caught a touchdown pass.

But residual effects from the high school injury have lingered.

“I’ve never felt like I did before I got hurt, but I’m starting to,” Tyler said. “I feel like I’m getting back there in some ways, but at the same time I don’t feel the same.

“It’s going to take work.”

Johnson, for one, is happy to make way for the Tyler during the spring.

“I’ve been here long enough to understand that the coaches want to see if the young guys can make it through,” said Johnson, who is nursing a sore knee that was injured during Rose Bowl preparation. “It’s a teaching mechanism -- everyone trying to figure out who’s who what they can do.

“I’m getting older and somebody has to take that next spot in later years and they have to know who to depend on.”

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New beginning

After spending the last practice under siege from the defense, quarterbacks Aaron Corp, Mitch Mustain and Matt Barkley are looking forward to better performances during what is expected to be an extended scrimmage session at the end of practice.

“It’s more of game-like situation,” Corp said. “The defense isn’t always going to know our calls and hopefully it will help us out as an offense.”

Quick hits

Redshirt freshman Bryce Butler and junior David Ausberry appear to be leading in the competition to become the No. 3 receiver behind Damian Williams and Ronald Johnson. . . . The Trojans practice at 11:30 a.m.

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gary.klein@latimes.com