Coaches Deliver a Loud Message

As if scrimmaging in the Coliseum the other night wasn’t exciting enough, the USC football team had another unusual practice Wednesday.

First, the coaching staff placed loudspeakers along the sidelines to blare a mixture of crowd noise and music. An hour or so later, the USC marching band came over from its practice.

“We wanted to make it noisy,” Coach Pete Carroll said. “We had our artificial noise and then we had the real thing.”

Amid electronic screeching and fight songs, the team practiced its offense to get a taste of what it might feel like to play in loud and hostile stadiums at Oregon, Washington and Notre Dame.

While all the practice hoopla was going on, defensive linemen Shaun Cody and Malcolm Wooldridge were crawling the length of the field on their hands and knees.

Wooldridge said he was being punished for neglecting to have his ankles taped and arriving late to practice.

“Coach Carroll doesn’t stand for that,” he said.

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Carroll said today and Friday--the final days of double practices--will be especially important.

“We want to clean up all the basic stuff,” he said. “These last two days are really demanding because we really have to get things right.”

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Videotape of Tuesday’s scrimmage did not tell coaches anything they did not already know.

The kickers tried to see how quickly they could get their kicks off, shaving .3 seconds off their practice times. But they missed two of four attempts and will return to a slower rhythm.

The quarterbacks looked sharp, however, and so did fullback Charlie Landrigan, who caught six passes for 66 yards and a touchdown.

It was the first time Landrigan had scored since a high school game in 1996. That touchdown came on a pass, too, as his Capistrano Valley High team faced Loyola in the Southern Section playoffs. “We lost,” he said.

At USC, the fullback has been relegated to blocking and the occasional carry. Until now. The Trojans’ new spread attack means that everyone has a chance to shine.

“If I get open, [Carson Palmer] is going to throw me the ball,” he said. “That’s the great thing about our offense.”

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Carroll singled out tailback Chris Howard and receiver William Buchanon for their performances Tuesday. . . . Tight end Kori Dickerson suffered a hip pointer in the scrimmage.

Injured tailback Malaefou MacKenzie has resumed running and is hoping to return to practice next week. . . . Linebacker Matt Grootegoed has been in uniform but coaches plan to hold him out until after the weekend.