Making the grade

As John David Booty walks out of the USC huddle, he is flipping through the pages of a book that has never been written. There is no published instructional guide for a college athlete when it comes to playing quarterback at a high-profile school. And there is no guide on the shelf at Barnes & Noble on what it’s like to replace a Heisman Trophy winner.

Fortunately, Booty has his own text on the subject, and he can call on it any time he needs to.

His time under center in Los Angeles was supposed to come a year ago, but when Matt Leinart decided to return for his senior season it meant the understudy would have one more year to be that.

“He could have went in the tank,” Trojan quarterbacks coach Steve Sarkisian said this week. “(Instead,) the guy just basically took notes for a year on how to be a quarterback at USC.”

And in Leinart he had someone who, just like Booty now, had to replace a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback and deal with the scrutiny of a national title chase in year No. 1.

Still, Sarkisian and head coach Pete Carroll said they don’t want Booty trying to walk and talk like the current first-year Arizona Cardinal.

“The old saying, you’ve got to fill the shoes of Matt Leinart,” Sarkisian said. “Well, the biggest thing is he’s got to wear his own shoes.”

That’s a little easier with weapons at his disposal, and Booty certainly has that on a third-ranked Trojan team.

In front of him are multiple players who could garner All-American honors on the offensive line, and while wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett’s health for this week against Washington State remains uncertain, he adds another All-American to the arsenal when in the lineup.

In fact, Carroll has gone out of his way this week to point out that Booty’s USC offense through three games has outperformed Leinart’s attack in 2003 during the same span.

“We’re way ahead of all those numbers after three games, individual numbers and team numbers in almost every category,” he said. “We’re feeling like it’s just a matter of time before we crank it up and can be way ahead of schedule.”

USC has not hit on as many big plays as it did in recent seasons, but Booty has shown himself to be an effective leader while moving his team more methodically down the field. He’s completed at least 24 passes in all three Trojan games thus far, and has just one interception to go with his seven touchdowns.

And, having watched Leinart and the Trojan offense for three seasons on the bench, he’s showing an ability to manage the game in ways that most quarterbacks lacking game experience do not.

“Booty, I thought, might not have all the dynamics of a Matt Leinart right now,” said Arizona coach Mike Stoops, who watched the Trojan offense keep his own quarterback off the field for much of last week’s game. “But he’s growing. I thought his poise and the way he picked up receivers in the flat was really, really good.”

And, as a thought that should scare most every coach around the conference, Booty and the USC offense is likely to get better and better as the season goes along.

“We have an effective offense but it is somewhat complex,” Sarkisian said. “The more experience you have, the more reps you have, are only an advantage.”