Taylor Mays

One down, one to go. Or stay. USC safety Taylor Mays' announcement Tuesday that he was returning to USC for a final season of eligibility left Heritage Hall anxiously hoping quarterback Mark Sanchez will do the same. Sanchez is expected to announce today or Thursday whether he will return to USC or turn pro. Thursday is the deadline for players to make themselves available for the NFL's April draft.

USC quarterback Matt Barkley is not completely healed. Neither is safety Taylor Mays . But a day after announcing that Barkley would start Saturday night against Washington State despite a sore shoulder, Coach Pete Carroll on Thursday made a similar call regarding Mays, who is recovering from a knee sprain. "He's ready to go," Carroll said. Mays, though, said it was "50-50," and that it might be a game-time decision. "I think I'm going to play unless something goes wrong," he said.

USC safety Taylor Mays continued his recent spectacular play on Saturday in seventh-ranked USC's 17-3 victory over No. 21 California at the Coliseum. Mays, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound junior from Seattle, made several bone-crunching hits to break up pass plays. He also intercepted a pass that was nullified by a penalty. Mays said he patterned his game after former USC All-Americans Ronnie Lott and Troy Polamalu. "Just following what the safeties before me did," said Mays, who had five tackles.

This could be it for Taylor Mays. USC's Rose Bowl game against Penn State on New Year's Day might be the junior safety's final game for the Trojans. Mays acknowledges it. Teammates believe he may have no choice. Even Coach Pete Carroll, describing Mays' talent and work ethic, sounds as if he's preparing for the consensus All-American's early departure to the NFL. "He's like a pro," Carroll says. But will he soon become one?

USC players are looking forward to Saturday's Pacific 10 Conference game at Washington, none more than safety Taylor Mays. Mays, a sophomore, grew up in Seattle and went to O'Dea High, where he starred in football and track. "I'm looking forward, actually, to just being in Seattle," Mays said Tuesday. "The game, obviously, but not as much playing the Huskies and that whole thing. It's more just taking the bus and seeing all the stuff I'm familiar with.

Some of what makes Taylor Mays a precociously talented safety for USC can be traced back to when he was 13. There were months of intense study. Repetitive practice. And memorization of every nuance of his responsibilities. Mays was preparing for his bar mitzvah. The experience of reading from the Torah shaped him in ways he did not anticipate, ways that have helped him thrive as a person and an athlete.

Taylor Mays' surprising decision to put off the NFL and return to USC for his senior season came with a catch. Hundreds, actually. Every day after practice, the All-America safety positions himself anywhere from 20 yards to 20 inches away from a high-tech machine that whistles special gold-tipped footballs at his outstretched hands. "I need to catch the ball," Mays says. "That's what the great ones do." Mays is talking about the best NFL safeties. Guys like Ronnie Lott, a Pro Football Hall of Famer.

USC's secondary shuffle went from temporary to permanent on Monday after starting cornerback Shareece Wright was declared academically ineligible. Wright's status had been in doubt throughout training camp, forcing Josh Pinkard to move from safety to cornerback for last weekend's mock game at the Coliseum. Wright is the third projected starter lost by a defense that is in transition following the departures of several key players from the 2008 unit to the NFL. Defensive end Armond Armstead suffered a broken bone in his left foot on Aug. 20 and is expected to be sidelined at least five more weeks.

Things have changed a bit since Pete Carroll made his USC coaching debut against the Spartans in 2001, a game that drew fewer than 46,000 die-hards and curiosity seekers. Today, a crowd of more than 90,000 is expected as USC begins its drive for a spot in the Jan. 7 Bowl Championship Series title game. Times staff writer Gary Klein looks at some of the key issues and matchups when the Trojans play the Spartans: Quarterback quandary Pete Carroll knocked the college football world off its axis last week when he announced that first-year freshman Matt Barkley would start at quarterback.

USC quarterback Matt Barkley's right shoulder remains sore from a bruise suffered during the third-ranked Trojans' victory over Ohio State, and he will be evaluated further this week, Coach Pete Carroll said Sunday night. "We'll have to find out what it means," said Carroll, whose team begins Pacific 10 Conference play Saturday at Washington. "We'll probably go easy on him till Tuesday and see where we are." Barkley was hurt in the third quarter against Ohio State when he was hit after throwing a pass that fell incomplete.