By DAN WEBER, The Press-Enterprise

Almost before Southern California coach Pete Carroll had exited his weekly press luncheon Tuesday, the word had come down from the NCAA football rules committee.

LOS ANGELES -- It seemed like the perfect plan -- timely, necessary and doable. Coach Pete Carroll was all over this one, even before his University of Southern California Trojans kicked off their season opener.

LOS ANGELES -- That three-way quarterback battle the University of Southern California went through in the spring to decide a successor for John David Booty may have seemed like a bit of a pain at the time. After all, the Trojans have had a mere three No. 1 quarterbacks over the past eight seasons, and two of them, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart, went on to win the Heisman Trophy.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Angels, we have a problem.That pretty much summed up batting coach Mickey Hatcher's message when he called his Los Angeles hitters for a 10-minute get-together Monday before the start of a three-game series against the team right behind them in the AL West, the Oakland A's.