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. Two early bye weeks in September would give USC time to shore up its thinnest, youngest group: the offensive line. That's where USC's top freshman recruits, the highly touted and physically gifted Tyron Smith and Matt Kalil happen to play. Only that's not the way it's gone down. Not after fifth-year senior Jeff Byers came back from an illness 10 days before the opener at Virginia. Suddenly the Trojans' starting left guard was feeling better, and so was the offensive line. "It's no coincidence," Carroll said. As it turns out, these offensive linemen weren't as inexperienced as they looked on paper, many having made starts a year ago as one veteran after another was injured. And they all could motor, the way Byers had done on his own a year ago, using speed, quickness, strength and technique to make up for their lack of size as one of college football's rare offensive lines that averages less than 300 pounds. "It's been a combination of things," offensive line coach Pat Ruel said. "We'd made the decision that this bunch could play really fast -- faster than a year ago -- and went with that. I think that group was getting close, but Jeff coming back made a big difference." Carroll said it's more than playing fast. "They've played really well," he said, praising the linemen for "their consistency ... their competitiveness ... their targeting ... and they finish really well." And it's Byers who leads them, Carroll said, after starting a team meeting last week with video of the first touchdown against Ohio State, a pass to fullback Stanley Havili, with Byers making not one but two outstanding blocks on the play. "He knocked one guy down," Carroll said, "then he got back up and knocked another guy down. It was the best play of the game." But blocking isn't the best thing Byers does. "The best thing he does is show the other guys how to do it," Carroll said. One Trojan who's been learning from Byers is Smith, whom USC coaches consider supremely gifted. On one play in scrimmage last week, matched up against top freshman defensive end Malik Jackson in a one-on-one block on the backside, Smith just took Jackson down into a twisted pile with his long arms and looked at him lying there. Smith has been moved in at backup left tackle next to Byers, just to watch. But after getting up to 287 pounds a month ago, up from a little over 270 in the summer, the 6-6 Smith has dropped to 275. "I just don't have much of an appetite," said Smith, who can run a 4.8 in the 40 and said he would like to get up to 290. "I've got to improve my technique and footwork," Smith said after getting a dozen or so plays against Ohio State. "My technique is getting better every day."But there's no necessity for the freshmen to jump in right now. After moving defensive tackle Derek Simmons over to offense, where he's performed better than could have been hoped for, and with lone original backup Alex Parsons also playing well, the freshmen can be brought along at a more leisurely pace. So right now, the coaches need to get reps for Simmons and Parsons. Ruel was negotiating that very thing with Byers over the weekend. "I need you fresh," Ruel said, "and I need some plays for those guys." Kalil has been battling a hyperextended knee and trying to keep his weight up. "He's missing his mother's cooking like most freshmen," said Kalil's father, Frank, who was at a recent practice with peanut butter sandwiches for his son. The plan is for the 6-7 Kalil to get up into the 290 range so he can fit in with a lean offensive line that may have taken its inspiration from Kalil's older brother Ryan. An All-American center at USC two years ago, Ryan Kalil never played at more than 293 pounds, and now he anchors the Carolina Panthers in the NFL.(Contact Dan Weber at dweber@PE.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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