PACIFIC-10 POLL HAS USC 2ND TROJANS POINTING TO BIGGEST BOWL.

Byline: Scott Wolf Staff Writer

USC finished second in Thursday's Pacific-10 Conference preseason poll, but the Trojans were talking about much loftier goals regarding the upcoming season.

``A Rose Bowl is not our priority. Our focus is on a national-championship bowl,'' linebacker Zeke Moreno said.

``We're ready to have a solid year and compete for the championship,'' USC coach Paul Hackett said. ``I'm very excited about this team and I haven't said that about our other teams.''

Whether or not the Trojans live up to those statements, it's clear they are an ornery group, after finishing 6-6 last season.

``There is an anger, but it's an anger we brought upon ourselves because we weren't performing,'' Moreno said. ``Because we were the problem, we are now the solution.''

The Trojans officially begin practicing Monday at UC Irvine, although the freshmen reported to USC on Thursday.

One change is that training camp will include many more wind sprints than last summer, when strength coach Matt Schiotz decided to have the Trojans run less because the team was in good shape. Hackett is concerned about the humidity in New Jersey for the Trojans' season-opener against Penn State, and wants to run more.

``We are going to have as difficult a training camp as we've had,'' Hackett said. ``We'll run a lot. This is a very physical Penn State team. Our camp will be designed to play for the Penn State game.''

One of the interesting depth-chart questions addressed by Hackett on Thursday was the third wide-receiver position. Sophomore Steve Stevenson seemed the likely No. 3 receiver, but Hackett said the position is wide open, with freshman Keary Colbert and senior Matt Nickels also in the mix.

``I don't think he had a great spring practice,'' Hackett said of Stevenson. ``I think he did OK. I think he's a little overwhelmed. He hasn't developed like (Kareem) Kelly and (Marcell) Allmond. I may be wrong.''

The tailback position will not be as crowded as expected, at least initially. Incoming freshman tailback Chris Howard will not participate in more than one practice a day at the outset, because he is recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery.

``We're going to have (the knee) checked out,'' Hackett said.

Howard did practice with the other freshmen Thursday morning.

Hackett was impressed Thursday morning with freshman kicker John Wall of Birmingham High in Van Nuys, and said the kicking position will be wide open.

PAC-10 PRESEASON FOOTBALL POLL

Team Points

1. Washington (16) 275

2. USC (11) 272

3. Oregon (1) 211

4. UCLA  181

5. Arizona State (2) 167

6. Oregon State 163

7. Stanford 133

8. Arizona 127

9. California 63

10. Washington State 47

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo: (1) HACKETT

(2) TOLEDO

Box: Pac-10 preseason football poll (see text)