STARRING ROLE JARRETT WENT FROM HOMESICK EASTERNER TO SHINING IN USC SPOTLIGHT; IS NFL IN HIS NEAR FUTURE?

Byline: BILLY WITZ Staff Writer

As Dwayne Jarrett slouched in a director's chair at Disneyland waiting for an interview session to begin earlier this week, he pulled his USC baseball cap down on his head and squinted to hide his eyes from the camera lights. He certainly didn't look like he was in the happiest place on earth.

Then again, the bright lights of Los Angeles didn't sit too well with Jarrett when he arrived as a 17-year-old from the New Brunswick, N.J., projects. There were the bouts of loneliness, the frequent calls home, the doubts that accompanied a rash of early dropped balls, and the question in his head about whether he'd made the right decision to go to school so far away.

Now, it doesn't seem so foreign.

A two-time All-America receiver, Jarrett is just another transplanted Easterner who has come to feel at home.

``It's just a great place to be if you want to be successful with your life,'' he said.

When Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart left, and the Trojans kept on winning and filling up the Coliseum this fall, somebody had to fill that vacuum of idol worship. And who better than someone who didn't flinch on fourth-and-9 in South Bend, Ind., and who makes one-handed catches look as easy as picking apples?

And so ...

Snoop Dogg strolls out of a holding cell after a marijuana bust wearing Jarrett's cardinal and gold No. 8 jersey. Lamar Odom, whom Jarrett once met as a young kid, leaves him tickets for a couple of Laker games. And the shiny white rocks that encrust his watch and the rope of bling around his neck -- long enough to lasso a small steer -- also suggest someone who hasn't let school interfere with his education.

Um, about those diamonds?

``No, they're not real,'' Jarrett said, flashing a 24-karat smile. ``Not yet.''

And, by the look of it, not for long.

While Jarrett, a junior, maintains he hasn't decided whether he'll return to USC next season or head to the NFL, it's hard to find anyone around USC who doesn't privately believe his last game as a Trojan will be Monday against Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

USC coach Pete Carroll said it's too soon to say whether Jarrett should go, or where he might land. The most important consideration is whether he'd be the first player picked at his position, which seems unlikely given that Georgia Tech's Calvin Johnson is widely considered the top receiver prospect.

``That's the whole game,'' Carroll said. ``You don't have to worry about anything else.''

This was a message Carroll didn't get across to a host of juniors last year.

Danger of leaving early

LenDale White, Winston Justice, Darnell Bing and Fred Matua all left as underclassmen last year with all but Matua expecting to be first-round picks. They each had precipitous drops and only White, a backup tailback with Tennessee, has played. Justice hasn't suited up for Philadelphia, Bing was placed on injured reserve this summer by Oakland and Matua has yet to play for Cleveland, his third team in five months.

``If you look back at White, Justice, Bing, to a man they all made a mistake in hindsight,'' said Jerome Stanley, the agent for former USC receiver Keyshawn Johnson who has urged Jarrett to stay in school.

``If LenDale had come back, USC would probably be playing in the national championship game, he probably would have won the Heisman and he would certainly be a high draft pick. Imagine if Winston Justice hadn't left. The pass rush would have been handled much better against UCLA, and he'd be a high pick. Bing would have been better off sticking around.''

An example, Stanley says, of how college success doesn't always translate to the pros was last year's draft. Who would have thought that Matt Jones, a mediocre quarterback at Arkansas, would be a better receiver in the NFL than Mike Williams?

If Jarrett, who's 6-foot-5, 218 pounds, does indeed leave, he'll be hearing plenty about comparisons to Williams, another big, dominating receiver at USC without great speed who has struggled to get on the field for Detroit after being the 10th overall pick in 2005. Neither has it helped that Keary Colbert, another USC receiver -- albeit a different type -- who was a second-round pick by Carolina in 2004, has two catches since the season opener.

``When guys come out of systems and don't develop or if they all develop, you're going to ask why,'' said UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker, a longtime NFL secondary coach. ``Jarrett's a big receiver with good hands, and he's got an NFL head coach with Pete, so he's got a real good idea of what to expect. It is the NFL, though. He's going to be playing against grown men now.''

Is Jarrett ready?

Jarrett has at times made opposing defenses look like child's play in amassing a Pac-10-record 39 touchdown catches. His 205 receptions is two shy of Colbert's school career record. Last month against Notre Dame, he caught seven passes for 132 yards and three touchdowns.

Still, Jarrett will have to answer questions from the NFL about his durability -- he was nagged this season by shoulder and quadriceps injuries -- and his willingness to be physical. Offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin criticized him after Arkansas cornerbacks jammed him at the line of scrimmage in the season opener, and Jarrett dropped three passes against Arizona.

Is he ready for the NFL?

``I don't think it's a question of me being ready,'' Jarrett said. ``Me knowing myself, whatever decision I make I'm going to stick with it make the best out of it, just like the decision to come here.

``You have to take chances in life just like I did by coming out here. I didn't have to do that. Sometimes you have to go on the bridge and take that leap of faith. I felt that God didn't lead me this far to let me go down.''

Jarrett has asked the NFL for an evaluation, he'll listen to Carroll's opinion and says he's sought counsel from Leinart, who stayed for his senior season, and Bush, who didn't. Though he says he hasn't interviewed agents, Jarrett says he can lean on Chuck Price, one of Leinart's agents, whom he worked for at a camp for high school players this summer in Santa Barbara.

Moving forward

After the Rose Bowl, he'll return home to New Jersey, meet with his family and announce a decision before the NFL's Jan. 15 deadline for underclassmen to declare for the draft.

``We're going to make the decision for both of us, my family and myself,'' Jarrett said. ``I'll take other people's advice, but I'm going to have to be the one that lives with it. For me, being raised by a single parent, my family's not the richest. I wouldn't say that's going to be the biggest part, but it's definitely going to play a role in it. My family can be financially secure. If I'm going to go out there and do what I do, why not get paid for it?''

Jarrett says he feels a sense of obligation to his mother, Camille, who gave birth to him when she was a freshman in high school. For eightyears, they lived with her parents.

Camille kept him in sports -- football, basketball and baseball -- or at home to keep him off the streets.

``I grew up in an urban neighborhood that I wouldn't say it was the poorest, but there weren't that many fortunate people,'' said Jarrett, whose father died four years ago and whose half-brother has been incarcerated. ``You can use that as an example how you've got to find your own way. It was definitely tough, but my family supported me. My mom made sure I had everything I needed and my main focus was sports.

``She never made me get a job or anything like that because she knew my goals.''

Tasting the good life

That neighborhood seemed a world away last year when Jarrett, who had lived with Leinart as a freshman, moved with him into a $3,866-a- month rooftop suite at a downtown luxury apartment building.

``It was great,'' Jarrett said of the gated complex that has a two pools, tennis courts, a fitness center and a secured parking garage filled mostly with late-model luxury cars.

The only problem was that Jarrett paid $650 in rent, the same as Leinart, whose father covered the rest.

The arrangement, which came to light last spring, was a violation by Jarrett of NCAA rules, which prohibit athletes from receiving benefits that aren't available to other students.

Jarrett, who was required by the NCAA to pay $5,352 to charity, was reinstated in early August.

``It wasn't like we weren't paying rent. Then it would be a different story,'' said Jarrett, who lived by himself this season in a $1,000-a-month downtown apartment. ``Me and Matt came to an agreement that we were going to pay a certain amount to his dad. We thought it was a good deal. (But) if we could do it all over again, we probably would have done it differently.''

Or at least some of it.

The experience of living with Leinart, whose clubbing with Nick Lachey and canoodling with Paris Hilton landed him in gossip columns, is one that opened his eyes to what's out there in the world.

Snoop, he says, is ``a great guy. He's always around.'' He has gotten to know Odom, a native New Yorker, as well. ``He's a great guy, an East Coast guy out here trying to represent, just like me,'' Jarrett said. Odom has introduced him to other Lakers.

``Lots of doors open to you,'' Jarrett said of the opportunities that have availed themselves. ``Any time people are having success, the more friends you have.

``Right now, I have a lot of friends. You try to enjoy it, know what to do, know what not to do. There (are) a lot of temptations out there.''

``Every day it's hard to tell my friends about it because my friends and everybody at home is like, man, you're out there meeting all these celebrities.''

Not so long ago, Jarrett might have said the same thing. Now, his eyes have adjusted to the glare.

``It's like, man,'' he said. ``I just feel regular.''

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CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

(color) With Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush gone, wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett took over this season as the face of USC's football program.

Donald Miralle/Getty Images

Box:

ROSE BOWL: USC (10-2) vs. MICHIGAN (11-1)