TROJANS, BRUINS CAP STRONG RUSH\USC's recruits perhaps its best.

Byline: Gary Washburn and Jon Wilner Daily News Staff Writers

USC completed one of its strongest recruiting classes in recent memory, signing 11 high school All-Americans to national letters of intent on Wednesday while UCLA, despite a coaching change in the middle of the recruitingseason, recovered for one of the Pac-10's best classes.

The top USC signee could be Parade All-American linebacker Chris Claiborne from Riverside North, who signed a letter of intent with the Trojans late Wednesday night.

Claiborne picked USC over Notre Dame and gives USC a top-five national class. Los Alamitos receiver Stan Guyness, lineman Travis Claridge, quarterback Mike Van Raaphorst and Fontana receiver R. Jay Soward also signed with the Trojans.

"This is perhaps the best group we've ever recruited at USC," USC coach John Robinson said. "I'm particularly pleased with the quality of each individual, not only athletically but academically and personally."

Serra High standouts Darnell Lacy and Jason Steen were also late signees with the Trojans. But the program was dealt a blow when Bishop Amat defensive back Ralph Brown surprisingly signed with Nebraska, after taking a recruiting trip to Lincoln last weekend.

Brown, a 5-foot-11, 175-pounder, was projected to play next season - and possibly start - opposite ex-Bishop Amat teammate Daylon McCutcheon in next season's defensive backfield, but Nebraska made a late rush and Brown was impressed with the football environment.

"I just felt really comfortable there," Brown said. "The facilities were outstanding, the football program was great. Everybody expected me to go to USC, but this was overwhelming."

Local players Ennis Davis of Reseda, Notre Dame receiver Troy Garner and Hart fullback Ted Iacenda also signed letters of intent.

The Trojans signed nine offensive linemen, including Faaesea Mailo from Waialua, Hawaii, a 6-foot-5, 315-pounder and 6-5, 275-pounder Pat Smith.

USC needed linebackers and signed Sultan Abdul-Malik from Arcadia, David Gibson from Mater Dei and Shamsun-Din Shaheed from Verbum Dei.

UCLA signed 16 high school recruits, two junior-college transfers and one Division I transfer, Wasswa Serwanga, from Pacific.

Nine of the high school players are BlueChips Illustrated All-Americans, and several recruiting analysts believe the Bruins' class is No. 3 in the Pacific-10, behind USC and Washington.

"Everybody in the country thinks they had a good class," UCLA coach Bob Toledo said. "But players surprise you - sometimes good, sometimes bad. Like with Cade (McNown). I never would have believed a year ago that he'd become our starting quarterback."

But considering that the Bruins lost a month to their coaching search, Toledo has reason to be pleased.

"I thought we'd be behind, and we were way behind," he said. "We stayed with guys who liked UCLA, and the staff did a great job. We wore out a few pairs of shoes playing catchup."

For example, Toledo and assistant coach Bob Field were in five states in one day: Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and California.

"We landed in Nashville, then had to drive to Bowling Green (Ky.)," he said. "Then we couldn't go back to Dallas because of weather, so we went to Missouri.

"We got back to L.A. at 2 a.m."

Toledo set a numeric goal for each position. He wanted one quarterback, for instance, and three running backs. They got the QB (Dylan Aquino, of Los Altos) but only two runners. One is Jermaine Lewis, of Antelope Valley; the other is Keith Brown, of Phoenix Mountain Pointe.

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Chart (1) USC RECRUITS (2) UCLA RECRUITS