USC FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK: SANCHEZ IS BACK IN ACTION.

Byline: RICH HAMMOND 

Staff Writer

Tossing around foam footballs can be fun, and USC's Mark Sanchez turned himself into a fairly efficient left-handed quarterback, but there's no substitute for real on-field action.

Sanchez, out since he broke his right (throwing) thumb in an Aug.12 scrimmage, returned to practice Wednesday and said he expects to be healthy enough to be the backup quarterback Sept. 15 at Nebraska.

One day after he threw a Nerf football to help get his arm back in shape, Sanchez made an unexpected return to the practice field and looked fairly sharp in 7-on-7 and individual drills.

"It might be a little sore, maybe tonight or tomorrow," Sanchez said, "but I think more than anything it's in my head. Even when I drive my car, when I turn the key I'm always doing it with my left hand. I'm opening doors with my left hand. I just have to get used to using (the right hand) again and get it out of my head."

As a precaution, Sanchez likely won't start taking snaps until next week, but he felt strong enough to practice and split backup snaps with Aaron Corp. The idea came from coach Pete Carroll, who asked Sanchez if he had picked up a real football since the injury.

When Sanchez said no, Carroll said he "ran in my office and got a ball for him. He started fiddling with it and feeling it and he said, 'Shoot, maybe I can throw it a little bit.' Sure enough, he came out here and got a lot of work done."

No change needed: Carroll confirmed that freshman Kris O'Dowd, who replaced the injured Matt Spanos, will remain as the Trojans' center.

"We really liked the way he played, and Jeff (Byers) played really good at left guard, so we're not going to make a switch there," Carroll said. "I thought that we would come back this week and compete for it again, but I don't think that's necessary. I really liked the way it worked out."

Not that it was perfect, or even close to it. Carroll bemoaned some of O'Dowd's blocking calls and said a good portion of pre-Nebraska practice would be spent improving offensive-line communication.

"We didn't have enough time last week to really nail that down well enough," Carroll said. "Now we're really digging in to make sure that Jeff and Chilo (Rachal) take a bigger responsibility to make this thing really sharp."

Welcome back: Tailback Marc Tyler, cleared to participate in full-contract drills for the first time since he broke his leg last year at Oaks Christian High, had his first extended full-team practice.

"He stumbled around and made some mistakes, as you would think, but he had fun playing football with us for the first time and it was great to see him out there," Carroll said.

Not so fast: Joe McKnight is back to practicing with a knee brace. Carroll said the brace will remain until next week but that McKnight won't need it for the Nebraska game.

Injury report: Carroll said Patrick Turner (shoulder) should return to practice Monday. ... Josh Pinkard (knee) is waiting for a brace to arrive and likely won't practice until next week. ... Chauncey Washington (shoulder) is participating in non-contact drills but Brian Cushing (ankle) remains out.

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