COLLEGE FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : USC : Papadakis’ Season Ends With Injury

USC’s luck with preseason major injuries ended when sophomore linebacker Taso Papadakis tore a ligament in his right knee. He underwent season-ending surgery Thursday, a day after the injury.

It was Papadakis’ second season-ending injury at USC, and the first major injury to befall the Trojans in the preseason.

Papadakis, who was to have shared the interior linebacker spot with Errick Herrin and Scott Fields, was leg-whipped by a defensive back on the edge of a pileup.

He dislocated a wrist in the second week of 1993 and missed that season too.

A powerfully built six-foot, 240-pounder, Papadakis had shown great promise in preseason camp.

“It’s tragic, for him and us,” Coach John Robinson said. “He’d worked so hard, improved so much. . . . It’s cruel. He was going to have a major role on this team as a leader and as a player.”

Robinson said seniors Brian Haas and Tarriel Hopper and freshman Bob Aubrey will move up a notch on the depth chart.

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Senior cornerback Mario Bradley was absent from practice for the second day in a row, apparently still troubled by competition for his hoped-for starting position.

Bradley started the last six games of the 1994 season at free safety, but was moved to cornerback in the spring. Quincy Harrison, Daylon McCutcheon and Ken Haslip have pressed him for playing time.