He Finally Has a Chance to Get an Initial Reaction

It appears to be his time now, so I wanted to see what the kid was made of before he takes over the position manned most recently by a pair of Heisman Trophy winners. That means he got the full Page 2 treatment, the same kind of approach that knocked a veteran like Kenny Lofton for a loss.

When we got together Tuesday, he introduced himself as “J.D.,” and while I’m usually not opposed to someone using initials, they’re not good when they bring to mind J.D. Drew, so I told him I’m going to go with John David.

“That’s fine by me,” USC quarterback John David Booty said. “I just don’t like being called, ‘John,’ although that’s what the big P.C. calls me, and I’m never going to correct that guy.”

I correct Pete Carroll all the time, and volunteered to set P.C. straight for John David, but he seemed to think everything was going just fine without my help.

And that’s funny, because just about everything that John David has done has gone sour. He skipped his senior year of high school as a sign of support for his father, who had been fired as quarterbacks coach at the school, and while he maintains that was the right thing to do for his dad, “I regret missing my senior year of high school,” he said.

He arrived at USC too late to challenge Matt Leinart, broke his wrist against UCLA, watched Leinart emerge as a star, stopped throwing because of a sore elbow, sat out an entire season, watched Leinart play some more, learned Leinart would be returning to school and then watched Leinart play some more.

Given his chance to finally take over, John David lasted one spring practice before undergoing surgery to have a piece of a herniated disk removed from a nerve in his back.

Thursday he will take the field as the Trojans’ starting quarterback to begin fall camp with no guarantee he will be starting USC’s first game Sept. 2 in Arkansas -- allowing for plenty of time for something else to go wrong.

“Nothing has gone right so far, but that’s all right,” John David said. “I’m still here.”

He’s a couple of inches shorter than Carson Palmer and Leinart, but he takes the job as USC quarterback better prepared in so many ways.

His father coached quarterbacks and his son for years. Both of his brothers played for LSU, one as a quarterback and the other as a wide receiver. His brother Josh went on to play quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. He also watched Josh become a prized major league baseball recruit only to disappoint and get pounded by the media.

He hasn’t won a starting spot yet but has two national championship rings.

He enjoyed tremendous success in high school, and then became an understudy to a Heisman Trophy winner -- even taking a ballroom dancing course.

John David knows what to say, all right, the football cliches rolling off his tongue as if they have never been said before, and while I told him that makes him sound programmed, he said predictably, but confidently, “I am what I am.”

He said it never crossed his mind -- not once -- to leave USC when everything went against him, interrupting himself in mid-sentence to shout greetings to a couple of his teammates as they walked by. “Those are my guys,” he said.

I mentioned Paris Hilton and the beach shades he was wearing, and in return all I got was football talk from a polite young man, who said, “I think one of my strengths is that nothing really rattles me.”

I gave it a try, though, bringing up Mark Sanchez’s name and the possibility he might bypass Booty and become USC’s starting quarterback.

“I’m not worried about that,” he said. “I know he can throw the ball great or he wouldn’t be here. My job is just to get better every day and help this team.”

Like I said, he’s on automatic pilot, and while obviously trained well, he begins USC’s first practice Thursday with the weight of Trojans expectations on his healed back. In part, that’s why he has added 20 pounds to his frame, knowing he’ll be a target for anyone trying to ruin USC’s season.

“I’m ready for this,” he said.

And as first impressions go, if he handles a pass rush as well as Page 2, I might have to introduce him to Lofton so he can teach him a thing or two.

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THE DODGERS lose 13 of 14, 10 of their previous 12 series, then knock off last-place Washington three in a row, trade for a 40-year-old pitcher who is 4-11 since May 1 and a shortstop who will play out of position, and suddenly everyone is talking playoffs?

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IF YOU think the Dodgers are worse off by adding so many players from Tampa, just imagine how horrible it must be in Tampa with the Devil Rays stockpiling former Dodgers.

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I WAS stunned to read that one of trainer Jeff Mullins’ horses had tested positive for an excess of an anesthetic in its system, which might have allowed it to run better on sore legs. I have no doubt Mullins will be exonerated.

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IN WHAT might be a totally unrelated story, eight horses have now been euthanized during the first 12 days of the 43-day meet at Del Mar.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes from Avon:

Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter has reached a deal to sell men’s cologne called “Driven,” which will have the fragrance of “chilled grapefruit, clean oak moss and spice.”

I’m not sure what the fragrance would be, but I would imagine Jeff Kent’s cologne would be called, “Unapproachable.”

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers @latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.