John Walters

It was April Fool's Day, so perhaps the Trojans should have seen it coming.

During a USC defensive team meeting last spring, officers from the LAPD burst into the room and "arrested" then-freshman defensive end Everson Griffen. The charge: "Physically abusing a freshman."

Coach Pete Carroll was then handed a videotape as evidence, which he popped in to a recorder. The video showed Griffen bowling over offensive lineman Matt Meyer, who had graduated high school in December so that he could join the Trojans for spring ball, in practice.

Fortunately for Griffen, no such charge exists as a felony in the California penal code. For if it did, considering California’s "three strikes rule," Griffen would be going away for life. And he’d be joined by the entire USC defense.

Players such as defensive tackle Fili Moala. Linebackers Rey Maualuga and Brian Cushing. Free safety Taylor Mays. Four dangerous players and, by the way, one-eighth of the first-round picks in next April’s NFL draft. Griffen would increase that fraction (5/32) if only he weren’t an underclassman.

Defensively, the Trojans are loaded.

Last season, USC finished second nationally in both total defense (273.2 ypg) and scoring defense (16.0). Four players from that outstanding unit are gone, and three of them (defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, linebacker Keith Rivers and defensive end Lawrence Jackson) were selected in the first round of last April’s NFL draft. The fourth, cornerback Terrell Thomas, was the final pick of the second round.

And while no program surrendered more players to the NFL in the draft’s first three rounds than the Trojan defense did in the first two, they will be even better this season. Count on it.

Why? Experience. Six of USC’s seven returning starters are in their third season as starters. And, just as a baseball defense must be strong up the middle, that too is where the core of USC’s prowess lies. Start up front at defensive tackle with Fili Moala. Only at USC can a 6-foot-5, 300-pound behemoth be overshadowed, but that was Moala’s fate as future first-round picks Mike Patterson and then Ellis got the attention.

Behind Moala are two certain first-round picks and perhaps one Butkus Award winner. Cushing will man the Sam, or strongside linebacker spot in USC’s 4-3 defense, while the team’s most ferocious hitter, Maualuga, mans the Mike, or middle linebacker position. Maualuga first served notice that he was USC’s next Lofa Tatupu as a sophomore when he nearly beheaded UCLA quarterback Patrick Cowan as he ran toward the sideline at the Rose Bowl. On a defense where everyone makes plays, Maualuga led the Trojans with 79 tackles and 10.5 for a loss in 2007.

Backing up Maualuga is perhaps the nation’s best safety tandem. Free safety Taylor Mays, the son of former NFL defensive lineman Stafford Mays, is 6-4 and 230 pounds of pure Polamalu. Like the former USC All-American, Mays (65 tackles) is hyper-aggressive and his presence has a tendency to cause wide receivers’ arms to contract. Strong safety Kevin Ellison, the brother of Buffalo Bills linebacker Keith Ellison, makes fewer bone-jarring hits than Mays — the best Mays to patrol a California centerfield since the Say Hey Kid — but is better in pass coverage. The final third-year starter is cornerback Cary Harris.

Kevin Terrell / Getty Images USC linebacker Rey Maualuga is one of the most feared players in the country.

Six returning three-year starters from a defense that was second-best in the nation last year is the reason Pete Carroll sleeps soundly at night (having a home by the surf in Manhattan Beach also aids in tranquil slumber). That and the presence of Griffen, an unfairly quick defensive end who had 5.5 sacks as a true freshman last season.

The 6-3, 270-pound sophomore from Avondale, Ariz., is the next rare talent being groomed by Carroll. Last season, he became the Trojans’ first true freshman defensive lineman to start the season opener since 1986. Given the premium the NFL puts on defensive ends and Everson’s precocious talent, he will likely be drafted some day (i.e., the 2010 NFL draft) higher than any of his current teammates.