UW Football Notebook | Chopping down USC

Marlon Wood's father, Richard Wood, is one of the more famous USC Trojans.

Richard Wood, a linebacker, was USC's first three-time first-team All-American and was a star on the 1972 team that won the national title.

All of which meant almost nothing to Washington receiver Marlon Wood when he was growing up.

Marlon Wood will make his first trip to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to play the Trojans on Saturday, but says it's meaningful mostly as a chance to beat the Trojans, a team he said he felt "hatred" for as a kid.

"If the game was on TV and they were playing Notre Dame, I would go out and buy a Notre Dame T-shirt and wear it around the house," Wood said.

Wood said it was mostly teenage rebellion at play — he had to be different than his mom and dad, who would be rooting for USC.

The family was in Tampa, Fla., where Richard Wood settled after a long NFL career with the Buccaneers.

Marlon Wood instead was a fan of all the Florida teams. Now that he's a Husky, he said the family roots for the Huskies.

They'll all be there Saturday hoping for a better outcome than last year when Wood suffered a broken leg after returning the opening kickoff 92 yards against USC in Seattle. Wood was injured when he was dragged down from behind by Josh Pinkard in a horse-collar tackle.

Wood said he thinks such tackles should be penalized, though he said he harbors no ill will toward Pinkard. Pinkard, a safety, is out for the year with a knee injury.

Stanback, Carroll reunited

UW quarterback Isaiah Stanback seriously considered signing with USC out of Garfield High, saying this week that the Trojans recruited him harder than any other school.

But even though he was named the MVP as a quarterback at a USC camp before his senior year, the Trojans wanted to sign him as an athlete, which helped persuade Stanback to sign with UW.

"I was told I was being invited as a quarterback but they wanted to put me as an athlete, so I didn't feel good about the situation, so I came here," he said. "I didn't see too many QBs like myself playing at USC."

USC coach Pete Carroll said Tuesday that Stanback "is an incredible athlete who has become a terrific quarterback. I wish we could have gotten him, but I couldn't commit to him at the time when we had [Matt] Leinart and those other guys that he would be able to make it through the ranks as a quarterback in the style that we play. But that's just my shortcoming and not seeing through the things that would make him the fantastic quarterback that he is. I think he's a great player and will have a fantastic career after his college days."

Notes

• Arizona coach Mike Stoops lavished praise on the Huskies during Tuesday's Pac-10 weekly conference call, in particular on Stanback. "I don't know if there's been a more valuable player in the conference to this point," Stoops said.

• WR Anthony Russo (concussion) returned to practice.

• USC receiver Chris McFoy fractured two bones in his shoulder area against Washington State and is expected to miss at least four games.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com