Marinovich Got More Than Just Raves : USC: He also ended up with a sprained wrist in the opener against Syracuse, but it shouldn’t hamper his move up the Trojans’ passing list.

One game into his sophomore season, Todd Marinovich has a sprained left wrist, but it hasn’t kept him from moving up to fifth place on USC’s all-time passing list. Only Jimmy Jones, Paul McDonald, Sean Salisbury and Rodney Peete completed more passes as Trojans.

Will Marinovich stay at USC long enough to pass Peete and reach the top of the list?

“If he makes it to his junior year, I’ll be greatly surprised,” commentator Dave Rowe, a former Raider, told a national television audience Friday night during USC’s 34-16 season-opening victory over Syracuse at East Rutherford, N.J.

Marinovich’s performance against the Orangemen--he completed 25 of 35 passes for a career-best 337 yards and three touchdowns--has fueled speculation that he will leave school early to enter the NFL draft.

But while those around him all but guarantee an early departure for the southpaw from Balboa--”He’d be crazy not to go,” Rowe said--Marinovich said this week that the NFL was “the furthest thing” from his mind.

His main concern as the Trojans prepare to play Penn State on Sept. 15 at the Coliseum, Marinovich said, is his wrist, which was badly sprained in the first half against Syracuse.

About 2 1/2 minutes before halftime, as he stepped up into the pocket and overthrew receiver Raoul Spears, Marinovich was hit from behind by a Syracuse defender. Attempting to brace his fall, Marinovich landed hard on his wrist as another defender rolled onto his arm.

He played with his wrist taped in the second half, completing 12 of 18 passes for 197 yards as USC extended a 14-10 halftime lead, but Marinovich is being held out of practice this week.

Although it’s not expected to keep him out of the Penn State game, “It’s one of those nagging injuries that’s going to last for another month or so,” Marinovich said. “It’s a bummer.”

It was about the only bad thing that happened to him against the Orangemen, who saw a stronger, more confident Marinovich than the one they saw on film in the days leading up to the game.

While he graded himself “pretty close to an A” against Syracuse, “I wouldn’t say I was perfect,” Marinovich said. “It’s not the best I can play. I know there were a few plays I wished I could have had back.”

Quarterback coach Ray Dorr said: “He had a great command of what we asked him to do.”

After a slow start last season, Marinovich led USC to a 9-2-1 record and a third consecutive trip to the Rose Bowl, where the Trojans beat Michigan, 17-10.

College football’s freshman of the year and the first freshman quarterback named to the all-Pacific 10 Conference team, Marinovich threw for 2,578 yards and 16 touchdowns while completing a school-record 62.2% of his passes.

“But even when he got rolling, I think he was still a little intimidated by some of the teams we played (in 1989),” flanker Gary Wellman said this week. “He didn’t really know what to expect.”

It was a more self-assured Marinovich that sliced up the Orangemen.

“I’m just more comfortable with the spot I’m in,” said Marinovich, whose summer of work included exercises to improve his peripheral vision, computerized evaluations to improve his throwing technique and an emphasis on fundamentals to improve his ballhandling.

Marinovich seemed especially adept on play-action fakes, for which he gained a greater appreciation after watching films last spring of other quarterbacks, including Joe Montana.

And he appeared to put more zip on his passes.

“It’s confidence more than anything,” Wellman said. “When the ball had to be rifled in, he rifled it in. He didn’t hold back at all.”

Almost as important to USC, perhaps, has been Marinovich’s evolution as a leader. His experience, not to mention success, has allowed him to command greater respect in the huddle.

“The guys are listening to me more,” he said. “I’m not just talking to hear myself talk. When I say, ‘This is a touchdown,’ they’re believing it now.”

He has called a couple, he said, most recently in the third quarter Friday night, when Marinovich connected with Wellman on a 46-yard touchdown pass after telling his linemen in the huddle that if they made the play look like a run and fired off the ball to give Marinovich a few extra seconds to throw, he would give them six points.

“That opened the eyes of the linemen,” Marinovich said.

Marinovich’s accuracy opened the eyes of the New York media, who saw Trojan receivers drop three passes and watched as two other throws sailed through the hands of their targets.

“He could have been 32 of 35,” USC Coach Larry Smith said.

A season of experience has given Marinovich “a much stronger knowledge of defensive fronts and defensive secondaries and how they tie together, and it allows him to get the ball to the open receiver,” Dorr said.

Also, a better command of the offense has given Marinovich more time to study the opposition and learn its tendencies.

“He has a better hold on the offensive techniques that are demanded of him to make the play successful,” Dorr said. “He doesn’t have to go through a regimented thought process before each play, as he did a year ago.”

Said Marinovich: “I saw things that I wouldn’t have seen last year. I saw people blitzing and got out of situations that I don’t think I would have gotten out of last year.”

He expects to see similar defensive tactics in the weeks to come.

“I don’t think people are going to just sit back and say, ‘Let’s let him throw and see if we can cover it,’ ” Marinovich said. “I think they’re getting too smart for that.”

That may be so, but if last week is any indication, it might not matter what they do.