Associated Press

Pete Carroll has a 76-14 record going into his eighth season at Southern Cal.

LOS ANGELES -- Most football practices at Virginia are shrouded in secrecy, closed to the public and media.

At the University of Southern California, practice is a show.

A preseason practice this month was just another Hollywood tourist attraction. More than 300 people -- including fans, media members and players' relatives -- stood around the practice field as the third-ranked Trojans went through their drills.

"We need to have great practices, so the more energy there is around us, the better it is," Carroll said in an interview after the practice. "It's like every day is a performance opportunity."

Opening every practice to the public is hardly the approach most college coaches adopt, but Carroll doesn't fear spilling secrets.

"I can go watch somebody practice, ... and I'm a pretty good football coach, and I can watch a practice from the sideline and I can't tell much -- and nobody else can, either," Carroll, 56, said. "So I'm not worried about it."

Once practice ends, Carroll and his players not only do interviews but also sign autographs for fans and chat with family and friends.

Linebacker Brian Cushing enjoys practicing in front of a crowd.

"It brings more of a fun environment, more of a competitive nature," he said.

Carroll is entering his eighth season with USC, a program he restored to greatness.

USC has won at least 11 games in each of the past six seasons, finishing in the top four of the Associated Press poll each of those years. The Trojans were crowned national champs by the AP poll at the end of the 2003 season and won the Bowl Championship Series title a year later.

This season could bring another national crown. The winner of USC's Sept. 13 home game against No. 2 Ohio State will be a front-runner to wind up with one of the berths in the BCS title game.

But first, the Trojans will travel across the country to visit rebuilding Virginia.

They opened last season at home against WAC lightweight Idaho, but Carroll prefers sterner tests.

The Trojans visited Auburn to open the 2003 season, faced Virginia Tech at FedEx Field to begin the 2004 season and visited Arkansas to kick off the 2006 season.

"To do what we want to do every year, we've got to win every game," said Carroll, whose team is idle next week. "We need to be a really loaded-up team, and we need these challenges.

"Starting against Virginia is a great opportunity for us to get ready, ... and have to play good football. ... To us, every game's a championship game."

Carroll's recruiting prowess keeps USC a heavyweight. For example, all three of his quarterbacks and nine of his running backs were high school All-Americans.

"This is, I hope, the most competitive place in sports for playing time," he said.

One reason stellar recruits keep joining the Trojans, even when their position is stocked with talent, is because they get an immediate shot to shine in practice.

"Every guy gets to play with the starters the first day they're on the practice field," Carroll said. "They're thrown in with the first group day in, day out, until they stay or they give their positions up to the older guys.

"We've had over half the guys, in their freshman year, play [in games] every year we've been here. That's because they're talented and they ... get that opportunity to show us how good they are."

The former NFL head coach loves the challenge of keeping USC a national title contender, and considers it a "dream situation" for him.

Things might be less rosy if USC is hit with sanctions. The NCAA is investigating whether Reggie Bush and his family were paid by would-be agents when he was starring for the Trojans.

The allegations are the only major blemish on Carroll's Southern Cal resume.

Having transformed USC from a mediocrity back to major power, Carroll said he no longer feels any pressure.

"That's well behind me," he said. "[It's] about achievement now, about performance, about the excellence we can display though the process and the personnel and the tactics and the strategy and the preparation.

"That's what I live for, is to go out to practice every day and have a blast. That's why we have people out there. That's why we're ... kicking a field goal to see who won the day."

Carroll doesn't want practices marked by drudgery. He wants practices filled with competition.

"I don't think anybody practices with any more intensity or is willing to practice their [first string] against [first string] as much as we do," Carroll said.

"[Quarterback] Mark Sanchez took every snap of spring football against the No. 1 defense. The defense tried to kill him every day.

"It ain't about the game. It's about the practice field. And then we go have fun playing football."