#10 - Quarterback
HEIGHT: 6-3 / WEIGHT: 210 LBS
Senior/Senior
Shreveport, LA (Evangel Christian HS)
CAREER: His 303 career completions is eighth on the USC all-time chart. His 3,764 career passing yards is 10th on USC’s all-time list. His 3,690 yards of total offense is 14th on USC’s all-time ladder. His 32 career touchdown passes is eighth most at USC. He has thrown a TD pass in 12 career games, including 9 times with at least 2 TD throws and 7 with at least 3 TDs. He has thrown for at least 200 yards in 11 career games.
2007: Booty—a leading contender for the Heisman Trophy—returns for his second season as USC’s starting quarterback after a stellar showing in 2006. He is on the verge of moving into the Top 5 on USC’s career passing and total offense charts.
2006: Booty was impressive while starting for his first season at quarterback as a junior in 2006 after serving as USC’s backup the previous 3 years. He won the starting job despite missing all but the first day of 2006 spring practice with a herniated disk in his back that required surgery in late March (he was healthy throughout 2006 fall camp). Overall in 2006 while starting all 13 games, he completed 269-of-436 passes (61.7%) for 3,347 yards and 29 TDs with 9 interceptions. He also had 33 carries for minus 53 yards (-1.6) with a TD. He was 14th nationally in total offense (253.4, first in Pac-10) and 24th in passing efficiency (144.0, first in Pac-10).
He made the 2006 All-Pac-10 first team, ESPN.com All-Pac-10 first team, Rivals.com All-Pac-10 first team and Scout.com All-Pac-10 first team. He is
1 of 11 finalists for the Manning Award (given to the nation’s top quarterback) and was
1 of 15 semifinalists for the 2006 Maxwell Award (nation’s top player) and
1 of 18 semifinalists for the Davey O’Brien Award (nation’s top quarterback). He was a
USC team captain.
His 269 completions in 2006 was tied for fourth on USC’s season passing list. His 3,345 passing yards in 2006 was fifth on the USC season list (15th on the Pac-10 chart), joining Carson Palmer, Rob Johnson and Matt Leinart as the only Trojans to eclipse 3,000 passing yards in a season. His 3,294 yards of total offense in 2006 was fifth on USC’s season ladder (15th on the Pac-10 list). His 29 TD passes in 2006 was tied for fourth on the USC season list (tied for ninth on the Pac-10 ladder). He threw a TD pass in 12 of his 13 starts in 2006 (all but UCLA), including 9 games with at least 2 TD throws and 7 with 3 TDs. He threw for at least 200 yards in 11 of USC’s games in 2006, including the last 7 in a row.
He was impressive in his debut as a starter, as he completed 68.6% of his passes (24-of-35) for 261 yards and 3 second-half touchdowns at Arkansas (by comparison, his predecessor, 2004 Heisman winner Matt Leinart was 17-of-30 for 192 yards and a TD in his first start in 2003). He then was 25-of-36 for 257 yards and 3 TDs versus Nebraska. He was 24-of-39 for 179 yards and a short TD toss at Arizona, but threw his first interception of the season after 78 attempts. He was 23-of-32 for 269 yards and 3 TDs (with a pick) at Washington State. He hit 23-of-40 passes for 243 yards and a TD (with an interception) against Washington. He was 12-of-25 for 148 yards and 2 TDs against Arizona State, but threw an interception that was returned for a score. He hit 24-of-39 passes for a career-high 406 yards (the fifth most passing yards in USC history; only Carson Palmer 3 times and Mike Van Raaphorst once threw for more) with 3 TD passes and an interception at Oregon State. He was 12-of-21 for 203 yards with 3 second-quarter TDs (21, 7 and 2 yards) at Stanford. He was 17-of-26 for 213 yards with a TD and an interception against Oregon. He hit 18-of-31 passes for 238 yards and a pair of fourth-quarter TDs (25 and 37 yards) against California. He threw 3 TD passes (9, 5 and 43 yards) while going 17-of-28 for 265 yards (with 2 interceptions) against Notre Dame and also ran for a 1-yard score (his first career rushing TD). He was 23-of-39 for 274 yards (with an interception) at UCLA. He completed 27-of-45 passes against Michigan en route to 4 TDs (all career bests, with the 4 TDs tying a Rose Bowl game mark), including a season-long 62-yarder, and his 391 passing yards (eighth most in USC history) were the most surrendered by the Wolverines since 1999.
2005: Booty was USC’s No. 2 quarterback as a sophomore in 2005. Overall in 2005 while appearing in 10 games (all but Notre Dame, Fresno State and Texas), he completed 27-of-42 passes (64.3%) for 327 yards and 3 TDs with 2 interceptions.
He threw his first career TD pass while hitting 2-of-5 passes while directing USC in the fourth quarter at Hawaii. Against Arkansas, he was 4-of-9 for 60 yards with a TD, then saw brief action at the end of the Oregon game, but did not throw a pass, and played a snap at Arizona State when Matt Leinart was briefly dinged, but he did not throw a pass. He was 3-of-3 for 27 yards while directing the last series against Arizona, then was 5-of-6 for 71 yards with a 31-yard TD toss (and he threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown) while playing the fourth quarter at Washington. He hit 5-of-6 passes for 69 yards while playing most of the fourth quarter against Washington State, then hit 7-of-10 passes for 86 yards while playing most of the second half against Stanford and played the final 2 series at California, but did not throw a pass. He completed a 5-yard pass and had an interception among his 3 throws while playing most of the fourth quarter against UCLA.
2004: Booty was set to be the No. 2 quarterback as a sophomore in 2004. But he suffered a badly bruised right (throwing) elbow in 2004 fall practice, which limited his participation, so he redshirted.
2003: As just a first-year freshman in 2003, Booty—believed to be the first prep football player to graduate a full year early from high school and enroll at a major Division I-A university—emerged as USC’s No. 2 quarterback by mid-season. Overall in 2003 while seeing limited backup action in 5 games (Stanford, Notre Dame, Wahsington, Arizona and UCLA), he completed 7-of-14 passes (50.0%) for 90 yards. He broke his left wrist against UCLA, which sidelined him for USC’s last 2 games of 2003. He was 1-of-4 for 13 yards against Stanford in his first action as a Trojan, then hit his only pass attempt (a 5-yarder) at Notre Dame, was 3-of-6 for 63 yards at Arizona and 2-of-3 for 9 yards against UCLA.
HIGH SCHOOL: As a junior quarterback in 2002 at Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport (La..), he led his team to the Class 5A state title while throwing for 4,144 yards and 38 touchdowns while earning
Student Sports Underclass All-American and Class 5A All-State honors.
He also led Evangel Christian to the Class 5A state title as a 2001 sophomore, passing for 4,330 yards and 50 TDs while being named a
Student Sports Underclass All-American and Class 5A All-State.As a 2000 freshman, he completed 9-of-11 passes.
In his career, he threw for 8,474 yards on 555-of-864 passing (64.2%) with 88 touchdowns and 26 interceptions. Because Louisiana rules allow junior high students to compete on high school teams if the school is a kindergarten-through-12th grade school, he actually played some varsity football for Evangel Christian since the seventh grade.
Incoming Trojan Josh McKnight also prepped briefly at Evangel Christian.
PERSONAL: He’s a sociology major at USC. His father, Johnny, played quarterback at Arkansas, Louisiana Tech and Mississippi State, then coached football at Evangel Christian. His brother, Josh, was a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns (he’s currently on the Oakland Raiders roster) who played at LSU for 2 seasons (1999-2000) following a 5-year (1994-98) baseball career as an infielder in the Florida Marlins organization (including 13 games in the majors). Another brother, Abram, was a wide receiver at LSU (1997-1999) and Valdosta State (2001).
