Doctors advised All-American left-tackle Sam Baker not to play Saturday against Oregon State after examining his partially torn hamstring. Even though it’s the larger part of his hamstring which is torn, making him less susceptible to suffering a full tear upon returning, and despite having received a second anti-inflammatory shot on Monday, Pete Carroll said he did not think Baker would play. Freshman Butch Lewis, who impressed against Notre Dame, is on track to start in his place, though Charles Brown will be in the mix after returning from a sprained ankle. Read on for more from Wednesday.

• Tailback Stafon Johnson should be ready to carry a full load on Saturday for the fist time since getting hurt against the Huskies on Sept 29. Carroll observed, “He’s not hobbling around any more. He’s ready to play.” He had better be, as Oregon State features the nation’s best rushing defense, giving up a stingy 54.5 yards per game on the ground. They also lead the nation with 34 sacks.
• In what is becoming a non-story, John David Booty remains on track to start at quarterback, saying that his passes were accurate and did not sail on him like they had last week, and that he felt no pain in his broken middle finger for the third straight day.
• Freshman Kris O’Dowd (knee) practiced at center with the scout team and at guard with the second-unit offense.
• Scott Wolf is reporting that fullback Stanley Havili is taking his fumble against Oregon extremely hard. The freshman told him, “There’s not a day or hour I haven’t thought about it. It was really hard this past weekend emotionally for me…You always need to hold on to the ball with two hands in traffic, especially on third-and-one.”
• Asked by the OC Register if interceptions (on both sides of the ball) have been his greatest frustration lately, Carroll said, “Heck yeah, man. It’s crazy.” Of the 119 teams in what used to be called Division I-A, USC ranks 96th in interceptions given up, and they are tied for 102nd in having thrown 14. For a team that once prided itself in forcing turnovers and taking care of the ball, these numbers are stark.
• Wolf is also reporting that an unnamed Trojan player was called out by Sam Baker for uttering, after the Oregon loss, that the Trojan’s playbook was on the internet for $9.95, apparently suggesting the play-calling was weak and/or predictable. Baker remarked, “I didn’t think it was called for and I didn’t understand it.”
• Carroll told reporters he spoke with Dave Cutaia, the Pac-10’s coordinator of football officials to illustrate the discrepancy between his teams and its opponents in terms of the numbers of penalties called over the last few years. USC is averaging 74.5 penalty yards a game this year, and its opponents just 43 yards. Cutaia had no explanation for the discrepancy, but Carroll agreed: “Neither of us do. We’re not pointing the finger at anyone. It’s just interesting.”

Insider: It’s up to Baker (Rivals, $)
It’s difficult to run on the Beavers (LA Times)
USC’s $9.95-playbook comment upsets players (LA Daily News)
Interceptions key to Trojans’ woes (Orange County Register)
Plan is to get Davis involved again (Daily Trojan)