Marinovich Opts for Route to NFL : Football: Quarterback forgoes his last two seasons at USC in order to be available for April draft. He says he doesn’t expect pro football to be easy.

Todd Marinovich, ending weeks of speculation, announced Friday that he will make himself available for the NFL draft in April, renouncing the final two years of his college eligibility.

“It’s the ultimate challenge for me,” said Marinovich, USC’s starting quarterback for most of the last two seasons. “I don’t expect it to be easy. It’s going to be the hardest thing that I’ve ever tried, but I’m prepared to go to work.”

In an unusual arrangement, Marinovich made his long-expected announcement not at a formal news conference, but in individual interviews with selected reporters.

It seemed a fitting end to a tumultuous last few months of his career at USC.

College football’s freshman of the year after leading the Trojans to a Rose Bowl victory over Michigan in his first season at USC, Marinovich had a stormy sophomore season.

He was suspended twice by Coach Larry Smith, the second time on Jan. 11, when Smith suspended the quarterback indefinitely after Marinovich failed to register for the spring semester and missed a mandatory team meeting.

Then, on Jan. 20, Marinovich was arrested for possession of cocaine and marijuana in Newport Beach. He is scheduled to be arraigned on misdemeanor charges Feb. 11 at Newport Municipal Court in Newport Beach.

Speaking at length for the first time since USC’s 17-16 loss to Michigan State on Dec. 31 in the John Hancock Bowl, which featured a fourth-quarter shouting match between Smith and Marinovich after the quarterback was pulled from the game, Marinovich said that he has been involved for the last two weeks in a psychological counseling program.

“I felt that it was in my best interests to understand my behavior,” Marinovich said. “What I did was make some mistakes that I can only hope to learn from.

“The arrest brought a lot of things into focus. The biggest thing is that drugs aren’t the kinds of things I should be doing. Those kinds of activities have no place in my life. I’ve made some mistakes in the past and I don’t intend to make them in the future.”

Marinovich, however, denied that he had ever used drugs.

He declined to discuss the events that led to his arrest on a street on Balboa Island at 4:15 a.m., saying it wouldn’t be appropriate because “the case is still up in the air.”

Though it undoubtedly did not endear him to Smith, who told Marinovich in a meeting on Jan. 18 that he would have to meet several stipulations before Smith would consider reinstating him, the arrest did not affect his decision to leave school, Marinovich said.

He alluded to dissatisfaction with USC’s offense, which has been criticized as conservative by some, but said, “If I had to do it again, I would choose USC.”

Of his final season at USC, Marinovich said: “I really wasn’t enjoying my school experiences last year. That definitely affected my motivation and my focus.

“I just wasn’t having a whole lot of fun--on the field or off.”

Is he ready for the NFL?

“I think I have the physical makings to be a professional quarterback,” Marinovich said. “(I can) take the pounding and that, but I know I need a lot of work.”

Marinovich said that he was unsure if he would participate in NFL combine workouts starting Wednesday at Indianapolis. He injured his sternum in the Hancock Bowl, he said, and has been hampered during workouts.

“It really affects my throwing,” he said of the injury.

He made the decision to leave school after consulting with his parents, Marv and Trudi, and other family members and friends.

“A lot of people said I would benefit from another year of (college) football,” Marinovich said. “I’m not going to argue that point, but I’ve made my decision. I looked at all the alternatives carefully.”

Actually, his alternatives seemed limited. Marinovich said he never considered transferring to another school and Smith seemed to make it clear after suspending him that he wouldn’t be eager to take him back, in part because of the quarterback’s apparent lack of interest in going to class.

Marinovich’s repeated absence from class prompted Smith to suspend his starting quarterback for one game last season.

Marinovich ends his brief USC career as the school’s No. 2 passer. Only Rodney Peete, among former Trojans, passed for more yards than Marinovich, who completed a school-record 61.6% of his 674 passes for 5,001 yards and 29 touchdowns, with 25 interceptions.

With Marinovich as the starting quarterback, USC was 16-6-1.

“I wish Todd well in his football future,” Smith said in a statement released through the school’s sports information office.

Marinovich’s departure leaves USC with only one quarterback on scholarship, sophomore Reggie Perry of Denison, Tex. Perry took three snaps last season--all in the final series of a 56-7 victory over Oregon State.

USC has unwritten commitments from recruits Rob Johnson of El Toro High, Kyle Wachholtz of Norco and Corby Smith of Loyola. Also, flanker Curtis Conway was an All-American quarterback at Hawthorne High.