LOS ANGELES — Everywhere you went in this town on Saturday, there were shirts, signs and buttons proclaiming it “Booty Time!”

Southern California junior quarterback John David Booty just has one of those names you can have fun with. And if you don’t know why it’s funny, have your kids tell you.

But more importantly: Those shirts, signs and buttons? They were right. The guy with the fun name had his way in USC’s 28-10 win against Nebraska at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

He dominated largely in part to junior wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett, who had far too much game for Nebraska cornerbacks Cortney Grixby and Andre Jones.

All Jarrett did was catch 11 passes for 136 yards and two touchdowns.

Shocking to Trojans coach Pete Carroll? Nope.

“If you watched him in practice, you could see it coming, could see it coming,” Carroll said. “John Booty recognized the coming as well. Those guys were just on fire.”

Said Booty: “If you throw it anywhere around him, you know he’s going to bring it down.”

When it was all said and done, Booty finished  25-of-36 passing, racking up 257 yards and three scores.

He was at his best in the fourth quarter when Nebraska still seemed to have a shot.

Holding onto just a 21-10 lead, the Trojans went on a 14-play drive. It chewed up 81 yards and took 6:17 off the clock. Booty threw five passes on the drive. He connected on them all, totaling 53 yards.

And when Chauncey Washington took it in from 7 yards out with 6:27 left, any hopes of a Nebraska upset of the No. 4 team were quashed.

The win wasn’t as sexy as some triumphs for the Trojans. The Huskers’ defense, though  playing soft on the corners and conceding the swing pass all night, ended up holding USC to 399 total yards and just 152 yards rushing.

Last year, the Trojans averaged almost 600 yards per game. Of course, that bunch had Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart, who are now making major green playing on Sundays.

While Carroll did pass along some credit to Nebraska’s defense, it was the Huskers’ conservative offensive attack that perhaps frustrated him most.

Even though Nebraska mustered just 68 yards of rushing, the fact that they ran it 36 times did a number on the clock.

“Their style was to kind of sit on the football as much as they could and kind of burn the clock,” Carroll said. “You could see that at the end of the half. They were trying to burn some clock and have us make some mistakes late in the game.”

At half, USC led 14 3, but Carroll said “it didn’t even feel like we were out there yet.”

But the Trojans never seemed in danger — their defense kicking NU around and allowing just 211 yards.

“That whole group was swarming out there,” Carroll said. “Our front seven just got after it the whole night.”

Booty and company took it from there. If he wasn’t hitting Jarrett —who set a school career record for TD catches — he was finding Steve Smith, who had six catches for 53 yards and a score.

“It seemed like sometimes we’re not scoring quite as fast as the guys last year,” Booty said. “But we’re really kind of a scrappy group.”

Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7438 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.