LOS ANGELES - It's been nearly three months since Dwayne Jarrett could run under the watchful eye of NFL scouts. And when he did finally take off on a 40-yard dash Wednesday, it seemed to take him that long to reach the finish line.

Dwayne Jarrett turned in two times, of 4.64 seconds and 4.65 seconds, according to one scout during USC's Pro Day at Cromwell Field. Several others had varying times, but all were slower than 4.6.

That's well off the 4.4 that fellow USC receiver Steve Smith turned in at the NFL Combine more than a month ago, and slower even than linebacker Dallas Sartz's 4.58 and defensive lineman Travis Tofi's 4.57 on Wednesday.

"So many people have been putting a pimple on the 40," said Dwayne Jarrett, who ran in a black-and-gold, Michael Johnson-like track suit that Nike designed for him. "I just went out there, worked and did what I was supposed to do and am happy with the results."

Dwayne Jarrett's pass-catching workout wasn't smooth, either. His cuts weren't nearly as sharp as Smith, and one slipped and fell on one. A scout for an AFC team described Dwayne Jarrett, who is 6-foot-5, 214 pounds, as stiff.

Yet while several Trojans saw their stock plummet before last year's draft, some NFL evaluators said Dwayne Jarrett's work on the field over the last three years, when he caught a Pac-10 record 41 touchdown passes, would carry the most weight. Most saw him as a late first-round pick.

"He's a football player," Miami Dolphins general manager Randy Muller said. "That's a prime example of `just watch the film.' He has one of the better sets of hands that you'll ever see. He's a big man and he catches it when he's covered."

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