When he uses words such as amazing, overwhelming, and intense — and hasn't even played in his first game yet — you know Kaluka Maiava is excited about football.

In one moment the freshman linebacker is taking his hits against "extreme" athletes, the next he's eating near the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.

And as a member of the top-ranked and two-time defending national champion Southern California football team, it's about to get even crazier with the start of the season.

Maiava, who graduated from Baldwin High three months ago, is returning to the Islands for the Trojans' opener against the University of Hawai'i on Saturday at Aloha Stadium. Kickoff is 1:05 p.m.

"I'm excited to play. And the game is going to be on ESPN(2). Coming from Maui, that's a trip," said Maiava, who is expected to play on special teams. "It's exciting; you can say you were a part of it. I'm just living life right now. Hopefully, I can get on the field this week."

The chance to play his first collegiate football game in his home state, in front of tens of thousands of fans — and the millions more who will be watching on TV — is a "real big game for me," Maiava said.

The media attention revolving around the team is surreal for Maiava, but is only a part of the hype that surrounds USC football.

"It's amazing, you have players like (Heisman Trophy quarterback) Matt Leinart and (All-America running back) Reggie Bush, and you see them on TV, and you look over, and they are eating on the next table," he said. "You can't describe it. You go to practice and you love it. People every day line up and watch all day. There's a lot of support. That just shows how much people love this program and how great it is."

Along with Leinart and Bush, he said the entire team is made up of "athletes, extreme athletes. It's amazing being around guys where every single person is a great athlete. I'm just so happy to be a part of this team."

Maiava, who is 6 feet and 220 pounds, said all of the talk about three-peating as national champions is "a media thing. Our thing is game by game. We don't look past that. We take care of business first. Our coach stresses that a lot."

It has been a heavy period of adjustment for Maiava, who went from a "playbook that was a couple of sheets, but here it is a dictionary. I never thought about how overwhelming it would be."

He has been in Los Angeles since just after graduating in June, taking summer school classes and training with the team. It has helped him get an early start on a hectic lifestyle.

"Football is life now, that's the main thing. It's every day, meetings, practices," he said. "Intensity, the motivation, I can't even describe it. High school, it's football season and you're done. But here, it's year-round football. It really checks if you love football or not."

During high school Maiava decided he needed to raise his football profile, so he attended a USC football camp in the summer of 2004. He also attended camps at Stanford, San Diego State, Utah, Brigham Young and Colorado, and drew interest from Boise State, Fresno State, Tulane, California, Arizona, Washington, Colorado, Wisconsin, Oregon, Utah, BYU and UTEP.

"My whole thing was getting recruited, trying to get my name in there," he said. "It was a huge thing. It let them see me and I got to see what they were like. The first thing I noticed was that (the USC coaches) were like my high school coaches; they were intense."

After making a verbal commitment to USC, he said coaches didn't even mention that he would redshirt this season, clearing the way for this homecoming.

"They wanted me to come in and compete. I was thinking about (redshirting), but then I decided I wanted to be a part of it," Maiava said.

And now that the start of the season is approaching quickly, "it's starting to get fun now," he said. "Right now it is good. Camp was really exhausting, my body kind of shut down. Now that we're actually practicing for a real game, I'm pumped. Practice is really intense, everyone is into it."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.