USC Wins Big With Big Plays, 31-16 : Peete, Henry, Cotton Are the Trojan Horses in Victory Over Illinois

USC made just enough big plays to offset turnovers, while showing off a relatively new offensive threat and relying on an established defensive player, Saturday at the Coliseum.

As a result, the Trojans won their season opener, beating Illinois, 31-16, before a crowd of 51,946.

USC had four turnovers in the first half, providing Illinois with favorable field position, but the Illini could realize only nine points, on three field goals, from the Trojan errors.

While Illinois was being frustrated by a USC defense led by linebacker Marcus Cotton, the Trojans struck quickly for three of their four touchdowns.

Junior split end Ken Henry, whose previous Trojan playing career was confined mainly to an appearance in the Aloha Bowl last December, brought the so-called no-name USC receivers out of the closet.

Henry made a pro-type catch of quarterback Rodney Peete’s pass for USC’s second touchdown while being covered closely in the second quarter. Then, in the third quarter, he caught a scoring pass from, of all people, flanker Randy Tanner.

Henry’s first touchdown reception covered 26 yards, the second 30.

Peete concluded the big-play bonanza as time was running out in the fourth quarter. On a broken play, he found a seam in the middle, reversed his field and scored on a 32-yard run.

“The game went the way I thought it would,” USC Coach Ted Tollner said. “We struggled some early and did some things that a quality football team shouldn’t do, but we responded, and that was the most impressive thing.

“Obviously, we have to improve a great deal. We won’t win next week (against Baylor at Waco, Tex.,) if we play like that. But our willingness to fight is a key ingredient of a good football team.”

Illinois couldn’t sustain many drives behind its new quarterback, Shane Lamb, until the second half. Then, the Illini’s judgment could have been questioned. With USC leading, 21-9, and more than 12 minutes remaining, Illinois disdained a field-goal attempt on fourth down at the Trojan 10-yard line.

A Lamb pass was incomplete. It seemed that Illinois should have taken a field goal at that juncture with so much time remaining. As it turned out, the Illini scored later in the quarter and could have used that field goal in an effort to catch the Trojans.

It became academic, anyway, because USC, ahead, 21-16, moved into a comfort zone with Peete’s touchdown on a drive that was sustained by an acrobatic, sideline catch by tailback Aaron Emanuel for 21 yards.

“It was supposed to be a bootleg pass to the weakside,” Peete said. “But Illinois was so concerned about containment that the middle was open. After I got by a linebacker, no one was there.”

Peete said that USC had an average game, and he also judged his own performance as “very average.”

He threw an ill-advised pass that was intercepted and he also fumbled, setting up two Illinois field goals in the first half.

But he settled down in the second half and wound up the game completing 10 of 24 passes for 197 yards, including a scoring throw to Henry.

“Last year, people could say my mistakes were just those of a redshirt freshman,” Peete said, “but I shouldn’t be making them now because I’m more experienced.”

Peete was wearing a cutoff T-shirt in the locker room, with the message, “Make it Happen,” across the front. He said it was a gift from his mother, Edna.

Cotton should have been wearing a similar T-shirt, for the junior linebacker certainly did make it happen.

He was in Lamb’s face most of the game, sacking the quarterback twice for losses, forcing a fumble and deflecting four passes.

“I don’t think there is anyone in the Pac-10 who can block him,” Peete said of Cotton. “One of the reasons I’ll be ready for games this year is because I see the best guy coming after me every day in practice.”

Tollner wasn’t as hard on Peete as the quarterback was on himself.

“He’s a young guy coming off an injury (torn Achilles’ tendon) and he had to get his feet wet. As for his touchdown run, we haven’t had guys do that when the play is not there.”

In other words, Peete turned a possible sack into a touchdown by improvising.

Peete’s touchdown run was the longest by a USC quarterback since Vince Evans broke loose for 36 yards against UCLA in 1976.

Henry, whose USC statistics before Saturday showed a meager 4 catches for 83 yards, caught 4 passes for 98 yards against the Illini.

He was closely covered by cornerback Keith Taylor in the second quarter when Peete’s pass caromed off Taylor’s helmet, according to Henry, and the wide receiver held it for a touchdown--while barely in bounds.

“I didn’t realize it was a touchdown until an official signaled that it was,” Henry said.

The play, with 44 seconds left in the first half, gave USC a 14-6 lead.

Earlier in the second quarter, Emanuel climaxed a 51-yard drive by taking a pitchout and carrying tacklers with him on a three-yard touchdown.

If there was a turning-point play, though, it came in the third quarter.

On first down at the Illinois 30, Tanner took a handoff from Peete, drifted to his right and nailed Henry with a pass in the corner of the end zone, with a defender in close pursuit.

“The play was Z (flanker) reverse pass,” Tanner said. “It’s designed to look like a 28 pitch. We figured if we showed pitch the cornerbacks would come up. A defensive back was a little close, but I saw that Henry had the leverage outside, and all I had to do was get it to him. The play didn’t work too well in practice, but it clicked in the game.”

Tanner, a running back when he played at Bishop Amat, said he threw five touchdown passes in high school, three to John Jackson, who is now a USC receiver.

Tanner has made a comeback from knee surgery after being tackled on the opening kickoff against Notre Dame in the Trojans’ seventh game last year.

The junior flanker burned Illinois last year at Champaign, Ill., by catching a 46-yard touchdown pass as USC won, 20-10. He has, however, been used as a surprise passer as a Trojan. Tanner threw a 50-yard pass to Hank Norman that set up a touchdown against Stanford last season. The play was, again, Z reverse.

Tollner alternated his tailbacks, Ryan Knight and Emanuel, with Knight starting as he did at the end of the 1985 season.

Knight gained 60 yards in 16 carries, while Emanuel contributed 78 yards in 19 carries. Emanuel also made that stretching sideline catch to keep USC’s final scoring drive alive.

With their big plays, the Trojans had more offense than the Illini, 443 total net yards to 275.

Lamb, a junior college transfer from Mira Costa, threw more passes than Illinois Coach Mike White would have liked in his quest for a balanced offense. He put the ball up 38 times, completing 17 for 147 yards, including a four-yard touchdown throw to tight end Jerry Reese.

Lamb threw only one interception, setting up a window-dressing field goal by USC’s Steve Shafer with just 37 seconds remaining.

Illinois had enough opportunities to win the game, especially in the first half, when the Trojans were afflicted with turnovers.

“It was a disappointing loss because we had an oportunity to win and we let it slip away,” White said. “You have to give USC credit for a great drive after we pulled close (21-16) in the fourth quarter. When USC smelled victory, it went after it.”

It was USC’s ninth win over Illinois in 10 meetings. White is 0-3 on the West Coast as the Illini coach, losing to UCLA in the 1984 Rose Bowl, then to Stanford in the ’84 season and to USC Saturday.

The Trojans’ opposition will be upgraded with next Saturday’s televised game at Baylor.