USC Pulls a Lemon for the Citrus Bowl Officials : Trojans Have Date in Florida but Feel Like Wallflowers After Rout by UCLA

Florida Citrus Bowl officials filed into the USC dressing room Saturday evening, and it wouldn’t be accurate to say that their jackets were as green as their faces.

But they seemed to be a solemn lot.

Even though the team they had selected to play Auburn at Orlando, Fla., on New Year’s Day just got thrashed, 45-25, by UCLA, they were able to find a silver lining in that dark cloud that hung over the Trojans.

“The best thing about today is that both teams (USC and Auburn) will be on national TV next week,” said Chuck Rohe, executive director of the Citrus Bowl. “If you (USC) win next week, no one will ever remember today.”

USC will play Notre Dame next Saturday, the same day that Auburn takes on Alabama.

It’s doubtful, though, that the memory of USC’s one-sided loss will be soon forgotten--at least not by Bruin fans.

The Citrus Bowl officials were simply tendering the official bid to USC. The pairing was made last Sunday.

USC Coach Ted Tollner put on his best face, while replying to a Citrus Bowl spokesman in the dressing room:

“We’ll put on a better show, we’ll guarantee that. We didn’t show it today, but we’ll make you feel good about your invitation.”

UCLA so thoroughly dominated USC that Tollner and his players couldn’t cite any one play as a particular turning point, with the possible exception of the Hail Mary pass Matt Stevens threw to Karl Dorrell as the first half ended.

That surprising 39-yard touchdown provided UCLA with an insurmountable 31-0 halftime advantage, equaling USC’s largest deficit ever in a first half.

Notre Dame did a 31-0 number on USC at halftime in 1966 on the way to a 51-0 rout.

“We were whipped in every phase of the game, especially in the first half,” Tollner said. “They did a great job of controlling the football and Gaston Green gave them the big play. He has great speed and knows how to cut back against the grain.

“In order to win, we had to take away the 30-yard plus play on the run and the pass. We never really had control of them when they were on offense.”

As for his own offense, Tollner said it just couldn’t make anything happen with limited possession time in the first half, citing some penalties and dropped passes that stalled his team.

“We had some things to build on,” he said, referring to the second half, “but we can’t make what happened disappear. We just have to take a hard look at ourselves and improve.”

Perhaps the Trojans will be able to block the UCLA game out of their mind someday, but it’s doubtful they’ll soon forget about Green, the smooth, accelerating UCLA tailback.

Green wound up with 224 yards, the most ever gained in one game by one runner against USC, and scored four touchdowns. Oregon’s Jack Morris had the previous high of 212 yards in 1957, and that was against a 1-9 team, worst in USC’s history.

“He’s the best back in the country,” USC quarterback Rodney Peete said of Green. “If he can stay healthy and avoid injuries for an entire season, he’ll be a Heisman Trophy winner.”

Someone asked Tim McDonald, USC’s All-American safety, if Green was a deceptive-type runner.

“He’s not deceiving,” McDonald said. “He’s just really fast. We couldn’t slow him down. He did it to us in style. The game was embarrassing.”

Dan Owens, USC’s redshirt freshman nose guard, said there was a deceptive quality about the Bruin junior from Gardena High.

“He didn’t look that fast getting to the line of scrimmage, but once he got there he was gone,” Owens said.

USC’s young defensive line, including freshman tackle Tim Ryan and junior tackle Gary Willison, had difficulty locating the elusive Green.

“Most teams block us straight up, but they were hitting us from the side,” Owens said, trying to sort out the events of the day, “and they (UCLA) had good cutback plays.”

Most of the Trojans interviewed said that UCLA didn’t do anything drastically different from a standpoint of an offensive scheme.

“I’m very disappointed,” McDonald said. “I’m upset the way we played defense. We just didn’t play aggressively and I don’t know why.”

USC had limited three previous opponents--Stanford, Arizona and California--to a total of one touchdown. Green got four by himself.

“We thought we were ready to play and had a good week of practice,” McDonald said. “There wasn’t anything that they really did differently. They just gave Green the ball and he did as he pleased.”

Explosive was the word that USC outside linebacker Marcus Cotton used to describe Green as Cotton limped out of the dressing room on crutches.

Cotton sprained his right ankle at the end of the first half and didn’t play again. Dave Cadigan, USC’s strongside offensive tackle, bruised his left shin and limped out of the game. Neither is expected to be able to play against Notre Dame, and Cadigan may miss the Citrus Bowl.

While USC’s defense was futilely trying to catch Green, quarterback Matt Stevens was also bedeviling the Trojans. He completed 14 of 19 passes for 190 yards and 2 touchdowns.

“We knew we had to shut down their running game,” McDonald said, “and, when we became so conscious of Green, Stevens went over the top on us.”

USC’s offense was just as frustrated as the defense. The Trojans couldn’t get anything going in the first half and were restricted to 52 total yards, while UCLA was rolling for 308.

“We just struggled,” Peete said. “They just knocked us off the ball and kicked our butts. Everything we did was wrong, and everything they did was right.”

Peete’s big plays were the decisive factor in the USC’s 17-13 upset win over UCLA last year, a game in which Peete scored the winning touchdown with 1:13 remaining.

“They were definitely conscious of me rolling out,” Peete said. “They sent a linebacker up the field on me and did a great job of stopping the rollout.”

Peete was particularly frustrated in the first half. He completed only 4 of 9 pases for 29 yards, threw 1 interception and was sacked twice.

“It hurts a lot,” Peete said. “They just blew us out. But we have to put it out of our minds because we have a tough game coming up with Notre Dame.”