No Storybook Ending for Tollner as Trojans Lose to Auburn, 16-7

In a dramatic sense, it would have been more fitting had Ted Tollner, USC’s lame-duck coach, gone out a winner.

But that’s storybook stuff, and even though Tollner’s Trojans played hard, especially on defense, Auburn had just enough offense to beat USC, 16-7, before a crowd of 51,113 on New Year’s Day in the Florida Citrus Bowl.

“We lost the game, but we didn’t fail,” Tollner said. “From a standpoint of a pure effort, I couldn’t ask more of our team.”

USC contained Brent Fullwood, Auburn’s All-American tailback, to some extent, inasmuch as he didn’t have a run longer than 11 yards.

But the quick, accelerating running back took smaller bites out of the USC defense. He wound up gaining 152 yards in a season-high 28 attempts. It was Fullwood’s power running that accounted for the only long scoring drive of the game, an 80-yard advance for a touchdown in the second quarter.

But Fullwood didn’t beat the Trojans in the nationally televised game on a cold, windy day in Florida. It was the Auburn defense, keyed by linebacker Aundray Bruce, that was the determining factor.

USC’s only touchdown, in the first quarter, was scored by its defense. Outside linebacker Marcus Cotton made an acrobatic, one-handed interception of a Jeff Burger pass and went on to score on a 24-yard return.

USC’s offense was generally ineffective. The running game was stuffed by Auburn’s defense, producing only a meager 44 yards and one first down.

So, USC was primarily a passing team Thursday, and quarterback Rodney Peete couldn’t sustain many drives with his arm. He completed 12 of 30 passes for 113 yards while throwing 4 interceptions.

Nonetheless, USC might have won, or closed in on Auburn, had it completed a big play that it used successfully during the season.

Auburn led, 14-7, in the third quarter of a game that had defense as its prominent theme. On second down at the Auburn 43, Peete threw a cross-field lateral to flanker Randy Tanner, who then lofted a pass to a wide-open Erik Affholter on the Auburn 11-yard line.

But Tanner overthrew the wide receiver, something he hadn’t done during the season when he threw scoring passes to split end Ken Henry against Illinois and Washington.

That could have been a turning-point play. There had definitely been one in the second quarter with the score tied at 7-7.

The Trojans had the ball at the Auburn 41-yard line after recovering a fumble. Peete ran a bootleg to his left and was set to throw deep when Bruce, a rangy, 228-pound junior, crashed into the quarterback from Peete’s blind side.

Bruce didn’t tackle Peete but hit him forcefully with his upper body. The ball popped loose, and Auburn regained possession.

“He really drilled me,” Peete said. “I’ll be feeling that hit for a while.”,

Burger, a mediocre passer most of the day, then connected with wide receiver Trey Gainous on a 34-yard first-down pass play from the Auburn 48-yard line.

A few plays later, Fullwood bolted in to score from the four-yard line. So, the Tigers cashed in on their opportunity after a fumble, and the Trojans didn’t.

Second-half scoring was restricted to a safety earned by Auburn at 6:25 of the fourth quarter, when Peete was cited for intentionally grounding the ball from the end zone under a heavy rush by Auburn defensive tackle Tracy Rocker.

It was clearly Auburn’s game at that point, but the Trojans made it interesting when cornerback Louis Brock blocked Brian Shulman’s punt and the ball carried out of bounds at the Auburn seven-yard line.

There was only 2:13 remaining, and Peete couldn’t complete a pass on the first two downs. On third down, he located Affholter, who was subbing for an injured Henry.

Officials said that Affholter’s catch, in the corner of the field, was six inches away from the goal line. Television replays indicated that Affholter apparently had made it to the end zone, but TV replays are not used on such decisions in college football.

So, the Trojans lined up to punch it in from six inches out and came up short. Fullback Leroy Holt, who played the entire game with injured Todd Steele unavailable, was stacked up for no gain.

The timing on the handoff from Peete to Holt was slow, and the fullback couldn’t get moving quickly enough.

“There are a couple of ways to make that play,” Tollner said. “You can go with the quarterback wedge, like we did against Notre Dame that came up short, or you could go with two fullbacks and pound it in there.”

USC had two fullbacks in the game at the time, with Jeff Brown a lead blocker for Holt.

Even if the Trojans had scored, their chances of winning were slim. But Tollner was prepared to try an onside kick in an attempt to gain position for a field goal.

Instead, the Tollner era at USC ended short of that. Arizona Coach Larry Smith is expected to be named the new USC coach today at a press conference on campus.

The distraction of Tollner’s firing, which was announced Dec. 8, didn’t necessarily inhibit his team in the bowl game, which the Trojans played with obvious intensity.

But on balance, Auburn was the better team. Coach Pat Dye’s Tigers, the nation’s 10th-ranked team, finished this season with a 10-2 record. USC had to settle for 7-5, losing its last three games--to UCLA, Notre Dame and Auburn.

“Baylor was the quickest team we had met previously, and Arizona State was the most physical,” Peete said.

As for Bruce, Peete said: “He’s a great football player. We had trouble blocking him all day. He was in my face a lot and made me hurry my throws.”

Tollner said he had reasoned that if USC could score 20 points, it would win. Auburn hasn’t allowed more than 20 points in any game this season, and the USC offense wasn’t up to the task.

“We wanted to send Coach Tollner out as a winner, and our defense gave us a chance,” Peete said, “but we (the offense) just didn’t do it.”

It was obvious that the Trojans missed All-American guard Jeff Bregel, who was ineligible after failing the steroid portion of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s pre-bowl drug test.

For most of the game, weakside tackle Bruce Parks filled in for Bregel at strongside guard, with John Page taking over Parks’ position.

Tollner said that on short-yardage plays, the Trojans usually go over Bregel’s side. USC made only 5 of 17 third-down plays, and Auburn was similarly ineffective, making only 4 of 16.

Moreover, USC failed on a fourth-and-one try from the Auburn 49-yard line while leading, 7-0, in the first quarter. Tailback Ryan Knight who played most of the game before he was replaced by Aaron Emanuel, came up short on that one. Knight was limited to 9 yards in 8 carries.

Tollner said it was USC’s game plan to swarm on the stocky Fullwood. The Trojan defense punished the 5-9, 209-pound tailback, but Fullwood responded, especially on Auburn’s 80-yard scoring drive in which he accounted for 50 yards in 9 carries. He had averaged only 15 rushing attempts a game previously in accumulating his nation-leading 8.3-yards-a-carry average.

With USC’s running game virtually non-existent and with Peete contained on his rollouts and bootlegs, it was Cotton who supplied the only score for the Trojans on his interception. He was cut down at the line, got up and reached Burger’s pass with one hand before tucking it in.

“He tried to pass the ball over my head to a back (Tommie Agee), and I just caught it,” said Cotton, making the play sound simple.

So, the season ended for USC, and Tollner, whose four-year record was 26-20-1.

As he left the postgame press conference, the USC coach said: “I’m now going to coach the East-West game (Jan. 10) and then try to get a job. Do you know of any around?”