TOUCHDOWNS AND TUNNELS : Jackson’s Game-Winning Catch Puts Some Tradition Back in His USC Family

The first touchdown is usually the most memorable for a college football player.

John Jackson, USC’s sophomore flanker, said he’ll never forget his first, seeing as how he scored it on national television in the fourth quarter last Saturday against Boston College at the Coliseum.

Jackson ran under a rainbow pass thrown by quarterback Rodney Peete on the 51-yard play, catching it on the BC 25-yard line.

The touchdown ultimately proved to be the margin of victory as USC won, 23-17.

Even so, Jackson said his biggest thrill was not the catch, but seeing the delighted looks on his parents’ faces when he met them later in the tunnel that leads from the dressing room to the playing field.

“Scoring the touchdown was nothing, compared to seeing how happy they were,” Jackson said.

Jackson’s father, John, a former backfield coach at USC, his mother, Lillian, and his sister, Tracie, couldn’t have been happier.

The tunnel, though, was also the site of an unpleasant incident for Jackson at the end of the first half.

Three seconds before halftime, Jackson tried to block a 57-yard field goal attempt by Brian Lowe.

Instead, Jackson said, he was blocked into the kicker and charged with a 15-yard roughing penalty.

Lowe writhed on the ground in apparent agony as his teammates made menacing gestures to Jackson. After the ensuing penalty, another kicker, David Rooney, missed a 42-yard attempt as the first half ended.

“Some of the Boston College players bumped me all the way into the tunnel and said that they’d get me in the second half,” said Jackson, who, at 5 feet 11 inches and 177 pounds, was being intimidated by much bigger players.

“I didn’t take kindly to the hassling and the farther I went into the tunnel, the players began to add up on me,” he said.

As it turned out, Lowe wasn’t seriously hurt and returned to kick a 44-yard field goal. “It was a good acting job,” said Jackson of the kicker’s quick recovery.

A few years ago, the USC corps of wide receivers was regarded as the team’s weakest unit. But the position ranks as one of the team’s strengths now. Split end Ken Henry caught 6 passes for 120 yards against Boston College, one good for 53 yards and a touchdown in the second quarter. He has eight scoring catches in his career, averaging 37.1 yards.

Henry, a senior, is backed by junior Erik Affholter, who also doubles as USC’s long-range kicker. Affholter is remembered for his leaping touchdown catch against Stanford last year.

Randy Tanner, a senior, is USC’s starting flanker. A former teammate of Jackson at Bishop Amat High School, Tanner has caught 9 passes in 2 games for a 13.9-yard average.

Jackson, who shares time with Tanner, is averaging 20.6 yards on 7 catches.

Asked if the USC receiving corps is underrated, Jackson said: “I don’t know if we’re underrated, although we might be unrecognized right now. Hopefully, that will come. Our receiving coach, Ron Turner, says that our goal is to be the best receivers in the nation, not just the best in the state or Pac-10.

“We’ve really worked hard. The receivers as a total group were here all summer. That’s the type of dedication this group has.

“I get more excited for the other guys than I do for myself because I know we’ve put in so much work.”

Tanner was a tailback at Bishop Amat and has shown his versatility at USC by throwing two touchdown passes to Henry from his flanker position.

Jackson and Tanner were members of a high school team in 1983 that went all the way to the Big Five final before losing to Servite of Anaheim. Jackson wound up his prep career as the school’s second-leading receiver behind former USC star John K. McKay. Jackson had 55 catches for 1,583 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Jackson said that beating Boston College after losing to Michigan State, 27-13, was a definite confidence builder for the rest of the season.

“We were really depressed after the Michigan State game,” he said. “When we came back and watched the film, it hurt as much as playing the game. We thought we were ready to play and we had emotion and intensity, but we made too many mistakes.

“We then worked on execution in practice, not fumbling the ball, and concentrating when we’re running our routes.

“Winning that game against Boston College brings everyone’s confidence back. If you lose two games in a row, the players may point fingers and have some doubt. We know now what the feeling is like after a win, and the effort we put into it is worth it.”

Jackson said that that even though USC is favored to beat California Saturday at Berkeley, the Trojans will be focused.

“We can’t take them lightly,” he said. “We know they’ll be a different team than we’ve seen on film and they’ll play their best game.

“Also, it’s the start of the Rose Bowl race and beating them at this point is the same as beating UCLA, Oregon State or Arizona. It’s a league game.”

Trojan Notes

USC Coach Larry Smith said that films showed Ken Henry with one foot in bounds when he caught an apparent touchdown pass from Rodney Peete in the second quarter of Saturday’s game. An official, though, ruled otherwise. If the touchdown had been allowed, USC would have had a 20-7 lead. . . . With the exception of right tackle David Cadigan and center John Katnik, Smith said that the offensive line didn’t perform to expectations against Boston College. There’s a possibility now that Mark Sager and John Guerrero will alternate at left tackle, while Brent Parkinson, Brad Leggett and second-year freshman Mark Tucker will share playing time at the guard positions in the Cal game. . . . A recent Pac-10 survey showed that USC has a lightweight offensive line, averaging only 264 pounds, compared to other conference schools. That’s a significant deviation from the past, but that statistic would be considerably altered if the 320-pound Guerrero became a permanent starter.