Smith Thinking Only About Stanford : USC Needs a Win Today If It Is to Remain in Rose Bowl Race

There are two words that turn off USC football Coach Larry Smith quicker than any others: Rose Bowl.

Smith, of course, realizes that if his team beats Stanford today at the Coliseum and Arizona here next week, the Trojans will be involved in a Rose Bowl showdown Nov. 21 with UCLA.

But Smith is living the cliche of one game at a time. He can only hope that his team is similarly focused.

Although Stanford, 3-5 overall and 2-3 in the Pacific 10, hasn’t beaten USC (5-3, 4-1) since 1975, Smith could remind his players that the Cardinal knocked the Trojans out of a probable national championship here with a 21-21 tie in 1979 after trailing at halftime, 21-0.

That was John Robinson’s best team. It finished with an 11-0-1 record and a victory in the Rose Bowl over Ohio State but wound up as the nation’s second-ranked team behind unbeaten and untied Alabama.

So how does USC shape up for the critical games in November?

Smith has said that the offense is the strength of the team and that’s reflected statistically. USC is the league leader in total offense, averaging 454 yards a game.

Junior quarterback Rodney Peete has either broken, or will break, every meaningful school passing record.

Tailback Steven Webster, also a junior, is the Pac-10’s leading rusher, averaging 118.7 yards a game. When he gains 100 or more yards, the Trojans win. When he doesn’t, they lose.

It would seem, then, that the defense is the key to whether USC makes a run at the Rose Bowl, or becomes an also-ran.

Smith has only three seniors on his starting defensive unit--outside linebacker Marcus Cotton, inside linebacker Keith Davis and cornerback Greg Coauette. The rest are either freshmen or sophomores, and there is a junior college transfer, cornerback Chris Hale.

The inside linebackers were expected to be the strength of the defense at the start of the season with four experienced senior players in Cotton, Davis, Rex Moore and Bill Stokes.

Moore, a fiery leader, broke his leg in the opening game against Michigan State. Stokes has been bothered by a hip injury and a sprained ankle since the season started.

Delmar Chesley, a sophomore, replaced Moore. He has since lost his starting job to Scott Ross, a freshman from El Toro High School.

With Stokes hampered by injuries, he has had to share playing time with red-shirt freshman Craig Hartsuyker, who started against Washington State last week.

The defensive line includes sophomores Tim Ryan and Dan Owens, both tackles, and nose guard Dan Gibson, a red-shirt freshman.

The secondary is similarly inexperienced, with the exception of Coauette. Strong safety Mark Carrier is playing for the first time as a redshirt freshmen. Strong safety Cleveland Colter is a sophomore. Hale, a junior, is a transfer from Glendale College by way of Nebraska. Tracy Butts, the nickel back, is a junior, but an injury prevented him from gaining experience as a sophomore in 1986.

Trojan Notes

Stanford was beset by quarterback problems early in the season. Greg Ennis started the first three games, all losses. Scott Stark then started against UCLA and didn’t finish the game as the Bruins routed the Cardinal, 49-0. Enter Brian Johnson, a red-shirt freshman who is also an accomplished baseball player. He led Stanford to three straight victories before Arizona won last week, 23-13. Johnson threw three interceptions in that game. Brad Muster, on Johnson: “He has all the tools. He has three more years to improve and he’ll be a good one before he’s through.” . . . Johnson has completed 50.8% of his passes for 803 yards and 5 touchdowns while throwing 8 interceptions.

It’s homecoming for USC today, and a crowd of 60,000 is expected. . . . Stanford’s Alan Grant is ranked second nationally in punt returns with a 17.9-yard average. Wide receiver Jeff James, from Beverly Hills High School, is ranked third in the Pac-10 with 41 catches for 509 yards and 3 touchdowns. . . . The Cardinal has the nation’s third-ranked punter in Doug Robinson, who is averaging 45.7 yards. . . . Stanford is ninth in total defense in the conference, allowing 445 yards a game. USC Coach Larry Smith said that statistic is deceiving because the Cardinal is particularly tenacious in what he calls the red-line area, from the 35-, or 30-yard line on in to the goal line.

USC quarterback Rodney Peete needs to complete 9 more passes to replace Sean Salisbury, who had 346 completions, as No. 1 on the school’s all-time list. . . . Stanford inside linebacker Barry McKeever is the son of USC’s late All-American guard Mike McKeever and the nephew of Marlin McKeever, a former USC All-American end. Barry suffered a knee injury last spring and hasn’t been active until recently. . . . Stanford nose guard Buck Roggemann is the son of Tom Roggemann, USC’s inside linebacker coach. . . . USC will appear six times on live national commercial network telecasts this season, which is unprecedented, according to ABC. The Trojans have two more TV appearances, today’s game and Nov. 21 against UCLA.