Peete’s Career Day Is a Field Day : Arizona State Is Humbled by USC, 50-0

USC Coach Larry Smith said that quarterback Rodney Peete is peaking after he completed 23 of 33 passes for a career-high 361 yards and 3 touchdowns Saturday against Arizona State.

The same could be said for Smith’s team as USC routed Arizona State, 50-0, at Sun Devil Stadium to set the stage for the Rose Bowl showdown game next Saturday against UCLA.

The second-ranked Trojans, who improved to 9-0, remain the Pacific 10 Conference leaders with a 7-0 record, 1 game ahead of UCLA (9-1, 6-1).

“It was by far our best game of the year,” Smith said. “We were sloppy during the week, but our coaches did a good job of getting them (the players) into this game.”

The Trojans exorcised the so-called Tempe jinx before a crowd of 72,023 and a regional television audience. USC previously had lost 4 of 5 games here, including a 1982 Fiesta Bowl defeat by Penn State. Moreover, the Sun Devils had dominated the series, winning 5 of 7 games.

But Arizona State (6-4, 3-3) didn’t come close to threatening USC. The Sun Devils did not even cross midfield until the fourth quarter.

As for the Trojans, they rolled at will, with 691 yards that included scoring drives of 54, 91, 75, 82, 89, 82 and 58 yards, and not including Quin Rodriguez’s 47-yard field goal.

Peete helped promote himself in the Heisman Trophy race by throwing touchdown passes to wide receivers Erik Affholter, Gary Wellman and John Jackson covering 12, 42 and 5 yards, respectively.

“Rodney is peaking now, but he’s not there yet,” Smith said. “When you get down to the stretch, the great ones come to the front.”

Smith was asked how Peete could possibly get any better than he was on the mild day in the desert.

“He could throw and pass for more yards,” Smith said simply.

Peete came out of the game with 13 minutes remaining as sophomore Pat O’Hara finished up. If Peete had stayed in the game, he might have broken Paul McDonald’s school record of 380 passing yards, set in 1979 against Arizona.

“I feel like I’m improving every week,” Peete said. “I hope to have my best games in the last two.”

He was, of course, referring to the UCLA game and the Nov. 26 matchup against top-ranked Notre Dame at the Coliseum.

There was some talk that USC might be looking ahead to those games and that Arizona State, which was on a 3-game winning streak, was poised for an upset.

It was just talk.

“We talked a lot last week of not looking ahead,” Peete said. “Cleveland Colter (strong safety) and I are from Arizona, and we know that Arizona State treats us more as a rival than they do the University of Arizona.”

For Arizona State, it was a landmark defeat. It was the largest losing margin for the Sun Devils since 1946, when they lost to Nevada Reno, 74-2, at Reno.

It was also Arizona State’s worst home defeat as well as its worst Pac-10 loss since it came into the conference in 1978.

The Trojans led by only 7-0 at the end of the first quarter, as a result of Peete’s scoring pass to Affholter, but they added 20 points in the second quarter and didn’t let up. Reserves accounted for USC’s final 2 touchdowns, and the first-team defensive line was on the bench to stay in the middle of the third quarter.

Smith, anticipating that someone might accuse him of pouring it on, pointed out that his second unit was on the field in the latter part of the game.

“You just don’t look back in this league,” he said. “It (the score) had nothing to do with my former ties.”

Smith was Arizona’s coach before he came to USC in 1987, and his teams had beaten Arizona State 5 consecutive years.

“We thought we had a legitimate chance to win,” said Larry Marmie, Arizona State’s first-year coach. “But after they got rolling in the first quarter, we were never really in it. They’ve certainly got a lot of weapons on both sides of the ball.

“As for Peete, he is just an outstanding player, and he made a lot of things happen today,” Marmie said. “We weren’t able to harass him or pressure him like we wanted, so he was able to throw when he wanted. He’s a great player and has a great supporting cast.”

Peete rolled out on most of his passes. He mainly threw underneath Arizona State’s coverage, but he occasionally reached his wide receivers on deep routes.

“We were using some play action, and they were biting a little bit,” said Peete of Arizona State’s secondary.

Wellman, who is only 5 feet 9 inches and 175 pounds, got deep for USC’s second touchdown early in the second quarter, catching the ball at the goal line just ahead of cornerback Eddie Stokes.

However, Peete completed his most impressive scoring pass with only 58 seconds left in the first half. He rolled right and then just drilled the ball to Jackson for a 5-yard touchdown pass while throwing across his body.

Earlier in the quarter, Peete had scored a touchdown himself on a 2-yard option run.

Jackson caught a career-high 8 passes for 86 yards. Affholter, who is closing in on career and single-season school receiving records, had 8 catches for 135 yards. Wellman caught 4 passes for 115 yards.

“They were rolling the coverage to my side, and that left J.J. (Jackson) and Gary in one-on-one coverage,” Affholter said. “They’re hard to cover in single coverage.”

Affholter added that with Peete getting maximum protection, he had time to find open spaces in the Arizona State defense.

Affholter and Peete are close friends; they work out together in the summer and play golf. Of Peete’s performance, Affholter said: “He can come back next week and even play better.”

USC has had a balanced offense the entire season, and it was demonstrated again Saturday before a subdued crowd that was heading for the exits late in the third quarter.

USC gained 294 yards on the ground, with tailback Scott Lockwood getting 73 yards in 12 carries, a 6.1-yard average.

Other touchdowns were scored by fullback Leroy Holt on a 4-yard run, by tailback Calvin Holmes on a 2-yard run and by tailback Aaron Emanuel on a 1-yard run.

Emanuel, who has been restricted by a sprained ankle, was playing for the first time since the Sept. 24 Oklahoma game.

Nonetheless, once he began to run straight ahead without faking behind the line, he managed to rush for 88 yards.

As for Arizona State’s offense, it was almost dormant. Paul Justin, the starting quarterback, completed 11 of 22 passes for 104 yards. He nibbled away ineffectively in front of the USC secondary and couldn’t sustain a drive. Neither could his fourth-quarter replacement, Daniel Ford.

Of all the statistics in the game, though, one of the most impressive was USC’s third-down conversion ratio, 15 of 19, with Peete’s passes accounting for most of the first downs.

Moreover, USC had possession of the ball for 41 minutes 15 seconds, compared with only 18:45 for Arizona State.

Now Smith can start talking about UCLA, as he has refused to talk about the crosstown opponent while preparing for other games.

“We are now in a position we wanted to be when the season started,” he said. “It’s what we have been playing for. It will be a great showdown.”

Trojan Notes

USC strong safety Cleveland Colter, who has damaged cartilage in his left knee, got in for only one play. He’ll undergo further examination today. . . . Split end Erik Affholter needs only 4 more catches to surpass Hank Norman (113) as the school’s career leader in receptions. And, with 55 catches this season, he needs only 2 more to break the single-season record of 56 set by Jeff Simmons in 1982. . . . Rodney Peete’s 23 completions equaled a career high set against UCLA and Notre Dame last year. His previous career high for yardage was set last week, when he threw for 305 yards against California. . . . It wasn’t a perfect day for the Trojans, though. Placekicker Quin Rodriguez missed 2 extra points and a 33-yard field goal, and USC was penalized 17 times for 128 yards.