No Re-Peete : USC’s Most Pressing Business Is Finding a New Quarterback

Stealing a battle cry from the Lakers, the USC football team, hoping for a third consecutive trip to the Rose Bowl in 1989, is calling this the year of the “three-peat.”

A better label might be the year of no Peete.

Quarterback Rodney Peete may have had some trouble convincing NFL scouts of his worth, having to wait until the sixth round to be drafted, but the Trojans would gladly take him back.

The man who led them to the Rose Bowl each of the last two seasons, was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 1988 and set 17 school records is gone, leaving his job in the untested hands of either junior Pat O’Hara or redshirt freshman Todd Marinovich.

“If we had to go out and play tomorrow, the starter would be O’Hara,” said quarterback coach Ray Dorr at Sunday’s media day. “But we’re not going to try to put pressure on either player. The best man for the job will play.”

Neither contender for the job has any real game experience. As Peete’s backup, O’Hara threw seven passes, completing five. Marinovich, of course has yet to throw his first pass as a Trojan.

“I can’t be the savior of this team,” O’Hara said. “I can’t be anybody but Pat O’Hara. But we have a lot of talented players on this team. I feel very capable. This is a great challenge. But I feel I’m still competing with Todd for the job.

“I learned a lot from Rodney. I learned how he handled pressure. And I learned that the fans love you if you do well and they want you out if you do not.”

Peete was not the only valuable member of the offense lost by Coach Larry Smith. Gone, too, is offensive coordinator and quarterback coach Chuck Stobart, who left to become head coach at Memphis State. Former USC quarterback Mike Sanford has been hired to coach the receivers with Dorr moving over from that position to coach the quarterbacks. Dorr and offensive line coach John Matsko will run the offense.

None of that should be evident on the field, according to Smith.

“We haven’t changed our offense one bit,” he said. “We are still going to try to control the line of scrimmage with our running game, try to have a balanced attack and use what our guys do best.”

While a big question mark hangs over the quarterback spot, many of the other positions, especially on defense, would most properly be punctuated with exclamation marks.

The biggest strength appears to be the defense where 10 of 11 starters are back, led by three All-American candidates--tackle Tim Ryan and safeties Mark Carrier and Cleveland Colter.

The story isn’t much different on offense where eight of the starters return off a team that won 10 of 11 games before falling in the Rose Bowl, 22-14, to Michigan.

That was the second straight Rose Bowl setback for USC, after a 20-17 loss to Michigan State the year before.

All of which has the Trojans a bit unsettled, according to Smith.

“This is a team possessed,” he said. “They feel they have something to prove.”

If you believe the preseason polls, they’ll do just that. Most experts pick USC to finish somewhere in the top five, even as high as No. 1.

With any coach, overconfidence ranks right up there with lack of talent as the surest route to ruin. And Smith is no different. His reaction to the preseason accolades? Thanks, but no thanks.

“It’s a figment of the imagination,” he said. “There is no such thing as No. 1 in the preseason. That just sells magazines and perhaps some papers. You are only as good as how you play your first game, and every game thereafter.

“If I had to pick a No. 1, it would have to be Notre Dame. Michigan would be a solid choice to be No. 2 with a chance to dethrone them.”

Trojan Notes

USC opens at the Coliseum with a nationally televised game (5 p.m. kickoff) against Illinois on Labor Day. . . . The Trojans will play Notre Dame in South Bend this season, one of only four road games for USC. . . . The squad begins two-a-day workouts today with 113 players. . . . The Trojans will move operations to UC Irvine for a week beginning Sunday. . . . There are 24 seniors on the roster. . . . The Trojans will play four 1988 bowl teams--Notre Dame (Fiesta), UCLA (Cotton), Illinois (All-American) and Washington State (Aloha).