USC’s Smith Finds the Bottom Line on Offense : He Hopes to Block Out Bad Times by Staying on Ground Against Utah State

So you think the USC offense just had an off night against Illinois?

That’s one theory.

Another is that the offense is having an off year .

Pretty harsh? That theory was floated Tuesday by no less an authority than Coach Larry Smith.

“It could be a long time before our offense gets back to where we were a year ago,” Smith said. “It may not be this year. It could be a year or two from now.”

The big difference, of course, is at quarterback, where the Trojans have gone from Rodney Peete, runner-up for the Heisman Trophy last season, to Todd Marinovich, a redshirt freshman.

Smith said: “You just don’t take an experienced quarterback out of your offense and say, ‘I’ve got a new guy that’s going to do the job.’ You’re just not going to have the same sync so you’ve got to find it somewhere else.”

Smith is certainly looking elsewhere. Particularly at the running game.

Since USC stumbled through the 14-13 season-opening loss to Illinois Sept. 4, generating just two field goals and 199 yards in total offense, Smith has shaken things up for Saturday night’s game against Utah State at the Coliseum, moving Ricky Ervins in for Aaron Emanuel at tailback, Brent Parkinson for Dan Barnes at guard and Bill Schultz for Michael Moody at tackle.

In addition, Marcus Hopkins takes over for All-American Cleveland Colter at safety.

Smith reserved his harshest criticism for the line Tuesday. Even in the worst of times, USC has relied on its vaunted running game to keep the offense moving.

Whatever else the Trojans had, there was always, it seemed, Student Body Right and Student Body Left. Against the Fighting Illini, it was Student Body Lost.

“Illinois beat us at the line of scrimmage,” Smith said. “They beat us one on one. To run the football, you’ve got to block people. We didn’t block well enough. We didn’t sustain blocks. We didn’t drive people out of there. There are a few times we did and the backs missed the holes. Other than (center Brad) Leggett, I don’t think our line played well at all.”

Enter Ervins, Parkinson and Schultz.

“You find out who wants to play and who doesn’t,” Smith said. “And who is going to actually play . Now these guys (the ones who lost their starting spots) played hard. They just didn’t play well. Our tackle got stuffed. Our guard got stuffed. You can’t let that happen.”

Parkinson, a 6-foot-6, 260-pound senior, certainly didn’t expect it to happen.

“It surprised us,” he said. “We really wanted to have a good game so we could take a lot of the pressure off (the quarterback). We just never really came together. One guy would mess up. Then another guy would mess up. Consistently, someone would be messed up.”

The line not only didn’t open holes, but didn’t close them when the blitz was on.

“We have to expect that they’re going to want to blitz a lot, especially since we have a young quarterback,” Parkinson said. “They want to put pressure on him so that he’ll be flustered a little bit and won’t be as consistent. As an offensive line, we have to pick up that extra pressure and make him look good.”

Both Emanuel and Colter were expected to look good this season, Emanuel to finally reach the potential promised but never delivered, Colter to deliver again as he did a year ago when he was an All-American.

But both made glaring errors against Illinois. Emanuel fumbled, ending a third-quarter drive. Colter missed a tackle on Shawn Wax on the Fighting Illini’s first scoring play, a 53-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jeff George.

“Last year’s All-Americans don’t count this year,” Smith said. “I think Hoppie (Hopkins, who scored USC’s only touchdown on a blocked punt) played better than Cleveland.

“Cleveland will play. We’re not benching Cleveland. We’re giving him every chance in the book to be back where he wants to be. But he had four missed tackles. You can’t have four missed tackles at one position and play on the defense. If we did that, we’d have 44 missed tackles and that would be about 70 points.”

Colter has been slow to recover from a serious knee injury that cost him the last four games of the 1988 season and reduced his playing time in preseason camp.

“Maybe his timing is off and he’s not quite there,” Smith said. “He’s worked hard. He’s been at every practice. So his attitude is fine.”

As for Emanuel, Smith said, “He didn’t play terrible. He just didn’t make anything happen.”

Trojan Notes

Tailback Scott Lockwood, originally ruled out for three weeks because of a dislocated thumb suffered in the Illinois game, could be out for the season. Lockwood is wearing a cast but if his condition doesn’t improve over the next few weeks, he faces season-ending surgery. . . . Flanker Calvin Holmes will take Lockwood’s spot on both punt returns and as a reserve tailback.

Linebacker Scott Ross, forced into a reserve role against Illinois because of a pulled hamstring, will be back in the starting lineup Saturday. . . . Reserve linebacker Al Aliipule is out for the season after having had shoulder surgery. . . . Quarterback Pat O’Hara, who was hospitalized with a season-ending knee injury suffered in a preseason scrimmage, and then went back to the hospital for additional surgery, is finally home and hopes to be on the sideline Saturday.