COMMENTARY : This Time, They Both Played Like Rookies

Besides the incalculable value of a lucky bounce, Saturday’s 10-10 tie between USC and UCLA slammed home the notion that freshmen--despite name, fame and south Orange County breeding--will always be freshmen.

They flinch.

They fluster.

They drop balls and blow calls and try to force passes into crowds larger than their first frat parties.

And it makes no difference if they happen to be named Bret Johnson and Todd Marinovich or happen to be the best high school quarterbacks Orange County has ever seen, give or take a Steve Beuerlein.

The El Toro and Capistrano Valley high school football teams never played in front of 86,000 crazed alumni. The South Coast League had no Junior Seau. Fifty-nine years of legend and lore never hinged on every step of every dropback.

Saturday, Johnson and Marinovich were christened in the cardinal, gold and blue of USC-UCLA tradition. As they took their first snaps from center, they took their place alongside Gary Beban and Steve Sogge, John Sciarra and Pat Haden, Troy Aikman and Rodney Peete.

It was a moment to behold, but both of them got sweaty palms.

Marinovich, so remarkably poised en route to 2,246 passing yards in his first 10 games as a Trojan, could scarcely do a thing right in the second half, with the entire Coliseum crowd waiting for the 17-point underdog Bruins to cave in at any second.

USC had six possessions in the third and fourth quarters. Here is how they ended:

1. Two Marinovich incompletions and a punt.

2. Marinovich interception at the UCLA 39.

3. Marinovich fumble at the USC 44.

4. Marinovich sack and fumble on third down and another punt.

5. Two Marinovich incompletions--one to an illegal receiver--and a punt.

6. Leroy Holt fumble at the UCLA 12.

Johnson, so maligned for his contribution to a 3-7 record in his first 10 games as a Bruin, could scarcely believe his good fortune.

But could he capitalize?

Four of UCLA’s seven second-half possessions concluded with a punt. Another was snuffed out when Johnson’s pass was intercepted at the Bruin 45 with 4:45 to play.

Two others resulted in field goal attempts, the first producing a 40-yard game-tying field goal by Alfredo Velasco at the outset of the fourth quarter.

The second produced a 53-yard field goal by Velasco as the final gun popped.

Too bad the kick originated from 54 yards out.

“That kind of typifies our season,” said Johnson, still mulling the bouncing ball. “A field goal that hits the crossbar. . . . It’s tough to get beat like that.”

Johnson had to be reminded that the game ended in a tie, but it was that kind of day. Neither Johnson nor Marinovich actually lost. It only seemed that way.

Marinovich finished the afternoon with 13 completions in 28 attempts--a completion rate of 46%, well below his 10-game rate of 63%. He passed for 154 yards and a touchdown but was intercepted three times.

Johnson, reined in by Coach Terry Donahue and restricted mainly to safe sprint-out passes, completed nine of 16 attempts for 151 yards. He was intercepted once and sacked five times, but could claim a moral victory of sorts in that he kept Jim Bonds on the sidelines.

In three of his previous four starts, Johnson had been pulled in the second half and replaced by Bonds.

Johnson stayed in for all of this one and his final drive produced the afternoon’s only scintillating moment for a quarterback of Orange County lineage.

Rolling out in his end zone with less than two minutes to play, Johnson spotted a breakdown in the USC secondary and lofted an off-balance heave to a secondary receiver, Scott Miller, his batterymate at El Toro. The pass was high enough that Miller could have signaled a fair catch, but it got the job done.

Miller outleaped a disoriented Dwayne Garner for the ball and came down with a 52-yard completion.

In a flash, UCLA was in position for an upset.

“I was going to hit Mike (Farr) on a corner route,” said Johnson, explaining his initial intent, “but then I saw Scott’s defender doing pirouettes back there. The guy was way out of position. The guy didn’t know where he was.

“I was debating whether I could get it that far, but I threw it as far as I could. I can’t say I could’ve done the same thing with any other receiver on the team, but Scott and I have been doing this for so long. He made a tremendous play.”

UCLA needed one more, but instead got a pair of one-yard gains and a busted cut-back attempt by tailback Shawn Mills, who was buried for a three-yard loss.

It proved a crucial bust. Those three extra yards were what separated Velasco from a field goal and UCLA from victory.

Marinovich, head hung as Velasco’s leg swung through, didn’t take much consolation in the crossbar’s intervention.

“To me, a tie is pretty much like a loss,” he said. “I’m just happy we have another game. I’d be disappointed if we had to end the season like that.”

So, as it moved to the collegiate scale, Johnson-Marinovich proved nothing except, as Donahue noted, “they both played like freshmen. Neither one had a good game, but they were under unbelievable pressure. It’s hard for anyone outside either organization to appreciate that pressure.”

Johnson and Marinovich now do. Their personal rivalry, which now stands at 1-1-1 (not counting forfeits), braces for the rubber match next November in the Rose Bowl.

They can only hope the sophomore jinx works both ways.