Marinovich, USC Pass the First Test of Season, 34-16 : College football: Quarterback completes 25 of 35 passes for 337 yards and 3 touchdowns in victory over Syracuse.

Opening his sophomore season with the most productive game of his 13-game college football career, Todd Marinovich dazzled a crowd of 57,293 Friday night in his off-Broadway debut.

Completing 25 of 35 passes for a career-best 337 yards and three touchdowns, Marinovich led USC to a 34-16 season-opening victory over Syracuse in Giants Stadium.

And his coach, Larry Smith, said afterward that Marinovich had been so bad in practice this week that Smith considered using an understudy.

On a night when the Trojan running game produced only 100 net yards, Marinovich sliced up the Orangemen with his pinpoint passing, helping the Trojans win for only the second time in four openers under Smith.

“It was a great performance by Todd,” Smith said.

Less impressive, but no less encouraging, was the play of the Trojan defense, which, save for a two-minute drill at the end of the first half, kept Syracuse out of the end zone and finally wore out the Orangemen.

“They have a lot of tools and they just kept beating up on us,” Syracuse Coach Dick MacPherson said of the Trojans.

But three plays into the fourth quarter, the underdog Orangemen trailed by only 24-13 and had the ball at USC’s two-yard line.

Then, on second and goal, quarterback Marvin Graves, a redshirt freshman who had bedeviled the Trojans most of the game with his quickness, made a false move, bobbling the snap from center John Flannery.

On third down from the four, with linebacker Matt Gee bearing down on him, Graves threw incomplete into the flat.

The Orangemen had to settle for a field goal, the third of the night by kicker John Biskup, and the Trojans, helped along by three Syracuse penalties, scored in each of their last two possessions to win easily in their first appearance in the New York metropolitan area since 1951.

“Quite honestly, I was mentally prepared for that,” MacPherson said of the Trojans’ defense. “It’s awfully hard to get into the end zone against USC. People get down there, but they’re so good and so fast.

“Inside the 25-yard line, their defense is one of the best in the country because of their athletes and how they play down there.”

It was its offense, though, that was expected to carry USC.

But except for an 80-yard drive midway through the second quarter, the Trojans mostly sputtered in the first half.

The Trojans scored first, though, driving 19 yards after linebacker Craig Hartsuyker recovered a fumble by Syracuse running back Duane Kinnon, who lost control of the ball after taking a hit from Gee.

USC scored on a 12-yard pass play from Marinovich to tailback Scott Lockwood on the first play of the second quarter.

Then, after a 25-yard field goal by Biskup cut the Syracuse deficit to 7-3, the Trojan offense came to life.

A 22-yard pass from Marinovich to flanker Larry Wallace put the Trojans into Syracuse territory and Ricky Ervins, who would finish with 96 rushing yards in 26 carries but to that point had been held to 10 yards in seven carries, followed with a 23-yard run.

Ervins scored on a 22-yard pass play, taking a flare from Marinovich, who was in the sights of a pair of blitzing linebackers as he threw, and carrying the ball down the right sideline into the end zone.

Holding a 14-3 lead and seemingly in command, the Trojans then watched helplessly as Graves carved up their young secondary, driving the Orangemen 78 yards in 71 seconds to a touchdown that cut the Trojans’ lead to 14-10 with 59 seconds left in the half.

Running back David Walker scored the touchdown, taking a screen pass from Graves and carrying it 33 yards down the right sideline.

“In the first half, they were very confused,” Smith said of his young players, including two redshirt freshmen starters, in the secondary. “We had quite a few missed checks. We were hanging by a thread.

“But I thought in the second half, they played pretty well because we didn’t have many breakdowns.”

And the Orange never made it into the end zone again.

The teams traded field goals to start the second half, putting the Trojans’ lead at 17-13, but Marinovich was only warming up.

He hooked up with flanker Gary Wellman on a 46-yard touchdown pass play. Wellman, who had seven receptions for 109 yards, easily beat cornerback Greg Walker on the play, making an over-the-shoulder catch.

“We were just waiting for that post (pattern) all game,” Marinovich said. “It was there. I saw it and Gary saw it. All I had to do was get it to him. He did the rest.”

Marinovich feathered the pass and USC led, 24-13.

USC scored its final touchdown with 36 seconds left, Ervins going two yards at the end of a 70-yard drive.

“Big difference from last year, that’s for sure,” Marinovich said, referring to a 14-13 loss to Illinois in last season’s opener. “I was a lot more confident.

“Man, it’s good to have a good game. I thought I would. But you never know.”