Ghost Buster II: a Sequel : Football: Penn State’s Keith Goganious will be chasing his past, as well as Trojans, in the Coliseum.

Keith Goganious, inside linebacker and co-captain of the Penn State defense, will be stalking more than ballcarriers and pass receivers Saturday night when the fifth-ranked Nittany Lions play USC at the Coliseum.

He will be chasing demons.

Penn State might have beaten USC last year at the Coliseum if Goganious, with a clear path to the end zone 20 yards in front of him, hadn’t dropped a fourth-quarter interception.

And if the Nittany Lions hadn’t lost to the Trojans, 19-14, they might have played for the national championship in January.

Goganious has replayed the miscue in his mind countless times, vowing to make amends.

“I don’t want to leave any ghosts in the Coliseum as to what I could have done,” he said this week from University Park, Pa. “I want to prove to myself that I can play against a team of (USC’s) caliber and make some things happen.”

He had a chance last season.

Less than 4 1/2 minutes remained when USC, clinging to a five-point lead, faced second and 11 at its 17-yard line.

Quarterback Todd Marinovich took the snap, dropped back and, believing he saw space between him and wide receiver Joel Scott, threw a pass into the right flat.

“What happened was, I looked up. Marinovich had audibilized to a quick out (pattern), and I got a good break on the ball,” Goganious said. “And when I was breaking on it, I got between the ball and the receiver. The ball hit me in the hands, and I never got a chance to bring it in close to my body.”

It fell to the ground.

“I was running before I really had it in my hands and I ended up dropping it,” Goganious said. “I had seven points in my hands, but I dropped it.

“When I saw it coming, I knew I had the play, and I already saw the numbers in my head before I got there. I was overanxious, I guess, and I didn’t take care of business.”

Goganious, the Nittany Lions’ No. 2 tackler last season, has lived with the memory for a year, comforted only by the knowledge that Penn State would return to the Coliseum this week.

Penn State’s only loss since that day was to Florida State last December in the Blockbuster Bowl. The Nittany Lions have won their last 11 regular-season games, including two this season.

“We knew that we should have won that game,” Goganious said of the loss to USC, which dropped the Nittany Lions to 0-2. “We made some mistakes that we shouldn’t have made. And then you go and win nine straight, and you’re sitting there before the bowl game saying to yourself, ‘You know what? We could have been playing for the national championship.’

“It makes you come back the next year and rededicate yourself to the things you want to do.”

For Goganious, beating USC is high on the list. Last year, the Nittany Lions were awed by playing in the Coliseum, he said.

“When you walk through the tunnel and see that big-screen TV, you (realize), ‘The Super Bowl’s been here several times, and they’ve had the Olympics here,’ ” Goganious said. “You just feel the magic that’s in that stadium.

“You (say), ‘Wow, I see this place all the time on TV. I can’t make any mistakes.’ And you don’t play relaxed, the way you should play. I don’t think that’s going to be the case this year because we know what to expect.”

Penn State is a veteran team that has started the season impressively, beating Georgia Tech, 34-22, in the Kickoff Classic at East Rutherford, N.J., and overpowering Cincinnati, 81-0, last Saturday at Penn State.

The defense has given up only three points in the first three quarters. Goganious is part of a linebacking corps that has been called the best in college football. Some have called it the best ever assembled at a school that has produced so many outstanding players at the position--Jack Ham, Shane Conlan, Andre Collins, Matt Millen and Greg Buttle among them--that it is known as Linebacker U.

On the outside are juniors Reggie Givens and Rich McKenzie, two former high school All-Americans who made starts as freshmen, a rarity at Penn State. Joining Goganious on the inside is fellow senior Mark D’Onofrio, who was the Nittany Lions’ leading tackler last season and is probably the most recognized of the group.

A quiet leader among them--he is the ice to D’Onfrio’s fire--Goganious came to Penn State from Green Run High in Virginia Beach, Va., where he was a teammate of UCLA safety Matt Darby.

His high school coach, Tom Rhodes, predicted that Goganious eventually would be “earning more plaudits” than another Virginia product, Kenny Easley, who was a three-time All-American as a safety at UCLA.

But Goganious, redshirted as a freshman, was used only as a reserve for two years at Penn State and thought about transferring.

“You sit around for three or four years, bust your butt and don’t play, it gets frustrating,” he said.

But he stuck it out.

“I never looked at myself as a quitter,” Goganious said. “I knew I could play. I just needed a break.”

Last season, he was the only linebacker to start all 12 games for the Nittany Lions, developing a reputation for durability and helping to ease the memory of his untimely drop at the Coliseum.

But not erasing it.

“I really wanted to prove to the coaches that I could play,” Goganious said. “I didn’t want them to think that one play was going to affect the way I was going to finish up the year.”

It didn’t.

And now he is back. “I’ve been looking forward to it for a whole year,” he said.