COLLEGE FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : USC : High Praise for Rob Johnson

Saying that Rob Johnson has combined the passing touch of Todd Marinovich with the field presence and leadership ability of Rodney Peete, USC Coach Larry Smith said that keeping his sophomore quarterback injury-free is a key to the season.

“He’s proven to me--and I hope he doesn’t have to prove it a whole lot longer--that he’s tough,” Smith said of Johnson, who has been sacked nine times. “He’s taken some hellacious shots, and I don’t want to see him take any more. We’ve got to protect him.”

USC, which will play top-ranked Washington on Saturday at Seattle, is the only one of the NCAA’s 107 Division I-A teams that has yet to play a home game. The Trojans, 1-7-1 at home since the middle of the 1990 season, will play Oregon at the Coliseum on Oct. 10. . . . USC had never before opened a season with three consecutive road games. . . . Eric Bjornson, a converted quarterback, is Washington’s No. 2 receiver with 11 catches for 136 yards. . . . Washington’s 17-game winning streak is not the longest in school history. From 1909 to 1914, the Huskies won 39 consecutive games as part of a 63-game unbeaten streak that is still an NCAA record. Washington was 59-0-4 from 1907 to 1917.