COLLEGE FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : USC : Smith: There Are Still Games to Play

USC Coach Larry Smith, whose team will play Arizona on Saturday at the Coliseum, called last Saturday’s 23-9 defeat by Stanford a “disastrous loss” because it cost the Trojans a chance to move into a tie with Washington for the Pacific 10 Conference lead.

“But I don’t think it’s the end of the season,” Smith said. “We just have to get ourselves rejuvenated, renewed, get our emotion, enthusiasm and intensity back. But more importantly, play good football. That’s blocking and tackling. It’s nothing fancy.”

Arizona, 1-2-1 at the end of September, has won its last five games and moved into second place in the conference race, half a game behind Washington.

“I was very disappointed early in the season, as were the players, but a lot of that frustration built itself into positive energy and we all redirected it together,” Coach Dick Tomey said. “It has been a very, very exciting thing.”

Tomey met with each player after a 14-14 tie with Oregon State.

“It made me feel a lot better,” he said. “Whether it had anything to do with what’s happened, I have no idea. But it made the old coach feel better.”