Arizona Is No Surprise : USC: Trojans are very much aware of how tough Wildcats are and how much this game means.

Coach Larry Smith sensed that something was amiss before USC’s 23-9 loss to Stanford last Saturday. He said he detected no sense of urgency among the players.

Not so this week.

Still a victory short of qualifying for bowl eligibility, the Trojans are up against ninth-ranked Arizona today at the Coliseum.

Smith’s players couldn’t help but notice that Arizona, winner of five consecutive games since it lost by a point to No. 1-ranked Miami on Sept. 26, has been among the hottest teams in college football the last two months.

Last week, the Wildcats defeated Washington, 16-3, knocking the Huskies from atop the polls and ending the defending Rose Bowl champions’ two-year, 22-game winning streak.

Were it not for an improbable 14-14 tie against Oregon State two months ago--the Wildcats also lost in September to Washington State, 23-20--Arizona would be the leader in the Rose Bowl race.

Arizona, the only Pacific 10 team that has never played in the Rose Bowl game, is 6-2-1 overall and 4-1-1 in the Pac-10, half a game behind leading Washington.

USC is 5-2-1 and 4-2, tied for third place with Stanford and Washington State.

The Trojans will end Arizona’s Rose Bowl hopes--and position themselves for a possible Fiesta Bowl bid--if they defeat the Wildcats, and Washington defeats Oregon State today at Seattle.

“We’re the upset team now,” USC linebacker Jeff Kopp said. “All the pressure’s going to be on Arizona to keep performing like they’ve been performing.”

Arizona turned its season around after narrowly losing at Miami.

Although the Wildcats were disappointed by the defeat, which left them with a 1-2-1 record, “a couple of days (later), we could look back and see that we’d really grown a lot,” Coach Dick Tomey said. “Our belief in each other was tremendous, and we believed that we could win and we believed that we knew how to win. That had a real solidifying effect.”

Arizona’s strength is its “Desert Swarm” defense, which ranks among the best in the country.

Led by nose guard Rob Waldrop and inside linebacker Sean Harris, the Wildcats are second in the nation against the run, 10th against the pass and fifth overall. They have given up an average of 8.6 points and 255.7 yards, only 58.8 on the ground.

They have yielded only six touchdowns, two rushing. And the Wildcats, who have given up only 155 yards rushing in their last six games, have yet to yield a first-half touchdown.

They have forced 24 turnovers and made only 10.

Said Smith after the Wildcats had limited Washington to 28 yards rushing during the second half last week: “You watch the tape and they were the better team. They beat them nose to nose. It wasn’t any fancy stuff. They just plain and simple beat the No. 1 team in the country.”

Aiding the defense is Josh Miller, who leads the Pac-10 in punting with an average of 43.2 yards. Arizona’s net punting average of 42.2 yards--the Wildcats have given up only 37 yards in punt returns--is the nation’s best.

Quarterback George Malauulu leads a conservative offense. Arizona is third in the Pac-10 in rushing, ninth in passing. Malauulu, a senior from Carson High, has completed 50% of his 154 passes for 916 yards and five touchdowns, with four interceptions.

“We’re winning the way we have to win with the people we have, which is primarily by running the football and sprinkling in a pass occasionally,” Tomey said.

Trojan Notes

Kyle Wachholtz, a backup USC quarterback who sat out last week’s game against Stanford because of a torn stomach muscle, has been cleared to play. . . . Also cleared to play for USC were offensive guards Joel Crisman and Kris Pollack, both of whom sat out the Stanford game because of injuries.

USC is 15-3 against Arizona, but has lost the last two meetings. . . . Arizona’s No. 9 ranking is its highest since Sept. 26, 1983, when the Wildcats were rated third.

* UCLA

The Bruins’ injury problems at quarterback are well understood by Oregon. C11