USC’s Hogue Fights Way to Front of Line : Football: His competitive nature, not his size, has helped him clear a few hurdles.

LOS ANGELES — Yeah, sure, like Jeremy Hogue really envisioned any of this.

Like he pictured himself as a starting offensive guard at USC in his sophomore season or protecting his old El Toro High School buddy, quarterback Rob Johnson, as in old times.

Like, last January, he really dared to dream that a change in coaches would be the best football move that ever happened to him, that he would be on track to graduate with a political science degree in 3 1/2 years and that he would be preparing to visit Notre Dame, which recruited him, as an important part of the Trojan offense.

But then he never would have figured the pregame discussion on movie night before last week’s Oregon State game, either.

Luge.

The Trojans see a movie on Friday nights during game weeks and . . .

“He’s real competitive,” Johnson said. “We get in arguments all the time.

“The last one was whether the luge has a brake. We saw ‘Cool Runnings’ and, on the bus to the game, I said the luge has a brake. He said no.”

Is it settled?

“No,” Johnson said. “I know I’m right. But no one knows.”

Luge or linebackers, it doesn’t matter. Hogue will tackle each with gusto, which explains why his number will be called often during Saturday’s game with the Irish.

“It’s been a great year,” Hogue said this week while sitting outside Heritage Hall, USC’s football headquarters. “Coming into the year, I thought I would be second team. My goal was to be a two-year starter on the offensive line at USC, which is something to talk about.”

So you wouldn’t exactly call Hogue a dreamer. How about a fighter?

Listed at 260, he gives away 20 or 30 pounds to most defensive linemen he faces, and that’s a big reason Coach John Robinson looked the other way back in September, when a key injury struck the Trojan offensive line.

Guard Joel Crisman, honorable mention All-Pac-10 last year, hurt his foot in USC’s second game, against Houston. Trojan coaches didn’t have to watch game tapes of Penn State, USC’s next opponent, more than twice to see that Nittany Lions’ defensive lineman Lou Benfatti was leaving offensive linemen strewn all over the field.

So USC moved Kyle Ramsey, who weighs 285, from right guard to left, to spell Crisman.

It would be the last time Hogue would be overlooked.

After the 21-20 loss at Penn State, Trojan coaches opened competition for the spot during practice the next week, a bye week.

“It seemed like one entire practice concentrated on watching Kyle and I go for the position,” Hogue said. “It was fun. It was interesting having people watching. We were doing passing drills, rushing drills. I felt they were giving me the opportunity to win the position.”

That Friday, a week before the Washington State game, offensive line coach Mike Barry gave Hogue the good news. He would start.

Was there ever a question? Hogue has a way of pressing on and coming out on top. His nose was broken twice in practice this season and he hasn’t missed much more than a block here or there. He has a scab the size of Delaware on the bridge of his nose, which cracks open each day at practice.

It turns out equipment gives him more trouble than his relative lack of bulk.

“You’ve got to change your chin straps,” Hogue said. “They get old about every two weeks, and I sort of forget to change them.”

So he makes a block, his helmet unbuckles and the upper half comes smashing down into his nose.

“I get comments everywhere I go,” he said. “Things like, ‘Nice face’ and ‘Don’t you wear a helmet?’ People in class think I’ve been fighting. I say I have--with linebackers.”

Hogue, who was squired around Notre Dame by quarterback Rick Mirer and Ocean View High graduate Todd Norman on his recruiting visit, also took a trip to Oklahoma. But his choice was USC, where he was recruited as a defensive lineman by former coach Larry Smith.

He was moved to offense last fall. But after the Freedom Bowl loss, Smith was out and Hogue wondered how he would fit into Robinson’s plans.

The answer came quickly.

“The switch was good for me,” Hogue said. “These guys came in with no preconceived ideas. A lot of guys who were playing ahead of me from the start are behind me now.

“I had been on the scout team my first two falls and if the same staff had stayed, my position probably would be third team again. I felt (Robinson) gave me the opportunity to prove myself from the start.”

Robinson is pleased with Hogue’s play this fall but envisions a couple of changes in the future.

“We think he’s a really good football player,” Robinson said. “But as we look ahead (with) him to next year, he may wind up being a center. We’d also like him to be bigger next year.

“He’s good, if light. He’s a guy about 250 going up against guys 280. But I like him and I like the way he goes about things.”

So much so that now it is midweek and practices actually mean something to Hogue. USC has lost 10 in a row to the Irish, but this will be the first time Hogue actually steps on the field for one of these games.

“Everybody’s talking about it,” said Hogue, whose 3.86 grade-point average is the highest on the team. “You go to every class, there’s somebody you overhear talking about Notre Dame weekend.”

The Trojans leave today for South Bend and practice Friday. As for the team movie Friday night . . .

“I doubt,” Hogue said, “that we’ll see ‘Rudy.’ ”

He laughed. So far, it has been a very good year.