USC Seeking Players Who Can Match Up : College football: After playing Notre Dame, Robinson indicates that the his team needs more national-championship caliber athletes.

Standing in the fall sunshine at Notre Dame Stadium Saturday afternoon, USC Coach John Robinson was able to judge clearly the distance between where the Trojans are now and when they were at or near national-championship status.

And it’s a long, long road.

Robinson has repeatedly said that it’s his responsibility to move USC football back to where Trojan teams are filled with players like, well, like Notre Dame’s.

Notre Dame, employing a power game with almost routine execution, flattened the Trojans, 31-13.

Robinson said last week that he was eager to play the Irish.

“Playing teams of that caliber, that’s the standard by which you judge your program,” he said.

And the Trojans seemed to have their best week of practice last week. Players were spirited and the mood was upbeat.

Unhappily for them, they lost a game of numbers and physical size. Notre Dame had too many big, fast, powerful players.

All anyone had to see was the game’s second play, when a 190-pound running back with average speed, Lee Becton, ran 70 yards for a stunning touchdown.

Here’s what happened:

--Notre Dame tight end Pete Chryplewicz blocked USC’s Willie McGinest off the line of scrimmage, and McGinest was then knocked even farther out of the play by fullback Ray Zellars.

--Chryplewicz also got a piece of USC cornerback John Herpin, enough to take him out of the play.

--Notre Dame offensive tackle Aaron Taylor knocked USC nose tackle Mike Hinz on his face.

--Notre Dame’s right guard, Jeremy Akers, pulled and took out USC linebacker Gerald Caruthers.

Fast, powerful players, blocking perfectly. Even at that, Trojan safety Mike Salmon had a shot at Becton as he sped through a gaping hole, but missed him. So did linebacker Jeff Kopp. Robinson enjoys this team, clearly loves working with the players in practice, yet knows their limitations. When he can, he protects them. And often, what he won’t say is more illuminating that what he will say.

A month ago, he was asked how many championship-level players his 1978 national champion USC team had, compared to this year’s.

“I don’t want to get into that,” he said. “This is our team. This is their time. These are the players we’re going to devote all our energy to.”

Tuesday, at his weekly media luncheon, he was asked how his defensive linemen matched up with Notre Dame’s 299-pound All-American offensive tackle, Aaron Taylor.

“I don’t want to put our players in a negative light . . . but obviously, not very well,” he said.

In fairness, USC has had major injury problems this season. Among them:

--Starting tailback Dwight McFadden broke an ankle in the first quarter of the first game and has not played since.

--All-American junior offensive tackle Tony Boselli has sat out three games because of a kneecap injury and will sit out at least one more.

--Guard Joel Crisman sat out five games because of a foot injury and only returned for the Notre Dame game.

Boselli, Crisman, Kris Pollack, Johnnie Morton, Rob Johnson, Deon Strother, Willie McGinest and Mike Salmon have demonstrated that they are big-time athletes, players who probably could be playing this season for any of the four teams that have beaten them--Notre Dame, Arizona, Penn State and North Carolina.

But there are others who never developed into championship-level players.

Robinson intimated as much Tuesday, when he said, “The teams we’ve lost to were all top-15 teams, and we’ve not done very well against them. It’s very clear to me we have to (have) the same kind of athlete here, who can compete at that level.”

Considering this team’s limitations--one being that no running back has stepped up since McFadden was hurt--some are surprised to see USC still in the Pacific 10 Conference Rose Bowl race.

In fact, USC (4-4 overall, 3-1 in the Pac-10) could be in a three-way tie for first place if it beats California Saturday, should UCLA also defeat Arizona.

“The key issue with us is to find the right kind of guys who can put us in the national-championship picture,” Robinson said.

“That means looking at the top 20 (high school) prospects, at every position. If you need tight ends, then you’d better be cracking that top 20.”

And now is the time, he added.

“When I was here before, our best recruiting years didn’t come after our Rose Bowl seasons,” he said. “It’s harder to recruit when you’re on top.”

Said Jack Himebauch, who has been USC’s recruiting coordinator since 1987: “We’re in our evaluation period now, looking at a lot of (high school) senior videos. We’ve looked very closely at about 50 prospects, and we have 25 scholarships to offer this year.

“Beginning Nov. 1, we can go to games and see them play. We’ll have seven assistant coaches going to games every Friday night. In December, we can contact the players.

“The response is good so far, and I’m talking about the kind of folks who are necessary for us to be competitive against the best teams we’ll play.”