COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : KEEPING TABS

Over the years, strong adjectives have been used to describe the football rivalry between UCLA and USC:

Bitter, heated, win-at-all-cost.

But here is one not mentioned very often.

Fun.

“We just get a big kick out of playing the game,” UCLA safety Travis Collier said. “We talk trash in the off-season. A lot of us know each other. You want to have those bragging rights. But it’s always a fun game. You have to approach it that way.”

While the media might take extreme measures to promote Saturday’s game in the sold-out Los Angeles Coliseum, Collier said the players can’t afford to get caught up in the hype. “If you’re too serious, you tend to be tight,” he said. “The looser team always sets the tempo.”

So, let the fans and boosters do all the talking, said Collier, a senior from Palmdale High. Let the players get prepared. Let them be friends as they battle for city supremacy, the Pac-10 championship and a Rose Bowl berth. Said Collier: “I think the hatred is mainly with the fans, the students and alumni.”

Collier understands the magnitude of Saturday’s showdown, as do three other players from this area now playing at UCLA and USC. They’re all seniors who came to their respective schools with dreams of playing in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day and have not had that chance until now.

Collier and tight end Brian Allen from Hart are both starters at UCLA. Linebacker Gerald Caruthers (Saugus) and tackle Jason Keiderling (Reseda) have started nine games between them this year for USC. If the Bruins win, they go to their first Rose Bowl Game since 1986. If the Trojans win or tie, they go to their first Rose Bowl Game since 1989.

Keiderling and Caruthers seem to have a greater grasp of the task at hand. Like most USC players, the two had dreamed of being Trojans since their childhood and grew up watching their USC heroes.

Keiderling and Caruthers know that the Trojans have prevailed the past nine times a victory in the USC-UCLA game meant a Rose Bowl berth for either team. It’s time to uphold tradition.

“We’ll win for sure,” Keiderling said. “The score doesn’t matter.”

Caruthers is slightly more cautious.

“I can’t say anything that will come back at me,” he said. “I know a lot of guys over there. I know Brian Allen and George Kase (UCLA’s starting nose guard from Hart). And when I go back to Saugus and see my friends, that’s all we talk about. This game’s for bragging rights. And I’ve had to keep quiet because UCLA won last year.”

Both USC players give partial credit to returning Coach John Robinson for putting them in a position to reach the Rose Bowl Game. But regardless, Caruthers said, the players were hungry to get back. The onus is now on the players to get the job done, Keiderling said.

“You get used to watching the Trojans win all the time,” he said. “So you have to go out there and get the win.”

UCLA is 2-1 against USC the three years in which Collier, Allen and Keiderling wore varsity uniforms (Caruthers transferred from Pasadena

City College), but none of those games carried Rose Bowl Game implications. And facing a 5-14-1 record in games where a Rose Bowl berth was on the line for both teams, UCLA is still trying to shed the image of being the No. 2 team in town.

“Gutty Little Bruins?” Allen said, laughing. “That’s a new one on me. But USC has the tradition, the names, the national championships on their side. We’re still the little school that tries hard.

“But we don’t talk about the past. We’re concentrating more about the game--and winning the game. The Rose Bowl is there for us to get. Let’s go ahead and get it.”

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Short-lived mark: Livingston (Ala.) University quarterback Marty Washington (Quartz Hill/Antelope Valley College) set two NCAA Division II records this fall, but one didn’t last through the season. Washington’s 591 yards in total offense earlier this year was eclipsed last week by former Palisades and Carson quarterback Perry Klein--whom Washington said he faced in high school. Klein posted 623 in a game for C.W. Post last week.

Washington’s career average of 306.6 yards per game is still No. 1 in the national record book.

Klein also leads the nation this season in total offense at 405.2 yards per game. Washington is No. 2 with 393.3. Klein played 10 games while the often-injured Washington hobbled through eight. In only 17 games in two seasons at Livingston, Washington is the school’s career leader in total offense (5,212) and passing yards (5,018).

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Casillas leads pack: Arizona freshman Margarito Casillas (Hoover) led a list of five former standouts from the Valley area who placed among the top 40 finishers in Saturday’s NCAA District 8 cross-country championships in Woodland, Wash.

Casillas ran 30 minutes 47 seconds over the 10,000-meter course to place 21st at Lewis River Golf Course.

Behind him were senior Todd Lewis (Burbank) of Stanford (30th in 31:09.8), junior Creighton Harris (Hoover) of UCLA (35th in 31:16.2), senior Eliazar Herrera (Hoover) of UCLA (37th in 31:17.3) and junior Brian Gastelum (Birmingham) of UCLA (40th in 31:22.6).