There’s Spring in Trojans’ Step : College football: Bolstered by strong recruiting class, USC opens workouts with high hopes.

Harboring great expectations for next fall, USC begins spring football practice today.

Last fall, Coach John Robinson launched his second USC term with an 8-5 season. His team was a Pacific 10 Conference tri-champion--with UCLA and Arizona--with a 6-2 mark, and capped the season with a 28-21 victory over Utah in the Freedom Bowl.

The Trojans missed the Rose Bowl bid by perhaps two yards and 50 seconds on Nov. 20.

They trailed UCLA, 27-21, when quarterback Rob Johnson’s pass was intercepted. UCLA then held onto the ball as time expired, and went to Pasadena. USC went to Anaheim.

Since then, USC says it has registered one of its best recruiting classes in years, one that old Trojans hope will be the core of teams to perhaps rival Robinson’s juggernauts of the late 1970s and early ‘80s.

The Trojans are coming off a season that had some negative themes:

--A running game that was only intermittently successful.

Robinson started the season with sophomore Dwight McFadden at tailback but McFadden broke an ankle in the first quarter of the opening game.

Late in the season, after McFadden and teammates Ken Grace and Irwin Lincoln had been stopped by police in Hollywood, a gun that reportedly belonged to McFadden was found in their car. Shortly afterward, Robinson advised McFadden to make himself available for the NFL draft. Freshman Shawn Walters, a 225-pound power back, was effective for most of the second half of the season. But he is expected to compete next season with noted prep recruits Rodney Sermons and Delon Washington, and with junior college transfer Leonard Green.

--A defensive line that was exposed as the team’s weakest link, particularly in losses to Notre Dame and Arizona.

Here, too, help has arrived. Junior college transfers Marcus Bonds and Israel Ifeanyi could shore up holes, as might highly touted freshman Darrell Russell, who arrives in September.

Robinson has six offensive and four defensive starters returning.

The positives:

--USC should again have a productive, high-percentage passing offense. Johnson is back, but All-American Johnnie Morton, who had 88 catches for 1,520 yards and 14 touchdowns, isn’t. Returning wide receivers are Grace and Ed Hervey.

They will be joined by a top junior college transfer, Keyshawn Johnson. Also returning are pass blockers Tony Boselli, Kris Pollack and Norberto Garrido.

--The Trojans should have solid kicking game, with kicker Cole Ford and punter John Stonehouse back. Stonehouse iced USC’s victory at Washington with a 67-yard punt with 55 seconds left. Also, Robinson recruited highly sought prep kicker Adam Abrams of San Diego.

Rob Johnson, 6 feet 4 and 220, leads the returning offensive group. For USC, it was an unhappy circumstance that Rose Bowl hopes died on an intercepted pass by him.

He had only six interceptions all season and set Pac-10 and USC single-season completion records with his 68.6% mark. He also threw 29 touchdown passes and trails only Rodney Peete on the school list.

Helping protect Johnson will be Boselli, the 6-8, 305-pound offensive tackle from Boulder, Colo. Boselli was on his way to a second consecutive All-American season last fall when he dislocated a kneecap at Arizona and missed the next five games.

The 15 spring workouts beginning today at Howard Jones Field will continue through April 16.

Trojan Notes

Assuming repairs to the earthquake-damaged Coliseum are made in time, USC’s home season opens Sept. 3 against Washington. Other home games include Baylor, Sept. 24; Oregon, Oct. 1; Cal, Oct. 22; Arizona, Nov. 12, and Notre Dame, Nov. 26.

Until two weeks ago, the Trojans were trying to arrange a game in Tokyo against Washington State on Dec. 3. Tokyo promoters were offering $400,000 to each school, but changing the original date of the game, Nov. 5 at Pullman, proved too troublesome.