COLLEGE FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : USC : Quarterback a Question--Next Season

The 1994 season has at least four games left, but already the theme of USC’s 1995 preseason training camp has been set:

Quarterback controversy.

In the post-Rob Johnson era, present backup Brad Otton and Kyle Wachholtz will work to become Johnson’s successor.

Johnson, a three-season starter, will graduate in June.

Otton is a 6-foot-6 sophomore who has filled in impressively while Johnson recovered from a sprained ankle.

Wachholtz, a 6-5 junior, was expected to be Johnson’s backup this season. But Otton transferred from Weber State last spring and Wachholtz then was declared academically ineligible for this season.

“It’s going to be great competition for that job next season,” Coach John Robinson said.

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Tony Boselli, the Trojans’ senior All-American offensive tackle who received an $18,000 post-graduate fellowship this week by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, said he would use the grant for graduate school after a pro career.

“I’ll save it, and use it when I’m done with football,” he said. “I’ll get an MBA, something like that. It’s a great honor and I’m really thrilled about it.”

Boselli, one of nine recipients announced Monday, is the ninth USC player to be so honored. The last was John Jackson in 1989.

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On second thought, Robinson said he will take this weekend’s bye.

After USC’s 61-0 rout of Cal on Saturday at the Coliseum, he sounded as if he would have liked to see Washington State, the Trojans’ Nov. 5 opponent, coming down the Coliseum tunnel as the Bears were leaving.

His team has won three in a row and was obviously on top of its game.

However, this week Robinson said: “Fatigue is a problem late in the season for everyone, no matter how well you’re playing. The fresher you are, the better. In that sense, a bye helps us. But there is that potential to get out of rhythm. . . . we need to make sure we hang on to it in practice.”