USC Stewing Over Irish Domination : College football: Trojans hope to end 11-game losing streak in series against inconsistent Notre Dame.

Jeff Kopp, a USC senior linebacker, says he has had enough.

Eleven years of enough. Enough of Notre Dame’s winning streak.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” he said, talking about both the heartbreak of last week’s loss to UCLA and today’s 66th Notre Dame-USC game at the Coliseum. “This has to stop.

“We try not to think of Notre Dame’s win streak over us, but like Coach Robinson told us, 11 is enough. That’s not supposed to happen, losing to anyone 11 times in a row.”

USC seniors, though, have been saying much the same thing since the mid-1980s.

Dominance. No other word characterizes Notre Dame’s recent record in the series.

USC hasn’t beaten the Irish in college football’s oldest intersectional rivalry--the first game was played in 1926--since the last team of John Robinson’s first USC term did it, 17-13, in 1982.

Of course, that was a Gerry Faust Notre Dame team.

Robinson’s record against Notre Dame is far better than that of his seniors. He was 5-1 against the Fighting Irish until last season’s 31-13 loss at South Bend.

The numbers suggest that the Trojans’ chances this evening are better than they were last season, on a day when Notre Dame gained 305 yards rushing, got a 70-yard touchdown run from Lee Becton on the second play of the game and ran off to a 28-7 halftime lead.

But that was an 11-1 Notre Dame team, one that sent virtually its entire offensive line into the NFL.

This time, Notre Dame is 6-4, loser of three of its last five, and injury-troubled. And this is a 7-3 USC team, winner of five of its last six, playing before a sold-out Coliseum crowd. Both teams have bowl aspirations, although Irish Coach Lou Holtz wouldn’t say this week if the Irish would accept a bowl bid if they lost to USC.

“That’s not my decision,” he said.

USC could wind up in the Sugar Bowl game with a victory over Notre Dame, and if Florida beats Alabama on Dec. 3 in the Southeastern Conference title game.

“If those two things happen, USC becomes our top priority team to meet Florida in our game,” the Sugar Bowl’s Chuck Zatarain, in Los Angeles to see tonight’s game, said Friday.

The Trojans also are on short lists for the Cotton, Sun and Fiesta bowls.

But Notre Dame, not bowls, is the Trojans’ energy-builder this week.

And Kopp has become the top cop.

“This week, this is when all the seniors have to step up and demand that every player on this team gives everything he has,” he said.

“We’re going to be certain everyone is emotionally prepared to play.”

“That 1992 Notre Dame team (which finished 10-1-1) was by far the best one I’ve played, when I was a sophomore,” Kopp said.

“They had Rick Mirer and Jerome Bettis. But we hung in there and played them even (USC lost, 31-23). So I know we can beat this team.”

There has been some talk this week of emotional fatigue after the 31-19 loss to UCLA. That occurred after victories over Washington State and Arizona. Robinson wondered if a five-game winning streak had extracted a price.

Among his players, there was some disagreement on this.

Kopp said no, wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson said yes.

“If you’re standing in that tunnel, looking at 93,000 people and Notre Dame is out there waiting for you, and you’re emotionally drained--well, something is wrong with you,” Kopp said.

“I’ll be ready to play.”

Johnson, who has caught 52 passes for 1,026 yards, said he was emotionally spent in the UCLA game.

He certainly didn’t play that way, catching 11 passes for 175 yards, his most productive game yet.

“I felt emotionally tired (against UCLA),” he said. “We’d played so good against Washington State and Arizona. . . . It’s hard to play your best against those tough teams back to back. You just don’t have a lot of energy left.

“But I think our energies will be back for Notre Dame.”

Senior quarterback Rob Johnson said he feels the weight of a losing streak against Notre Dame, but for him it’s a two-gamer, not 11.

“I feel the weight of the losing streak in the games I played in,” he said. “Those were the ’93 and ’92 games, and I really want to beat Notre Dame while I’m here.

“Actually, we played fairly well back there last year. We just couldn’t get the ball in the first half.”

On the fatigue issue, Johnson said a certain numbness might have settled in the week of the UCLA game.

“We have a great opportunity,” he said. “We want to win this game.”

Holtz dismisses the winning streak, calling this a coin-flip game.

“If you flip a coin and it comes up heads 15 straight times, it’s still only a 50-50 chance it’ll come up heads on the 16th flip,” he said.

USC’s challenge today is Ron Powlus, Notre Dame’s sophomore quarterback.

He already has tied the Irish one-season record for touchdown passes with 18. Some Holtz teams at Notre Dame never reached double digits in touchdown passes.

Said USC defensive coordinator Don Lindsey, “Sometimes (Powlus) looks like a million-dollar quarterback, and sometimes he struggles. What you have there is a guy who’s on his way to being a great player who’s going through normal development.”

Notes

Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz will patch together his 11th different offensive lineup tonight. Guards Jeremy Akers and Mark Zataveski are out with injuries, as is linebacker Justin Goheen. Questionable are defensive end Renaldo Wynn, safety LaRon Moore and cornerbacks Shawn Wooden and Tracy Graham.

USC Coach John Robinson reports a relatively injury-free lineup, including starting tailback Shawn Walters, who has been slowed by a cracked thumb for two weeks.

Delon Washington, the freshman tailback who was a sensation in the opening victory over Washington and who later was withheld for eight games while he prepared for and retook an entrance exam, was cleared to play Monday. Washington has looked sharp in practice this week but his conditioning is suspect. Robinson said he might play Washington in “a series or two.”

The Series

* Last USC victory: 1982, 17-13.

* John Robinson: 6-2-0.

* Overall: Notre Dame, 38-23-4.

A Long Time, Indeed

The world is a much different place than it was when USC last defeated Notre Dame in a football game 12 years ago. Gerry Faust has come and gone and the Iron Curtain is no more, but the Trojan losing streak lives on. A look at the world according to Notre Dame football:

Year Score Winning Coach Losing Coach 1983 27-6 Gerry Faust Ted Tollner 1984 19-7 Gerry Faust Ted Tollner 1985 37-3 Gerry Faust Ted Tollner 1986 38-37 Lou Holtz Ted Tollner 1987 26-15 Lou Holtz Larry Smith 1988 27-10 Lou Holtz Larry Smith 1989 28-24 Lou Holtz Larry Smith 1990 10-6 Lou Holtz Larry Smith 1991 24-20 Lou Holtz Larry Smith 1992 31-23 Lou Holtz Larry Smith 1993 31-13 Lou Holtz John Robinson

Year: 1983

Top Stories in South Bend That Year: 1. Irish win Liberty Bowl; 2. U.S. invades Grenada.

Year: 1984

Top Stories in South Bend That Year: 1. Irish vacation in Hawaii, Aloha Bowl loss meaningless; 2. Reagan re-elected.

Year: 1985

Top Stories in South Bend That Year: 1. Faust announces resignation; 2. Faust thinks about resigning.

Year: 1986

Top Stories in South Bend That Year: 1. Holtz takes over, Notre Dame Stadium resodded; 2. U.S. attacks Libya.

Year: 1987

Top Stories in South Bend That Year: 1. Holtz scores first hole in one (four iron, 180 yards); 2. Iran-Contra scandal.

Year: 1988

Top Stories in South Bend That Year: 1. Irish win national championship; 2. Manuel Noriega indicted.

Year: 1989

Top Stories in South Bend That Year: 1. Irish win Orange Bowl, robbed of national title; 2. Berlin Wall falls.

Year: 1990

Top Stories in South Bend That Year: 1. Five-year anniversary of Faust resignation; 2. Iraq invades Kuwait.

Year: 1991

Top Stories in South Bend That Year: 1. 60th anniversary of Rockne’s death; 2. Communist rule ends in Soviet Union.

Year: 1992

Top Stories in South Bend That Year: 1. Irish win Cotton Bowl; 2. Bill Clinton elected president.

Year: 1993

Top Stories in South Bend That Year: 1. “Rudy” filmed in South Bend; 2. Mideast peace accord.