Now, ‘Real’ Season Starts Up for USC : College football: Unbeaten Trojans take on Arizona in Pac-10 opener.

Its “exhibition” season complete, USC finally will be called upon to play some serious football tonight.

Before an expected 57,000 fans in Arizona Stadium, the Trojans meet an opponent, Arizona (2-1), thought to be far superior to either of USC’s first two foes, San Jose State and Houston.

John Robinson’s two-quarterback offense, directed by Brad Otton and Kyle Wachholtz, will be countered by an old nemesis, Arizona quarterback Dan White, who seems to save his best games for USC.

He expertly led Arizona’s 38-7 rout of the Trojans here two years ago, then threw for 370 yards in USC’s 45-28 victory at the Coliseum a year ago.

But personnel changes quickly in college football. Only five USC defensive players remain from that beating two years ago, and none started that night.

Arizona too is a changed team. While the Wildcats still have a formidable defense--as usual, they’re the Pacific 10 Conference defensive leader, yielding 201.3 yards per game--Robinson hopes his team won’t be up against anything like the 1993 unit.

“That ’93 Arizona defense was phenomenal, the best in the country, maybe the best I ever saw in college football,” Robinson said.

Two Arizona standouts from the 1993 team remain.

Senior defensive end Tedy Bruschi (6 feet 1, 255 pounds), who has 42.5 career sacks, will be matched against USC’s left offensive tackle, John Michels. Senior safety Brandon Sanders, the key player last week when the Wildcat secondary limited Illinois to 75 passing yards in the 9-7 loss, will be assigned to USC wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson. In the preseason, The Sporting News called Sanders the country’s best safety.

Arizona’s challenge tonight is to slow down the Trojans’ triple-tailback offense, which has averaged 183 yards per game. Last Saturday, Arizona limited Illinois to 139 total yards. On 22 run plays, Illinois gained two or fewer yards.

USC’s principal defensive task tonight is to continue the pressure White had to deal with at Illinois, where he was sacked six times.

Or, at a minimum, USC defensive coordinator Keith Burns hopes his unit can apply more pressure to White than it has in the last two USC-Arizona meetings. White completed 40 of 69 passes for 598 yards and six touchdowns in those games.

Robinson is expected to start Otton tonight, with Wachholtz playing the second quarter. A decision on the second-half rotation will be made at halftime.

Robinson said Friday that Leonard Green would start again at tailback, keeping alive the competition among Green, Shawn Walters and Delon Washington for the starting job. Earlier in the week, Robinson had indicated that Walters, last year’s starter, might have regained the job with his 76-yard game against Houston.

Said Walters, “All this makes me even hungrier. They’re teasing me, like a pit bull. And if I get hold of [the starting job], I won’t let go of it.”

Robinson sounds eager to view his team in a tough game.

“It’s how you play in the tough games that tells you how good you are,” he said.

Trojan Notes

Starting cornerback Brian Kelly, who sprained his ankle against Houston, did not make the trip, and freshman Daylon McCutcheon will start in his place. . . . USC has a 17-4 lead in its Arizona series, but the Wildcats have won three of the last five. Before that, USC won the previous six.