USC Will Try to Quiet Crowd and Critics : College football: Trojans take on Husky Stadium noise and a Washington team that’s also 4-0 in Pac-10 play.

It has been silent pain and silent counts, in a week that will end this afternoon in a blast of sound unequaled in West Coast college football.

In Husky Stadium today, Coach John Robinson’s USC team will try to shake lingering pain from that 38-10 meltdown at Notre Dame Stadium last week, a crushing defeat but one that has no bearing on the Rose Bowl race.

USC (6-1 overall, 4-0 in the Pacific 10) plays Washington (5-2, 4-0) in the conference’s first significant Rose Bowl game and in an environment that will be every bit as hostile as the Trojans encountered in South Bend last week.

Even the weather could be the same--miserable. Rain is a possibility.

No Pac-10 venue compares to 74,000-seat Husky Stadium in volume, its aluminum roof stands holding in the sound much like a domed stadium.

“Notre Dame is one of the toughest places in the country to play, but Washington is certainly in the top 10 too,” Robinson said.

Accordingly, it has been silent-snap week at USC practices. Quarterbacks Brad Otton and Kyle Wachholtz have been whispering their signal counts, loud enough for only center Jeremy Hogue to hear, the other players moving only when they see the snap.

Robinson’s two quarterbacks will be under greater scrutiny today. The Otton-Wachholtz rotation that has been used for seven games is suddenly written in chalk, not set in stone.

Starter Otton had his third consecutive sub-par day last week at Notre Dame, and Robinson has said the rotation could change today. Otton, however, will start and Wachholtz will play the second quarter, as usual.

Then Robinson and offensive coordinator Mike Riley will decide at halftime whether to continue the rotation in the second half. Robinson said Tuesday that if either quarterback has a bad quarter, the other will start the third quarter.

And the Washington quarterback, Damon Huard, will also be closely watched today.

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound senior has been up and down since he was carried off the field in his first start in 1993, when he directed two scoring drives in the final 2 1/2 minutes to defeat Cal, 24-23.

Against Notre Dame three weeks ago, for example, Washington, down 22-21, was at Notre Dame’s 33 with 44 seconds remaining. Huard threw a horrible pass that was intercepted by Notre Dame’s Allen Rossum, who returned it 76 yards for a touchdown.

Huard is second in conference pass efficiency ratings, behind Pac-10 leader Wachholtz. Otton is third.

Another marked man for the Huskies will be sophomore tailback Rashaan Shehee, from Bakersfield, who averages 5.7 yards a carry and has had at least one key run in every game. Last Saturday, it was a 48-yarder at Arizona that gave Washington a 24-10 lead.

USC has won the last two of these matchups, 24-17 in the Coliseum opener last year and 22-17 two years ago here, the last time a Pac-10 team has won at Husky Stadium. USC has won seven of the last 11 in the series, but the Huskies have won 32 of the last 35 at their lakeside stadium.

Today, Robinson hopes his thinning corps of running backs can hold together long enough to dominate ball possession, score early and tone down the crowd.

Team defense is the principal concern of Husky followers. Statistically, Washington is having a difficult season. Coach Jim Lambright’s rushing defense ranks ninth in the league, giving up 187 yards a game, and eighth in total defense, giving up 404 yards.

Some call it the worst Husky defense in years. But Riley urges caution when examining such numbers.

“Remember, they played two wishbone teams [Army and Oregon State], and Notre Dame,” he said. “That skews it.”

There are three common opponents. Notre Dame blew out USC, but needed that last-minute interception to put away Washington, 29-21. Washington struggled in its opener to beat Arizona State, 23-20, but the Trojans routed ASU, 31-0. USC beat Arizona, 31-10, a team Washington beat, 31-17.

If USC wins today, it will be 5-0 in the Rose Bowl derby, with Stanford, Oregon State and UCLA left. A 5-0 Washington would have Oregon, UCLA and Washington State left.

And yes, Robinson will go for a tie with the game on the line, since a tie has a point value--a loss doesn’t--in the formula used to determine the conference Rose Bowl representative.

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USC Notes

All 92,000 Coliseum seats have been sold for the UCLA-USC game Nov. 18. . . . Possible rain is in Saturday’s forecast here. It rained most of the game in USC’s loss at Notre Dame last Saturday. The last time USC played in rain in consecutive games was 1960, against Washington at the Coliseum and at Baylor. The Trojans lost both, 34-0 to the Huskies and 35-14 at Baylor.

* HE’S DISILLUSIONED

USC’s Israel Ifeanyi says the NCAA does not always act in the interests of the athletes it is intended to serve. C9