USC Will Still Not Fly Solo : Football: Despite Otton’s performance against Washington, Robinson will keep rotating quarterbacks.

No one has come up with an explanation as to how a football team can go from playing so poorly for six quarters to being so sharp in one, but USC’s fourth-quarter comeback at Washington Saturday left one thing clear:

Brad Otton, for the first time, is in command of USC’s quarterback position.

Coach John Robinson indicated Tuesday the two-quarterback offense will continue, with Otton starting and Kyle Wachholtz playing the second quarter, but with games on the line--as was Saturday’s--look for the 6-foot-6 Otton to be running the offense.

Otton directed the Trojans to touchdowns in three of their last four possessions for a 21-21 tie, after USC had gone two for 20 in the previous six quarters, including Notre Dame two Saturdays ago.

As a result, USC can go to the Rose Bowl by winning its remaining games against Stanford, Oregon State and UCLA, or could conceivably reach Pasadena by winning two of those three.

It was a remarkable afternoon for the man who put the Trojans on the pole. Last Monday and Tuesday, he was on the bubble as USC’s starter, after the team’s 38-10 destruction at Notre Dame.

But start he did--and the misery of South Bend continued in Seattle. Until an Otton-led third-quarter scoring drive that extended into the fourth period, USC had gone 0 for 8, punting six times, losing a fumble and running out of downs.

“We were desperately trying to get into any kind of rhythm, and I had a sense that Brad was coming alive out there,” Robinson said.

“The decision to leave him in [for the fourth quarter, normally Wachholtz’s quarter] had nothing to do with Kyle. If Kyle had been out there, I’d have done the same thing.”

Otton is a slow-talking, affable athlete and some find it hard to imagine him directing an offense in any impassioned way, but his teammates said he did Saturday.

“He was more vocal [in the huddle],” receiver Keyshawn Johnson said. “He was saying stuff like, ‘We need this first down!’ He did a fine job, running our two-minute offense.”

Said center Jeremy Hogue: “I detected a small change in him, but it was all 11 of us playing well and not making mistakes that did it.

“Until the last quarter, we were playing just poorly enough to kill our drives. A penalty here, a missed block there . . . When we all got on the same page and started clicking, we played like we’re capable of playing.”

Otton-led touchdown drives of 57, 73 and 79 yards, getting the last score--a two-yard pass to Johnny McWilliams--with 33 seconds to go.

This from a guy who looks as if he has just been awakened from a nap.

Otton’s father, Sid, who was his high school coach in Tumwater, Wash., says a flinty competitor lurks inside his sleepy-eyed son.

“Brad seems like a real laid-back guy to a lot of people, but to me he’s always been very competitive,” said the senior Otton, who watched the USC-Washington game with about 15 relatives and friends.

“Oddly enough, he didn’t play in any close games for me. His senior year, we were 13-0--all blowouts. He never saw the fourth quarter. We won the AA state championship and he was upset we couldn’t play the AAA champion. I know he’s happy to have been given a chance to show he can perform in a tough situation.”

The USC football staff has been chewing on theories of why the Trojan offense disappeared for more than a game and a half, and Otton, like everyone else, has one.

“I think we lost a lot of the competitive feeling we had in two-a-days [during summer camp],” he said.

“Our practices have been a little lackadaisical. In two-a-days, Kyle and I were throwing to guys covered by Sammy Knight and Brian Kelly; Darrell Russell was rushing us. . . . We got away from that. Coach Robinson told us he might shorten the practices and try to make them more competitive.”

Asked if he finally feels in charge of the offense, Otton hesitated.

“That’s a hard question, because I’m conscious of how Kyle feels, and not knowing exactly what Coach Robinson’s plans are . . .”

Finally, he was asked to define the rhythm everyone seems to think he triggered in the USC offense.

“I really don’t know,” he said. “All I know is that when we’re not in a rhythm, I’m more conscious of what defensive players are doing out there.

“In the fourth quarter, they blitzed their corners at me a couple of times and things were going so good for us, I really didn’t even notice. Our backs were to the wall. Our goal of the Rose Bowl was about to be taken away.

“Maybe it was the fact we were playing with a sense of urgency.”