USC Poised to Reclaim Lost Edge

The starting quarterback says he has finally found his rhythm, the coach has pronounced the team’s slump over, two suspended starters are back and USC’s football team has had its best practice week of the season.

Seems as if USC, 6-1-1 overall and 4-0-1 in the Pacific 10, has everything pointed in the right direction going into today’s Coliseum game against Stanford (5-2-1, 3-2).

And judging from the Trojans’ practices this week, you’d think they were preparing for UCLA. Or the San Francisco 49ers.

Coach John Robinson retooled his practice schedule Monday, after his Brad Otton-led offense had registered a 21-point fourth quarter for a 21-21 tie at Washington, enabling USC to take the pole position in the Rose Bowl race.

Practices since have been the most intense of the season, with considerably more snaps pitting the first offense against the first defense.

Otton, for one, is happy.

“I felt I was sharpest during preseason camp, when I was throwing to receivers covered by guys like Brian Kelly and Sammy Knight, and Darrell Russell was rushing me,” he said.

“At Washington in the fourth quarter, that’s the first time I’ve felt comfortable out there since preseason.

“We’d lost a competitive edge, I think. We’d gotten kind of lackadaisical in practice.”

Robinson, who referred to the 38-10 loss at Notre Dame and the first two quarters against Washington as “a game and a half of hell,” has sought to put the two-game slump somewhere in the 19th Century.

He has broken off discussions of recent troubles and talked instead of the final three Saturdays, against Stanford, Oregon State and UCLA.

He gets two of his best defensive players back today, linebacker Errick Herrin and defensive end Izzy Ifeanyi, both back from half-season suspensions for agent-dealings, although Ifeanyi played under court order against Notre Dame.

But the player he needs most right now, 225-pound tailback Shawn Walters, isn’t likely to be back until a bowl game, if even then.

Walters, whose case is considered far more serious than those of Herrin and Ifeanyi, is a member of the team in name only. He hasn’t practiced for more than a month and hasn’t even been seen in the Trojan weight room.

Walters had his greatest game a year ago against Stanford at Palo Alto, a 234-yarder, with two touchdowns.

Meanwhile, USC’s running game has withered, although statistics from the Notre Dame and Washington games are misleading, since the Trojans were passing frequently to catch up.

At season’s start, Leonard Green, Walters, Delon Washington and LaVale Woods were getting four- and five-yard ground gains seemingly anytime they wanted. Now, with Walters absent and Woods and Green out because of hamstring and foot injuries, it’s down to Washington, and the common gains are two and three yards.

“We need that run game back, that’s for sure,” Otton said, adding that offensive coordinator Mike Riley and offensive line coach Mike Barry “will get it all sorted out.”

Robinson will be happy if his kickoff unit can sort out Stanford’s return unit, the best in the nation.

Damon Dunn and Marlon Evans have returned kickoffs for touchdowns and the Cardinal averages 28.8 yards a return, tops in the NCAA. Evans and Dunn rank third and fourth nationally.

Not much was expected from Stanford in new Coach Tyrone Willingham’s first season. But Stanford is 4-0 on the road and its 4-0-1 start was the Cardinal’s best since 1951.

USC Notes

Watching USC practice kickoff returns Thursday was an expert on the subject, Anthony Davis. He returned two all the way for USC against Notre Dame in 1972. . . . Injured freshman kicker Adam Abrams hopes to be able to kick today because it will be his only chance to compete against his brother, Eric, senior kicker for Stanford.