THE RIVALRY : Rose Bowl Doesn’t Get Trojan Attention

The first thing USC’s Rose Bowl-bound football team heard about preparations for Saturday’s game against UCLA was, to many, a stunner:

Take the day off.

Normally, USC players spend Sunday afternoon reviewing film of the previous day’s game. But after Saturday night’s bowl-clinching 28-10 victory at Oregon State, the team’s charter flight from Eugene didn’t arrive in Burbank until 2:30 a.m.

“I’d probably do that after any night road game,” said Coach John Robinson, who with his staff arrived at Heritage Hall offices for film viewing at about 2 p.m. Sunday.

“But in this case, I didn’t want everyone together talking about the Rose Bowl. I think they’ll be more ready to think about UCLA on Monday.”

A few players trickled in anyway, those Robinson likes to call “guys who would show up for practice even if you canceled practice.”

Senior safety Micah Phillips was one. He sat in a leather chair and described himself as determined.

“If you had told me four years ago when I enrolled here that I’d go into my senior season without ever having beaten UCLA . . . I wouldn’t have believed that,” he said.

“It’s personal with me. I’m not going to think about the Rose Bowl at all this week; all I want is to focus on UCLA.

“I think our team will be relaxed this time in the game, in the sense that we’re not playing to get in the Rose Bowl, or some other bowl. We’ve done that.”

UCLA has beaten USC four years in a row.

“This is going to be a week when the seniors step forward and exercise some leadership, to make sure we end this losing to UCLA,” said wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson. “We’ll have very focused practices, making sure none of us foul up.

“Last year, I got so tired just thinking about ‘bowl scenarios’ for us, watching too many scoreboards. This time we can be concerned with just one scoreboard.”

And what of the coach? What about the pressure of being 0-2 against UCLA in his second term at USC?

“Sure I feel the pressure,” he said Sunday. “But I’ve felt pressure in all the UCLA games I’ve coached in.”

Robinson was 5-2 against UCLA when he left USC for the Rams in 1982.

“That’s what’s great about the whole thing, it means so much to so many people. It’s something you look forward to. I’m as excited about playing UCLA as my players are.”

When he meets today with the players, he’ll stress the opportunity about to be presented to them.

“I’m going to make sure everyone understands that this football team has a chance to have a great season by winning the last two games, and I mean one of the great USC seasons. With two more big efforts, they can do it.”

Concentration on the task at hand shouldn’t be a problem, said senior fullback Terry Barnum.

“I don’t think you’ll hear much Rose Bowl talk this week, he said.

“No matter how well you do in the other 10 games, the UCLA game is such a big part of it all. They’ve had our number for a few years and we need to get back some self-respect for ourselves and our program.

“When you lose the big games, the ones with national recognition, the pain goes deep and it doesn’t go away quickly.”