The Race Is On : Blame Coach, if Expectations Are Too Great

Is it too early?

Too early to talk about a national-championship season for USC’s football team, if it achieves the tall task of beating Penn State in the Kickoff Classic on Sunday afternoon?

Of course it’s too early. Hey, it’s August. UCLA and Notre Dame are three months away.

But stop complaining, John Robinson. You’re the one who brought it up, starting 43 months ago, at the news conference called to announce you were coming back for a second Trojan term.

You talked about future national championships and Rose Bowls.

“At the time, I felt there needed to be a sense of raised expectations with USC football,” he explained not long ago.

“But I probably shot my mouth off too much.”

Still, the USC football team that plays in Sunday’s early-bird special looks like Robinson’s best in the four seasons of his second stint. And if USC defeats Penn State and then Illinois on Sept. 7, and if college football’s dominoes tumble just right . . .

The arithmetic is simple. The Trojans must beat everyone. Including UCLA and Notre Dame. And it would be helpful if someone else tripped up Nebraska, Tennessee, Florida, Colorado, etc.

And speaking of the Trojans defeating the Irish, which hasn’t happened since 1982, is this the year? ESPN’s web-site guy, Bruce Feldman, says it is. He has picked USC to go 13-0 and win the national title.

Feldman, who lives in Bristol, Conn., said he would walk to Los Angeles if USC didn’t defeat Notre Dame on Nov. 30 at the Coliseum.

With this team, you have to grope to find question marks. But there are a few:

--The 6-foot-8, 330-pound offensive right tackle, sophomore Ken Bowen. He has hardly played a lick, backing up Norberto Garrido last year and redshirting in 1994. Of course, the same was said this time last year of tackle John Michels, who became a first-round draft pick by the Green Bay Packers.

--None of the kickers seems able to consistently put kickoffs into the end zone.

--The new punter, Jim Wren, is no John Stonehouse, the Pacific 10 Conference’s best last year. As Robinson put it, “Wren kicks it as far as Stonehouse, three out of five times.”

--Tailback looks thin for the immediate going. If starter Delon Washington’s suspension lasts longer than the first game, Robinson will have to rely almost entirely on Rodney Sermons and the oft-injured LaVale Woods, because Shawn Walters isn’t eligible until the fourth game, at Houston.

--USC has only five Coliseum games this year, and the last one, Nov. 30, is against Notre Dame. Still, the schedule is thought of as a plus, with the Trojans a near-unanimous pick to win the Pac-10 championship. USC doesn’t play Oregon this season. The two toughest Pac-10 tests appear to be consecutive road games at Arizona State and Washington State in October.

USC has 10 starters returning from last season’s 9-2-1 team, the Pac-10 co-champion and Rose Bowl champion. Six of the returnees are defensive players, including preseason All-American lineman Darrell Russell and cornerback Daylon McCutcheon, one of America’s most explosive defensive players.

McCutcheon, a sophomore, was to have been a part-time offensive player, but that was delayed a year after he and Robinson agreed, as the player put it, “I still have a lot to learn about playing the corner.”

Another factor was the loss of returning cornerback Quincy Harrison, whose career was ended by neck surgery.

McCutcheon, who gained possession on defense three times last season and scored two touchdowns, will, however, return kicks this year.

Expectations for this defense are high, with the fast, athletic Russell, a junior; senior tackle Matt Keneley and defensive ends Willie Lowery, a senior, and George Perry, a junior.

The linebackers are largely inexperienced but talented. In the middle is Taso Papadakis, who led the team in training-camp fights but is also engaged in a fierce job struggle with freshman Chris Claiborne. Papadakis is technically a sophomore, although he’s in his fourth year at USC. He lost all of one season, 1995, and most of another, 1993, to injuries and was granted a rare sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA.

Sophomores Mark Cusano and Bob Aubrey are in this mix, as is senior Sammy Knight, converted from safety.

Even considering Harrison’s loss, the secondary is talented and deep. McCutcheon and sophomore Ken Haslip will start at the corners, juniors Grant Pearsall and Brian Kelly at safety.

Senior quarterback Brad Otton, the uncontested starter, bears more pressure than anyone else to perform at a high level and says he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Says his high school coach, Sid Otton, also his father, “Brad is an easygoing, low-key guy, but the thing that’s always fooled people about him is he’s also a ferocious competitor. In the toughest kinds of situations, when you’re tempted to count him out, that’s when he’s at his very best.”

A 61.5% passer at USC, Otton will be throwing to USC’s deepest, most talented group of receivers in years. And Robinson often says that Otton’s greatest gift is his ability to see all the receivers on a passing down.

In the post-Keyshawn Johnson era, the wide receivers are sophomore Billy Miller and senior Chris Miller. The Millers are no relation, but Chris Miller is Johnson’s cousin. Sophomore Mike Bastianelli had an eye-popping camp and Robinson said he might be evolving into a Steve Largent type.

Junior Larry Parker starts the season sidelined because of a hamstring pull.

Two freshmen are in the receiver mix, Stan Guyness and R. Jay Soward. Soward will return kicks, as will freshman Chad Morton.

The Trojans start out thin at running back, with suspensions putting Washington out of the opener and Walters until Game 4. Sermons had a solid camp, as did Woods, who has a history of hamstring injuries.

If anything happens to those two in the first four weeks, freshman Ted Iacenda, who sat out most of training camp because of a foot injury, could be pressed into service.

At fullback, sophomore Marvin Powell III needs to show he can provide the pass-catching skills of the departed Terry Barnum. Only Keyshawn Johnson caught more passes than Barnum last year.

Probably USC’s most underrated player is senior tight end John Allred, a ferocious blocker. He has caught only 27 passes in three seasons, but Robinson thinks he could become one of USC’s best at the position.

The tackles are mystery man Bowen and Rome Douglas, a sophomore who came to USC as a 245-pound tight end. He’s at 300 pounds and still hasn’t stopped growing.

“He’s inexperienced, but he’s on his way to becoming something special,” Robinson said.

At right guard, freshman Travis Claridge will become the first freshman offensive line starter for USC in 20 years. Robinson has issued him jersey No. 71, worn by All-American Tony Boselli for four years.

The left guard is the best of this group, junior Chris Brymer. He was academically ineligible last year, but Robinson said two years ago, “He’s a natural football player, a wonderful player.”

Another freshman, Eric Denmon, was making a strong run at the center job but pulled a hamstring in camp. Junior Jonathan Himebauch has taken over.

Sophomore Adam Abrams is the kicker. Injured for much of last season, he kicked only six field goals, but two of those were in the Rose Bowl, one a 46-yarder.

So that’s the team that aspires to reach the top of college football, the goal often referred to around Heritage Hall as “it.”

Or, “the thing.”

But you won’t hear much talk about it, because the coach wants his players to shut up and play.

Same rule applies as last year, when Robinson said, “The first guy I see holding up an index finger [for No. 1], I’m going to bite it off.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

USC Schedule

All Times Pacific

*--*

Date Opponent Time Sunday Penn State* 11 a.m. Sept. 7 At Illinois 12:30 p.m Sept. 14 OREGON STATE 3:30 Sept. 21 At Houston 12:30 p.m. Oct. 5 CALIFORNIA TBA Oct. 12 ARIZONA TBA Oct. 19 At Arizona State TBA Oct. 26 At Washington State TBA Nov. 2 Washington 12:30 p.m. Nov. 9 At Stanford TBA Nov. 23 At UCLA 12:30 p.m. Nov. 30 Notre Dame 5 p.m.

*--*

SUNDAY’S KICKOFF CLASSIC

No. 7 USC vs. No. 11 PENN STATE

* Site: East Rutherford, N.J.

* Time: 11 a.m.

* TV: Channel 7

* Radio: KLSX-FM (97.1)