This Isn’t What USC Had in Mind

Can John Robinson get it done?

Can USC ever scale the heights again, to the national championship-level teams Howard Jones, John McKay and Robinson himself once assembled?

If Robinson is on his way to doing that--and recent recruiting classes suggest that he should be--then the Trojans win all the big games, such as Saturday’s at Arizona State.

Not much at stake here.

Only the entire season.

Only the Rose Bowl.

A win over the undefeated Sun Devils and the Trojans are still in the hunt for the Rose Bowl, although they’d need some help. Arizona State beating California on Nov. 9, for example, would be helpful, providing Cal loses to someone else too.

A loss to Arizona State?

It strains credulity to imagine how USC, with two losses in the Pacific 10 Conference, could still reach Pasadena for New Year’s Day. Robinson tried to come up with one this week, but conceded that Cal and Arizona State would have to go completely into the tank.

When Robinson was introduced as USC’s head coach for the second time in January 1993, he talked openly of future Rose Bowls and national titles, explaining he wanted an environment of “raised expectations” at USC.

It didn’t need to be said, of course. Expectations have been high at USC since the Hoover administration, or since Howard Jones’ “Thundering Herd” teams won consensus national championships in 1931 and 1932.

McKay did it with his 1962, 1967 and 1972 teams. More than any other, the ’72 Trojans still define USC expectations. That team is considered by many perhaps college football’s greatest team. It routed every opponent, scored more than 40 points six times, held six foes to single-digit points and beat Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, 42-17.

On consecutive Saturdays that year, USC beat Oregon State, 51-6; Illinois, 55-20 and Michigan State, 51-6. In the three subsequent NFL drafts, 28 members of the 1972 Trojans were selected.

But at the midway point in the fourth season of Robinson’s second term at USC, the Trojans have yet to live up to expectations and are 0-5-1 against UCLA and Notre Dame.

Moreover, Robinson’s Trojans have yet to win a monster game, to dominate a strong team on both sides of the ball.

True, Robinson’s previous three teams have shown an ability to win bowl-deciding games when they had to, though the first two seasons were for lesser games than the Rose Bowl.

Robinson’s best coaching job to date was with his 1993 team, one that had no business in any bowl. Yet it won three of its last four and reached the Freedom Bowl, beat Utah, and finished 8-5.

The ’93 team actually finished in a three-way tie for the Pac-10 title, but losses to UCLA and Arizona sent the Trojans to a lesser bowl. The game that enabled the Trojans to reach a bowl was the 22-17 win over Washington at Seattle, a victory achieved by two individual plays the likes of which Robinson wants to see Saturday in Tempe.

In the final minute of that ’93 USC-Washington game, USC got a 67-yard punt by John Stonehouse from his own end zone and then a midfield interception by Joe Barry to kill Washington’s last chance.

In 1994, Robinson treated the season-opener against Washington like the game of the year, and his players responded with a 24-17 victory. But losses to UCLA and Oregon kept USC out of Pasadena again, leaving them in the Cotton Bowl.

Last season’s team, despite another loss to UCLA, reached Pasadena largely on the strength of a 31-30 victory over Stanford.

USC and Arizona State didn’t play in 1993 and 1994, but USC has won four of the last five, including 31-0 last year.

The Sun Devils, like the Trojans, can’t seem to win the one that matters most to their partisans, the annual game against the Wildcats from Tucson. Since 1982, Arizona State is 2-11-1 against Arizona.

This year, fourth-ranked Arizona State (6-0) has already proved it can win a very big game, namely the 19-0 shocker over Nebraska. All USC (4-2) has shown is that it will lose to California roughly once every five years, and that its partisans are becoming impatient with what they see as an underachieving team.

So, is it for the season?

“Yes, we see it that way,” said USC’s Matt Keneley, senior defensive tackle. “This is for the Rose Bowl, we know that.

“Coach Burns [defensive coordinator Keith] told us at our Monday meeting that this was for the Rose Bowl, that we need a mind-set Saturday where we are not only going to take the ball away from Arizona State, but we’re going to give our offense good field position too. We can’t afford another Pac-10 loss, that’s for sure.”

Wide receiver Chris Miller said the offense feels the same way.

“We definitely don’t want to be in a position where we need help from someone else,” he said.

“We want to beat them and get back to the Rose Bowl. That’s where SC belongs.”