USC’s Travis Claridge, a Former Washington Resident, Dislikes the Huskies and Gets a Chance to Act on It Saturday

Gray, rainy days when the fog starts to roll in by halftime. . . .

That feels like football weather to Travis Claridge.

Two hours south of Seattle, Claridge’s Fort Vancouver High team used to play a lot of games at a place called Kiggins Bowl, where the field always seemed to end up a mud puddle before the game was over.

USC Coach John Robinson is talking about practicing with wet footballs this week in case the weather turns bad for Saturday’s game against seventh-ranked Washington in Seattle. Claridge, a sophomore offensive lineman from Vancouver, Wash., might be the only guy who isn’t concerned.

“I hope it’s rainy. I really do. I hope it’s real cold,” said Claridge, who didn’t leave Washington to get away from the weather--just to get away from the Huskies. The disdain he held for Washington’s team as a youngster is still intact.

“I never considered Washington,” Claridge said. “When I was getting recruited, they were on probation and couldn’t be on TV.

“Everybody said, ‘Oooh, the Huskies,’ I said, ‘Big deal.’ They don’t do anything for me. I just don’t like them. I didn’t want to play there.”

Instead, he is playing for a 4-3 Trojan team that has scraped by to win two games in a row but clearly still has problems.

The Huskies, whose only loss is to top-ranked Nebraska, opened as 18-point favorites this week. Claridge couldn’t offer much argument.

“That’s about right. We’re not playing that good right now,” he said. “They’re a good team. They’re ranked in the top 25. But that doesn’t mean anything. Hell, we were ranked.”

Claridge still thinks USC--ranked 23rd at the beginning of the season but unranked since opening 0-2--can beat Washington.

“I don’t see why not,” Claridge said. “A lot of people say, ‘You’ve got to play in Seattle.’ Who gives a . . . ? The way I see it, they’ve got to play us.”

Sometimes it’s hard to hold in his frustration with USC’s struggles. Twice this season, in a victory over California and then in Saturday’s victory over Oregon, the Trojans have followed great offensive first halves with sputtering second halves. Five times this season, USC hasn’t scored a touchdown after halftime.

“I came out [of the Oregon game] disappointed,” Claridge said. “I was kind of mad. How can we just kill them, then let them come back?

“That’s frustrating. The first half, we were just dominating their defensive line. Just killing ‘em. Then all of a sudden, things just stop working.

“That’s a big concern. We’ve got to find a way to score points in the second half. If we don’t, we’ve really got to blow them out in the first. If you can’t score points, you can’t win games. The defense can’t always play the way they did against Florida State.”

If some of that sounds familiar, it’s probably because last season USC had leads over Arizona State, Washington, Stanford and UCLA--and lost every one of those games.

The Washington game was particularly humiliating. USC was held to minus 14 yards rushing, the fewest in Trojan history, in a 21-10 loss.

“I just remember every time we ran the ball, getting up off the ground, getting off of somebody, and the back was not past the line of scrimmage,” Claridge said. “They had eight men in the box all the time. It’s hard to run when they do that.”

Claridge was a freshman on that team--the first true freshman to start a season-opener on the offensive line for USC since Brad Budde in 1976. With a 6-foot-6, 300-pound frame that could hardly be described as soft, Claridge eventually will make his way to the NFL.

“As a freshman last year, he had some very good plays where you’d say he was going to be a very good player,” USC Coach John Robinson said. “But then he had some plays that weren’t good. He’s really cut down on those types of plays. Last year, every once in a while, he’d turn a player loose in pass protection. But he’s becoming a solid football player now.

“The whole line has played well the last two weeks. They’re getting their shoulder level down like we talked about.”

The running game, once ranked last in the nation, is averaging 124 yards a game after a season-high 218 yards against Oregon when Delon Washington broke through with his first 100-yard game in two seasons.

USC’s tradition with the running game and its history of producing NFL linemen is one of the reasons Claridge chose the school, but he said Robinson and offensive line coach Mike Barry are the main reasons, especially since he said Washington Coach Jim Lambright “rubs me the wrong way” and he didn’t want to trust him with his future.

His loyalty to Barry is particularly strong.

“If things didn’t happen right this year and he ends up having to leave, I think that would be one of the biggest mistakes the school’s ever made,” Claridge said. “Him and Coach Robinson. Who are you going to get besides John Robinson?”

With four games left, USC can finish with a winning record by winning two more. If that happens, it will be the first time Claridge has ever played on a winning football team.

“What’s funny about this year’s team is you look across the board, and everybody has more experience,” he said. “We’re more talented as a group, but for some reason we don’t win games.

“We practice hard all week. Last year, we didn’t practice like this. It would be a couple of periods, ‘OK, they do this and they do that,’ and then it would be time to hit the showers. This year is nothing like that.

“I think we’re a lot better team than last year, but it doesn’t show.”