USC Over Florida State --Is It a Dumb Prediction?

Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden couldn’t have been nicer Tuesday when speaking of USC’s football tradition. As a head coach for almost 40 years, he said he puts USC on a pedestal with Notre Dame.

As for his players, well, Bowden suggested they don’t hold the Trojans in the same high esteem.

You know kids today. They’re into Marilyn Manson, not Marilyn Monroe. They live in the present.

Bowden didn’t mean any disrespect. He certainly didn’t mean to provide the Trojans with bulletin-board material heading into their game Saturday at the Coliseum against the Seminoles. He merely was stating the obvious. If USC has been a national championship contender lately, word hasn’t reached Tallahassee.

Neither has it reached USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett’s office, which is the reason Coach John Robinson’s job was in jeopardy near the end of a 6-6 season last November.

Sometimes, Robinson looks back with a sense of humor.

“You get hurt when people say, ‘You’re even dumber than we thought you were,’ ” he says.

Sometimes, he reacts defensively.

“Which team has won the most games in the Pac-10 the last four years?” he snapped at a radio reporter during his weekly media luncheon Tuesday. “Which team has won two conference championships?”

The answer to both questions, of course, is USC.

Yes, the Trojans have been good more often than they’ve been bad since Robinson returned in 1993. But he knows better than anyone that good isn’t good enough for USC football.

As a result, there has been a sense of urgency at Trojan workouts that wasn’t there in recent years. It’s that, even more than the home-field advantage, that makes me believe USC will upset the No. 3 Seminoles.

I also believe a victory could serve to inflate the Trojans as much as the opening loss last season to Penn State deflated them and that it could propel them into the game at Notre Dame Oct. 18 with a 5-0 record.

Of course, I could be wrong. If so, I’m sure you’ll remind me that I’m even dumber than you thought I was.

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So you think that’s an easy prediction for an L.A. columnist to make? . . .

I’m pretty sure my credentials as an objective journalist are intact because I’m not getting the same positive vibes about UCLA in its game Saturday at the Rose Bowl against Tennessee. . . .

How much fun are Peyton Manning’s Volunteers to watch? . . .

“If you want to be a Tennessee fan, that’s fine with me,” Vanderbilt Coach Woody Widenhofer tells people in his state. “If I wasn’t the head coach of Vanderbilt, I’d probably go to some of their games myself.” . . .

If he had a choice, Robinson says he’d rather see USC-Florida State than UCLA-Tennessee. . . .

“I like our band, and I get free parking at the Coliseum,” he says. . . .

The game he confessed he’d rather see than either, though, is USC versus Akron. . . .

Give credit to the athletic directors at USC and UCLA for not allowing the coaches to do the scheduling. . . .

You think San Diego Charger quarterback Jim Everett is looking forward to playing Sunday against the team he thought he’d be starting for this season, New Orleans? . . .

Mike Ditka told him goodbye before they had a chance to say hello. . . .

From the reaction in New York, you’d think Sunday was one of the great days in the city’s sports history because the Jets and Giants both won. . . .

Maybe it was. We’ll find out this month, when results of a poll to determine New York’s 100 greatest sports moments are released. . . .

New York admits it stole the idea from the Los Angeles Sports Council, which determined a few years ago that Kirk Gibson’s World Series home run in 1988 was our No. 1. . . .

Bill Russell says he decided not to start Chan Ho Park on Tuesday night against the Rangers because he needs a rest. . . .

I wonder if it’s also because of the scarcity of Korean restaurants in Dallas. . . .

Needing his fix the night before he started a game in Pittsburgh last week, Park discovered the only Korean restaurant there was closed. But someone located the owner, who opened it for the Dodger pitcher and his party. . . .

As if the traffic in Westwood weren’t bad enough, 102 truckloads of sand were delivered Tuesday to the UCLA Tennis Center for next week’s World Championships of Beach Volleyball.

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While wondering how the Dodgers blew that one, I was thinking: It wasn’t all Todd Worrell’s fault, the Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant, I’d vote for Bobby Thomson’s home run if I were a New Yorker.