Don’t Ask Trojans If Coliseum Is Safe

Bring back a team USC can beat . . . like Notre Dame.

Trouble has come to the Coliseum. The unimpressive Trojans--now 3-5 in their last eight home games, dating to the 1995 loss to UCLA--were left reeling by Saturday’s 28-21 defeat to Washington State, so much so that Coach John Robinson said, not necessarily kidding, “We better go back out and practice tonight.”

Mike Price, the Washington State coach, did go back out.

“I’ve got to step on that grass one more time,” Price said, an hour after the game.

He took a long stroll back to the Coliseum field, where the 51-year-old coach suddenly curled an arm around the shoulders of an L.A. sportswriter at his side.

Price said, “You know, you don’t get many moments like this in life.”

USC used to . . . plenty of them.

Washington State was a school the Trojans could beat with 10 men. The Cougars’ record against USC was 5-48-4. Year after year, they would return to that Idaho border town of Pullman, Wash., to wonder when their time would come to smell the roses, rather than the potatoes.

It could be soon. Washington State had never defeated USC and UCLA in the same season, until now. In the ‘90s, such unlikely Rose Bowl visitors as Oregon, Wisconsin, Arizona State and Northwestern have spent their New Year’s Days here. Could it be Washington State is next?

USC will have the holidays off, unless something changes in a hurry.

So far, this looks to be one of the poorest rushing attacks of any USC squad in years. The blocking has been atrocious. Billy Miller’s pass-catching is one of the few things exceeding expectations, and the junior from Westlake Village could take no satisfaction from it, saying, “It’s hard to think of that, because we’re 0-2 right now.”

Not only 0-2, but 0-2 at home.

The Trojans’ next home game is Oct. 4, against Nevada Las Vegas. Sandwiched between games at California and at Arizona State, that means USC stands a fair chance of being 1-4 going into the Oct. 18 game at Notre Dame. The coaches and players have good reason to be concerned.

And they are.

Chris Claiborne, a starting linebacker from Riverside, is only a sophomore at USC, but he has been around long enough to know the score. Claiborne says the Trojan players had better talk things over in a team meeting before this season gets away from them, like the last one did.

“Last year, we went 6-6,” Claiborne said, remembering the overtime victory over Notre Dame that ended a disappointing 1996 season. “If we came out now and won the next 10 games, people would respect us more than they would if we just won that one big game again.”

Don’t blame the defense, said Miller, the wide receiver. Blame the offense.

Miller said, “I feel we’re the reason we’re losing games.” USC had 31 net yards rushing.

Thirty-one. Three-one.

Marcus Allen and O.J. Simpson and Anthony Davis and Charles White got that many in a carry.

USC’s longest gain rushing Saturday went for eight yards. The ball was carried by a wide receiver.

USC’s only touchdown pass of the season covered 15 yards. The ball was thrown by a halfback.

Everything the Trojan offense did seemed out of whack. Players were so disorganized, they exhausted all of their available timeouts by the third quarter. The game’s final drive never had a prayer. USC used its last remaining timeout with Washington State looking at a fourth-and-16 situation. What a colossal waste.

How did the coach feel about it? Exasperated, that’s how.

“We botched everything up,” Robinson said at one point, with close to 100% accuracy.

On the opponents’ side, Price--0-8 against USC over his career--was a much happier coach.

Price enjoyed seeing players he recruited from this area--Kevin McKenzie (from Long Beach), Michael Black (from Dorsey High) and the Jackson brothers, Ray and Chris (from Santa Ana)--have a nice L.A. day. After the game, Chris Jackson and teammate Jason McEndoo grabbed a pail to soak the coach from behind, as though Washington State had just won the Pac-10.

It just might.

USC sure won’t, not playing like this.