Trojan Victory Sign Is Now a Clenched Fist

What made part of this city fall back in love with a college football team Saturday night--hugging, dancing, hollering love--wasn’t anything so elaborate as a perfectly faded touchdown pass by a rookie.

Or a blocked punt that bounced into the arms of a giddy 19-year-old.

Or an interception by a guy whose teammates nearly suffocated him with happiness.

What made it special to be a USC football player again for the first time in--who knows how long?--happened before any of that happened.

At the start of the fourth quarter.

With a fist.

Nobody noticed the gesture but the Trojans, who silently stuck their clenched hands into the air as the teams changed sides to begin the final 15 minutes.

Nobody felt it but Arizona State.

Right in the kisser, 22-0 for the quarter, 35-24 for the game, a USC victory that sent a message.

“Nobody says anything, we just raise our fists, because we’re going for the knockout punch,” said receiver Billy Miller.

On Saturday they connected with a roar, turning what might have been another dull, penalty-filled loss in recent seasons into a victory that fitted them with a new swagger.

“Last year was like a nightmare,” said R. Jay Soward, referring to a 35-7 whipping by Arizona State that marked the beginning of the end for John Robinson. “This year is like heaven.”

Last year, trailing by 11 points at the beginning of the fourth period, they would have quit.

On Saturday, they only got stronger, harassing weary Sun Devil redshirt freshman quarterback Chad Elliott, working hard for their own freshman quarterback, Carson Palmer.

They stuck up their fists. The Coliseum crowd of 56,093 turned up the volume. An 11-point deficit became a three-point deficit, then a four-point lead, then a party.

Soward scores on a pass. Ted Iacenda scores on a two-point conversion pass. Ifeanyi Ohalete scores on a blocked punt, David Gibson scores on an interception return.

All within seven minutes.

“You could just feel the fourth quarter, you could feel it,” said Coach Paul Hackett. “That is Trojan football.”

It is Hackett who has been preaching the fist since he arrived here last year, this professor in baggy pants and oversized cap and boxer mentality.

“Lemme tell you what Marv Goux once told me,” he suddenly announced this summer during a meeting with some writers, referring to a legendary USC assistant coach.

Hackett held up a hand with four fingers extended.

“You see this? You see how every team does this at the start of the fourth quarter? Well, this is not the fourth quarter,” he said.

He slowly closed the hand into a fist.

” This is.”

He has been telling his team the same thing, and with more vivid demonstrations.

“Running at 6 a.m. in the summer, gassers after practice in full equipment, we have worked and worked and worked,” said defensive tackle Ennis Davis. “Tonight, in the fourth quarter, you could see it. We were not tired.”

Ennis paused, and smiled. “And, we knew if we lost, tomorrow we would run more gassers.”

You can talk about Soward’s yards and Chris Claiborne’s tackles until you are red and gold in the face, but the only statistic that matters in this 4-1 season is this:

In the fourth quarter, the Trojans are outscoring their opponents, 66-13.

“It’s weird, but Coach Hackett has talked about it, and it’s working,” Miller said.

It helps to have the players to make it work, starting Saturday with Palmer.

You knew we’d eventually get to him, right?

You figure that since his presence changed the atmosphere here when he came into the game with 3:04 left in the third quarter--the crowd went bananas again--he should finally become the starter ahead of booed Mike Van Raaphorst?

Yeah, the San Diego Padres should make Trevor Hoffman a starter.

Palmer is in the perfect position for a freshman, standing and studying for a couple of hours, then given a white horse to ride to the rescue.

“Carson definitely gets the crowd excited, but I think they would be cheering for him if he threw 10 interceptions,” Miller said.

Precisely. He is a quarterback who, besides a growing arm and touch--the 20-yard touchdown pass to Soward to start the fourth quarter was a brainy audible--also brings emotion.

Can you imagine the crowd giving Van Raaphorst a standing ovation and exciting the players if he relieved Palmer in the third period? But Palmer is still young and inconsistent enough that if he started, he would probably need that relief.

So for now, and properly, he will stay in the bullpen. It isn’t as if Van Raaphorst embarrassed himself. Just 12 minutes before Palmer showed up, he threw a perfect 23-yard touchdown pass to Soward to pull the Trojans to within four.

Then he tired, and Palmer was ready, and suddenly it all made sense.

“Carson is our closer,” said Soward.

They will wake up Sunday morning with a team full of closers, and upcoming winnable games against California and Washington State, and . . .

“We’re on our way to the Rose Bowl,” said interception hero David Gibson.

For now, he should probably put a fist in it.

But maybe just for now.