Hackett Is Ignoring the Scoreboard

UCLA is No. 2 in the nation but the Bruins aren’t even USC Coach Paul Hackett’s pick for No. 1 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

Bulletin board material be damned, he repeatedly has given the nod to Oregon.

“Now we have to go up and play against what I think is the best team in the conference,” Hackett said. “They don’t turn the ball over against UCLA, they win the game handily. To me, that is the team to beat.”

Uh, Coach, did you mean to say that?

“I just sat in a hotel room and watched one team turn the ball over, over and over, and lose in overtime [41-38],” said Hackett, who earlier called Oregon quarterback Akili Smith “clearly the class of the conference.” As for what price there might be to pay for his words come Nov. 21 at the Rose Bowl, Hackett isn’t concerned.

“I think the UCLA-USC game is its own event. It’s like its own separate thing. I don’t know if anything can be put on the bulletin board to affect that rivalry. . . . I don’t mean that UCLA’s not very, very good. That’s my opinion at this point, and it may not be true when we face UCLA.

“We’re going to play UCLA in the distant future, so I can’t worry about that.”

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Here is the question Hackett no longer wants to answer every week: Is Mike Van Raaphorst still the Trojans’ starting quarterback?

“Mike Van Raaphorst is the starter until I say he’s not. Carson Palmer will play,” Hackett said. “I will personally call each one of you the day he’s not starting. I will wear a clown outfit.”

Van Raaphorst practiced Tuesday but has undergone two days of medical tests to determine what has caused attacks of violent nausea three times this season, with no answers yet other than the probability of a virus.

“This is more frustrating to me than if I had a bad performance,” Van Raaphorst said. “It’s more personal, people trying to figure out what’s going on. If you throw three interceptions and go 0 for 25, that way you know what you did wrong. Right now, I don’t know what’s wrong.

“It’s not nerves. One time it was the night before, one time it was before the game. This time it was the second quarter and I was nine for 15. It wasn’t nerves.”