USC Gets Bold About Bowl

Look at Chris Claiborne. Then look at R. Jay Soward, David Gibson and Travis Claridge.

They are some of USC’s best, and they would be almost any season.

Not one of them has ever played in a bowl game.

USC stayed home their freshman and sophomore years.

Now the Trojans have four games left to win the final two they need for a winning record to be eligible for a bowl game--and keep that streak from reaching three, something that hasn’t happened since the 1960s when it was Rose Bowl or bust.

“People are sick of staying home, I’ll tell you that much,” quarterback Mike Van Raaphorst said. “The last two years, everyone just went home. It was rough, watching everyone else play.”

He’ll get no arguments on that.

“Man, that’s been very disappointing,” Claiborne said. “I came here as a freshman right after we went to the Rose Bowl. All those guys coming back, I thought we’d be going again, a string of three or four.”

That hasn’t happened--and why is bowl-game talk important now, with four games left?

Because the Washington game Saturday at the Coliseum could be the deciding factor.

Sure, it’s possible that USC, at 5-3, could win its final four to finish 9-3.

But Coach Paul Hackett is about the only person still figuring scenarios in which USC could possibly go to the Rose Bowl, with two Pacific 10 losses already.

“The history is that six times a team has gone with two losses,” Hackett said. “We need a lot of help and a lot of luck. It’s not over until it’s over.”

More realistically, it would be a good idea to concentrate on beating Washington (5-2) at the Coliseum on Saturday and putting away 1-6 Stanford next week to take care of the seven victories needed to play in any bowl game.

Then play UCLA and Notre Dame on emotion for their own sake, and with a bowl upgrade in the offing.

Otherwise, USC would be faced with having to upset No. 2 UCLA and/or No. 16 Notre Dame to play in a bowl game at all.

“I don’t know where we’ll go,” Hackett said. “A lot will be determined this weekend. Washington is a very important game because they’re in the same boat we are.”

The Trojans are trying hard to get over two defeats that are hard to get over--the mistake-laden loss to California in which they blew a 21-point lead, and the mistake-laden loss to Oregon when they were on their way to an upset.

“We should be 7-1 right now, those close games took their toll,” Claiborne said. “We still can have a 9-3 season.”

That would be a remarkable story if USC could pull it off.

“This is a 5-3 team that could be 7-1,” Van Raaphorst said, echoing Claiborne.

But more important to Van Raaphorst, it’s a team that beat Arizona State the week after losing to Florida State, and beat Washington State the week after losing to Cal.

Now the question is, what comes after the loss to Oregon?

“I think we’ve shown the ability to bounce back,” Van Raaphorst said. “I’ve never seen this team quit. It’s just a matter or reaching the final pinnacle.”

Claiborne is bent on bouncing back too; the Oregon game ended in such frustration for him he committed a personal foul penalty on Oregon’s final drive.

His father, a master gunnery sergeant in the Marines, arrived from Japan on Tuesday for his once-a-year visit and set Claiborne straight.

“I got an old-fashioned talking-to from my father,” he said. “I’m back. I’m ready to keep playing. There are a lot of games left to play. I need to keep the morale going around here. That’s something that’s really important.

“Each individual person has to look at their own personal performance. I could have made a play in the first half where I tipped the ball, where maybe if I had my knees bent I could have broke on it better, taken it in for a touchdown and it would be a different game.

“It’s fundamentals. Our kicker, he can work on his chip shots. We can still be 9-3.”

They could also still be 6-6 and not play in a bowl game for three years in a row for the first time since 1963-65, when the Trojans won seven games every season but didn’t play in the Rose Bowl, finishing second twice and losing out to Oregon State in a tie for first in 1964.

The only other times since then USC has gone even two seasons without playing in a game were in 1970 and ‘71, and again in 1982 and ‘83, when the Trojans were banned from playing in a bowl because of NCAA penalties.

They were eligible last season at 6-5, and some players would have liked to play in something like the Las Vegas Bowl, although the USC administration, in the process of firing John Robinson, chose not to.

Now USC is two victories from ending that painful streak.

“We have a lot of games left,” Claiborne said.

SATURDAY’S GAME

USC at Washington

Time: 12:30 p.m.

TV: Channel 7

Radio: AM 1150

Records: USC (5-3, 3-2), Washington (5-2, 3-1)