They Didn’t Want to Make the Trip --and It Showed

The best move Chris Claiborne made was when he said, earnestly and often, that he would let his coach, Paul Hackett, determine whether Claiborne will skip his senior year at USC and turn pro.

The best moments of the telecast of the Sun Bowl game between USC and Texas Christian were the clever commercials that Bob Newhart did for Norwest, the conglomerate that sponsored the Sun Bowl.

The worst moment that any USC football team can have in the future is if it receives an invitation to the Sun Bowl, in El Paso, against a team wearing purple that runs the option and comes from a conference that has fallen apart.

And if you were the solitary USC fan screaming, “Way to get your team prepared, Hackett . . . way to be ready for the option, Hackett,” . . . well, you spend a holiday week here, where a Sun Bowl official spitting tobacco juice in the hospitality room is the No. 1 entertainment option.

It was another inglorious USC bowl performance Thursday, that 28-19 loss to the 16-point underdog Horned Frogs, who hadn’twon a bowl game in 41 years. OK, not as bad as that 1992 24-7 loss to Fresno State in the late and very unlamented Freedom Bowl, but, still, the Horned Frogs were lucky to be invited to any bowl game with a 6-5 record and no player of national note.

Not like the Trojans, who have Claiborne, the unanimous All-American linebacker who has been teasing USC fans with his plans for next season.

For the record, Claiborne said Thursday he would make no final decision until he talked to Hackett. He said twice that whatever Hackett told him to do “would be what I decide to do.” Claiborne said, “Coach would tell it to me straight,” and “Coach has a great feel for the pro game,” and “Coach has seen the Derrick Thomases and Bruce Smiths and he knows what it takes.”

And so, Claiborne was asked, if Hackett says to come back to college for another year, then that’s what Claiborne is going to do? “Well, uh, well, I trust Coach to give me the best advice,” Claiborne finally stammered.

Ball’s in your court, Coach. Nice move, Chris.

Now it would be a good thing if NFL scouts didn’t look too closely at the tapes of Thursday’s game. Claiborne even acknowledged, “I gained a little weight and got out of shape.”

On the Horned Frogs’ final touchdown, a three-yard run by option quarterback Patrick Batteaux, Claiborne was made to look like a chicken with his wings pulled back and when Claiborne finally caught up to Batteaux, it was in the end zone. Claiborne dragged Batteaux down by the jersey about five seconds after Batteaux had scored and was lucky not to earn an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

An official even patted Claiborne on the back and whispered consoling words into Claiborne’s ears. When Claiborne got to the sideline, he slammed his helmet on the ground and yelled in the faces of any teammates who wandered by.

Claiborne also said he would ask the advice of his teammates about returning for his senior season. So far, Claiborne said, tailback Chad Morton told him he could play fullback. As for the advice Claiborne said he was giving wide receiver R. Jay Soward about leaving USC early, Claiborne said, “It’s a personal choice. He has to do the best thing for R. Jay. My main thing is the money. You can never make it up if you drop real low in the draft.”

So, what do you think Claiborne’s going to do?

This might have been Claiborne’s final game as a Trojan, but this was also the official start of the Carson Palmer era.

The freshman quarterback from Santa Margarita High seemed shellshocked at the end. He was sacked six times for a total of 47 yards and kept saying after the game, “I can’t believe we couldn’t run the ball. I can’t believe we couldn’t run the ball.”

If the hardest thing to do in a bowl game is to defend against an option attack when you never play one, the second-hardest thing must be to come into your first bowl game, a freshman quarterback, when it seems many of your teammates are running at half speed.

Palmer said he learned from this game that “you have to be really prepared in these bowl games,” and even admitted that the Trojans might have overlooked the Horned Frogs. Claiborne said TCU benefited from having the “small man’s complex.” You know, tiny, ignored school against historical powerhouse. Whatever.

That will probably never be Claiborne’s problem again. Going to a bowl game that nobody ever seems to want to play in. It will be up to Palmer to make sure it doesn’t happen again for the Trojans. Time to bring the team to one of those New Year’s games.

The Sun Bowl has been around for 65 years, but it is usually only teams like TCU, teams that are desperate to play anywhere, that seem happy for the invitation. And even TCU returned 3,500 of its 8,000 tickets.

With or without Claiborne, it will not be a good thing for USC to return here next New Year’s Eve. When Palmer said emphatically, “I wish we had practice tomorrow,” it was clear. He knows that too. Time to move on.

Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com