Trojans’ Grip on Season Becomes Tenuous at Best

USC is fumbling away the season, and not only metaphorically.

Turnovers--both fumbles and interceptions--have been the theme in the background of a four-game losing streak that has dropped the Trojans’ record to 3-5 with four games left.

“We always beat ourselves,” tailback Sultan McCullough said after his fumble at California’s 17-yard line in the third quarter Saturday killed the Trojans’ momentum just as McCullough and quarterback John Fox seemed to be sparking a comeback. “All those teams we lost to, it was us.”

Penalties and missed field-goal attempts have played their parts this season, but lately turnovers have taken center stage.

The Trojans have had eight the last two weeks--four each against Stanford and Cal--and have averaged more than three a game during the losing streak.

It’s a dramatic, uh, turnaround for a team that earlier this season ranked No. 1 in the nation in turnover margin.

“The last three or four games, that has been the single overriding issue preventing us from being the team we’re capable of being,” USC Coach Paul Hackett said. “You’ve got to hang on to the ball. In a game of momentum--which is what college football has become--a turnover in the second half shifts the momentum and gives the other team momentum our football team has not been good enough to overcome.”

Theories abound, from inexperienced ballcarriers to simple carelessness or bad luck and even to misguided attempts to try to make a game-breaking play.

Tight end Antoine Harris lost a fumble in Cal territory in the fourth quarter after a 25-yard gain Saturday and said later his mistake was wanting too badly to succeed.

R. Jay Soward said much the same thing after fumbling a kickoff return against Notre Dame when he stayed up in a scrum of Irish tacklers, still hoping to break loose for a spectacular return, only to be stripped of the ball instead.

“We want to win so bad,” Harris said. “Everybody wants to make a big play. Nobody wants to be the guy that cost us a game. I think we put a little too much pressure on ourselves.

“I was just trying to get to the end zone, actually. Trying to make a big play. Trying to do too much instead of just tuck the ball away.

“But we can’t all make the big play at the same time. Every player on the team just has to do their own job. I was trying to do too much, and I cost the team.”

Offensive coordinator Hue Jackson is also the running back coach and doesn’t buy that theory entirely, especially because McCullough quickly admitted his mistake was that he had his arm high and “flapping” when he lost the ball Saturday.

That means the Trojans will be working on anti-fumbling drills this week and the running backs will probably take a few trips through a contraption known as “the gantlet” that is lined with padded rods to batter the runner like so many arms trying to strip the ball.

“Obviously there are some issues because of what happened last week,” Jackson said. “What you can do is make players more conscious of it with drill work and talking about putting two hands on the ball in traffic.

“But I don’t want to make too big an issue of it, because obviously the fumbles have been magnified by when they happened, the situations.

“Maybe what we need to do is talk about at the goal line, paying more attention to making sure the ball is tucked away.”

USC has not been a turnover-prone team in the past, committing two or fewer turnovers the first five games of this season and in 11 of 13 last season. (The exceptions, though, were killers--five in a loss to Florida State last season and a devastating seven against UCLA.)

After committing 25 turnovers in 13 games last season, USC has 19 after eight games this season.

Even such a dependable veteran as tailback Chad Morton has had a couple, one of them inside the 10-yard line when USC was on the verge of scoring.

“It’s been killing us the whole year,” Morton said. “The running game is coming along, yet it doesn’t matter how well you run--if you fumble, it ruins everything.”

Quarterback Mike Van Raaphorst, in particular, has had trouble, and turnovers are among the reasons he is on the verge of losing the starting job to John Fox.

Van Raaphorst has thrown seven interceptions this season--six of them during the losing streak--and three pickoffs have been returned for touchdowns--one against Cal, one against Stanford, and one against Hawaii in the first game of the season.

Throw in an Arizona touchdown off Van Raaphorst’s fumbled center exchange and a crucial fumble he lost against Notre Dame when hit by a blitz, and Van Raaphorst has had unanticipated difficulty taking care of the ball.

“There are a couple of things,” Hackett said. “One is that some of the interceptions have come from not being on the same page with receivers. The second is pass protection and lack of vision. The suddenness they’ve been on him with is hard to practice.

“But the ball he threw the interception on [against Cal] was not a good ball. He should not have thrown it.

“I think he does a fine job on decisions, [but there have been problems with turnovers]. No, I did not foresee it, but some things have happened.”

A lot of things have happened lately, and not many of them good for USC.

The play that seems most emblematic of all to Hackett was when Notre Dame quarterback Jarious Jackson fumbled just short of the goal line--and a Notre Dame player ended up recovering for the winning touchdown.

Hackett has half a mind to put together a video of fumble after interception after fumble.

Maybe he’d rather not watch.

“You can drive yourself insane with these things,” he said.

Bad Turnover

The USC football team is averaging 2.4 turnovers a game and 3.3 during its current four-game skid:

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Opponent Fum. Int. Total Result California 3 1 4 L 17-7 Stanford 1 3 4 L 35-31 Notre Dame 2 1 3 L 25-24 Arizona 1 1 2 L 31-24 Oregon St. 1 0 1 W 37-29 Oregon 1 1 2 L 33-30 San Diego St. 0 2 2 W 24-21 Hawaii 0 1 1 W 62-7 Total 9 10 19 Record 3-5

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