It’s Good Friday for USC

If you hadn’t been playing close attention to R. Jay Soward’s career these past four seasons, just think of Friday’s game against Louisiana Tech as one giant Cliff’s Note.

He showed flashes of brilliance. He wasn’t fit. He left you wanting more.

After a 53-yard touchdown catch, two other receptions, 47 yards on two reverse runs and a couple of punt returns, a virus got the best of him.

The man blessed with all that speed and those elusive moves sat motionless on a bench for 90 minutes. He was wrapped in a giant maroon parka, his head barely visible. He didn’t look like a football player; he looked as if he was auditioning for the role of baby Jesus in swaddling clothes for the school Christmas pageant.

And that’s how Soward spent the final 30 minutes of game time in his college career, on an afternoon so symbolic even he could recognize it.

“The way I ended sums it up,” Soward said. “I had the potential to do great, do everything this year. Certain things just happened that didn’t let me fulfill my whole dream.”

Some things happened to him, such as a concussion and a hamstring injury.

Some things happened because of him, such as dropped passes that could have been touchdowns, fumbles and poor early-season conditioning.

He dazzled us with an 85-yard punt return against Oregon State. He racked up 241 all-purpose yards against Oregon.

He also caught only three passes for 35 yards against UCLA, and wasn’t a factor after a first-half fumble. He sat out the California game because of that hamstring.

On a team that needed a playmaker, especially after Carson Palmer went down, he didn’t make enough big plays.

The numbers for this season show 51 catches for 655 yards, nine runs for 89 yards, 18 punt returns for 218 yards and a touchdown, 11 kickoff returns for 236 yards. The receiving and kickoff return yardage both dipped from his junior season.

He wound up only two catches short of John Jackson, who holds the No. 3 spot on the USC career pass receptions list with 163. Unfortunately, that will be the lasting impression of Soward’s achievements vs. his potential. He came up short.

“I’m happy I had the opportunity to [play at USC],” Soward said. “I wish my senior year could have been a lot better.

“It was just nagging stuff here and there. Get sick on my last game.”

Soward said he felt it in his chest and his throat. He couldn’t sleep Thursday night and missed the team meeting Friday morning.

But he took the field on the third play of the game and promptly caught a seven-yard pass for a first down. He touched the ball five times on offense and produced five first downs and a touchdown. He made it look so easy on the touchdown play, he beat two defenders and still had time to casually collect an underthrown ball from John Fox.

No one in the stands had the slightest clue Soward felt ill until he sat on the bench in the third quarter.

“I just said, it’s my last game, last chance my parents get to see me play in the Coliseum in a Trojan uniform,” Soward said. “ I wanted to score a touchdown, I wanted to do as much as I could. I just didn’t have any energy in the second half.”

Soward did try to fight his way through the injuries this season. He even ran back onto the field against the doctor’s wishes after the concussion in Arizona.

He battled the sickness enough to record 135 yards in one half Friday.

“I could have been doing that game in, game out,” Soward said of his performance. “But, you know . . . it just didn’t go our way this year.”

This 45-19 victory was such an accumulation of things that went right it’s hard to imagine how so much went wrong this season.

The coaching staff did a great job of keeping the players focused after their long-awaited victory over UCLA. They did it despite a short week that included Thanksgiving (what is a joyous family holiday to most people is a potential distraction to a football coach).

The Trojans were ready to play from the beginning, clicking on their first three drives to go up, 21-0.

The defense was well-prepared for Louisiana Tech’s nonstop passing attack, led by quarterback Tim Rattay. Despite frequent four- and five-wide receiver sets that spring various passing routes, the Trojans blew only a couple of coverages. For the most part they were positioned perfectly; they read the Bulldogs’ patterns better than Rattay did in the first quarter.

After it ended, while his teammates lingered on the field to savor the moment, Soward walked to the locker room.

You always hear players talk about how exciting it is to come down that tunnel and enter the Coliseum. You never hear them talk about what it feels like to walk back up it. Especially for the last time.

Soward trudged up, leaving the celebration farther behind. He reached the doors to the locker room area. The end of his walk, the end of his career.

He was asked how it felt. He looked surprisingly unemotional

“It just feels like another day to me,” Soward said.

Another day of wishing there could have been more.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.