Now if We’re Talking ’67 USC, That’s Different

Greg Hansen of the Arizona Daily Star, writing on the Wildcats’ 34-27 victory over USC on Saturday:

“This is what USC does: It plays straight up. It believes that its 11 players are better than your 11 players, and that over 60 minutes it will wear you out and beat you.

“The Trojans can’t do that like they did in 1966 and 1978--they are no longer anybody’s top-10 program--but they think they are. Such arrogance ensures the Trojans that they will never get an inattentive opponent. USC gets everyone’s best shot.

” . . . In retrospect, the Trojans didn’t have a chance [Saturday]. Arizona was rested and fresh from a week off, and more important, they were geeked out to play the Team That No One Likes.”

Greg didn’t do his homework. The 1966 USC team was routed by Notre Dame, 51-0.

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Trivia time: Who was the first Pacific 10 player to win the Heisman Trophy?

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Outcasts: Bob Kravitz in the Rocky Mountain News: “All the money Romo [Bill Romanowski] has been fined the past three weeks, it would feed Turkish refugees for another two months.

“I say we put Romo and Bryan Cox in a room and, you know, leave them there for the rest of their natural lives. They deserve one another.”

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The real McCoy? Former UCLA basketball player Jelani McCoy, now with the Seattle SuperSonics, in an interview with Nunyo Demasio of the Seattle Times:

“I’m an aggressive player. Any time I get that little daylight, I’m going to attack the basket and try to dunk. I hope it sends a message.

” . . . They know if they make a little mistake, they are going to have to pay with a Spalding on their head.”

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Aw, give ‘em dessert: Dwight Jaynes of the Portland Oregonian on Washington routing Oregon State, 47-21, Saturday after leading, 45-0, at halftime:

“The Beavers were out-tackled, out-blocked, outrushed, out-passed and outclassed. And when things began to snowball, I’ve seen more poise from third-graders sent to bed without dessert.”

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Stand-up city: Vito Stellino in the Baltimore Sun:

“There weren’t too many long faces in Los Angeles when Houston got the expansion team last week. The reaction was that the city should be congratulated for refusing to give taxpayer funds to the NFL for a stadium.

“Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. said the NFL is ‘like a burglar that keeps circling the house, hoping to find an unlocked window.’ ”

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Trivia answer: Quarterback Terry Baker of Oregon State in 1962.

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And finally: Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden when he learned police were planning to charge star receiver Peter Warrick with scamming to get $412 worth of clothing for $21:

“I’m sitting there, pleading to myself for a misdemeanor. I didn’t want to give up a talent like that. It shook me. It shook our team.”

School policy bars athletes charged with felonies from playing until the charges are resolved. Warrick ultimately was charged with a felony.