USC Almost Sticks in a Holding Pattern

Not so fast.

The rush to crown USC a rejuvenated team is now on hold.

Did someone say “rush” and “hold”?

The Trojans couldn’t rush the ball against San Diego State on Saturday at the Coliseum, failing to score from a first and goal at the three-yard line, stuffed on third and fourth down from the one.

They could definitely hold, however, losing a touchdown pass to R. Jay Soward on a holding call--one of a dizzy array of 13 penalties that included taunting after a sack and roughing both the kicker and passer.

“Ridiculous” and “horrendous” were two of the words Coach Paul Hackett used.

Victorious was about the best thing you could say.

The 17th-ranked Trojans, favored by 23 points, escaped with a 24-21 victory over San Diego State in front of 53,966, surviving only after Aztec quarterback Jack Hawley’s fourth-and-six pass from the USC 44 with a minute left in the game fell incomplete.

It was a game USC led, 17-0.

But San Diego State turned the anticipated blowout on its head with a 45-yard touchdown on a Hail Mary pass from Hawley to Derrick Lewis on a play that began with one second left in the first half.

San Diego State scored on its first possession of the second half, and made it a 17-14 ballgame.

“A 17-0 lead, I think we let down,” said Trojan cornerback Antuan Simmons, who was in a crowd with Lewis at the goal line at the end of the half and said he mistimed his jump on the play. “We’ve got to learn from this.”

That was certainly the theme.

“It teaches us you’ve got to play hard all four quarters,” said tailback Chad Morton, who rushed for 91 of USC’s 96 yards in his 30 carries. “It doesn’t matter if you’re favored by one point or 50. Everybody’s trying to beat us, to spoil our season. We have a goal of going to the Rose Bowl. Maybe you need a close game.”

But maybe not this close.

“Well, I thought I’d already been to El Paso,” Hackett said, alluding to the Trojans’ loss to Texas Christian in the Sun Bowl.

That wasn’t his only flashback.

“The 17-point lead, I had a feeling for a moment about Cal,” he said, referring to USC’s blown lead in a loss to California last season.

“Hey, all the credit in the world to San Diego State. When we went up, 17-0, they had every chance in the world to back off and they didn’t blink. After the game, I just couldn’t get to hardly enough of them to tell them how well they played.”

San Diego State Coach Ted Tollner was pleased with his team’s recovery from a 38-10 loss to Illinois last week.

“I saw more courage and heart and fight today,” he said. “To have five turnovers in the first half and only be down by [10 points]. All we have to do is get one score in the fourth quarter, and we’re in it. To their credit, they got another score.”

That would be freshman Kareem Kelly’s 13-yard touchdown catch from Carson Palmer with 10:16 left, capping a 93-yard drive that ate up 7:44 of the clock as USC took a 24-14 lead.

“We knew we had to march down the field,” said Palmer, who completed 16 of 24 passes for 188 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, both on passes meant for Soward--one of them a miscommunication on which Soward freelanced a deep route and Palmer threw straight into the arms of the Aztec defender.

Good thing the Trojans scored on that long drive, because Jermaine Watkins stunned the crowd and the Trojans with a touchdown off a 62-yard interception of a pass meant for Soward--Palmer took the blame for throwing behind him--that made the score 24-21 with 4:24 left.

“I could sense some anxiety at the end, but we pulled together as a defense,” said Kris Richard, an emerging star at cornerback who had two interceptions, returning one for a 51-yard touchdown. “San Diego State played very well.”

USC didn’t, and as for what Hackett said at halftime . . .

“It would be a lot of censorship if I repeated what he said,” Richard said.

USC opened the game with a beautiful drive on which Palmer completed six of six passes to six receivers, finishing with a 13-yard scoring pass to tight end Antoine Harris.

Then the wheels came off.

Linebacker Sultan Abdul-Malik sacked Hawley on the Aztecs’ first offensive play, then went to one knee and pumped his arm again and again, drawing an obvious unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty and a quick trip to the sideline to hear from assistant coach Shawn Slocum and Hackett.

“The demonstration was ridiculous. He knows it,” Hackett said.

“It’s just mental mistakes,” said Simmons, one of the veterans on defense. “We’ve got to clean that up if we want to go anywhere this year.”

Linebacker Zeke Moreno was more blunt.

“Stupid stuff like rushing the passer, taunting, celebrating after the play--we’d have them third and long and just give them a first down. We had them in a hole, and we just dug them out.

“But we came out with a win. It’s not the win we wanted, but it’s a win.”

There were highlights, such as the second big games in a row from two newcomers, Kelly and linebacker Markus Steele.

Kelly caught six passes for 98 yards and the crucial touchdown, stepping in for Windrell Hayes after he suffered an ankle injury, and taking over instead of Soward, who caught only two passes and has only five receptions this season--six less than Kelly.

Steele, a transfer from Long Beach City College, had nine tackles, a sack, an interception and a fumble recovery. His nose for big plays is making the departure of Chris Claiborne for the NFL almost a non-factor.

But the Trojans have plenty of other problems, including a goal-line offense that couldn’t overcome the absence of Petros Papadakis, who is out for the season, and Malaefou MacKenzie, who sat out the game because of a hamstring injury.

“We have got a lot of work to do,” Hackett said. “We’re just not ready yet.”