How Much Leverage Is One Victory Worth?

If there is to be punishment for USC’s fumbles, interceptions and holding in the second half against Arizona State, fire sophomore players, not coaches.

Seriously, when this young team finally plays consistent for 60 minutes, we’ll have a winner. It will happen.

Let’s not set the program back two or three years with a fourth consecutive head coach execution. This hard-core partisan Trojan alumnus now says stay the course with Hackett.

GREG I. ANDERSON

Pasadena

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We had them beat bad. We blew a huge lead. We lucked out in overtime to move into a last-place tie with Washington State. Should I be excited? A little.

The worst part of the game was not the quit in the team in the fourth quarter, it was the quit in the coach with 1:40 to play after Arizona State missed a 42-yard field goal. Instead of getting the players fired up for a quick scoring drive to win the game, Paul Hackett was getting his players fired up for overtime. I could see him clenching his fist and yelling “overtime” over and over to his players on television.

Do us a favor and resign. It’s the only honorable thing to do.

JUSTIN CRANE

Los Angeles

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An overtime victory at Arizona State should stop those people who want Mike Garrett and Paul Hackett to resign, right? Who cares if we blew a 35-6 lead, we won, right? Who cares if Arizona State bailed out Garrett and Hackett by missing a field goal in the last two minutes--I mean, we won, right?

When the new AD and coach are hired, I think we should also hire a psychiatrist to deprogram this team.

JERRY MARCIL

Palos Verdes Estates

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The USC football team facing a lightly regarded opponent leads, 42-14. The other team’s quarterback gets hot, completes 33 of 48 passes for more than 400 yards. The Trojans escape with a 42-37 victory.

The collapse of another Paul Hackett team? No, this was the debut of John McKay in the Rose Bowl. There was no demand for the firing of McKay for this team’s dismal performance. Coach McKay’s teams went on to seven more appearances in the Rose Bowl and won three national championships. He also had seasons of 4-6, 4-5-1 and 6-4-1.

Lighten up, Trojan fans. We are not going to field a winning team every year. Despite everything that has been written and said, this season has not been a disaster. I have held Trojan season tickets for 56 consecutive seasons and I know disasters.

JACKSON E. ECKSTEIN

Oceanside

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The thinking that went into the hiring of Paul Hackett (He coached Joe Montana, therefore he’d be good for USC) is a lot like thinking the personal tutor of the emperor of Japan would make a great principal at Hollywood High.

DICK PRESTON

Yucaipa

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I’m not a football coach. Maybe that’s why I don’t understand why UCLA running backs don’t take care of the ball, especially while running out the clock and nursing a two-point lead. UCLA’s running backs should take a lesson from tapes of Emmitt Smith. He puts both arms on the ball when he knows he’s about to be tackled. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why.

Mr. Toledo: Please teach a little ball protection to the running backs, or you will continue to accelerate my premature hair loss.

MATT CRAVETS

Simi Valley

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Start spreading the news. Crank up the old marketing machinery for the 2001 Heisman race between DeShaun Foster and Freddie Mitchell. One if by land, two if by air, the Bruins are the most exciting team in college football because of these two incredible athletes.

WILLIAM DAVID STONE

Beverly Hills

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May I take friendly but firm exception to J.A. Adande’s poor attitude regarding USC’s stirring victory over Arizona State. He states the double-overtime victory was not praiseworthy. Adande couldn’t sell that thought even if it were gold-plated. It was a terrific effort by a young team that played hard.

Meanwhile, on Page 1, we had the spectacle of Bill Plaschke becoming a UCLA homer. They too had an up-and-down game, finally prevailing over a weak Stanford team. However, Plaschke says UCLA “gets it” and now owns the town. What does that mean? Gets what? Even in a down year, USC is the team that owns this town. Always has, always will. My phone lines are open and so is discussion time.

Look, these two sports journalists are smart enough to see the stats (overwhelming for USC, not so for UCLA, whether we talk about these last two games or their entire school history), see the game tapes and analyze with an open mind. If one can boast about that bogus UCLA win and demean the courageous USC victory, then they need to put away the long blades and see the truth. Then they’ll really get it.

ROY ROUDINE

Los Alamitos