Softer Schedule Can Cushion Fall

Conventional football wisdom holds that players should never look ahead, never look past the next opponent, but sometimes they do. When the USC players looked at this fall’s lineup of games, they saw nationally ranked Kansas State, Oregon and Washington in the early going.

“It jumps out at you,” quarterback Carson Palmer said. “That’s a tough schedule.”

Now comes a bend in the road. Beginning with Arizona State at the Coliseum today, USC faces a string of unranked teams, several with losing records. And don’t think the Trojans, their season teetering at 1-4, haven’t noticed.

“These are games we have got to win,” Palmer says. “That’s the mentality we have.”

The problem is, the Pacific 10 is considered among the toughest conferences top to bottom in the nation. The gap between the upper echelon--four ranked teams--and the rest has been slim, with the possible exception of winless California.

Returning to college football after nearly two decades in the NFL, USC Coach Pete Carroll would have preferred a few pushovers.

“Every team has key players who are making plays, particularly on offense,” he said. “The part I wasn’t really clear on is how good everyone was in the conference relative to our guys.”

The Sun Devils are a good example. They are off to a 3-1 start with the kind of schedule Carroll and his players can appreciate, an early season that included San Diego State, Louisiana Lafayette and San Jose State, the only team USC has defeated so far.

The offense has set a torrid pace, scoring more than 45 points a game. Quarterback Jeff Krohn leads the way, ranking second in the nation with a 180.9 rating, throwing to receivers Donnie O’Neal, Shaun McDonald and Ryan Dennard. McDonald caught four touchdown passes last week; Dennard had three plus a fumble return for a touchdown the week before.

Arizona State also features a veteran offensive line and three solid tailbacks, led by the injury-hampered Delvon Flowers, but USC believes that slowing the passing game will be key. The question is, how often will the Trojans leave their defensive backs in man-to-man coverage to blitz?

Krohn doesn’t see it as much of a gamble. He says the USC secondary is the best he has faced this season.

“They don’t allow you to get behind them, which forces you to be more patient,” he said. “And they force you to make mistakes when you’re not patient.”

On offense, USC will line up against a defense that has four linemen, two linebackers in the middle and two safeties who creep up on the outside. It is an adaptable scheme that allows those rover safeties to stay in the box against the run or spread out in pass coverage against multiple-receiver sets.

The weakness might be the two cornerbacks and free safety who remain back, all freshmen--the kind of secondary the Trojans will be tempted to test. Kareem Kelly, who had flu this week, is making some big plays but Carroll is looking for more production from the other receivers. At the same time, USC must try to keep the Arizona State offense on the sideline, and the best way to do that is by running the ball.

“We need some drives like we had in Washington,” Palmer said, referring to the performance by his offensive line last week. “Real steady, popping three or four yards at a time.”

Palmer and teammates certainly aren’t looking past today, not in the midst of a four-game losing streak. But they sense an opportunity. The Sun Devils failed their only true test so far--losing, 51-28, to a Stanford team that USC almost upset--and Arizona State Coach Dirk Koetter said conference standings do not tell the whole story.

“It takes you 15 minutes of watching tape to figure out that USC is a pretty good football team,” he said. “They have been a little snakebitten and have lost some very close and winnable games.”

That is why the Trojan coaches and players have been talking optimistically all week. Their next four opponents include a struggling Notre Dame and two teams, Oregon State and California, with a total of one victory. If USC is to mount a comeback, now is the time.

“I’m counting on it,” Carroll said. “That’s how I wake up and go to sleep every night, thinking that’s what is going to happen.”