USC’s Long-Lost Tradition Gets an Irish Wake-Up Call

It’s back.

The tradition, the tingle, the grass-stained Trojan who stalks to the middle of the Coliseum field and refuses to leave.

“I’m pitching a tent, right here, right now,” guard Zach Wilson said Saturday night, pointing up to a flickering, fabulous scoreboard. “Look at that up there! Just look at that! Would you want to go home?”

It’s back.

The roar that shakes the Hollywood sign, the band still in full conquest an hour after the final tackle, the old men in cardinal and gold and tears.

“Now I understand,” said Darrell Rideaux, two decades of emotion spilling across the muddy turf around him. “Now I understand what it means to play USC football.”

It’s back, strong enough to bite the thorns off a rose, blustery enough to burst into the BCS, good enough Saturday to hit the nation’s seventh-ranked team square in its Knute while knocking it flat on its Rockne.

The final score was USC 44, Notre Dame 13.

The final plays were handoffs from a backup quarterback to a backup running back because the Trojans didn’t want to rub it in.

The final verdict is unimpeachable.

USC football, in all its 1960s and ‘70s glory, has returned.

The startling offense. The numbing defense. The guy who should win the Heisman Trophy, darn it.

The 91,432 fans turning the ancient Coliseum into the definition of college football cool again.

The index finger and middle finger being shaken until both are numb again.

“A beautiful, beautiful thing,” said defensive end Omar Nazel, the crowd roaring and chanting around him as he walked haltingly and reluctantly off the field.

“When they were recruiting me, they told me, this is what it is. And today I see, they were right.”

While the Trojans had won six consecutive games and hinted at such greatness, this was the night it returned.

This was when many thought they would finally stumble.

This was, instead, the night when they leaped into history.

As in, the Trojans’ 610 total yards were the most ever against a Notre Dame team in that school’s 90-year football history.

As in, Notre Dame’s four first downs marked the school’s worst offensive output in 65 years.

It was so bad, the Gipper would have sued them for malpractice.

It was so bad, Rudy would have played the entire fourth quarter.

It was so bad, the Trojans knew they had won the game at halftime, and they only led by four points.

They knew because of the tunnel.

Coming off the field, stinging from a 75-yard Trojan touchdown drive in the final 1:07, the Irish were in front of the Trojans as both teams came up the tunnel toward their locker rooms.

“And they were walking,” Allmond said. “They were looking frustrated and tired and walking. They didn’t look like a team that wanted to come out in the second half.”

So what did USC do? What USC did the entire game, of course.

“We never walk up that tunnel, we run up that tunnel,” Allmond said. “So we ran right past them.”

Whatever the suddenly famous Tyrone Willingham said to his Irish players in that locker room, next time he might want to keep it to himself.

At the start of the second half, Notre Dame gained four yards in three plays. The Trojans countered by gaining 55 yards in four plays, scoring another touchdown to clinch the game on the spot.

With about two hours left.

“I know we made it look it easy, but it really wasn’t,” said Allmond, smiling. “Seriously.”

He’s going to have to do better than that.

The Irish were the most poorly prepared, poorly executing team that the Trojans have played.

The Irish wouldn’t finish in the top five in the Pac-10.

If Willingham turned in this sort of performance at USC, his honeymoon would be immediately over.

All of which makes you wonder.... All these East Coast “experts” who have been hyping Notre Dame all year, are these the same folks who will be voting on the Heisman?

The ballots are due Dec. 11.

After going 32 for 46 for 425 yards and four touchdowns with two interceptions on his biggest national stage of the year, how can Carson Palmer not win it?

Ken Dorsey and Willis McGahee had nice games for Miami on Saturday, but nothing like this. Brad Banks played well at Iowa, but never like that. Larry Johnson ran great at Penn State, but stumbled in all the big games.

Palmer -- and I swear, this is the end of my three-column Heisman campaign on his behalf -- was at his best after he was at his worst.

It came after he threw a silly pass into end zone coverage that resulted in his first interception in more than a month. It was late in the second quarter, ruining USC’s chance to improve on a lead.

By the time Palmer threw the ball again, the Trojans had given up a blocked punt for a Notre Dame touchdown and lost that lead, now trailing, 13-10.

This was when a younger Palmer might have folded. But this was when he showed again why he deserves that trophy, by completing five of six passes while leading the Trojans to that late touchdown that led to the Irish tunnel walk.

One of those passes was a screen to Justin Fargas that he threw while being dragged down. The final was a 19-yard touchdown pass to Mike Williams that went over one defender and around another defender.

And now the Trojans will either go over Iowa or around Washington State and into the sort of bowl game they deserve. With the sort of team they remember.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.