No Time to Rest for Coaching Staff

USC players will not return to practice until Monday, but the Trojan coaching staff will reconvene today at Heritage Hall to continue preparation for the Jan. 4 Orange Bowl against Oklahoma.

Coach Pete Carroll said his staff had been studying film of the second-ranked Sooners since the bowl championship series title-game matchup was announced Dec. 5.

Top-ranked USC completed the installation of its game plan on Thursday before breaking for Christmas, but Carroll said coaches would continue to seek an edge.

“We’re very well-versed, but that doesn’t mean you don’t keep looking,” Carroll said. “Quite often, the deeper the study, the more you see. We have a great opportunity to do that and take advantage of that.”

Having more than five weeks to study and prepare players, however, also has potential drawbacks.

“There’s some traps there,” Carroll said. “You have to be careful about how much you do and how much you emphasize. So we try to really just taper the emphasis, because you don’t want to peak too soon.”

Oklahoma is playing in the BCS title game for the third time in five seasons. Carroll said Sooner Coach Bob Stoops and his staff face the same challenges as USC, which is making its first appearance in the title game.

“You’re contested all throughout this whole process,” Carroll said. “Hopefully, we practice better and we prepare better and we get an edge on them somewhere throughout the time we have.”

*

USC practices Monday morning and will depart for Miami on Tuesday.... USC is 1-4 in the state of Florida. The Trojans’ lone win came in the 2003 Orange Bowl against Iowa. USC lost at Florida State in 1998, in the 1987 Citrus Bowl against Auburn, at Florida in 1982 and at Miami in 1966.