Team Is Familiar With This Routine

USC arrived Tuesday for the start of its Orange Bowl week and did not have to wait long for glorious reminders of its last trip to the Sunshine State.

Weather problems in Los Angeles delayed the top-ranked Trojans’ charter flight, but after landing in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the traveling party boarded colorful buses emblazoned with giant images of former quarterback Carson Palmer and Coach Pete Carroll celebrating after the 2003 Orange Bowl victory over Iowa.

The Trojans arrived at the same plush hotel they stayed at two years ago and will practice today at the same site they used before their first appearance in a bowl championship series game.

“It’s definitely fun to be back,” junior linebacker Dallas Sartz said. “There’s a lot to do, but the reason we’re here is to play football and win a game.”

Said sophomore center Ryan Kalil: “This is a business trip.”

A victory over second-ranked Oklahoma in this year’s BCS title game would give the Trojans an outright national championship. Last season, USC was shut out of the title game and played Michigan in the Rose Bowl. The Trojans won a share of the national title by finishing first in the Associated Press poll.

“We were playing for the title in our minds last year. But this year there’s an added dimension,” Carroll said. “It’s the biggest matchup, and I’m excited to see if there’s a difference.”

Quarterback Matt Leinart, the Heisman Trophy winner, expects this Orange Bowl experience to be a departure from the last, when he was third on the depth chart behind Palmer and Matt Cassel.

“I was third-string. Hanging out. Doing the things Carson wasn’t doing,” Leinart said. “I did all the fun things last time. This year is different.”

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Freshman tight end Fred Davis, who missed a team meeting and practice on Monday, was in Los Angeles but did not accompany the Trojans to Florida and will not join the team later in the week, Carroll said.

Davis’ mother, Margo, said by phone from Ohio that inclement weather during the Christmas break left eight to 10 inches of snow on the roads and that her son’s flight to Los Angeles on Sunday was delayed until Monday. Margo Davis said she had spoken to USC officials.

“The bottom line is that he didn’t get there on time,” Margo Davis said.

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As per custom under Carroll, seniors have their own rooms in the oceanfront hotel.

“I could hear some of the guys whooping and hollering down the hall,” senior defensive tackle Shaun Cody said. “I’m going to be kind of bored. I’ll probably just go and hang out at somebody else’s room. I’ll miss Mike Patterson.”

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Sophomore running back LenDale White, who is nursing a high ankle sprain that has prevented him from working out, said he would practice today. Carroll said defensive tackle Manuel Wright (high ankle sprain) also would practice.