Here’s a Title: USC Wins Rose Bowl

Using a flamboyant offense and ferocious defense, USC beat Michigan, 28-14, Thursday in the 90th Rose Bowl game, likely earning the Trojans a share of their ninth national championship and first since 1978.

USC went into the game ranked No. 1 by both the members of the news media who vote in the Associated Press poll and the coaches who vote in the USA Today/ESPN poll.

The decisive win over No. 4 Michigan prompted exuberant USC Coach Pete Carroll to announce: “I think we just won the national championship.”

But in the Bowl Championship Series -- the computer-assisted system created in 1998 to match the top two teams in a rotating national championship bowl game -- the Trojans were ranked only third, excluding them from Sunday night’s designated title game at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

That game will pit Oklahoma, a 28-point loser to Kansas State in the Big 12 Conference championship game, against Louisiana State. Both teams are 12-1, as is USC.

The Sugar Bowl winner will receive a crystal football trophy as the BCS national champion. By contract, the same coaches who chose USC as No. 1 at the end of the regular season must vote for the Sugar Bowl winner as national champion. AP voters, however, can choose their own winner in the balloting to be released Sunday night or early Monday. A team ranked No. 1 by AP voters has never dropped in the poll after winning its bowl game.

Clearly irked by the BCS computers, many USC fans began chanting, “We’re No. 1!” with about four minutes left in Thursday’s game. As time ran out, ecstatic USC players held up index fingers, signifying their feelings about where they stand in college football, and danced on the field while gold confetti fell.

Matt Leinart, a sophomore quarterback who started the season as the unproven successor to Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer, was selected player of the game.

He threw three touchdown passes and caught one thrown by sophomore receiver Mike Williams in the game’s most dramatic play. After taking the ball from Leinart, tailback Hershel Dennis handed the ball to Williams, who threw a 15-yard pass to a wide-open Leinart in the end zone with 3:44 left in the third quarter. It made the score 28-7 and left Michigan, champions of the Big 10, with their heads down and shoulders slumped.

“That was probably the play of the game for us,” Carroll said.

“It was a gutsy call for them,” Michigan quarterback John Navarre said. “All credit to them for trying it and executing it.”

USC receiver Keary Colbert finished his college career with six catches for 149 yards and two touchdowns, including a spectacular one-handed scoring reception.

Navarre had a much tougher day -- he was sacked nine times. The Wolverines had given up only 15 sacks in their 12 previous games this season.

The game, which drew 93,849 fans, was played under security unprecedented for a Rose Bowl, said Jim Granger, vice president of Contemporary Services, which has handled game-day patrol for more than 30 years. Granger said security personnel had been at the stadium constantly since mid-December.

Janet Pope, a Pasadena police spokeswoman, said, “The game is considered a heightened security threat.”

Pope said Pasadena Police Chief Bernard Melekian had daily briefings with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security in the last week.

After the game, Pasadena police Lt. Tom Peterson said 12 arrests were made -- 10 for public intoxication, one for burglary and one for sexual battery.

Few experts had predicted such a successful season for USC, which wasn’t even picked to win the Pacific-10 championship after losing Palmer and defensive standout Troy Polamalu from last year’s team.

But after opening with an impressive 23-0 victory at Auburn to start the season, USC’s only stumble was a 34-31 loss in triple overtime to California on Sept. 27. Since then, the Trojans have won nine straight. Over the last two seasons, they have won 20 of their last 21.

Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr, whose team finished 10-3, praised USC, saying: “As a coach, I’m committed to vote the winner of the Sugar Bowl as national champion, and I’ll do that. If I was a member of the media, the Associated Press, well, I think Southern Cal is very deserving.”

Luckily, “I didn’t sign up to vote in the coaches poll. I don’t have a vote,” Carroll said. Otherwise, Carroll, in his third year at USC, might have been in the position of having to vote against his team as national champions.

Since arriving at USC as a man slightly tarnished by two firings as an NFL head coach, Carroll has compiled a 29-9 record and won two straight major bowl games (the Trojans beat Iowa in the Orange Bowl a year ago).

The Trojans were 31-29 in the five years before Carroll arrived. They now will likely be a preseason favorite for the 2004 national championship.

Carroll was asked Thursday whether he would be interested in any of the open NFL jobs.

“Heck, no,” he said. “We get to go to the off-season as the No. 1 team. I can’t wait for next year.”

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Times staff writer Arlene Martinez contributed to this report.