Polls Apart

It’s one of those sports questions that can never be answered.

Could USC, which was ranked No. 1 in the United Press International coaches’ poll after the 1974 season, have beaten Oklahoma, which was ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press writers’ and broadcasters’ poll, despite being on probation and ineligible for a bowl game, if they had met in a one-game championship finale?

That’s an intriguing thought, one worthy of debate.

But it wasn’t the question that first popped into J.K. McKay’s mind recently while reminiscing about the Trojans’ 10-1-1 record in 1974.

What he couldn’t figure out was how time could have passed so quickly since his last season of college football.

“Thirty years? Incredible,” said McKay, a standout receiver on that team and son of then-coach John McKay.

It has been three decades since McKay and quarterback Pat Haden, teammates from Bishop Amat High and lifelong friends, led USC to victories in its last four regular-season games -- including a memorable 55-point outburst in a come-from-behind rout of Notre Dame -- and capped that with an 18-17 comeback win over Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

Three decades since USC and Oklahoma shared a national title because AP voters didn’t care that Oklahoma was on probation for recruiting violations and voted the Sooners No. 1, whereas UPI excluded probation-bound teams from consideration.

For the first time, UPI’s poll was conducted after the bowl games instead of after the regular season, a change that favored the Trojans. Their Rose Bowl triumph, coupled with top-ranked Alabama’s loss to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, helped them earn 27 of 34 first-place votes and vault from No. 4 to No. 1.

That left the Trojans and Sooners atop separate polls, with no way to settle their claims to supremacy. They had played a 7-7 tie at the Coliseum in 1973 but wouldn’t meet again until 1981.

McKay wishes there had been a single champion in 1974.

“I would have liked to have played them,” he said. “There was some talk about trying to put together a game after the Rose Bowl, but nothing ever came of it.”

A late-season encounter might have favored USC, which grew stronger as the season progressed.

“We had a real rocky beginning,” said John Robinson, an assistant coach that season who later had two stints as head coach. “We had very much of an up-and-down season but had those two dramatic victories at the end, against Notre Dame and at the Rose Bowl.

“There was a lot of drama that season. It was tumultuous.”

By contrast, the Sooners were 11-0 -- a record that didn’t reflect their dominance.

They shut out three opponents, limited another to a field goal and averaged 43 points a game. Their smallest margin of victory was 14 points, 28-14 over Nebraska in their next-to-last game. They were the only undefeated team in the country that season and boasted seven All-Americans.

“I had a great defensive team,” Barry Switzer, who coached that team, said by phone from his home near Norman, Okla. “Eight of my defensive players started in the NFL. People couldn’t move the ball on us. We had a very good football team, a good group of coaches and players, and we played very well.”

Who would have prevailed if they’d faced USC?

“My team, of course,” Switzer said, indignant that anyone might think otherwise.

To Haden, the answer isn’t clear-cut.

“They were an awfully good football team,” he said. “They were scoring points and were a speed-oriented wishbone team. We were playing our best football toward the end of the year, but we were a completely different team than they were.”

All of that happened too long ago to lend any emotion to today’s bowl championship series title game between USC and Oklahoma at Pro Player Stadium. So long ago, Haden joked, “Cecil B. DeMille was taping the Notre Dame game.”

Maybe not that long ago, but his point is valid.

The teams have no old scores to settle today, no long-nursed grudges or paybacks to deliver. They haven’t played since 1992, when USC scored 20 points in the fourth quarter for a 20-10 victory at Norman, and they’ve never faced each other in a bowl game. Since they shared the national title in 1974, USC has shared it twice more, with Alabama for the 1978 season and with Louisiana State last season, and Oklahoma has won national titles in 1975, 1985 and 2000.

But if the paths of USC and Oklahoma haven’t crossed often, they’ve crossed at interesting times. In each of their eight previous games, at least one of the teams was ranked by AP: USC was No. 1 in the AP poll when they played in 1963, 1973 and 1981, and Oklahoma was ranked No. 2 when they met in 1981 and 1964.

And although the 1974 split title can’t be called a rallying point today, it’s something of a touchstone for both teams, a common thread in two differently crafted cloths.

“It was a long time ago, different eras. But these are two historically successful programs, very similar in their styles now,” Haden said. “On paper, this figures to be a terrific game.”

As in their playing days, McKay was in sync with Haden in evaluating today’s game.

“It’s like the old days,” said McKay, now a trial attorney and still an ardent Trojan booster. “These are teams that are very fast. I don’t think either one has been around as much speed as the other side will have. I like [USC Coach] Pete Carroll and what he’s doing.

“If anybody could beat USC, it’s Oklahoma. With apologies to Auburn, I think this is the game everyone wanted to see. It’s the best game.”

The 1974 Trojans, two years removed from a 12-0 championship season, looked to Haden, McKay and fellow senior Anthony Davis to carry them. They began the season with high expectations but were upset by Arkansas, 22-7, at Little Rock in their opener. Haden remembers that with painful clarity.

“I threw four interceptions, and we’d started the game as the No. 1 team,” said Haden, now a Los Angeles-area businessman and analyst on Notre Dame telecasts. “But then we started to get rolling and didn’t lose the rest of the season. We got better and better and we had a pretty good defense.

“In that last stretch, we beat Washington, UCLA and Notre Dame, and Washington was very good in those days. Then we beat Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. That time of year was always fun.”

McKay recalled that “we started horribly ... [and] had a number of close calls along the way,” including a 15-15 tie with California in their seventh game. But in the next four games, they averaged 41 points and gave up fewer than 14 a game. That included shutting out Notre Dame after the Irish had built a 24-0 lead late in the first half of their regular-season finale, and scoring 55 points in just under 17 minutes against what had been the nation’s top defense.

USC was ranked sixth and the Irish fifth when the Trojans pulled off “the Comeback” against Notre Dame. It was built on staunch defense, three interceptions by safety Charles Phillips, a 102-yard kickoff return by All-American tailback Davis to open the second half and a series of big hits and big plays. It’s the only game of Haden’s college career he has talked about with his sons, Taylor and Ryan.

“That was a different part of my life,” he said. “I wanted them to have their own lives.”

The Rose Bowl is McKay’s favorite memory.

“I got to end my career in the Rose Bowl and be co-MVP with my best friend, Pat Haden,” said McKay, who caught the 38-yard touchdown pass from Haden that brought USC within one, at 17-16, setting up Haden’s winning two-point conversion pass to Shelton Diggs. “I couldn’t have asked for more.”

He paused. “Except,” he said, laughing, “a chance to play Oklahoma.”

The current Trojans and Sooners won’t leave anything unsettled today.

“I think it’s going to be a great game. It has everything you can hope for,” Robinson said, citing Heisman Trophy winners Jason White of Oklahoma and Matt Leinart of USC and running backs Adrian Peterson of Oklahoma and Reggie Bush of USC. “These are two marquee names in college football. It’s a game you don’t want to miss.”

Said Switzer: “It’s the two best teams that have been out there the last couple of years and they’ve been on a collision course. We finally get to see them play.”