Special Re-Quest

Pete Carroll never wavers.

Before every season, regardless of how the Trojans finished the previous year, USC’s coach says, “We work to own the Rose Bowl.”

It’s a sensible ploy, really. A way to keep fan and media expectations from spiraling out of control.

For Carroll knows that every fourth year, should all go according to plan, a berth in the Rose Bowl represents more than a reward for winning the Pacific 10 Conference title.

In the bowl championship series era, it means a shot at a national title.

And for this year’s Trojans, it means even more.

Three times more.

Top-ranked USC is on a quest to become the first school in college football history to win three consecutive Associated Press national championships. The Trojans open their season on Saturday at Hawaii and aim to conclude it on Jan. 4 in the Rose Bowl, this season’s BCS championship game.

“We realize we have the potential to do something great,” said Matt Leinart, USC’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback.

USC players and coaches recognize what is at stake for a program that returned to national prominence three years ago, won the AP title in 2003 and earned the BCS and AP championships outright last season by clobbering Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.

Consider:

* Six schools have tried, and failed, to win three consecutive AP national championships since the poll began in 1936. Oklahoma, Alabama and Nebraska fell short twice.

* USC has occupied the top spot in the AP poll since the end of the 2003 regular season, a stretch of 19 consecutive polls. Only Miami, which was No. 1 for 21 consecutive polls a few years ago, has had a longer run at the top since AP began preseason rankings in 1950.

* The Trojans have won 22 consecutive games and a school-record 21 in a row at the Coliseum.

* Leinart could become the first player since former Ohio State running back Archie Griffin in 1974 and ’75 to win the Heisman twice.

* If Leinart or junior running back Reggie Bush wins the Heisman, USC will have produced the winner three times in four years.

Bush, a Heisman finalist last season, says the chance to three-peat supersedes individual recognition and awards.

“It’s a great opportunity to do something big not only for the university but for the city of Los Angeles,” Bush said.

Minnesota might have achieved the feat in the mid-1930s if the AP poll had started two years earlier. The Golden Gophers were generally regarded as the best team in college football in 1934 and 1935 and finished atop the first AP poll in 1936.

Nearly a decade ago, Nebraska attempted for the second time to achieve what USC is shooting for. The Cornhuskers, under coach Tom Osborne, won national championships in 1994 and 1995, but finished 11-2 in 1996 and were ranked sixth in the final AP poll.

Turner Gill, who played quarterback for Nebraska in the early 1980s, was a member of Osborne’s staff in the ‘90s. The Trojans’ main challenge, he said, would be staying in the moment.

“The biggest thing is just trying to keep their focus on the job at hand, not thinking about themselves and what they’ve done in the past,” said Gill, the Green Bay Packers’ director of player development. “You keep challenging them, that it’s based on what you do now.”

Oklahoma won consecutive AP titles for the second time in 1974 and 1975, but finished fifth in the AP poll in 1976. Barry Switzer, who coached the Sooners, says USC is positioned to do what no other team has done because the Trojans return so many key players from a team that finished 13-0 last season.

“They have Leinart, they have Bush. ... They’re loaded,” Switzer said. “They’re the same football team. They have an opportunity -- I know they have a better opportunity than we did after ’74 and ’75.”

Leinart, however, remains cautious.

“We have a good team, we have the foundation, we have everything,” he said. “It’s just a matter of proving it and going and out playing, and we haven’t done that yet.”

When USC takes the field at Aloha Stadium on Saturday, the Trojans are hoping to continue the surge that has made the program even more dominant than it was in the 1960s and ‘70s under coaches John McKay and John Robinson.

Carroll, who succeeded Paul Hackett after the 2000 season, was 2-5 through seven games in 2001 before the program began to turn with a victory at Arizona. The Trojans concluded the regular season with four consecutive wins before losing in the Las Vegas Bowl and finishing 6-6.

In 2002, USC started 3-2 then rolled to eight consecutive victories, including a win in its first BCS bowl game, a 38-17 rout of Iowa in the Orange Bowl. Quarterback Carson Palmer also became the fifth Trojan player -- and the first USC quarterback -- to win the Heisman.

In 2003, USC lost its Pac-10 opener at California, but went unbeaten the rest of the regular season and finished atop both the AP and ESPN/USA Today coaches’ polls. The Trojans, however, finished behind Oklahoma and Louisiana State in the final BCS standings and were left out of the BCS championship game.

The Trojans defeated Michigan in the Rose Bowl to finish atop the AP poll, but the coaches were contractually bound to award Sugar Bowl winner LSU the BCS title, resulting in a split championship. USC’s share was its first since 1978.

Last season, USC left no doubt, completing their first perfect season since 1972 with a stunningly easy 55-19 Orange Bowl victory over Oklahoma.

USC fans chanted “three-peat” before and after the clock expired at Pro Player Stadium.

Trojan players and coaches have heard the drumbeat ever since.

“It would be a great opportunity and a lot of fun for us, but at the same time you can’t get that far ahead of yourself or something is going to happen,” junior running back LenDale White said.

The fan and media crush has been particularly heavy on Leinart, who returned for his final season of eligibility rather than turn pro. When Griffin was going for his second Heisman three decades ago, Ohio State was not coming off a national championship, let alone two in a row. The proliferation of cable television outlets, Internet sites and satellite radio was decades away.

Leinart, who had elbow surgery in January, has said in countless interviews that he and his teammates are not looking ahead.

“We’re just going to go game by game like we always do and knock out a team week by week,” he said. “Once we get down further in the season, we’ll see where we stand and then we can start talking about what we can do.”

USC will make its run at history without several key members of the coaching staff that molded the Trojans into national champions. Offensive coordinator Norm Chow now works for the Tennessee Titans. Defensive line coach Ed Orgeron is running his own program at Mississippi. And offensive line coach Tim Davis is with the Miami Dolphins.

The Trojans also lost four All-Americans -- tackles Mike Patterson and Shaun Cody and linebackers Lofa Tatupu and Matt Grootegoed -- from a defense that ranked among the nation’s best in every category.

Some question whether Carroll’s program can withstand the losses and win a third straight title.

“I take that as a personal challenge -- I have the whole time,” Carroll said. “I’m hoping that we can prove that by the way we play.”

Bush says the players are ready.

“The national perception is we’re the chosen ones to win it again,” he said. “Those are big shoes to fill but we’re up for the task.”

*

Times staff writer Robyn Norwood contributed to this report.