History may have a lesson for Trojans

Keyshawn Johnson said USC got caught with its pants down against UCLA.

With a Rose Bowl berth already secured, Daylon McCutcheon said the Trojans thought they would walk over the Bruins.

The former USC stars, now NFL veterans, were not talking about USC’s stunning upset loss to UCLA this month.

They were referring to USC’s defeat by the Bruins in 1995.

This week, when USC begins final preparations for its Rose Bowl game against third-ranked Michigan, Johnson, McCutcheon and others connected to the 1995 team say the Trojans should take confidence from history.

Despite local media buildup that left USC players feeling like an afterthought in their hometown, the ’95 Trojans shook off a disappointing loss to UCLA and defeated third-ranked Northwestern, 41-32, in the 1996 Rose Bowl.

“They have to know they are the team to beat,” Johnson said of the Trojans. “Everyone is going to say Michigan, just like everyone said Northwestern.”

This season, USC was 6-0 before it appeared to fall out of the national championship picture with an upset loss at Oregon State. The Trojans, however, bounced back with four consecutive wins, the third of which, against California, clinched a Rose Bowl berth. A victory over Notre Dame the following week put the Trojans one win away from playing Ohio State in the Bowl Championship Series title game.

Then came the stunning 13-9 loss to UCLA on Dec. 2 at the Rose Bowl.

Michigan, which lost by three points to Ohio State in its season finale, had hoped to parlay USC’s defeat into a rematch with the No. 1 Buckeyes in the BCS championship game on Jan. 8. Instead, Florida ascended to No. 2 in the BCS standings and will play Ohio State.

Meanwhile, Michigan will play USC in the Rose Bowl for the eighth time.

“They’re going to go out and try and prove a point,” McCutcheon said of the 11-1 Wolverines. “They want to come out and show everybody they deserve to be playing for the national championship.”

In 1995, USC opened the season with similar aspirations and was ranked No. 1 by Sports Illustrated. But problems and distractions mounted early.

Johnson had come under NCAA scrutiny for allegedly accepting money from an agent while he was at West Los Angeles College. Other players, including running back Shawn Walters, were suspended for accepting money from an agent’s runners while at USC.

Nevertheless, the Trojans won their first six games and were ranked fifth when they traveled to South Bend, Ind., to play Notre Dame in late October. USC played terribly and lost, 38-10, extending a winless streak against the Fighting Irish to 13 games.

“We had a lot of big-play guys but no one seemed to show up,” recalled Brad Otton, who shared time at quarterback that season with Kyle Wachholtz. “After a loss like that, your balloon deflates and all your goals and expectations seem to go out the window.”

The next week at Seattle, USC trailed Washington, 13-0, at halftime.

“We had kind of gone numb,” former coach John Robinson recalled. “After Notre Dame it was not an indifference -- there’s a paralysis that overtakes teams when they go into slumps. I just thought, ‘I’ve got to do something to shake up this thing.’ ”

Otton, who later coached with Robinson and is now a restaurateur in Nevada, said he had never seen the coach more upset at halftime. McCutcheon, a freshman cornerback at the time, vividly remembers Robinson’s address to the players.

“He just kind of snapped,” McCutcheon said. “He was saying, ‘Look, you guys are about to throw away something special.’ But there was a whole lot more you would have to censor out of the newspaper.”

Robinson and offensive coordinator Mike Riley abandoned the quarterback rotation and let Otton play the second half. The Trojans rallied to tie the Huskies, 21-21, on a conversion kick with 33 seconds left after Otton’s second touchdown pass.

The next week, the Trojans came back to defeat Stanford, 31-30, on a short touchdown pass from Wachholtz to Johnson with 39 seconds remaining. The Trojans then clinched the Rose Bowl with a 28-10 win over Oregon State, setting up the season finale against UCLA.

USC had reason to be confident. UCLA was 6-4 and had lost two games in a row. The Bruins’ best running back, Karim Abdul-Jabbar, could not play because of an ankle sprain. Freshman Cade McNown was starting at quarterback.

“I remember before the game being on the field talking to some of their guys,” Otton said. “They were ready to pack it in. We thought it was a gimme.

“We definitely went in without a sense of urgency.”

UCLA took advantage and forged a 21-0 lead. The Trojans pulled to within 24-20 but could not overcome the Bruins and lost to their rivals for the fifth year in a row.

“Our ultimate goal was not to beat UCLA, it was to win the Rose Bowl,” Johnson recalled. “In my mind, UCLA was just a team around the corner. They just would never be the superior football program.”

USC had more than six weeks to regroup before playing Northwestern, a team that went from 3-7-1 in 1994 to 10-1 and the Big Ten Conference title. The media embraced the Wildcats, who were making their first Rose Bowl appearance since 1949.

“I remember Northwestern being the darling of everybody,” Robinson said. “I think that helped us a little bit.”

Recalled McCutcheon: “A lot of guys just kept hearing, ‘Cinderella story, Cinderella story.’ We just felt we were being disrespected. Me and my teammates said, ‘Look, we’re going to put all this Cinderella stuff to rest.’ ”

USC led, 24-10, at halftime but fell behind, 32-31, in the fourth quarter before coming back to win, 41-32.

Johnson, who would go on to become the first pick in the 1996 NFL draft, turned the game into a personal showcase, catching 12 passes for 216 yards. Otton completed 29 of 44 passes, two for touchdowns, and threw for 391 yards. McCutcheon returned a fumble for a score.

“The Rose Bowl has a way of motivating you,” Robinson said. “The teams get to spend a lot of time together and teams can build chemistry over the holidays. If everybody does it right you can play a good game.”

Robinson says he expects that Coach Pete Carroll will have the Trojans ready when they meet Michigan on Jan. 1.

“My impression of Pete Carroll’s teams is that they have a chemistry and like each other,” he said. “If they played in a parking lot in Iowa they would play hard and have an excitement about them.”

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gary.klein@latimes.com