It's already next year for Trojans

ShareThis

PASADENA, Calif. -- USC wasn't running up the score so much as running down memory lane, and running through their playbook.The Trojans put on a dazzling display, earning their stripes as a team worthy of the school's special legacy -- and robbing the Rose Bowl of any suspense. They put seldom-used, sixth-year running back Hershel Dennis into the game and got him a touchdown.They ran a trick play for a sophomore wide receiver-quarterback named Garrett Green, who threw an option pass for a touchdown to another sentimental Trojans favorite, senior running back Desmond Reed, who did an in-your-face front flip into the end zone.Quarterback John David Booty racked up three more Rose Bowl TD passes, to go with his foursome from last year, and six Trojans scored."I don't know if we could have done anything we wanted," USC tackle Sam Baker said when asked. "But we knew we should be able to run on them and, well, we knew we could pass, too."They did.You could say the 30 first downs and 633 total yards made it a dominating offensive day, but that wouldn't do justice to the Trojans' defense, which stuffed Illinois' option quarterback, Juice Williams, and collected four turnovers.USC led 21-0 and won 49-17.Good for USC, which finished 11-2 and made the best case it could for national recognition -- whatever that means for a team not in the Bowl Championship Series title game.Someone asked senior linebacker Keith Rivers if the final score suggested his team could have been in the Jan. 7 championship game."I think it does," he said. "Back when I was a freshman, we had a motto, 'Leave no doubt.' Today I think we left no doubt."Good for USC, bad for the Rose Bowl. The selection committee could have made an attempt to get Georgia, or even Missouri, both ranked ahead of Illinois. But the Rose Bowl folks opted for tradition -- the Big Ten's second-place Illini team, which took a nice leap forward as a program this season but could have used some seasoning in a non-BCS game."They're an up-and-coming team," USC linebacker Thomas Williams said of Illinois. "But this was their first time in a big game like this. We've been here a few times. We know how to make it just another game."Like, say, 38-10 over Idaho.The BCS was designed to create better New Year's matchups than a No. 7 (USC) against a No. 13 (Illinois). But the Rose Bowl has never been too fond of the whole BCS thing anyway. It's reluctance to play along resulted in the lopsided game most observers feared. USC was a two-touchdown favorite. That turned out to be a gross underestimation.Illinois gamely fought back to 21-10 and was driving for another touchdown in the third quarter when yet another fumble effectively drained the last drop of water from their wishing well.The Trojans scored four straight touchdowns in about 16 minutes."We're a lot better team than we showed today," Illinois coach Ron Zook said, and that may have been true, but it certainly didn't mean the Illini were ready to win this game, either.Maybe no one could have beaten USC on Tuesday (or next week), but we'll never know. Like everyone else, the team will watch Ohio State play LSU next Monday in the big one.The Trojans have only themselves to blame for putting themselves in this position -- losing the biggest jaw-dropper of the college football season to Stanford, and getting handled by a very good Oregon team, two losses that doomed their shot at No. 1.In the end they had to wipe out Illinois just to tread water with their own lofty standards of recent years. The blowout likely will inch the Trojans a spot or two up The Associated Press' end-of-season poll, from their current No. 6. No USC team has finished lower than No. 4 the past five years.The win will satisfy their institutionally ingrained Rose Bowl appetites and leave them with the knowledge that they did the best they could do for themselves the last two months, under the circumstances.But after briefly savoring the win, there also will be some telltale looking ahead, a subtle reminder of this year's opportunity lost."I'd like to be playing (next week)," junior linebacker Brian Cushing said. "But we played this game the best we could, and the seniors finished having done some great things. "This was good for the young guys, too, to get us rolling for next year, to try to get a national championship."Despite this healthy victory, there won't be much happy reflection on this past season. As the calendar says, it's already next year.(Contact Gregg Patton at gpatton@PE.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)