USC eats OSUs for breakfast

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LOS ANGELES -- Saturday's Ohio State game has been on USC's schedule longer than any player has been on campus. But if it's been a red-letter day for fans and media for a while, rest assured the Trojans themselves haven't been hyperventilating over it. Since USC has climbed its way back to the top shelf of college football this decade, everyone-is-talking games are just part of the landscape. Senior Fili Moala said he thinks he was first aware of the game about two years ago, but didn't give it a second thought. "I've been influenced by the program," the defensive tackle said. "You don't think about things except the task ahead of you." Even a potential matchup against another perennial Bowl Championship Series program? Nope. Running back Allen Bradford said he heard about the game last year but didn't think about it much, even when he watched the Buckeyes play LSU in the BCS title game. "It's Ohio State," Bradford said, shrugging, "I just thought it's going to be a good game." Senior safety Kevin Ellison said he was more interested in watching the safeties play in the Buckeyes-Tigers game in January than envisioning USC-OSU. When people started asking him about the game in earnest over the summer, well, let's just say it didn't get him too jacked up. "I'd say, yeah, it'll be a great game," he said. "But it was the summer. We weren't even thinking about Virginia yet." All this is a way of saying don't expect the Trojans to have a case of the jitters. They will go into the game as the Associated Press' No. 1-ranked team, against the No. 5 team, and are favored by about a touchdown and a half. Recent history says it could be a bigger margin than that. Ohio State has had a nice track record bullying most of its Big Ten opponents and made it to the past two BCS title games. But it's been tougher going against fellow BCS heavyweights. In those championship games, the Buckeyes were beaten by two touchdowns by LSU last year, and by 27 points against Florida the year before. They were narrowly beaten by Texas in the 2005 regular season when the Longhorns won the national championship (over USC). Ohio State did beat Texas the following year by 17, it's most impressive non-conference victory for its current class of players. Meanwhile, USC has only one loss to a non-Pac-10 opponent in the past five years (Texas in the 2005 BCS title game). Under eighth-year coach Pete Carroll, the Trojans are 4-0 against Big Ten opponents. They have beaten Michigan twice and Illinois and Iowa, all in bowl games, by an average of 20 points. They've also manhandled Oklahoma, Arkansas, Auburn and Nebraska in the past few years. Out-of-conference appetizers. Things haven't changed much since Ohio State and USC were fairly frequent Rose Bowl opponents a few decades ago. The Pac-10 teams were known for their speed, finesse and skill players. The Big 10 brought the powerhouse running teams and the bruising defenses. Up and down the conferences, the stereotypes still are true. Since then, though, at the top, it's fair to argue that the Buckeyes have added some speed and the Trojans some physicality to their make-ups. It still looks like "advantage USC," which figures to make it six straight over the Buckeyes, including three Rose Bowls after the 1974, '79 and '84 seasons, and wins in '89 and '90. That also would keep Carroll perfect against the oft-overrated Big Ten. Last January before the Rose Bowl, when I wrote something similar about USC and Illinois, I collected a small burst of e-mails from some offended Fighting Illini folks, who said I would eat my words, to put it politely. After the 49-17 USC win, not a word from the Midwest. I suspect the Buckeyes and their fans also will come in with high hopes, and they may even play a tougher game than the Trojans usually get from a Big Ten opponent. So make me a believer. What's more believable is that USC prepares itself week in and week out against the deepest pool of talent in college football: its own roster. The Trojans feature no-holds-barred practices, an old approach that Carroll has trademarked. With so much depth, the Trojans play opponents as good, if not better, than Ohio State every Tuesday in practice. The competition -- No. 1 defense versus No. 1 offense -- identifies the best players, who start. It also hones their skills. "I've got to bring it every day," said Bradford, one of way too many really talented tailbacks at USC. "We've got All-Americans everywhere." Someone asked Ellison if he really wanted Ohio State's best offensive player, tailback Chris "Beanie" Wells, to play Saturday, as advertised. Wells has been slowed with a toe injury. "Definitely!" Ellison shot back. "No question." It's finally their red-letter day, too. They don't want anything to spoil it.(Contact Gregg Patton at gpatton@PE.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)