TEMPE, Ariz. - Forget everything the game was billed to be: a top-11 matchup, a Pac-10 showdown, a battle for the Rose Bowl, the biggest game in years at Sun Devil Stadium. In the end, it was evident the game was simply a matchup of Arizona State and the Team That Could Have Been.
The team ESPN planned would play in front of a national TV audience. The hype machine writers foolishly (or so we thought) voted No. 1 before the season began. The team Jim Harbaugh so ironically crowned as college football kings.
John David Booty threw the football like a well-oiled machine. Receivers Vidal Hazelton and Patrick Turner stepped in like finely groomed younger siblings of Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith. Stud recruits Ronald Johnson, Joe McKnight and Everson Griffen ran silly all over the field, proving that athletic ability often trumps game experience. The defense put even the most superlative-ridden fans at a loss for words.
The Team That Could Have Been. Or, as USC coach Pete Carroll said, the team it still hopes to be remembered as.
"I would love to see us finish up this season and make people wonder who the best team in the country is," he said.
After an immaculate performance against the then-No. 7 team in the country in front of a not-so-Pac-10-like audience, Carroll might not have to wait until the end of the season to hear people wondering aloud.
Offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian - one of the USC coaches who has taken a lot of flak this year - drew up offensive plays that looked straight out of Oregon's playbook.
Slip screens. Five-receiver sets. Halfback passes. Misdirection plays.
Asked if he had any gripes after the 20-point victory, Sarkisian said, "I wish we didn't give them the ball there with a minute left."
Shoot. Bet that kept him up all night.
Just about everything USC called and everything USC did worked to perfection.
Booty threw for 375 yards and four touchdowns, while rushing for a fifth. In the third quarter, USC loaded up the left side on third down and then threw to the opposite side - McKnight could have sleepwalked into the end zone. Tight end Fred Davis scored the Trojans' final touchdown standing up (after going 34 yards and bulldozing four ASU defenders, of course). Sun Devil quarterback Rudy Carpenter was sacked six times.
Hell, USC even elected to kick a field goal on fourth-and-2 from the 25-yard line when the game was tied 7-7. Apocalypse now? Maybe just lesson learned.
As wide receiver Patrick Turner, who caught five passes for 70 yards, said, the team is past any growth stage it might have gone through.
"We felt like a lot of guys have grown up since the Oregon game," he said. "If you look at it across the roster, it's really a young team, and people are just growing up."
UCLA and the Trojans' bowl opponent better hope that the cardinal and gold teenagers are through adolescence, because any more growth would be a little unfair.
Several players echoed the sentiment that the performance against ASU was what fans should expect to see the rest of the way.
"That's what the coaches expect and that's what we expect," defensive end Everson Griffen said. "We should dominate no matter what."
Statements such as Griffen's might be taken as overconfident, a freshman mistake perhaps, but when senior leaders tell you the same thing, it's time to take notice.
"Not being overconfident or whatever, but we knew we were going to come in here and beat them, honestly," senior cornerback Terrell Thomas said."
You know it's a good day for your team when your kicker nearly tackles the opposing kick returner in full stride, as David Buehler did on ASU's first kick return, which Rudy Burgess returned 98 yards for a touchdown.
"Don't even get me started," Buehler said of his close call. "I was with him stride-for-stride, and I thought I could use my speed to catch him."
That's right. His mind reads as such: USC kicker's speed > ASU kick returner's speed.
But hey, on a night where just about the only other thing that went wrong was a questionable unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on nose guard Sedrick Ellis that led to an ASU touchdown, why not?
There's no question USC has hit its stride. The coaches know it, the players know it, and, unfortunately for his team, ASU coach Dennis Erickson knows it.
"They played like they haven't played all year," he said.
While USC might have known it had the potential all year long, more than a handful of fans verbalized their discontent following the team's two losses.
But as Lawrence Jackson trotted off the field after the best performance by a USC defensive end since 1989 (four sacks, 5.5 tackles for loss), fans surrounding the tunnel didn't shout his name, or compliment the defense.
They simply yelled "U-S-C, U-S-C."
Because the game wasn't won by Jackson or any individual - it was won by a team. It was won by the USC it was supposed to be.
- To comment on this story, visit www.dailytrojan.com or e-mail Peter at simones@usc.edu.
