USC Can Make Itself at Home

Finally, John Robinson’s young football team gets a look at the Coliseum today, and draws its favorite Pacific 10 patsy, Oregon State.

The Pac-10 opener matches the top, defending co-champion USC, and bottom of the conference, assuming you consider Oregon State a Pac-10 football school.

Consider:

--The Trojans have defeated the Beavers 22 consecutive times.

--The Beavers haven’t defeated USC in Los Angeles since 1960, or even at home since 1967.

--Since 1914, it’s 49-7-4, USC.

--Not since a 6-5 season in 1970 has Oregon State had a winning team.

--The Beavers haven’t been in a bowl game since 1965.

Oregon State launched what figures to be its 27th consecutive losing season last week with a 35-14 loss in Corvallis to Montana.

The Trojans, meanwhile, righted themselves in Champaign, Ill., with a 55-3 trouncing of Illinois, two weeks after they were blown out of the Kickoff Classic by Penn State.

This is supposed to be the last time the Trojans must do without the services of their first two tailbacks, Delon Washington and Shawn Walters, who finish suspensions this week. Washington’s was a three-gamer for an “ethical violation,” Walters the equivalent of a season for taking an agent’s money.

Last year in Corvallis, USC clinched a piece of the Pac-10 title with a 28-10 victory.

Robinson, however, was at his politically correct best this week.

“Oregon State isn’t a great team, but they always play a very hard, high-risk defense, which means they always have a chance,” he said.

The best feature of the victory over Illinois was a noticeable maturation of the USC offensive line, he said. Against Penn State, he said, four first-time starters were afflicted with stage fright.

“They were much better against Illinois,” he added.

“There was no more standing around, like, ‘Eenie, meenie, minie, mo . . . who should I block?’ We wanted more aggression, more recklessness against Illinois. We wanted an attitude like: ‘OK, I missed my block, but I’m going to block somebody.’ ”

He said he sees developing signs of a dominant offensive line in guards Chris Brymer and Travis Claridge, and tackles Ken Bowen and Rome Douglas.

“For the last three years, we haven’t had an offensive line that can go out there and win the game for you,” he said.

“And with great teams, that’s almost always the case. I want an offensive lineman whose attitude is: ‘OK, you can go interview the quarterback if you want . . . but we’re going to win the game.’ ”

The USC coach professes to be concerned about Oregon State’s option quarterback, Tim Alexander, who, he says, “has Chad Morton speed.”

Alexander, a sophomore from Florida, ran 15 times for 92 yards in the loss to Montana but was only 10 for 27 passing, for 68 yards.

Oregon State Coach Jerry Pettibone says Alexander is a stronger threat than he was in his first year, 1994, when he seemed to be leading Oregon State to a tying touchdown in the fourth quarter when he broke his collarbone. USC won, 27-19.

“Alexander was 163 pounds two years ago and he’s 188 now, and hasn’t lost any speed,” Pettibone said.

Pettibone has a former Army player at fullback, senior Akili King, a 5-foot-11, 230-pounder who left West Point in the summer of 1995.

His nickname? AK-47.

Trojan Notes

Kickoff today is 3:30 p.m. and a crowd of about 50,000 is expected. . . . Robinson hopes the blocked punt by Chris Miller that resulted in a USC touchdown last week will be a recurring pattern. One reason he hired assistant coach Jeff McInerney from Duke last spring was McInerney’s reputation as a special teams coach whose teams block kicks. He was at Duke when Ray Farmer set an NCAA record for blocked conversions, eight. . . . Backup freshman running back Ted Iacenda is questionable because of a bruised shoulder.

The Trojans’ home opener next season is a Coliseum game with Florida State. USC travels to Florida State for the second game of the 1998 season and opens at home with San Diego State. . . . The Notre Dame-USC game luncheon is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 29, at the Bonaventure Hotel. . . . Punter Jim Wren ranks first in the Pac-10 and third in the nation with a 48.3-yard average.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

OREGON STATE at USC

* Site: Coliseum

* Time: 3:30 p.m.

* TV: Prime Sports

* Radio: KLSX-FM, KCBQ