El Stinko in El Paso

EL PASO —  Yes, those Frogs had horns.

USC was impaled on the spines of 16-point underdog Texas Christian in the Sun Bowl on Thursday, 28-19, stabbed clear through by an option attack the vaunted Trojan defense couldn’t stop.

One minute it was TCU tailback Basil Mitchell taking a pitch and turning the corner ahead of Chris Claiborne for a 60-yard touchdown run, another it was quarterback Patrick Batteaux keeping the ball and sprinting in for an eight-yard touchdown himself while the Trojans waited for the pitch.

On the other side of the ball, TCU’s underrated defense stuffed USC’s running game and sacked Carson Palmer six times to leave the Trojans with the lowest rushing total in school history, minus-23 yards.

In the end, it added up to one thing: victory for the Underfrogs, and TCU’s first bowl win since a 1957 Cotton Bowl victory over Syracuse.

“I’m shocked, just like everybody else,” USC cornerback Daylon McCutcheon said.

“I’m at a loss for words,” receiver R. Jay Soward said. “It’s mind-boggling. We lost to TCU. We’re better than that.”

It was a game that woke up echoes of the 1992 Freedom Bowl loss to Fresno State, and even though the Trojans knew enough to say all week they weren’t taking 6-5 TCU lightly, they had to admit in the end that they did.

“Maybe it was the point spread, maybe it was us being a powerhouse and them being TCU, but whatever it was, they fed us our food and we had to eat it,” said Claiborne, who said he’ll probably hold a news conference Tuesday to announce if he’ll jump to the NFL, giving Coach Paul Hackett a few more days to try to sway him to stay.

There was a stunned air in the USC locker room, but the Trojans had seen it coming ever since the Horned Frogs scored on their first three possessions and took a 21-0 lead in front of a pro-TCU but hardly rabid crowd of 46,612.

“We definitely took TCU for granted,” Palmer said. “We thought we could do pretty much what we wanted, but they really shut us down. I was surprised when we couldn’t run the football. I couldn’t believe it when they scored their first touchdown. I was shocked when it was 21-0.”

TCU shocked the Trojans--and probably a lot of other people. Not many thought the Horned Frogs belonged in a bowl game.

“I guess we’re not as bad as they thought we were,” defensive end Kam Hunt said. “Look who’s laughing now.”

USC managed only a field goal before halftime, then made some adjustments that slowed the option attack in the second half, with Claiborne moving from middle linebacker to weakside linebacker.

TCU still scored on its first possession of the half, but USC finally scored its first touchdown on a 23-yard pass from Palmer to Billy Miller with 7:06 left in the third that cut the lead from 28-3 to 28-10.

With things getting direr, USC went for it on fourth and eight from the TCU 22, converting with a 19-yard pass to Larry Parker, and Petros Papadakis scored on a one-yard run with 1:34 left in the third.

USC was down by 12, 28-16, after the two-point conversion attempt failed.

The Trojans kept trying, but TCU kept coming up with sacks.

“We were out there open,” Soward said. “But we got behind early, and we had to run deeper routes, and that gave them more time on the pass rush.”

USC was on the move again and reached TCU’s 20-yard line, but the Horned Frogs stopped the Trojans cold with back-to-back sacks by Aaron Schobel and Shawn Worthen, forcing USC to settle for a 46-yard field goal by Adam Abrams that made the score 28-19 with 12:30 left.

But USC’s next possession went the same way, thwarted when Palmer was sacked on consecutive plays by London Dunlap and Raymone Lacey, and the Trojans punted the ball away with 4:14 left.

The Trojans’ final drive started on their 13-yard line with 1:50 left, and Dunlap sacked Palmer on first down before a couple of incomplete passes.

The Trojans’ ground attack was useless. Tailback Chad Morton entered the game only 33 yards from a 1,000-yard season and didn’t get it, held to 18 yards in 11 carries.

But make no mistake, TCU’s option game was the problem USC was unable to handle. The Horned Frogs rushed for 314 yards.

Mitchell ran for 185 yards and two touchdowns, and Batteaux, the receiver-turned-quarterback this season, ran for 94 yards and two touchdowns while completing four of five passes for 51 yards.

It was a far cry from the Notre Dame option attack led by backup quarterbacks that USC was able to shut down in a 10-0 victory.

“Speed,” USC Coach Paul Hackett said. “The speed they use in the option is not something you can simulate in practice, and then you put that speed on turf. And they did a great job with multiple personnel groupings, forcing us into indecision with alignments.

“I have to give credit to TCU. They were ready to play today. We had two issues confronting us in this game--foreign territory, playing on the turf, and the option. The option was very well executed and extremely tough to stop.”

Hackett’s first season could have ended with nine victories. Instead the Trojans finished 8-5.

“This game should go a long way toward preparing us for next year. It may inspire us. Maybe we needed a wake-up call,” Hackett said.

“We have a long ways to go. We’ve known that for a long time. . . . There’s a lot of disappointment in that locker room. It is a sour taste. I think it can also inspire us.”

* TIME TO GO?: Claiborne says loss will have no effect on whether he leaves for the NFL. D6

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By The Numbers

1957: Last time TCU won a bowl game.

-23: Yards rushing for USC (21 carries), lowest in school history.

314: Yards rushing for TCU (61 carries).

6: Times USC quarterback Arson Palmer was sacked.

5-10-1: TCU’s bowl record.

25-14: USC’s bowl record.

1-3: Bowl record for Pacific 10 Conference so far (5-0 last year).

0: Probable college games left for USC All-America linebacker Chris Claborne, who is likely to turn pro Tuesday.

No Bowl of Roses

USC has an overall bowl record of 25-14, but is 6-5 in bowls other than the Rose Bowl:

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Year Bowl Result 1998 Sun Texas Christian 28, USC 19 1995 Cotton USC 55, Texas Tech 14 1993 Freedom USC 28, Utah 21 1992 Freedom Fresno State 24, USC 7 1990 John Hancock Michigan State 17, USC 16 1987 Citrus Auburn 16, USC 7 1985 Aloha Alabama 24, USC 3 1982 Fiesta Penn State 26, USC 10 1977 Bluebonnet USC 47, Texas A&M; 28 1975 Liberty USC 20, Texas A&M; 0 1924 Christmas Festival USC 20, Missouri 7

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