There’s Fortune in .500 for USC

BERKELEY —  After all they have been through the last two months, suffering with a losing streak, scrambling back with close victories, the USC players don’t need to be reminded of what’s at stake today.

A victory over California at Memorial Stadium would even the Trojans’ record at 5-5 and send them into the annual UCLA rivalry with a shot at a winning season and a bowl game.

“We’ve only got two more steps to go,” fullback Charlie Landrigan said. “But they’re huge steps. It’s do or die.”

Yet, with all that is riding on the outcome, Cal is just the sort of opponent that even a highly motivated USC team could be in danger of overlooking.

The Golden Bears have yet to win in eight games this fall. Their coach has already announced his resignation effective at the end of the season, their top running back has a broken collarbone and their defense has surrendered a whopping 41.4 points a game.

So why is USC quarterback Carson Palmer calling them a “scary” team?

“They’ve got nothing to lose,” he said. “No bowl game, their coach is gone, and it’s their last home game of the year.”

That’s the kind of talk USC Coach Pete Carroll wants to hear. All week, Carroll and his assistants have turned up the heat in practice. They held a scout team game Wednesday, letting the guys at the bottom of the roster have it out while the rest of the players cheered from the sideline. Then, on Thursday, the coaches went back to pushing the starters.

“These guys respond,” Carroll said. “They’ll do what we demand. We just have to demand it of them.”

History provides additional inspiration: The Golden Bears have defeated USC the last three seasons and four of the last five times they have met.

“They’ve had our number,” Landrigan said. “They’ve played super tough against us.”

There are players on the Cal roster--lots of them, in fact--who don’t know what it feels like to lose to the Trojans. Take quarterback Kyle Boller, for instance.

“SC’s a good football team and our guys get fired up,” the former Newhall Hart High star said. “And I think a lot of our players are from down in Southern California so it’s important for them to play well.”

Today marks Boller’s first start in almost a month, a period during which he suffered a back injury and became embroiled in a quarterback controversy. While the Trojans have tried to prepare for his passing--he came off the bench to lead his team to three late touchdowns against Arizona last week--they have also been cognizant of the scrambling freshman, Reggie Robertson, who started two games in his place.

“Robertson is obviously a guy they like to run with,” Carroll said. “It’s fitting what you would do with a young quarterback.”

Another freshman, Terrell Williams, warrants attention from the defense after rushing for 100-plus yards in consecutive games since starter Joe Igber was injured against Oregon State. He has been one of the few bright spots for a team whose average margin of defeat is 24 points.

Again, the USC coaches have tried to downplay the Golden Bears’ shortcomings.

A desperate Cal defense, they said, is likely to blitz and stunt and take all sorts of chances against a Trojan offensive line that has allowed Palmer to be sacked 29 times.

Maybe that’s what the outgoing Cal coach, Tom Holmoe, meant when he said: “You look at USC like you look at any other team. You look for certain weaknesses and ... put pressure on those spots and try to expose them. USC, we feel, has a few areas we can attack.”

The Trojans might take some chances themselves. It remains to be seen how much linebacker Frank Strong will run the ball from the tailback spot after spending much of this week’s practices on offense. USC needs something to kick start its moribund ground game.

Meanwhile, Palmer and his receivers will face the worst pass defense in the conference. “We just have to hope we can make plays on them,” Carroll said, adding that, if not, this could turn into “a really nasty game.”

It was that sort of week for USC. Plenty of spin doctoring and cautionary tales. Lots of talk about how Holmoe’s resignation might inspire the Bears.

But the USC players already knew what they were up against.

“It’s kind of like the playoffs,” defensive back Antuan Simmons said. “We’re trying to get to the bowl game.”