Michael Ventre

LOS ANGELES - It seems the only obstacle to a national championship for USC is Stanford.

Not necessarily Stanford the football team.

Stanford the concept. Stanford the symbol. Stanford the nightmare.

On Saturday, the top-ranked Trojans and the fifth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes finally met at the Coliseum after almost as many weeks of advertising as the current presidential campaign. The Trojans took them to the woodshed 35-3 and left the impression with 10 more regular-season games to go that they are without peer. If there is a college football team in the land that hopes to beat USC, it might have to recruit NFL ringers, or break a few opposing kneecaps beforehand.

But that’s incorrect, of course. Anything can happen. The notion that any football team is invincible can be debunked with one word:

Stanford.

Come with me now and relive the moment:

The date is October 6, 2007. The then-second-ranked Trojans are expected to cream the Cardinal. The Trojans lose, 24-23. All across Troy, much hair is pulled out.

“We definitely talk about Stanford,” said linebacker Brian Cushing in a bustling USC lockerroom after the Buckeyes were soundly thrashed. “The way we deal with it now is to make sure we give our best performance in every game.”

The letdown. The Trojans play next at Oregon State on Sept. 25. They have plenty of other opportunities to slip and fall — including at Stanford on Nov. 15. If they play to their capabilities — and foes can only pray Saturday’s performance was the pinnacle — there doesn’t seem to be a loss out there with their name on it. But if they allow themselves to slip mentally, the Ohio State triumph might just be something they can savor later to mask the pain of failed expectations.

“The only team that can beat us is us,” explained defensive tackle Fili Moala, trotting out a familiar refrain. “If we stay humble, if we don’t get complacent, if we continue to work as hard as we have been since training camp and stay forced, then there’s no limit to where it can take us.”

If the Trojans’ 52-7 victory in the season opener at Virginia was an eye-opener, this added a jaw-dropper to it. The Buckeyes had many of their guys back from last year’s team that reached the national title game; 35 of their current players had at least one game of starting experience. Yet they received the “boulevard of broken dreams” treatment usually reserved for wannabe starlets from Kansas, or in this case, Ohio.

The USC defense limited Ohio State to 207 total yards and forced three turnovers. The USC offense displayed the kind of weaponry that makes neighboring nations nervous.

“Teams need to prepare for too many running backs, too many receivers and too many guys who can pass block,” explained quarterback Mark Sanchez, who tossed four touchdown passes.

Coach Pete Carroll has this annoying but mostly successful habit of treating every opponent the same. Ohio State might as well be Ohio University, although pundits who saw the previous week’s game might have had a hard time telling the difference Saturday.

“We practice so well that this is the outcome we thought would happen,” said Carroll, who is especially lethal with two weeks to prepare. “It doesn’t really matter who we’re playing, and the last time (against Virginia) either. It doesn’t mean any more than any other game. Our players understand that and that’s why they prepare properly.

“When we prepare well and we have our guys, we’re hard to beat. This is what we’re capable of.”

Of course, last year they showed what they’re also capable of against Stanford, which brought the Trojans’ winning streak at the Coliseum to an end at 35 games — and after then first-year coach Jim Harbaugh made a few brash comments suggesting it could happen. The Trojans had John David Booty at quarterback then, and he played with a broken finger. Still, it was 40-plus point underdog Stanford, and it was playing USC.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to put in,” said defensive end Everson Griffen, who had one of USC’s five sacks Saturday. “If we play the way we played tonight, we can go a long way.”

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