College football

Letdown? USC can always put in Stanford tape

Expect No. 1 team to wisely refer often to ’07 upset to avoid another slip up

Mark Avery / AP

USC wide receiver Damian Williams celebrates a touchdown catch against Ohio State during the Trojans' 35-3 win Saturday night.

Usually, the Trojans have more difficulty with Pac-10 teams than they do with non-conference opponents. That may not be true this year, however, because the Pac-10 is playing down to critics’ expectations. UCLA was walloped, 59-0, by BYU, and even Carroll commented to a questioner by declaring, “That’s a big score.” Washington, Cal, Washington State, Arizona State all flopped as the conference went 3-7 a dreadful this weekend. To quote Rodney Dangerfield, “It’s like the dance of the living dead.”

And USC has a largely favorable schedule. It plays rival Notre Dame at home, as well as Cal, Oregon and Arizona State. Every outing by the Trojans should by rights end up like Saturday’s swing-state landslide.

But sometimes too many cupcakes can make you sick. That brings us back to Stanford.

Every game that USC should win handily represents a game it could lose. Every expected blowout could be a blowup in disguise.

This USC team is arguably Carroll’s best. Yet only if it guards against a mental catnap can it wind up in Miami in January, poised to play for the BCS title.

“Our goal is always to win the Pac-10 conference,” said Trojan offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian while holding court on the field after the game. “Next week we go to Oregon State. The last time we were up there (two years ago) we got beat.

“We’ll be ready for it.”

Whether they play Oregon State or Arizona or Washington State, Stanford always lurks. Not the football team, the painful memory. The crushing disappointment.

But this season, these Trojans seem determined not to let it show its face anywhere on their schedule.

Michael Ventre writes regularly for NBCSports.com and is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.

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