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Watching USC's suffocating defense led by linebacker Rey Maualuga (58) is just one of the reasons to be excited about the Trojans matchup with Penn State.

2) Fight On?
The first Rose Bowl that actually was staged in the Rose Bowl pitted these same two opponents. Penn State met USC on New Year’s Day, 1923, in the newly constructed stadium (previous Rose Bowls were staged at Tournament Park, a large vacant lot in Pasadena).

The contest is best remembered for a pre-game verbal tiff between the team’s coaches that nearly — as they used to say — came to blows. The cause of the dispute? Traffic (yes, even then).

The Nittany Lions players had been given permission to watch the Tournament of Roses Parade the morning of the game. They then took taxis to the stadium, but found themselves stalled in post-parade traffic (and if you have witnessed this, as I have, you know that the only vehicles that eclipse 5 mph on New Year’s Day in Pasadena are festooned with roses).

Kickoff was scheduled for 2:15 p.m., which is when many of the Penn State players finally arrived. Penn State coach Hugo Bezdek petitioned the officials to delay the game for an hour to allow his players to warm up. USC coach “Gloomy” Gus Henderson accused Bezdek of stalling in order to take advantage of later, colder conditions. Someone probably said, “Put up yer’ dukes!”

The game began at 3:05 p.m. and finished under moonlight (there were no light stanchions). USC won 14-3.

Carroll referred to the contretemps last week. While speaking at a pre-game function at Disneyland, the USC coach pointed at Joe Paterno — who was born nearly four years after that antiquated altercation — and said, “I just want you to know, I’m not fighting him.”

Are there two more successful coaches who are more universally well-liked than Carroll and Paterno (actually, yes: Bobby Bowden)? In Carroll and Paterno, though, you have as legendary a coaching matchup as when Knute Rockne stood 53 yards across the gridiron from Glenn “Pop” Warner when Notre Dame faced Stanford in the ’25 edition of this contest.

Carroll, with an 87-15 record in eight seasons at USC, is the winningest active coach, in terms of percentage (.853) in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Paterno, who just turned 82, is the winningest in terms of victories (383 … one ahead of Bowden). JoePa achieved his 200^th and 300^th career victories in the fewest games any coach ever has, and armed with a 3-year extension, only Bowden or the Grim Reaper will keep him from being the swiftest to 400.

Carroll will not be the swiftest coach to 100 in the modern era — Oklahoma’s Bud Wilkinson got his 100^th victory in his 111^th game — but he almost certainly will do so faster than Paterno did (122 games). And, if he wins 13 of his next 14, which is possible, he will have reached that milestone faster than did Rockne, whose record was 100-12-5 when his plane went down in Bazaar, Kan.

3) The Game
Credit Paterno or credit the elation his players and staff must feel at escaping central Pennsylvania in late December, but Penn State does bowl games well. The Nittany Lions are 21-10-1 under Paterno in bowls, and even more impressive in the big games: 11-4 in bowls that are now part of the BCS format.

Talent disparity? USC has the edge, but then so did Miami in the ’87 Fiesta. The Nittany Lions have an experienced and dominant defense themselves, having finished third nationally in scoring defense (12.4 ppg), behind only the Trojans and TCU.

On offense, quarterback Daryll Clark is a senior, and playmakers abound: tailback Evan Royster and wideouts Deon Butler, Jordan Norwood and Derrick Williams. The latter trio are, like Clark, all seniors.

Penn State lost one game by one point, on the road at Iowa. USC dozed off for one half on a Thursday evening in Corvallis, Ore. These are a pair of 11-1 teams who are only perception points away from playing for the national title.

Experienced squads. Legendary coaches. Outstanding defenses. A national championship game for the slobber-knocker crowd. It may not be for the BCS national championship, but there’s no taking the bloom off this Rose.

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