John Tamanaha

LOS ANGELES - You don't have to live in the City of Angels to get a heavy dose of all the hype involving the top-ranked USC Trojans. The air of supremacy surrounding the defending BCS champions extends far and penetrates deep. So much so that there is barely room for debate over the subject. That's sad in a way, because what's summer without a bunch of yakking over who's No. 1 in college football?

Nevertheless, this is where we're at and you could easily get into a fistfight over who's second best, but you'll get laughed at by a chorus if you say that USC won't make it to the Rose Bowl, where they're destined to make history as the first three-time Associated Press champion.

A glorious destiny, however, is not always for those who are in the best position to achieve. It most certainly isn't reserved for those described by the most hyperbole. Often times, it is for those who can survive and overcome. While it would seem strange to say that these Trojans have anything to overcome, it is true.

Put down your preseason magazine for a moment and think about it.

Only one team in the county is not able to exceed its expectations. The rest can, all 118 of them. USC, expected to roll through its Pacific 10 Conference slate and meager set of non-conference foes (Hawaii, Arkansas, Fresno State and Notre Dame) on its way to immortality, cannot.

Even if the Trojans stub their toe at some point along the road and are able to claw back into the championship picture and win the Rose Bowl, some would say that their expectations weren't fully met. When you've won 22 games in a row and are working toward an 18th consecutive top-ranking in the AP poll, life at the top is peachy if not precarious.

Many are banking that the avalanche of victories will continue. Las Vegas oddsmakers have installed the Trojans as even-money favorites to win the BCS, which is quite impressive indeed with such a large field relatively eligible. But then, you have to wonder about the other half of an even-money proposition and the 50-50 possibility that a stranger thing could happen.

Winning is a habit and USC certainly has cornered the market on it over the course of the past three years. With 33 victories in their last 34 games, the Trojans currently have the kind of habit that comes around once a generation. But no matter how many victories you pile up, adding the next has nothing to do with the previous.

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Winning a game — any game — can be difficult and you don't have to tell the Trojans that. USC trailed Virginia Tech late in the third quarter of the 2004 BCA Football Classic, fell behind Stanford by 11 points late in third quarter of the Pac-10 opener, needed a stop-the-bleeding last-minute goal-line stand vs. California, spotted Oregon State a 13-0 lead on an ominously foggy and cold night in Corvallis, and closed out the regular season with a mere five-point victory over down-and-out cross-town rival UCLA.

Of course, the memory of those close calls quickly evaporated in the midst of the 55-19 slaughtering of Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, giving way to an air of invincibility. But the nail-biters still exist and clearly point out that winning games at this level is always a difficult proposition no matter what your pedigree.

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The Pac-10 may not be the country's elite conference, but there is no shortage of firepower or know-how in the league. Furthermore, as long as that football is shaped the way it is, anything can happen within a 60-minute game. And don't forget, we're still talking about student-athletes who are in their early 20s, and in some cases, teenagers.

With the bull's-eye unanimously and squarely affixed to their cardinal and gold jerseys, the Trojans will have to overcome everybody's best shot. Running onto the field with a constellation of collegiate stars and a pair of Heisman Trophy frontrunners won't cause opponents to melt. If anything, it adds incentive.

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