University Southern California Trojans
After Loss To Cal, Trojans Started Rolling
December 31, 2003 | Football
Dec. 31, 2003
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Southern California Trojans were in deep trouble.
Just a week after being stunned by California, they fell behind underdog Arizona State early in the third quarter and USC quarterback Matt Leinart was limping on the field with a banged-up knee and ankle.
Another loss and USC could forget any national title hopes, and likely the Pac-10 championship and Rose Bowl presented by Citi berth.
Freshman tailback LenDale White ran for a pair of touchdowns and the taped-up Leinart threw for another one as then-No. 10 USC scored the final 27 points in a 37-17 win over ASU.
"They were playing us really tough, then we had Matt go out with an injury in the second quarter and weren't sure whether he would be able to play in the second half. It was gut-check time," said offensive tackle Jacob Rogers, one of a trio of USC All-Americans.
"That's when we found out what we were made of."
The Trojans' rally from that low point Oct. 4 at Tempe began their rise to No. 1.
Defensive tackle Shaun Cody said the Trojans were determined not to lose again after the 34-31 triple-overtime defeat at Cal ended their 11-game winning streak.
"Going into the Arizona State game, a lot of guys were questioning where the team was at. Once the second half started, we knew we really had to fight and earn it if we were going to get it," Cody said. "A lot of our guys had some words for us at halftime, and seniors stepped up big and showed some leadership.
"After that, we started rolling."
Rolling, indeed.
The following week, USC put up 41 points -- in the first half -- on the way to a 44-21 romp over Stanford.
Next came a 45-14 victory at Notre Dame, followed by a 43-23 win over Washington, a 43-16 triumph over then-No. 6 Washington State, a 45-0 victory over Arizona, a 47-22 win over UCLA, and a 52-28 triumph over Oregon State.
USC averaged 499 yards and 44.5 points its last eight games, outscoring the opposition 356-141. It could have been more lopsided; coach Pete Carroll substituted freely after USC took control in those games.
USC (11-1) hopes to keep rolling and earn a share of the national title with a win over No. 4 Michigan (10-2) in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1. The Trojans finished the regular season No. 1 in both the writers' and coaches' polls, but third behind Oklahoma and LSU in the BCS rankings. So they were shut out of the BCS championship showdown in the Jan. 4 Sugar Bowl.
A convincing Rose Bowl victory could keep the Trojans atop the final writers poll conducted by The Associated Press. The coaches are contractually bound by the BCS agreement to make the Oklahoma-LSU winner their national champion.
The USC players and coaching staff seemed to take the BCS snub mostly in stride, noting there wouldn't have been any controversy if USC hadn't lost to Cal.
That defeat, however, seemed to provide a foundation for USC's surge.
 | "Going into the Arizona State game, a lot of guys were questioning where the team was at." Shaun Cody |
"The next game (at ASU) was LenDale's first big game, and I thought we changed at that point. We were on the rebound from a game we didn't run the ball effectively," Carroll said. "We really made sure that we did the next week."
He shook his head and added, "Of course, we had to get whipped to figure that out."
White, a bruising 6-foot-2, 225-pounder, ran for 140 yards against the Sun Devils. The emergence of a running game helped take the pressure off Leinart -- intercepted three times in the loss at Cal -- for that game and the rest of the season.
"The next game, Stanford, was really when we started racking up the points and the yards and the offense started clicking," Leinart said. "From then on, we've been awesome."
