watch USC win a 12th Football National Championship

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Robert Woods caught a school-record 17 passes for 177 yards and three touchdowns, and No. 25 Southern California hung on to top Minnesota in a 19-17 victory Saturday.

Matt Barkley completed a school-record 34 passes for 304 yards for the Trojans, who still couldn’t score in the second half of their 14th consecutive season-opening victory.

Freshman quarterback Max Shortell came off the Gophers’ bench in the fourth quarter and threw a 12-yard TD pass to Brandon Green with 8:03 to play, but Torin Harris intercepted his pass near midfield with 53 seconds to play.

Until USC’s offense sputtered and collapsed in the second half, the Trojans opened their second season under coach Lane Kiffin with a display of dazzling aerial chemistry between Barkley and Woods, the sophomore receiver with sticky hands and burning speed – and now a place among the great receivers in Trojans history.

Woods tied the school record first set by Johnnie Morton with his 15th catch late in the third quarter, and he surpassed it early in the fourth.

Barkley, who went 34 for 45, surpassed Todd Marinovich’s 1989 record for completions in the fourth quarter.

Although freshman tailback D.J. Morgan rushed for 70 yards, not much worked consistently for the Trojans beyond Woods. After Green’s score for Minnesota, the Trojans converted two long third-down plays on their ensuing drive before a punt left Minnesota at its own 9 with 2:04 to play.

MarQueis Gray passed for 94 yards and rushed for 48 more in his first collegiate start at quarterback for the Gophers. Kill, who left Northern Illinois to take over a program with just one winning season in its last five, likely was more impressed by Shortell, who backed up his impressive camp with a 7-for-13 performance for 98 yards in the fourth quarter.

Duane Bennett rushed for 53 yards and a score for Minnesota, which hadn’t visited the Coliseum since 1979 and hasn’t won a game in California since 1964. Minnesota already knew all about the perils of Woods, who returned a kick for a touchdown in the Trojans’ win at Minneapolis last year.

After catching passes for most of his first two seasons at Minnesota, Gray took over the Gophers’ offense this year, starting his first game at quarterback since 2007 at his Indianapolis high school. Gray’s debut wasn’t exactly a stunner, featuring missed receivers and few impressive runs.

USC opened with a deliberate 13-play scoring drive capped by a beautiful fade pass to Woods, who achieved his goal of seeing himself score on the Coliseum’s new 6,000-square-foot video board. He did it again early in the second quarter, hauling in a 43-yard throw in the end zone with a Minnesota defensive back draped all over him.

The Trojans failed on 2-point conversion attempts after both of their first two scores. Kiffin went back to the old-fashioned single-point kick after Woods’ third TD catch, a quick 2-yard grab 49 seconds before halftime to cap another steady drive.

When USC headed to the locker room with a 19-3 halftime lead, Kill gathered the Gophers around him on the sideline for a few pointed words before they went up the tunnel. Minnesota came out stronger in the second half, stopping USC’s opening drive with a 32-yard loss when a fourth-down snap sailed over Barkley’s head, followed by a quick Gophers drive ending with Bennett’s 9-yard TD run.

Barkley completed 16 straight passes before tight end Xavier Grimble dropped a throw in the third quarter. Grimble was among three freshmen starting at offensive skill positions for the Trojans, joining Morgan and receiver Marqise Lee, who went to high school with Woods in nearby Gardena, Calif.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Southern California really thought it had figured out how to stop Oregon’s high-octane offense when the Trojans took a third-quarter lead on the nation’s top-ranked team.

Turns out the Ducks were only pausing on the way to another convincing win.

LaMichael James rushed for 239 yards and three touchdowns, Darron Thomas threw three of his four scoring passes to Jeff Maehl and No. 1 Oregon roared back from a second-half deficit with a 53-32 victory over the 24th-ranked Trojans on Saturday night.

Thomas passed for 288 yards and Maehl had eight catches for a career-high 145 yards for the fleet-footed Ducks (8-0, 4-0 Pac-10), who racked up 599 total yards in yet another barn-burning offensive performance. Oregon still trailed in the third quarter for just the second time all season after USC scored two touchdowns in 2 1/2 minutes to take a 32-29 lead.

“We have a tendency to wear people down,” Oregon coach Chip Kelly said. “I’m not into statements. I’m just into winning games.”

Indeed, FBS rushing leader James led the Ducks to 24 consecutive points to close their first win at the Coliseum since 2000.

Matt Barkley passed for 263 yards and Marc Tyler rushed for two scores for the Trojans (5-3, 2-3), who used trickery and big defensive plays to stay competitive until the third quarter.

“We thought we had this game in the bag, but they played a hell of a game,” said USC defensive lineman Jurrell Casey, whose interception set up the Trojans’ first score in the third quarter.

The role reversal atop the Pac-10 is essentially complete with this victory for the Ducks, who toiled for much of the past decade in the shadow of USC’s seven consecutive conference titles. Oregon shoved its way into the Rose Bowl last season after a 27-point win over USC on Halloween night, and these speedy Ducks finally outran the probation-afflicted Trojans in the rematch.

Despite a vibrant homecoming crowd cheering on its underdog Trojans, USC lost at the Coliseum for the fourth time in seven games. Ronald Johnson caught a TD pass while making a handful of big special-teams plays for the Trojans, and freshman Robert Woods had seven receptions in what’s likely to be the biggest game of USC’s bowl-less season under NCAA sanctions.

“I thought it was two different teams, as far as us,” USC coach Lane Kiffin said. “Our defense played well enough to win. Our offense wasn’t very explosive, and they did a great job against us.”

Lavasier Tuinei had seven catches for 78 yards and a score for the Ducks, who are likely to keep the first No. 1 ranking in school history for a third straight week and hold on to second place in the BCS standings behind Auburn. They’re four games away from a perfect regular season, with Arizona the only ranked team left on their schedule.

After a slow start, James rolled to his third 200-yard game of the season. Maehl had a juggling, one-handed TD catch during his career day, and Thomas shook off a few early mistakes to go 19 for 32 with three TD throws of at least 30 yards.

USC thought it still had a shot early in the third quarter. Casey intercepted a tipped pass on Oregon’s opening drive of the second half, and the Trojans swiftly drove for Johnson’s short TD catch just 1:17 in.

Johnson then made a 51-yard punt return, and two Oregon penalties set up Barkley’s 1-yard TD dive and a 2-point conversion pass for a 32-29 lead.

“You could feel the momentum on our sideline,” Barkley said. “We had it, and we didn’t capitalize on it.”

But the Ducks came back with a 30-yard TD throw to Maehl and a scoring run by James to cap an 82-yard drive, all before the third quarter ended. Oregon’s defense, shaky in the first 35 minutes, shut out the Trojans in the final 25 as the Ducks extended their second-half scoring advantage for the season to 180-38.

USC entered the Coliseum as an underdog for the first time in 51 games since 2001, but the homecoming crowd blanketed the Coliseum in USC’s cardinal color.

Oregon unleashed its quick-strike offense immediately after USC’s opening field goal, with a 76-yard drive in 2:21 for Maehl’s 15-yard TD catch and a 2-point conversion.

But USC’s defense survived the first half allowing a mere four touchdowns and forcing four punts among two more lightning-quick scoring drives, including James’ untouched 42-yard run for a second-quarter score.

USC led 17-15 and had the ball in Oregon territory midway through the second quarter, but Barkley fumbled a shotgun snap after getting distracted by his sideline. On the next play, Maehl made a 45-yard TD catch, artfully tipping the ball before catching it with one hand.

Oregon then capitalized on a 41-yard punt return by Cliff Harris, with Thomas finding Tuinei alone down the middle for a 33-yard score 1:10 before halftime for a 29-17 lead.

“Everything that we saw on film, we saw in the game,” USC defensive lineman Wes Horton said. “We just got gashed too many times.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Matt Barkley threw first-half touchdown passes to Jordan Cameron and Brandon Carswell for a 17-14 victory over Virginia on Saturday night in Lane Kiffin’s home head coaching debut.

Barkley passed for 202 yards for the Trojans (2-0). The Trojans’ defense mostly smothered Virginia (1-1) just one week after yielding 588 yards to Hawaii, and USC recovered a late onside kick to seal it.

USC has won 13 straight home openers and 18 consecutive nonconference games, Kiffin is still working on discipline and consistency at the school where he served as an assistant for much of that successful run.

Both teams made costly mistakes in the first half. After Verica’s end-zone pass was intercepted by T.J. McDonald, USC’s Ronald Johnson caught a 47-yard scoring pass early in the second quarter – but it was erased by a holding penalty on Tyron Smith.

Virginia immediately answered with a 69-yard scoring drive capped by Payne’s dive into the end zone 2 1/2 minutes later. But USC kept throwing, and Barkley found Carswell among three defenders for another score with 1 second left before halftime.

Freshman Dillon Baxter debuted with the USC offense. He shook off early jitters to rush for 49 yards.

HONOLULU (AP) – Matt Barkley and Ronald Johnson connected on three touchdowns to make Lane Kiffin a winner in his first game as Southern California coach. No. 14 USC beat Hawaii 49-36 on Thursday night to start the post-Pete Carroll era.

Barkley passed for 257 yards and tied a school record with five TD passes while Johnson matched a USC mark with his three TD catches. Johnson also returned a punt 89 yards for another score.

Johnson’s two scores in the third quarter, a 3-yard catch and the punt return, helped break the game open for the Trojans (1-0), who took a 42-23 lead into the fourth.

Marc Tyler sealed the win a 44-yard run late in the game. He finished with 154 yards on 17 carries.

The game marked the USC return of Kiffin, who rejoined the program after a year with Tennessee and 20 games with the Oakland Raiders. Before that, he served as a USC assistant for six seasons under Carroll.

Barkley was sharp and efficient in the first game of his highly-anticipated sophomore season. He completed his first seven passes and finished 18 of 23 before sitting out the final minutes.

He becomes the fifth USC player to toss five TDs in a game and the first since Mark Sanchez in 2008 against Washington State.

USC scored on its first three possessions with Barkley going 9 for 10 with three TDs. The Trojans took a 20-3 lead early in the second quarter on Barkley’s 6-yard pass to a stretching Rhett Ellison.

Barkley connected with David Ausberry on a 46-yard TD pass play on the Trojans’ opening drive. Barkley found Ausberry singled-covered in the right flat around the Hawaii 35, and Ausberry tossed aside Lametrius Davis before sprinting into the end zone.

Hawaii (0-1) never quit but seemed to lose steam when quarterback Bryant Moniz was knocked out of the game late in the third quarter from a hard hit by Michael Morgan. Moniz was injured on a 13-yard scramble that set up a 1-yard TD run by Alex Green to cut USC’s lead to 11 with 1:54 left in the third.

USC improved to 7-0 against Hawaii. The Trojans also opened at Aloha Stadium in 1999 and 2005, winning by an average margin of 50 points.

LOS ANGELES—As Pat Haden walked through the lobby of Heritage Hall, his eyeglasses and sunglasses in one hand and a USC football spring prospectus and notebook in the other, he smiled as he looked at the throng of media waiting to talk to him.

“I promise I’m going to talk to you all,” he said. “I want to meet every one of you. I’m waiting to hear back from my daughter, who is expecting to have her baby today. She promised she wouldn’t have it today, but you never know.”

In a matter of six seconds, Haden, who was named USC’s new athletic director beginning Aug. 3, had talked to the assembled media in the lobby more than his predecessor, Mike Garrett, had in the past six months. By the time Haden’s day was done (his daughter, Natalie O’Connor, kept her promise and didn’t have her baby, Haden’s fifth grandchild, on Tuesday), he had probably interacted more with the media than Garrett had during his 17-year tenure at the helm of the athletic department.

When Haden, a former USC quarterback from 1971-74 and television analyst for NBC’s coverage of Notre Dame football games the past 11 years, arrived on campus he told USC sports information director Tim Tessalone he didn’t want to hold a news conference. It was something he probably has heard in the past from Garrett, who preferred the absurdity of poorly edited online video messages to actually standing in front of the media and addressing difficult questions. Haden, however, simply wanted to meet every reporter on campus and introduce himself, and felt that wouldn’t be possible with a large news conference.

So there Haden stood, answering the same compliance and investigation questions over and over again, each time shaking a different reporter’s hand and thanking them for coming out before starting the process all over again.

New USC AD Pat Haden probably spent more time with media Tuesday than Mike Garrett did in 17 years.
Haden wasn’t just a breath of fresh air for a program that needed it; he was an oxygen tank for an athletic department suffocating under the pressure of recent NCAA sanctions against the football and men’s basketball programs. As though Garrett’s incompetence as the head of a department in shambles wasn’t bad enough, he handled himself like the delusional captain of a sinking ship on his way out.

After USC was put on four years of probation and hit with a two-year bowl ban along with other penalties after the NCAA found serious rules violations in the athletic department, mostly involving Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo, Garrett’s defiance bordered on the ridiculous. A few hours after the release of the NCAA report, Garrett told a group of boosters in San Francisco the report was “nothing but a lot of envy” and that the committee wishes “they were all Trojans.”

Earlier this month, Garrett sent letters of apology to Florida, Washington, Oregon, Fresno State and Alabama regarding allegations made by USC that the five schools had made impermissible contact with running back Dillon Baxter after the NCAA announced sanctions against the Trojans.

“I apologize for any inconvenience or embarrassment this matter has caused to you and your institution,” Garrett wrote.

It was a letter many associated with USC wish they would have received from the less-than-contrite Garrett on his handling of the NCAA investigation and lack of institutional control while his football and men’s basketball programs ran amuck.

Ultimately it would be a letter from incoming USC president Max Nikias that would announce not only the end of Garrett’s term and the beginning of Haden’s tenure, but also the lengths to which the school will go to forever wash its hands of Bush and Mayo.

The school announced it will return its copy of Bush’s 2005 Heisman Trophy to the Heisman Trust and remove all images and references to Bush and Mayo on campus, the Galen Center and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. As significant as those moves may seem, none of it would have mattered if Garrett was still in office.

His imminent departure not only rids USC of its cantankerous athletic director who continued to contend the school did nothing wrong, but gives it a glimmer of hope in its current appeals process to get the second year of the bowl ban rescinded. At the very least, Haden will go into the hearing admitting the school has made mistakes and will make strides to correct them, something Garrett never did.

“I never think it’s a good tactic to make the party to whom you are appealing to make them dislike you,” Haden said. “You have to be contrite. We did some things wrong here. We know that now. But we’re going to do the best job we can.”

Sitting in the Varsity Lounge at Heritage Hall, Haden answered every question with the enthusiasm of Pete Carroll and the thoughtfulness of a professor, which makes sense for the Rhodes Scholar who graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

“We’re going to do better,” Haden said. “We have to do better. We don’t have any choices here. We stub our toe, we got even more problems. I’m going to try not to stub my toe or our toes, but I read the report and there are influences out there that weren’t there 100 years ago when I was playing.”

This was never a job Haden wanted, even though he was always at the top of the wish list for most donors, trustees and boosters. When Nikias first approached Haden about the job six weeks ago, Haden said he wasn’t interested and turned down the job a second time three weeks ago when Nikias called him again. Haden, however, reconsidered after talking to his wife of 34 years, Cindy, who thought Haden, a partner in the private investment firm of Riordan, Lewis & Haden, needed a new challenge in his life. He couldn’t have picked a bigger challenge than taking over a USC athletic program entering four years of probation.

“I’m not going to wake every day and say, ‘Woe is us.’ I’m going to have a blast every day and try to get better,” he said. “I’m going to cross off that calendar until June 14, 2014 [when USC’s probation ends]; it’s just right around the corner.”

While Haden may be more energetic and accessible than his predecessor, he’ll be the first to admit things won’t always go smoothly. In fact, he guaranteed there would be bumps in the road as he eases into a role he has never had before. The difference is he won’t refuse to answer questions and hide behind an in-house video camera when things don’t go his way, as Garrett routinely did.

“We’re going to make some mistakes, and I’m going to make some stupid decisions, and people are going to criticize me, and I’ve warned my family about that,” he said. “But I told my family I played [for] the L.A. Rams and I got booed by hundreds of thousands of people. I can take it. When we do something wrong, we’re going to fess up, take the high road and do the best we can.”

As simple as it sounds, if many involved in the investigation had simply done that a long time ago, the face of the USC athletic department and the lobby of Heritage Hall would look drastically different than it will next month.

LOS ANGELES (AP)—The NCAA threw the book at storied Southern California on Thursday with a two-year bowl ban, four years’ probation, loss of scholarships and forfeits of an entire year’s games for improper benefits to Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush dating to the Trojans’ 2004 national championship.

USC was penalized for a lack of institutional control in the ruling by the NCAA following its four-year investigation. The report cited numerous improper benefits for Bush and former basketball player O.J. Mayo, who spent just one year with the Trojans.

The coaches who presided over the alleged misdeeds were football’s Pete Carroll and basketball’s Tim Floyd both leaving USC in the past year.

“I’m absolutely shocked and disappointed in the findings of the NCAA,” Carroll said in a video statement produced by the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, who hired him in January. “I never thought it would come to this. ... I’m extremely disappointed that we have to deal with this right now.”

The penalties include the loss of 30 football scholarships over three years and vacating 14 victories in which Bush played from December 2004 through the 2005 season. USC beat Oklahoma in the BCS title game on Jan. 4, 2005, and won 12 games during Bush’s Heisman-winning 2005 season, which ended with a loss to Texas in the 2006 BCS title game.

Bill Hancock, the executive director of the BCS, said a committee will meet to consider vacating USC’s 2004 championship. While no action would go into effect until USC’s appeals are heard by the NCAA, Hancock said there would be no 2004 champion if USC’s victory is vacated.

The NCAA says Bush received lavish gifts from two fledgling sports marketers hoping to sign him. The men paid for everything from hotel stays and a rent-free home where Bush’s family apparently lived to a limousine and a new suit when he accepted his Heisman in New York in December 2005.

The rulings are a sharp repudiation of the Trojans’ decade of stunning football success under Carroll, who won seven straight Pac-10 titles and two national championships before abruptly returning to the NFL. Floyd resigned last June, shortly after he was accused of giving cash to a middleman who helped steer Mayo to USC.

The NCAA found that Bush, identified as a “former football student-athlete,” was ineligible beginning at least by December 2004, a ruling that could open discussion of the revocation of the New Orleans Saints star’s Heisman. Members of the Heisman Trust have said they might review Bush’s award if he were ruled ineligible by the NCAA.

“I have a great love for the University of Southern California, and I very much regret the turn that this matter has taken, not only for USC, but for the fans and players,” Bush said in a statement.

“I am disappointed by (Thursday’s) decision and disagree with the NCAA’s findings. If the University decides to appeal, I will continue to cooperate with the NCAA and USC, as I did during the investigation. In the meantime, I will continue to focus on making a positive impact for the University and for the community where I live.”

USC plans to appeal some of the penalties it believes are excessive.

“There is a systemic problem facing college athletes today: unscrupulous sports agents and sports marketers,” Todd Dickey, USC’s senior vice president for administration, said in a statement. “The question is how do we identify them and keep them away from our student-athletes?”

The NCAA took no further action against the men’s basketball team, which had already banned itself from postseason play last spring and vacated its wins from Mayo’s season.

The women’s tennis team also was cited in the report for unauthorized phone calls made by a former player, but the NCAA accepted USC’s earlier elimination of its wins between November 2006 and May 2009.

“The general campus environment surrounding the violations troubled the committee,” the report said.

The report also condemned the star treatment afforded to Bush and Mayo, saying USC’s oversight of its top athletes ran contrary to the fundamental principles of amateur sports.

“Elite athletes in high profile sports with obvious great future earnings potential may see themselves as something apart from other student-athletes and the general student population,” the NCAA report said. “Institutions need to assure that their treatment on campus does not feed into such a perception.”

USC’s saga reached its climax on a tumultuous day in college athletics, when Colorado’s defection to the Pac-10 from the Big 12 provided the first steps in what could be a radical nationwide conference realignment threatening to change the nature of amateur sports.

Although the bowl ban is the most damaging to new coach Lane Kiffin, who will have to ratchet up his formidable recruiting skills to tempt players with no hope of postseason play before 2012, USC also will lose 30 scholarships over a three-year period, 10 annually from 2011-13.

“It does stink to possibly not play in a bowl game,” said USC quarterback Matt Barkley, a freshman starter last season. “But at the same time, I came here to get a degree from one of the best universities in the country and to win football games. If we play 13 instead of 14, then we’re going to try to win all 13 of those.”

USC had long been known for its lenient admission policy at football practices, which during Carroll’s tenure were open to almost anybody from movie stars to regular fans.

Although Kiffin tightened the rules shortly after taking over, the NCAA also prohibited all non-university personnel, except media and a few others, from attending practices and camps—or even standing on the sidelines during games, a favorite pastime of Will Ferrell and other wealthy USC alumni.

The Trojans barely avoided further punishment that would have removed one of the sport’s most popular teams from television. The committee discussed a TV ban, but decided the penalties handed down “adequately respond to the nature of violations and the level of institutional responsibility.”

USC is the first Football Bowl Subdivision school to be banned from postseason play since Alabama served a two-year ban ending in 2003. The NCAA issued no bowl bans during the tenure of late president Myles Brand, but the NCAA reportedly regained interest in the punishment over the past year.

The Trojans have been under suspicion for years. The NCAA, the Pac-10 and even the FBI conducted investigations into the Bush family’s business relationships and USC’s responsibility for the culture around its marquee football team.

USC officials including Garrett and Kiffin appeared before the NCAA infractions committee in February to argue the school’s ignorance of Bush’s dealings.

The report also criticized “an assistant football coach” known to be running backs coach Todd McNair, putting him on a one-year “show-cause penalty” prohibiting him from recruiting, among other sanctions.

The NCAA condemned McNair’s professed ignorance of Bush’s dealings with sports marketers Lloyd Lake and Michael Michaels. Each sued Bush in attempts to recoup nearly $300,000 in cash and gifts they say were accepted by Bush’s family during his career with the Trojans while they attempted to sign him as their company’s first client.

The L.A. Times and L.A. Daily News reported that Carroll had resigned as head coach of Southern California on Sunday. And an NFL insider told the AP that Carroll could formally sign a contract with the Seahawks later today.

The deal is “not signed but is very close,” the NFL insider told the AP.

Carroll emerged as the leading contender for the Seattle job after the team fired Jim Mora on Friday. He met with Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke on Sunday.

Multiple outlets, including the Daily News, the Times, NFL.com and ESPN, had earlier reported that Carroll had reached a deal with the Seahawks.

ESPN reported that Carroll had convinced his offensive coordinator at USC, Jeremy Bates, to join him in Seattle. Bates had been a contender for the Bears’ vacant OC position. ESPN also reported that Ken Norton, Carroll’s linebackers coach with the Trojans, will join him in Seattle.

If the deal becomes official, it will be Carroll’s third stint as a head coach in the NFL. He went 33-31 in four seasons with the Jets and Patriots in 1994 (Jets) and 1997-1999 (Patriots).

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -Southern California ended a disappointing season with a bowl win that the Trojans hope will vault them into a more successful 2010.

Matt Barkley threw touchdown passes to Stanley Havili on Southern California’s first two possessions and added a touchdown run in the fourth quarter to help the Trojans beat Boston College 24-13 in the Emerald Bowl on Saturday night.

“It was important to be able to end on that note with that positive attitude knowing we’re capable of winning like that and getting back to playing Trojan football,” Barkley said. “It’s huge for us to be able to go into the offseason like that.”

The victory was far from impressive but it did put a positive ending on the worst season at USC (9-4) since Pete Carroll’s first back in 2001. The Trojans lost three of their final five regular-season games to fall out of the national rankings for the first time since that year.

That left USC in an unfamiliar bowl setting after making it to the Bowl Championship Series the past seven years, including four straight Rose Bowl bids. But the Trojans made the most of it, handing Boston College (8-5) its second straight bowl loss after an eight-year bowl winning streak.

“We needed this ‘W,”’ Havili said. “We’re happy to start next season with a win. We had a great two weeks of practice and it was all a matter of executing. Yeah, we’re used to playing in the Rose Bowl but we’re still motivated to play and to win this game, since this is where we played. We had a great game plan up front. It was a growing season. We had a lot of young guys step up.”

Damian Williams caught 12 passes for 189 yards in what could be his final game for the Trojans, grabbing long passes to set up Havili’s second score and Barkley’s 1-yard sneak that gave USC a 24-13 lead with 11:53 remaining. Williams will decide in the next few days whether to skip his senior season to enter the NFL draft.

The Eagles stayed close with the Trojans for most of the game before Dave Shinskie threw an interception to Shareece Wright early in the fourth quarter. On the next play, Barkley connected on a 48-yard pass to Williams, who made a leaping grab between three defenders. Barkley scored on the next play.

The Trojans won despite playing without leading rusher Joe McKnight, who was not cleared to play as the school investigates whether he violated rules by using an SUV that doesn’t belong to him. McKnight is USC’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 2005, with 1,014 yards on 6.2 yards per carry and eight touchdowns.

USC struggled on the ground without McKnight but was able to move the ball consistently through the air as Barkley often found receivers on slant patterns. Barkley was 27 of 37 for 350 yards in the second 300-yard game of his freshman season. He also threw two interceptions that allowed Boston College to stay close until the fourth quarter.

“We needed to do something good and feel good,” Carroll said. “There was a lot of distraction and a lot of adversity going into this thing, most of it self-inflicted. I’m very happy with the way we turned our focus and the way we accomplished things inside.”

The Trojans got a fast start by scoring touchdowns on their two possessions with passes from Barkley to Havili to go up 14-0. But USC didn’t score again in the half, with Barkley throwing an interception deep in BC territory to end one potential scoring drive.

The Eagles got right back into the game with a 7-yard run by Montel Harris. Steve Aponavicius hit the upright on the extra point attempt, ending a streak of 81 straight makes since late in the 2007 season.

BC got help from a big mistake by USC to get another score late in the half. Michael Morgan was called for pass interference on a third-and-21 toss to Chris Pantale that went only 2 yards. But the infraction gave the Eagles an automatic first down and Shinskie connected with Rich Gunnell on a 61-yard TD pass on the next play to make it 14-13.

Gunnell finished with six catches for 130 yards, breaking Pete Mitchell’s school record for yards receiving with 2,659 in his career.

“Stuff like that doesn’t run through my mind,” Gunnell said. “It would be better if we won the game. Since we didn’t win, I don’t think about that too much.”

The Eagles missed a golden opportunity to score after intercepting Barkley on the first play of the second half to give them the ball at the 9. Harris fumbled a handoff two plays later, costing BC a chance to take its first lead of the game.

Harris finished with 102 yards on 23 carries for his fifth straight 100-yard game, but BC struggled to move the ball in the second half. The Eagles had just 19 yards in the third quarter and never mounted a sustained drive in the second half until the game had been decided.

“We certainly felt going in that we could win,” coach Frank Spaziani said. “We knew how we had to play. We made too many mistakes. It’s frustrating.”

A USC season that went south in the second half will conclude with a bowl game up north.

The Trojans will play Boston College in the Emerald Bowl on Dec. 26 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, it was announced Sunday.

Kickoff is at 5 p.m., and the game will be televised by ESPN.

Both USC and Boston College are 8-4.

The Trojans are playing a postseason game somewhere other than the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 2004 season.

“I think it’s a good matchup with Boston College, a good chance to get a new setting for us,” said Coach Pete Carroll, who was born in San Francisco and grew up in Marin County. “It’s going home for me.”

USC lost out on a Holiday Bowl bid by losing to Arizona in its regular-season finale. The Trojans finished 5-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference and 24th in the Bowl Championship Series standings.

On Sunday, they tumbled out of the Associated Press top-25 media poll, where they had been a fixture since the start of the 2002 season.

“We’re going into this with an opportunity to get a couple more weeks of practice,” Carroll said.

With final exams coming up and the game less than three weeks away, however, USC will not use the maximum 15 workouts allowed under NCAA rules.

Senior safety Taylor Mays said after the Arizona loss that the Trojans would be motivated for a bowl game despite a season that fell well below expectations.

“We like playing football,” he said. “We get excited for practice, so playing in a game obviously will be exciting for us. It’s not going to matter.”

Senior cornerback Kevin Thomas agreed.

“It’s not going to be tough to get up for the bowl game because it’s one more chance to play together and play well,” he said.

USC is 6-2 in bowl games under Carroll. With the exception of the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl against Utah, the Trojans have mostly played well in the postseason. USC defeated Iowa in the Orange Bowl and beat Michigan, Illinois and Penn State in the Rose Bowl. USC routed Oklahoma in the 2005 BCS title game in Florida and came up short against Texas in the 2006 championship game at the Rose Bowl.

Boston College, under first-year Coach Frank Spaziani, finished 5-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The Eagles feature running back Montel Harris, who has rushed for 1,355 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Quarterback Dave Shinskie, who played minor league baseball for six seasons, has completed 53% of his passes. Shinskie has passed for 14 touchdowns, with 13 interceptions.

Linebacker Luke Kuechly averages 11.8 tackles a game.

USC and Boston College shared only one common opponent this season: Notre Dame.

The Trojans defeated the Fighting Irish, 34-27, on Oct. 17 at South Bend, Ind. The next week, Boston College lost at Notre Dame, 20-16.

The Eagles’ other defeats were at Clemson and Virginia Tech and at home against North Carolina.

USC has played Boston College twice, winning, 23-17, in 1987 and, 34-7, in 1988. The schools are scheduled to have a home-and-home series in 2013 and 2014.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -Juron Criner stumbled into the end zone with a 36-yard touchdown pass from Nick Foles with 3:14 to play, and Arizona wrapped up its best regular season in a decade Saturday with a 21-17 victory over not-so-mighty Southern California.

Foles passed for 239 yards and two TDs and ran for another score for the Wildcats (8-4, 6-3 Pac-10), who finally beat No. 20 USC for the first time in coach Mike Stoops’ tenure by scoring the final touchdown in a defense-dominated game.

After Jordan Congdon made a 37-yard field goal with 7:13 left to put the Trojans (8-4, 5-4) ahead, Arizona converted three straight third downs on the decisive drive. Criner then caught a long fade pass and fought through a tackle into the end zone, silencing the nearly half-empty Coliseum crowd watching USC’s second home loss in three games.

The Trojans were 47-1 at the Coliseum before last month’s loss to Stanford, but their second home defeat finished off the most embarrassing season of coach Pete Carroll’s remarkable tenure.

Arizona secured a share of second place in the Pac-10 with its first eight-win regular season since 1998 by knocking off a ranked team for the sixth straight season under Stoops, who has finally beaten every team in the conference.

Foles struggled in a 22-of-40 performance, but made several big throws – including an early TD pass to Delashaun Dean set up by an interception – while the Wildcats played again without leading rusher Nic Grigsby, who has a sprained shoulder.

Not even Senior Day could coax any consistency out of the dismal USC offense led by Matt Barkley, who went 20 of 37 for 144 yards with the 12th interception of his rocky freshman season. Allen Bradford rushed for 66 yards and a tying touchdown late in the third quarter, and Ronald Johnson caught a TD pass.

After beginning the season in search of their eighth straight Pac-10 title and BCS bowl berth, the Trojans are likely to finish in sixth place. A victory over Arizona likely would have put them in the Holiday Bowl, but now they could be headed for a more humbling trip to San Diego for the Poinsettia Bowl.

USC couldn’t get a first down on its ensuing drive after Criner’s catch, with Barkley throwing three straight incompletions – including a fourth-down throw over the head of Damian Williams, who was open down the middle. USC got the ball back with seven seconds left, but Barkley was sacked by Earl Mitchell.

Both teams already played their traditional season-ending rivalry games last week, with USC beating UCLA 28-7 and Arizona holding off Arizona State 20-17.

With USC wrapping up its least successful season since 2001, the Coliseum had tens of thousands of empty seats under appropriately cloudy skies. The Trojans were mostly lifeless early, trailing 14-7 at halftime and managing just 120 yards of offense in the first half.

Joe McKnight managed just 35 yards while playing with a bruised thigh, but still became the Trojans’ first 1,000-yard rusher since 2005 with a short rush in the fourth quarter.

Stafon Johnson, the USC tailback who nearly died in a weightlifting accident that ended his season in September, was the last of USC’s seniors to take the field in pregame introductions. Johnson, who wore his jersey and a stocking cap as he posed for pictures with his mother and teammates, still hasn’t decided whether he’ll attempt to return for another season.