watch USC win a 12th Football National Championship

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP)—USC is back in the defense business.

Will Harris returned an interception 55 yards for a touchdown-one of four turnovers forced by the Trojans-and No. 12 USC held on for a shaky 14-9 victory over Arizona State on Saturday night.

A week ago, the Trojans’ once-proud defense conceded 47 points to Oregon in the worst loss in the Carroll era. The defense regrouped against an ASU team with relatively little firepower.

“That last game against Oregon, it made us realize that we’ve got to come back and do things right, and that’s what we did,” said Harris, who also picked off a desperation pass in the end zone as time expired.

USC hadn’t lost back-to-back games since a four-game skid in Carroll’s first year, 2001.

Thanks to the defense, it still hasn’t.

With nine penalties for 98 yards, USC did all it could to keep ASU in the game. But the Trojans (7-2, 4-2 Pac-10) survived and stayed in the hunt for an eighth straight Bowl Championship Series berth.

“We were determined to win the football game from start to finish, and do stuff that it took to win,” Carroll said. “On this night, it took a great defensive effort.”

Matt Barkley threw a 75-yard pass to Damian Williams for what turned out to be the decisive score, but Barkley also put his team in a tight spot with his lone interception, in the fourth quarter. He completed 7 of 22 passes for 112 yards and a touchdown.

With USC’s offense sputtering behind Barkley, the Trojans turned to a unit that seemed helpless in a 47-20 loss at Eugene one week earlier.

“To get back on track defensively is really obviously important to us,” Carroll said. “It’s such a good night to get four turnovers.”

The defense responded as USC defeated ASU (4-5, 2-4) for the 10th straight time. But early on it looked like a rerun of the Oregon debacle.

On the opening possession, the Trojans let the punchless Sun Devils march to the USC 13-yard line before freshman tailback Cameron Marshall fumbled on a hit by Christian Tupou. USC cornerback Josh Pinkard recovered.

ASU threatened again late in the second quarter but had to settle for a 21-yard field goal by Thomas Weber.

Then USC’s defense turned in the pivotal play.

Harris picked off a Danny Sullivan pass along the left sideline and romped 55 yards for a touchdown. Harris said he could tell by ASU’s formation that a quick pass was coming.

“I hopped it,” he said.

ASU coach Dennis Erickson was still fuming about the play after the game.

“To throw the pick six is … ridiculous,” Erickson said.

Harris was also flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct for high-stepping into the end zone.

USC made it 14-3 on an electrifying play early in the second half.

On second and nine at the USC 25, Barkley dumped the ball to Williams in the right flat. Williams waited for his blockers, then cut back across the field and streaked toward the goalline.

ASU cornerback Terell Carr pushed Williams out of bounds as he stretched the football toward the pylon. The officials ruled Williams out at the 2, but USC was awarded a touchdown on review.

That put the Trojans ahead 14-3.

At that point, Erickson pulled Sullivan and brought in 6-foot-8 freshman Brock Osweiler, bringing cheers from the crowd. Sullivan was 12 of 23 for 113 yards, and he threw two interceptions.

This was the change many ASU fans had demanded for weeks. It took three possessions for the Sun Devils to respond.

Osweiler led ASU 80 yards in eight plays, completing all three of his passes for 65 yards. Osweiler kept the drive alive by stiff-arming a tackler and picking up six yards on a bootleg on third-and-3.

Then he found a wide-open Chris McGaha for a 23-yard touchdown in the final minute of the third quarter. USC led 14-9 after Pinkard blocked the point-after try.

Osweiler went 11 for 27 for 153 yards and a score, and he was intercepted once.

“There was opportunities for myself to make plays,” Osweiler said. “I didn’t get the job done.”

ASU fell to 3-28 against the Top 25 since 2000—and 1-7 under Erickson.

With USC clinging to a five-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, USC came up with another big stop.

The Sun Devils took over at USC’s 36 after a fluke interception by ASU’s Clint Floyd. Barkley threw into traffic, and ASU’s Mike Nixon deflected the pass.

The ball caromed to USC’s Brice Butler, who juggled the ball as he collided with a teammate. The ball popped loose, and ASU’s Terell Carr kicked it a foot or so off the turf before Floyd finally latched onto it.

USC dodged that bullet, thanks to an offensive holding call and three misses by Osweiler. who was under heavy pressure.

ASU had one last shot at the upset, taking over at its 22 with 1:56 to play and no timeouts. The Sun Devils reached the USC 45 with 7 seconds left, but Harris picked off Osweiler’s pass into the end zone as time expired.

“I hope we can capitalize on this and keep moving forward,” Carroll said.

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -Jeremiah Masoli threw for 222 yards and a touchdown and ran for 164 more yards with another score and the No. 10 Oregon Ducks ran past No. 4 USC 47-20 for the Trojans’ worst loss since 1997.

Redshirt freshman LaMichael James ran for 184 yards and a score as the Ducks (7-1, 5-0 Pacific-10) racked up 391 yards on the ground against the Trojans, who came into the game with the fifth-best rush defense in the nation, allowing an average of just 79.9 yards a game.

Southern California (6-2, 3-2) had not lost a game by more than a touchdown since a 27-16 loss to Notre Dame in 2001, Pete Carroll’s first season as Trojans coach. It was USC’s worst lost since a 35-7 defeat to Arizona State on Oct. 11, 1997 and the most points allowed by the Trojans in Carroll’s tenure.

Oregon remained alone in first and undefeated in the Pac-10, threatening USC’s hold on the league championship for the past seven years.

USC freshman quarterback Matt Barkley, who earlier this week predicted he would feed off Autzen’s deafening noise, completed 21 of 38 passes for 187 yards and two scores. He was intercepted once.

Masoli completed 19 of 31 for Oregon, which had never before scored as many points against the Trojans.

USC went up 3-0 on the its first series of the game on Jordan Congdon’s 28-yard field goal. Oregon answered with Morgan Flint’s 32-yarder, but the Ducks had squandered their opportunity after Kenjon Barner’s 77-yard kickoff return.

Masoli scored on a 3-yard run to put the Ducks up 10-3 late in the first quarter. USC tied it with Barkley’s 3-yard pass to Ronald Johnson early in the second.

Oregon went ahead again on Andre Crenshaw’s 1-yard scoring run. And USC tied it again at 17 on Barkley’s 4-yard pass to Damian Williams.

Masoli found Jamere Holland with a 17-yard touchdown pass to put the Ducks back up 24-17 at the half.

After Oregon extended the lead with Flint’s 35-yard field goal, USC narrowed it with Congdon’s 39-yarder.

James scored on a 5-yard run and fellow redshirt freshman Kenjon Barner ran for a 3-yard touchdown to make it 41-20 at the close of the third quarter.

Flint had a pair of field goals from 22 and 23 yards out to pad Oregon’s lead in the fourth quarter.

The Trojans have lost four straight in the state of Oregon.

LOS ANGELES—Most of Oregon State’s punt-coverage team was to his left, so Damian Williams went right. When he dodged the final tackler and slipped into the end zone early in the fourth quarter, he thought Southern California finally had shaken the Beavers as well.

“And then they went down and scored again like it was nothing,” Williams recalled. “I said, ‘I guess it’s still going to be a fight here.’”

The Trojans (No. 7 BCS, No. 4 AP) won that fight with one final drive by their revitalized offense, which relished a rare chance to bail out their usually formidable defense in a 42-36 victory Saturday night.

Allen Bradford rushed for a career-high 147 yards and two touchdowns as USC avenged its only loss of last season—a 27-21 defeat last September that prevented the Trojans (6-1, 3-1 Pac-10) from playing for the national title.

USC’s defense looked nowhere near title shape against Sean Canfield, Jacquizz Rodgers and the Beavers (4-3, 2-2), who shredded it for 482 total yards—including James Rodgers’ 7-yard TD catch less than two minutes after Williams’ 63-yard punt return put the Trojans up 42-23.

Jacquizz Rodgers’ 1-yard TD plunge with 5:41 to play cut USC’s lead to 42-36, but the Trojans converted two third downs while running out the clock, with Bradford picking up one with a stiff-arm in the final minute.

“It was the moment you dream about,” said Bradford, who has spent most of his USC career stuck behind Chauncey Washington and Joe McKnight, who missed much of this game with injured hands. “We knew we had to keep scoring and being consistent to beat these guys. It’s good to pick up the defense, because they’ve been picking us up all year.”

Canfield passed for 329 yards and a career-best three touchdowns for the Beavers, while Jacquizz Rodgers rushed for 113 yards and a score and also caught a TD pass on an injured ankle. Jacquizz Rodgers was the star of Oregon State’s win over then-No. 1 USC last season, but the Trojans still haven’t lost consecutive games to the same opponent since 2002, in the second year of coach Pete Carroll’s tenure.

“I’m very proud of our team for their fight,” said Oregon State coach Mike Riley, whose team hit season highs of nine penalties for 85 yards. “We will regret many opportunities. There’s a million things. I just don’t want to sell our team short. ... Nobody blinked. Everybody stayed in it and made plays, and I do love that about our team.”

Although the Trojans never trailed, they never got comfortable. Matt Barkley rushed for a score and passed for 202 yards with two TDs and two interceptions in another inconsistent freshman performance. Bradford’s breakout game included a 43-yard scoring run late in the third quarter.

“This was a different game than we hoped to have,” Carroll said. “We were scrambling, trying to slow them down. Our offense just carried us, which I love. You saw the way we ran out the clock?”

Ronald Johnson caught six passes for 99 yards, including a full-stretch dive for a 22-yard TD, in his second game back from a broken collarbone. Anthony McCoy had an early TD catch before spraining his ankle.

Jacquizz Rodgers, who had 186 yards and two scores last year against USC, talked trash to the Trojans defense from the opening snap, but sat out the second quarter with an injured right ankle. He briefly went to the locker room before returning to the sideline and starting the second half.

His older brother, James, had seven catches for 56 yards and a score while playing on a bruised knee.

“Both were a little banged up, but those guys give it all for the Beavers,” Canfield said. “We were really confident with what was in the game plan. In the second half, we really got it going and hit the things we liked on film.”

But James also was responsible for losing Oregon State’s first fumble of the season in the first quarter when Josh Pinkard alertly stripped him to set up the Trojans’ first score. The Beavers had won their last seven games after byes, but they haven’t won in Los Angeles since 1960.

Joe Halahuni had career highs of nine catches for 127 yards, and Justin Kahut kicked three first-half field goals for Oregon State, but also missed a 22-yard attempt.

“It’s a little disappointing, and there are some things we’re going to have to look at,” USC linebacker Chris Galippo said. “Really, it was just a bunch of little rinky-dink things.”

Stafon Johnson, the USC tailback whose throat was crushed in a weightlifting accident last month, made an emotional return to the Coliseum in the Trojans’ pregame meeting before watching the game from the press box. Johnson is recovering swiftly from the near-fatal injury, but isn’t expected to play again this season.

Johnson got a standing ovation when he appeared on the Coliseum scoreboard between the first two quarters.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – Jimmy Clausen threw three incomplete passes into the end zone in the closing seconds as No. 6 Southern California held on for a 34-27 victory and its eighth straight win against No. 25 Notre Dame on Saturday.

Notre Dame’s streak of last-minute victories ended at three, but the Fighting Irish (4-2) at least showed they could compete with their longtime rivals this season.

USC had dominated Notre Dame and coach Charlie Weis the past three seasons and led 34-14 in the fourth quarter Saturday. The Fighting Irish seemed on their way to the type of lopsided loss that would have their supporters grumbling about Weis again.

Instead, Clausen and the Irish rallied back, but couldn’t score into the same end zone where the Trojans (5-1) famously scored four years ago on the Bush Push, which gave Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and USC a 34-31 victory in Weis’ first season.

On Clausen’s first pass into the end zone, Kyle Rudolph made juggling catch but was out of bounds. The second was knocked down by Josh Pinkard and the Trojans started celebrating thinking the game was over.

Clausen and USC quarterback Matt Barkley, pals from southern California, even exchanged what they thought was a post-game handshake.

But the officials ruled there was 1 second left. Clausen fired to Duval Kamara, who slipped and couldn’t get a hand on it.

Barkley was 19 for 29 for 380 yards and two touchdowns to Damian Williams.

The Trojans appeared to be on the verge of blowing the game open when Joe McKnight dove in for a TD early in the fourth quarter.

But the Irish closed to 34-27 midway through the fourth quarter on a 2-yard TD run by Clausen and a 15-yard TD pass from Clausen to Golden Tate after an interception by Irish cornerback Gary Gray.

Clausen was 24-of-43 passes for 260 yards and two touchdown passes while facing a strong USC pass rush. He threw the ball away five times and was sacked five times. And in the end, he gave Notre Dame a chance, which is far more than the Irish have had in recent years against Pete Carroll’s mighty Trojans. In the previous three meetings, USC outscored Notre Dame 120-27.

Tate had eight catches for 117 yards. The Irish also got a 25-yard completion on a faked field goal attempt by holder Eric Maust that set up another touchdown.

The Irish were aided in their final drive by a couple of penalties by USC. Robby Parris caught a 13-yard pass on fourth down to the USC 16, but All-American Taylor Mays was called for a personal foul on the hit to Parris. That got the ball to the 8. Then Malik Jackson was called two plays later for roughing the passer, placing the ball on the 4.

But the Irish couldn’t get the game to overtime and USC celebrated its 10th straight win against a ranked opponent. The Irish lost their seventh straight to a top-10 team, matching the longest streak in school history set from 1984-1986.

Barkley wasn’t at his sharpest early, frequently keeping his receivers waiting for passes, in the first half. But after throwing an incomplete pass on his first attempt of the second half, he completed his next eight passes for 195 yards to help the Trojans take a 27-14 lead. That included a 41-yard TD pass to Damian Williams and a 60-yard pass to Anthony McCoy that set up a 3-yard Allen Bradford run.

In USC’s 38-3 victory in Los Angeles last November, the Irish didn’t get a first down until the final play of the third quarter and finished with 41 yards passing and 50 yards rushing. On Saturday, the Irish got a first down on their second play when receiver John Goodman ran for 13 yards out of the wildcat and had 72 yards passing and 49 yards rushing in the first half.

The Irish had five first downs in the first quarter, one more than they had the entire game last year.

BERKELEY, Calif. —With every punishing run, defensive stop or other big play in Southern California’s latest dominating victory, the Trojans sent a message back home to Stafon Johnson on his hospital bed.

“We were talking about him, before and after. He was a big motivator for us, and we might go see him later tonight, I’m not sure,” freshman quarterback Matt Barkley said. “Stafon knew we were on a mission tonight. I’m proud of our guys and how we played.”

Joe McKnight ran for 119 yards and two scores, Taylor Mays and the defense shut down Jahvid Best and No. 7 USC re-established itself as a national contender with a 30-3 victory over No. 24 California on Saturday night.

The win capped an emotional week for the Trojans (4-1, 2-1 Pac-10) that started with a frightening weight-room accident that sent Johnson to the emergency room with a crushed larynx and throat after a weight bar fell on his neck. With Johnson watching from his hospital room, his teammates delivered against Cal.

“Stafon is a leader and a big brother in the [locker] room, so I wanted to come out and win the game for him,” McKnight said. “We were thinking about him the whole time tonight, and we know he was liking what he saw back home.”

Damian Williams caught eight passes for 101 yards and also returned a punt 66 yards for a score, and Jordan Congdon kicked three field goals to give USC its second straight win following a 16-13 loss at Washington two weeks ago.

Mays set the tone with an interception on the first drive of the game for Cal (3-2, 0-2), and the defense kept it up all game, not allowing a point until the fourth quarter for the second straight week.

“That’s how we play,” Mays said. “We know what we have in the locker room, and we’ve been playing close to our potential for the last few weeks.”

With the defense playing this well, the Trojans are making it easy on freshman quarterback Matt Barkley. Barkley was inconsistent in this game, completing 20 of 35 passes for 283 yards and an interception. He moved the ball down the field with ease but struggled to punch the ball into the end zone.

“If our defense is playing like that, then we don’t need a whole lot of offense,” Barkley said. “I thought we executed well when we had to.”

The Trojans had the answer for whatever trick Cal coach Jeff Tedford tried. Best had five runs off direct snaps in Cal’s version of the wildcat and the Bears went for it twice on fourth down. But with a passing game that can’t click, there is no room to run for Best and no production for a Cal team that was held out of the end zone at home for the first time since 1998.

“We had a chance to make plays in the passing game and didn’t do a good job of it,” Tedford said. “We can’t be one-dimensional. We’re going to have to be able to throw the football to be successful. We were zero-dimensional today because we couldn’t run it and we couldn’t throw it.”

Even trick plays didn’t work. In the third quarter, Cal came out of a timeout with Shane Vereen standing next to its sideline, just on the field of play. With no defender near him, Vereen went out for a pass, but instead of a big play, Kevin Riley threw high for an incompletion. The next play was a screen pass that left tackle Mike Tepper caught for an illegal touch penalty.

That was the kind of day it was for Riley, who was 15 for 40 for 199 yards and an interception in his second straight sub-par performance. He was just 12 for 31 for 123 yards in last week’s 42-3 loss at Oregon.

Riley’s interception in the end zone on the opening drive was his first of the year. Six plays later, McKnight dived into the end zone at the end of his long run. Williams’ 66-yard punt return made it 17-0 in the second quarter and the rout was on. Williams caught eight passes for 101 yards.

After scoring 146 points in its first three games, Cal has just six the past two weeks. Cal has failed to score a touchdown just three times in eight years under Tedford, with two of them coming the past two weeks. The other was against USC in 2007, the last time Cal lost at home before Saturday.

“We have athletes all over the field. That’s the hardest part is how we’re not getting the ball in the end zone with everyone we have,” Riley said.

Even the speedy Best couldn’t get going against the Trojans. On one play in the first half, he was chased down by Mays for no gain on a third-and-2 run.

LOS ANGELES—The first time Matt Barkley wound up and really let loose with a throw, the Southern California freshman felt sharp pain in his bruised right shoulder.

Just not enough pain to stop him from leading the 12th-ranked Trojans to a bounce-back victory.

“When I had to gun it, I did,” Barkley said. “It hurt, but whatever. It’s football.”

Barkley threw two long touchdown passes in 9 seconds during the first quarter on the way to 247 yards passing, and USC rebounded from its latest upset loss with a 27-6 win over Washington State on Saturday night.

Joe McKnight and Stafon Johnson rushed for scores for the Trojans (3-1, 1-1 Pac-10), whose national title hopes were seriously dampened by last week’s 16-13 loss at Washington. USC’s offense still showed many of the problems exposed last week in Seattle, even with Barkley’s return from an injury that isn’t fully healed.

“I knew I was going to play through whatever pain there was,” Barkley said. “It felt good enough to get the job done. I felt a little limited in my arm strength, but I tried to gun it in when I needed to.”

The Trojans’ formidable defense had what coach Pete Carroll described as “an easy game.” USC made eight sacks, forced three turnovers in the second half and held the rebuilding Cougars (1-3, 0-2) scoreless until Dwight Tardy’s TD run with 22 seconds left.

Even the USC defense was paying attention to Barkley, who led the game-winning drive against Ohio State two weeks ago before missing last week’s loss.

“With a young quarterback in Matt, we’ve got to give him as many chances as we can,” linebacker Chris Galippo said. “When you’re shutting them out and putting all that pressure on the quarterback, we’re accomplishing a lot of our goals.”

Barkley was healthy enough in his third career start, going 13 for 22 with a handful of sharp downfield throws to Damian Williams, who had five catches for 100 yards, including a 57-yard score.

USC scored three touchdowns in the first 12 minutes, with Barkley throwing a 29-yard TD pass to Brice Butler and his throw to Williams on consecutive plays. Kicker Jacob Harfman adroitly recovered his own onside kick in between.

But in its seventh straight loss to USC, Washington State suffered nothing close to the embarrassment of last season’s 69-0 loss to the Trojans. The Cougars defense twice stopped the USC offense on fourth down near the goal line in the second half, preventing a blowout – and what’s more, USC racked up 13 penalties for 115 yards.

“It’s good to win, but we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Carroll said. “It was just not the satisfying kind of win that we like to have. We had so many situations where we made it so hard on ourselves.”

Freshman quarterback Jeff Tuel took over for Marshall Lobbestael in the second quarter and immediately led a 19-play drive for the Cougars, who dropped to 3-14 in coach Paul Wulff’s second season. Tuel got all but 5 of his 130 yards passing in the fourth quarter, when he led a 13-play scoring drive.

“It was an amazing experience, and it meant the world to me to have my teammates getting my back like they did,” Tuel said. “I’ll learn from everything tonight.”

USC’s trip to Berkeley next week lost much of its luster with No. 6 California’s loss at Oregon, but now the Trojans and Golden Bears will be playing to avoid near-elimination from the conference title race.

McKnight finished a three-play drive by scoring just 2:36 into the first quarter, in which USC outgained Washington State 195-13.

Early in USC’s third drive, Barkley threw a beautiful fade to Butler, his talented fellow freshman. Congdon then pooched his kick and fell on it before the Cougars knew what happened, and Barkley promptly hooked up with Williams over the middle for a rambling score.

Barkley even took a mean hit while releasing the ball, but pointed his hands skyward in excitement while flat on his back.

“We can play well sometimes, but we need to sustain it,” said All-American safety Taylor Mays, who also returned from injury. “We need to keep putting it on teams, and instead we struggled. Maybe we’re still getting better. We don’t want to peak yet. We want to keep getting better.”

Tuel, a Fresno high school product, nearly redshirted this season before the coaching staff became impressed with how quickly he picked up their offense. The mobile freshman replaced the 2-for-9 Lobbestael, who himself took over for Kevin Lopina last week, and immediately led the Cougars on a clock-consuming 58-yard drive over the final 8:35 of the first half.

But Nico Grasu missed a 34-yard field goal at the halftime whistle, visibly deflating the Cougars.

“It’s difficult, but that’s what a team is,” freshman defensive lineman Travis Long said. “If the offense struggles, the defense steps it up.”

USC has won 11 straight at the Coliseum.

SEATTLE (AP) – Southern California was leveled by another post-Ohio State funk, taken down by upstart Washington with a late drive that must have looked familiar to the Trojans.

Erik Folk kicked a 22-yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining and the Huskies’ fired-up defense stymied fill-in quarterback Aaron Corp and No. 3 USC in a 16-13 victory Saturday.

Trojans quarterback Matt Barkley, who directed an epic game-winning drive to beat the Buckeyes 18-15 in Columbus, Ohio, last week, could only watch the latest stunning upset loss by the Trojans from the sideline. The 19-year-old freshman was out with a sore shoulder.

It was Washington quarterback Jake Locker’s time to shine and the Huskies’ turn pull out a win that will stand among the most memorable in the once-proud program’s history.

USC (2-1, 0-1) was nearly a three-touchdown favorite against. Washington (2-1, 1-0) came in riding a Pac-10 record 15-game conference losing streak.

But again the Trojans were toppled by a team that seemed to be no match for all their blue chip recruits and future NFL draft picks. USC has now lost to an unranked team each of the last four seasons.

Last season, it was Oregon State on the road the week after beating Ohio State, a loss that ultimately kept the Trojans from playing for the national title.

The year before that it was Stanford and the year before that it was UCLA when USC had a chance to play for the national title.

This time it was an old friend upsetting Pete Carroll’s squad. Washington coach Steve Sarkisian was Carroll’s offensive coordinator before taking over in Seattle this season, trying to rebuild a team that went winless last year.

“Our kids played very hard. I don’t know if we played very good, but we played hard,” Sarkisian said. “It’s unbelievable. It’s what we were hoping for. We’re trying hard.”

Corp, a sophomore making his first career start, was 13 for 22 for 110 yards with one interception. USC (2-1, 0-1) was held to its lowest point total since a 13-9 loss to UCLA on Dec. 2, 2006.

The Trojans were also without All-American safety Taylor Mays, who missed his first career game because of the right knee ligament he sprained against the Buckeyes.

Joe McKnight, who finished with 100 yards on 11 carries with a touchdown, took off on a 34-yard run – and split end David Ausberry recovered his fumble at the end of the sprint – to get USC to the Huskies 22 while down 13-10 with 6 minutes left. But Donald Butler, who was all over the field for Washington, stopped Stafon Johnson on third-and-6. That forced the Trojans to settle for a 25-yard field goal from Jordan Congdon that tied it at 13 with 4 minutes remaining.

The USC offensive players angrily yanked their chin straps for not taking the lead after that series.

Locker, who came to Washington three seasons a much-hyped freshman much like Barkley, made the Trojans pay.

Washington faced a third-and-15 with 3:03 left, but Locker connected with Jermaine Kearse for 21 yards. Locker then rolled out for 4 yards to convert another third down to the USC 39 with a minute left.

Locker then avoided a rush, and fired 19 yards to Kearse, to the USC 16. Locker and Kearse shared a leaping chest bump, old Husky Stadium swayed, and a roughing-the-passer penalty put the Huskies at the 8 with 33 seconds left.

One running play later, Washington called time out with 7 seconds left to put Folk in position. The sophomore from Woodland Hills, Calif., nailed it down the middle – and the Huskies’ bench erupted in a scene that instantly erased years of futility.

USC tried multiple laterals on the final play, the kickoff, but couldn’t get out of its own end. Kick returner Johnson was face down in the middle of the turf as jubilant Washington players and fans swarmed out of the stands to celebrate their Huskies’ first win over USC since 2001, Carroll’s first season with the Trojans.

A purple party followed on the field, stretching from goal line to goal line. Carroll was forced to watch it all – glumly waiting for Sarkisian to make his way through the throng to congratulate his protege.

Washington beat a ranked team from a BCS conference for the first time since the end of the 2003 season, when it toppled Washington State in the Apple Cup.

USC gave away two chances to take the lead in the third quarter. Washington’s Donald Butler forced Stanley Havili to fumble on a reception, and Nate Williams recovered for the Huskies at the Washington 16.

On USC’s next drive, Corp stared down Ausberry over the middle before Butler bolted in for an interception at the Huskies 23.

After gaining 223 yards in the first half, USC had just 80 in its first three drives after halftime against a defense that allowed 412 yards last week while beating Idaho – and one of which its own coordinator, former Trojans defensive coordinator Nick Holt, said this week: “There are deficiencies there with personnel.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two games into his college football career, 19-year-old quarterback Matt Barkley already has a place in Southern California lore.

Three seasons into his USC career, Joe McKnight (FSY) can now claim a spot with the great runners at Tailback U.

The freshman phenom and the shifty tailback made big play after big play, and Stafon Johnson (FSY) capped one of the great drives in USC’s storied history with a 2-yard touchdown run with 1:05 left to give the third-ranked Trojans an 18-15 victory against No. 8 Ohio State on Saturday night.

“We’re Trojans. That’s what we do,” Barkley said. “This is what we dreamed of, coming back like this.

“Doesn’t matter where we are in the score. We found a way. I love this.”

For the Buckeyes (1-1), it was another big-game disappointment, maybe the toughest one yet. Ohio State has now lost six straight against top-five teams, including two national title games and last season’s 35-3 loss to USC in Los Angeles.

For the Trojans (2-0), it was their 10th straight victory against the Big Ten. None was tougher — and none was likely more satisfying for Pete Carroll’s team.

“I think it’s a beautiful statement for our whole team,” the coach said. “It was really a great job by a lot of guys.”

The official stats will call it a 14-play, 86-yard drive, but it really started with USC at its own 5, facing a second-and-19 with 6:09 left in the game.

Suddenly, an offense stymied and held scoreless all second half by a hard-charging Ohio State defense came alive.

“He was scared, really,” McKnight said with a laugh about his quarterback. “No, he came in with the same composure he had the whole game. He was calm. He made plays.”

So did McKnight.

First he darted for 11 yards. Then it was Barkley to McKnight, who weaved for 21 more on third-and-8.

When Barkley threw a strike over the middle to Anthony McCoy (FSY) for 26 to get USC to the Ohio State 37, the record crowd of more than 106,000 at Ohio Stadium started to grow uneasy.

Barkley converted a fourth-and-short with a sneak. McKnight, so often compared to USC Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, ran three times, showing some power to go with all those moves and got USC inside the 10. Another sneak by Barkley got it to first-and-goal.

Then Johnson swept around right end, going in untouched, pointing toward the USC section as he crossed the goal line. It was the only part of the huge crowd cheering. The rest?

“When we punched it in there it was good to hear the silence,” Barkley said.

Barkley and McKnight hooked up one more time, appropriately, for a 2-point conversion that meant an Ohio State field goal would only force overtime.

But with no timeouts left, Terrelle Pryor (FSY) and the Buckeyes’ offense went nowhere with their last chance.

“You need to score more than five points in the second half, and they came up with plays on that last drive they needed to and so they go home with the spoils,” coach Jim Tressel said.

Just when it looked as if the Buckeyes would shake their big-game bugaboos, they’ll now face more questions about their inability to beat the very best. Just when it looked as if Big Ten pride would be restored — at least a little — the league took another high-profile hit.

“It’s very frustrating, but we knew eventually they’d make plays,” said linebacker Brian Rolle, part of a unit that was stellar for 54 minutes. “The last drive was heartbreaking. Give McKnight lots of credit on that last drive, he was good.

“The last drive was definitely, you go back and you think about, and you think about how close you came to winning.”

McKnight ran for 60 yards and had 45 receiving, modest numbers but most of them came at the most crucial time.

Barkley finished 14 for 31 for 195 yards with an interception. He was sacked twice and took some shots, but just a few days removed from his 19th birthday, he already has a drive that could define his career. Matt Leinart and Carson Palmer couldn’t have done better.

“He’s not 19,” Carroll said. “He’s our quarterback. I’m not worried about how old he is. Numbers mean nothing.”

Pryor made some plays for Ohio State with his arm and his legs, throwing for 177 yards and running for 36 in a game dominated by defense and field position.

“We should have beat them,” Pryor said. “Point blank, we should have beat them.”

Coming off last year’s drubbing by USC, Ohio State couldn’t have come up with a worse way to start the rematch.

Pryor’s short toss over the middle was picked off by Chris Galippo around midfield and he returned it 51 yards to the Ohio State 2. The Trojans needed four downs, but Johnson bulled in for a 1-yard score to make it 7-0 less than four minutes in.

With their fans a bit stunned and probably fearing the worst after so many recent disappointments, the Buckeyes and Pryor responded.

The rangy sophomore hit Dane Sanzenbacher (FSY) streaking down the middle for 56 yards to set up Dan Herron’s 2-yard touchdown run. Midway through the first, it was 7-7 and Ohio State’s crowd was back into it and blaring.

The teams traded field goals in the second quarter, with USC’s Jordan Congdon (FSY) knocking home a 21-yarder on the last play of the half to cap a snappy 2-minute drill by Barkley.

They traded punts and Ohio State won the field position battle and took the lead in the third quarter.

After pinning USC at its own 10, the Buckeyes forced USC to punt from its end zone. That turned into two points for Ohio State when a high snap slipped through the hands of punter Billy O’Malley for a safety with 9:03 left in the third.

Pryor and Ohio State then took advantage of excellent field position after the free kick, and drove to set up a 22-yard field goal by Aaron Pettrey (FSY) with 4:49 left in the quarter to make it 15-10.

It wasn’t enough for Ohio State. The Trojans had one great drive left in them.

“It was huge,” Galippo said. “Inspiring.”

USC 56, San Jose State 3

It was over when… USC kicked it into gear and scored 28 unanswered points in the second quarter.

Gameball goes to… Matt Barkley, who lived up to the hype and completed 15-of-19 for 233 yards and no int.

Stat of the game… 621. The Trojans had 621 total yards of offense, 278 passing and 343 rushing.

LOS ANGELES—Matt Barkley’s first pass at Southern California went for minus-2 yards. His first four series with the Trojans resulted in two fumbles, two punts and a 3-0 deficit to San Jose State.

A typical freshman quarterback surely would have tensed up at this burgeoning Coliseum calamity. Instead, Barkley showed why coach Pete Carroll insists there’s nothing ordinary about his teenage starter—although the Trojans will find out a whole lot more next week at Ohio State.

Barkley passed for 233 yards after a slow start to his USC debut, and the No. 4 Trojans’ fleet of tailbacks ran for six touchdowns in a 56-3 victory Saturday.

Barkley acknowledged a brief tickle of butterflies when he exited the stadium tunnel and experienced the Trojans’ home crowd for the first time in uniform. Otherwise, the Orange County product who grew up going to Trojans games was wholly unintimidated as the first freshman quarterback to start a season opener at USC.

“It was so much fun to be out there,” Barkley said. “It felt slow out there. I felt calm. The guys did a great job saying, ‘This is you, be yourself.’ … I don’t really get nervous, and at the same time, I’m not going to get super pumped up.”

Of course, Barkley’s California cool will get a stiffer test when the Trojans visit the sixth-ranked Buckeyes next week. USC, which pounded Ohio State 35-3 last season in Los Angeles, has won 11 straight games since last September’s loss to Oregon State.

Although the Trojans were at their best when he handed off, Barkley still went 15 for 19 with no interceptions—and without making a single throw Carroll didn’t like. USC pounded the Spartans with six consecutive TD drives starting in the second quarter, with Barkley’s only TD pass putting the Trojans up 42-3 midway through the third.

“The slow start was about as understandable as you can imagine, and once we settled down, we played some good football,” Carroll said. “Matt Barkley just absolutely handled this. It was just no big deal for him. ... He gave us no indication there would be anything other than him being cool and calm, which is exactly what he was today.”
It still helps to have USC’s formidable offensive line, which cleared the way for 343 yards rushing and two scores apiece by Stafon Johnson and Joe McKnight.

“[Barkley] came to the huddle calm and collected,” said McKnight, who rushed for 145 yards as the closest thing to a featured back for the Trojans. “He even gave us a couple of pep talks.”
Marc Tyler rushed for 72 yards and a score, and Allen Bradford made a 43-yard TD run as the Trojans rolled through their tuneup for next week’s showdown in Columbus, where the Buckeyes struggled to hold off Navy in a 31-27 win Saturday.
Kevin Jurovich has five catches for 64 yards for the Spartans, who didn’t have the size or strength to stop USC’s rushing attack. Although quarterbacks Kyle Reed and Jordan La Secla both played extensively, neither had much success against the USC defense, which lost the majority of last season’s starting lineup to the NFL.

“They were too much better for us to hang in there,” San Jose State coach Dick Tomey said. “I’ve seen them do that to lots of teams. It’s a lesson for us to learn. I hate it, but it’s necessary for us to get better.”

The Trojans’ first four drives ended in fumbles by McKnight and McCoy along with two punts, including a 24-yard clunker that set up Tyler Cope’s 41-yard field goal late in the first quarter to put the Spartans ahead.

Barkley was 2 for 4 for 20 yards in the first quarter, but new Trojans play-caller Jeremy Bates largely kept the freshman’s assignments simple with handoffs and several rollout throws. Before the sun-baked Coliseum crowd even had much time to get nervous, USC’s relentless running game drained the tension with back-to-back TD runs by Johnson, followed by Bradford’s romp and a TD run by McKnight on either side of halftime.

McKnight made a jaw-dropping 54-yard TD run on the Trojans’ first drive of the second half, slithering out of tackles and changing directions before somersaulting over the goal line.
Barkley hit Rhett Ellison for a 4-yard score in the third quarter. Three of his incompletions were throwaways, and the fourth was a well-executed fade that didn’t connect.
Aaron Corp, who lost the starting job to Barkley in training camp, threw a 10-yard TD pass to D.J. Shoemate in the final minutes of USC’s 12th consecutive season-opening win.

April 26, 2009

Six more USC football players were selected in the 2009 NFL draft on Sunday (April 26), bringing the number of Trojans who were chosen this year to a national-best 11.

It’s the second year in row, and third time in the past 4 years, that USC has had more players drafted than any other school.
It’s also the third time in the past 4 years that USC has had at least 10 players drafted. But it’s the first time ever that USC has had as many as 11 players all selected within the first 6 rounds.

On the draft’s second day, Trojan wide receiver Patrick Turner was a third round pick of the Miami Dolphins (87th overall selection)
Then in the fourth round, linebacker Kaluka Maiava went to the Cleveland Browns (104th pick) and defensive end Kyle Moore was chosen by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (117th pick).

Placekicker David Buehler was a fifth round selection by the Dallas Cowboys (172nd pick). He is only the second Trojan placekicker drafted by the NFL, joining Cole Ford, a seventh rounder in 1995.
In the sixth round, cornerback Cary Harris went to the Buffalo Bills (183rd pick), followed shortly after by safety Kevin Ellison to the San Diego Chargers (189th pick).

They join the 5 Trojans first rounders Mark Sanchez (New York Jets), Brian Cushing (Houston Texans) and Clay Matthews (Green Bay Packers) and second rounders Rey Maualuga (Cincinnati Bengals) and Fili Moala (Indianapolis Colts)who were NFL picks on Saturday (April 25).

In head coach Pete Carroll’s 8 years at USC, he now has had 53 players drafted by the NFL, including 14 in the first round.

In its history, USC has had 457 players drafted by the NFL.