USC Football Opens Pac-10 Play With Home Opener Against Oregon Sate

THEME: Defending Rose Bowl champion USC begins defense of its Pac-10 title as the "Race For The Roses" begins. It's the Pac-10 opener for both USC and Oregon State, as well as Troy's home opener after a pair of road games. The Trojans are coming off a big bounce-back win at Illinois. USC has won 22 straight over the Beavers. USC coach John Robinson is going for his 50th collegiate home win. The game will be shown live nationally by Fox (Prime) Sports Net.

RANKINGS: USC is ranked 16th by AP and 18th by USA Today/CNN. Oregon State is unranked.

PAC-10/HOME OPENERS: In conference openers, USC is 58-11-5 (.818) and Troy has won 20 of its last 25 (and 33 of its last 39). In conference openers at home, the Trojans are 34-6-3 (.826). USC's record in overall home openers is 77-17-7 (.797).

RACE FOR THE ROSES: The start of the Pac-10 race signals USC's annual quest for a berth in the Rose Bowl, where the Trojans have appeared an unprecedented 28 times. Troy is 20-8 there (including a 41-32 win over Northwestern last season) and has won 7 of its last 9 Rose Bowls. USC has won or shared 31 conference titles. USC has won 71.2% (331-125-29) of its games against Pac-10 foes.

IN THE COLISEUM: USC, which has a 340-107-27 (.746) all-time record in the Coliseum since the stadium opened in 1923, has lost only 4 of its last 22 home games. USC coach John Robinson is 49-8-2 (.847) in college games in the Coliseum and has won 21 and tied 1 of his last 25 there.

USC-OREGON STATE CONNECTIONS: While USC has no players who are Oregon natives, Oregon State claims 31 Californians...USC offensive coordinator Mike Riley led Corvallis (Ore.) High to the 1970 state football title and was the secondary coach at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., for 6 years (1977-82), including 1982 when Linfield went 12-0 and won the NAIA national championship. His father, Bud, was an assistant coach at Oregon State...USC offensive line coach Mike Barry was the line coach with the New Orleans/Portland Breakers of the USFL in 1985.

FUN FACT: This is the earliest date that USC has ever played Oregon State (the previous earliest was Sept. 15 in 1979).

ROBINSON: USC football has been on the upswing since John Robinson, now in the fourth year of his second stint as Troy's head coach (and 11th year overall), returned as head football coach in 1993. This past May, USC extended his original 4-year contract for an additional 5 years through the 2001 season. In the 3 years (1993-95) after he returned to USC, Troy won more Pac-10 games (18) and overall games (25) than any other league team while capturing 2 Pac-10 co-championships (USC finished second the other time), ranking in the final Top 25 poll each season, and winning 3 post-season bowls. Robinson is Division I-A's fourth winningest active coach (minimum 5 years experience) at 77.9%, with a 11-year record of 93-25-4. His 78.8% winning mark versus Pac-10 teams is the third best percentage in league history (he's 56-14-3, tied for seventh on the Pac-10 win ladder). All of Robinson's first 10 Trojan teams have won at least 8 games. He owns a 7-1 post-season record, including 4-0 in the Rose Bowl. Only John McKay (175 games in 16 years) and Howard Jones (170 games in 16 years) have coached more contests at USC than Robinson (122). Overall as USC's head coach, he has tutored 24 Trojan All-American first teamers, 21 NFL first round selections (and 81 NFL draft picks), 2 Heisman Trophy winners and a Lombardi Award recipient. Robinson has a 9-0 record against Oregon State.

Robinson could post his 100th career victory in 1996 (he needs 7 more wins). If USC starts off 8-1, he'll get his 100th win in fewer games (129) than all but 14 coaches in history and faster (the ninth game of his 11th season) than all but 5 coaches.

SCHEDULE: The Trojans, who have played schedules that were ranked among the nation's 5 most difficult in 2 of the past 3 years, again have a challenging slate. Five of USC's 1996 opponents--including its final 4 foes--played in bowls last season: Kickoff Classic-foe Penn State, then a season-ending run of Washington, Stanford, UCLA and Notre Dame. Only 5 of the Trojans' 12 games are at home in the Los Angeles Coliseum (Oregon State, California, Arizona, Washington and Notre Dame). USC's other non-conference contests are on the road (at Illinois and Houston).

MILLER TIME--WR Chris Miller--the cousin of ex-USC All-American WR and NFL No. 1 draft pick Keyshawn Johnson of the New York Jets--got his senior season off to a good start against Penn State, getting 4 receptions for a game-best 83 yards, both career highs. At Illinois, he caught 3 passes for 155 yards (a new career best), including an 84-yard TD (the fourth longest pass completion in USC history). It was the third game in a row that he upped his personal best receiving yardage (he had 50 yards in the 1996 Rose Bowl against Northwestern). Four plays after his TD, Miller also contributed on special teams against the Illini, blocking a punt that CB Prentice Hill scooped up and returned 19 yards for a TD. And Miller had a key block to spring RB Marvin Powell into the end zone on a 13-yard pass (Miller helped set up that TD with a 58-yard catch 3 plays before). Miller, who has caught 7 passes for 238 yards (34.0 avg) with 1 TD in 1996, is tied for 12th in the U.S. (first in the Pac-10) in receiving yards (119.0)...USC's other Miller, soph WR Billy Miller (no relation to Chris), is filling the job vacated Johnson nicely. He's even wearing Johnson's No. 3 jersey. Miller had 3 grabs for 67 yards at Illinois.

SECONDARY: USC gave up only 6 touchdown passes in 1995 and the Trojan secondary could be equally tough this season (Penn State and Illinois didn't throw a TD pass this year). Two players could really shine: junior free safety Brian Kelly (35 tackles, 11 deflections, 3 interceptions in 1995), who started the past 2 years at cornerback (he was a 1995 All-Pac-10 honorable mention choice and could be a first teamer in 1996), and sophomore cornerback Daylon McCutcheon (50 tackles, 10 deflections, 2 interceptions, 1 fumble recovery in 1995), a 1995 co-starter who appears headed for greatness. Kelly made 2 big plays against Penn State, first intercepting a pass and returning it 22 yards on the Nittany Lions' first possession, and then recovering a Penn State fumble on the USC 6-yard line early in the second half and running it back 18 yards. He also made 5 tackles in the game, as did McCutcheon. At Illinois, Kelly had 7 stops and McCutcheon added 4 (with 1 for a loss). Don't be surprised if McCutcheon wins All-American honors in 1996 (he was an All-Pac-10 honorable mention pick in 1995). And because exciting things happen whenever he touches the ball (he scored touchdowns last fall on interception and fumble runbacks), he might even be used at running back at times in his Trojan career (he rushed for 2,456 yards as a senior prepster in 1994), as well as returning kickoffs (he ran 1 kick back for 27 yards versus Penn State).

KNIGHT: Senior LB Sammy Knight (89 tackles, 9 for losses, 7 deflections, 4 forced fumbles, 1 blocked punt in 1995) has been switched to weakside linebacker (akin to a rover) after starting at strong safety the previous 2 years. The 1995 All-Pac-10 second teamer was USC's tackle leader last season and is in line for first team honors in 1996. This is his third season as a starter. At Penn State, he had a game-high 13 tackles (1 for a loss), with 2 deflections and an interception. He added 6 stops and a deflection at Illinois. Knight will be wearing a decal on his helmet this season that reads "BC." It is in memory of former USC and NFL star WR Bob Chandler, who died of cancer at age 45 in January of 1995. Last year, Knight was the first recipient of USC's Bob Chandler Award, given to the top Trojan football junior athlete/student/leader. Each season, the Bob Chandler Award winner will wear the decal on his helmet. This is the first time since the 1969 season (when USC sported a "100" on its helmet to commemorate the 100th anniversary of college football) that something besides the Trojan head logo has been on a USC helmet.

NEW PLAYER STANDOUTS: USC's 2 most highly-acclaimed freshmen have proven as good as advertised. Starting OG Travis Claridge became the first true freshman to start a season opener on the offensive line for USC since 1979 Lombardi Award winner Brad Budde did so against Missouri in 1976 (a 46-25 Trojan loss in John Robinson's Trojan head coach debut). Clay Hattabaugh was the last Trojan first-year freshman to start any game on the offensive line when he did so in a 31-14 loss at Arizona in 1991 in the season's 10th contest. The last Trojan true freshman (any position) to start a season opener was OLB Willie McGinest versus Syracuse in the 1990 Kickoff Classic against Syracuse (USC won 34-16). For 1 series midway through the Illinois game, the right side of USC's line featured Claridge and fellow true freshman OT Faaesea Mailo...LB Chris Claiborne, who as an often-used backup had 4 tackles versus Penn State and 3 at Illinois, provided USC with its only points against Penn State when he recovered a fumble in the end zone with 29 seconds to play (it was the second year in a row that a first-year freshman defender scored a TD for USC in the opener, as CB Daylon McCutcheon returned an interception for a score against San Jose State in the 1995 opener)...Junior P Jim Wren, a junior college transfer who replaced USC record-holder John Stonehouse, has begun impressively. He averaged 46.9 yards on 7 punts, including 66-, 56- and 53-yarders, against Penn State (4 of his boots pinned the Nittany Lions inside their 20-yard line). At Illinois, he averaged 53.5 yards on his 2 punts. He currently is third nationally in punting (48.3)...True freshman WR R. Jay Soward entered the USC record book on the receiving end of the longest offensive play (pass or run) in Trojan history when he caught a 97-yard TD bomb from QB Matt Koffler at Illinois...Redshirt freshman CB-RB Chad Morton, the brother of ex-USC All-American WR and NFL first rounder Johnnie Morton of the Detroit Lions, was a 3- way player at Illinois. He made 3 tackles as a backup cornerback, he rushed for 28 yards (with a 2-yard TD) on 9 carries as the third-string tailback, and he played on various special teams (he recovered an Illini fumble on a kickoff and he returned a punt 11 yards).

STREAKS: Giles Pellerin, USC's 89-year-old "Super Fan" who has seen 765 consecutive Trojan games--home and away--since 1926, won the first annual Sears DieHard Fan Award as "America's NCAA Division I DieHard College Sports Fan" this summer...Speaking of streaks, this will be USC's 62nd consecutive game on some form of live television (the last Trojan game not on live TV was the 1991 Memphis State opener).

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