Sept. 5, 2004

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

Game Center:
USC vs. CSU Gametracker | Gameday Central

Following a week off after its season-opening road win over Virginia Tech, the top-ranked and defending national champion USC football team now plays its home opener. It's the first time since the 1981 loss to Arizona that USC has appeared in the Coliseum as the nation's No. 1 ranked team. For the second game in a row, the Trojans are playing an opponent (Colorado State this week) for the first time ever. The Trojans will attempt to extend not only their 10-game winning streak, but a 15-game Coliseum victory string. It's also the first of back-to-back games against Mountain West Conference foes (next up is a road contest at BYU). The likes of Heisman Trophy candidate Matt Leinart, "Thunder and Lightning" tailbacks Reggie Bush and LenDale White, All-American defensive candidates Shaun Cody, Mike Patterson and Matt Grootegoed and their Trojan teammates will be making their 2004 Coliseum debuts. Colorado State, which has never before faced a No. 1-ranked team, is coming off a gut-wrenching season-opening loss at Colorado last weekend. Coach Sonny Lubick's squad returns 8 offensive players from last year, including WR David Anderson and TE Joel Dreessen. To commemorate the third anniversary of Sept. 11, USC has proclaimed the game as "Joint Forces Day"--there will be a moment of silence, a fighter jet flyover and a special ticket deal for all military, police and fire personnel. The game will be shown live regionally by ABC-TV, with a near-sellout crowd expected in the 92,000-seat Coliseum (USC averaged 77,000-plus fans at home last season).

TICKETS-- Tickets for the USC-Colorado State game, priced at $40, are available at the USC Ticket Office (213-740-GO SC), www.usctrojans.com, the L.A. Sports Arena box office and all Ticketmaster agen-cies. For group discounts (25 or more), call (213) 740- 4170.

RADIO-TV-- Live regional TV : 5 p.m. (PDT), ABC-TV, Keith Jackson, Dan Fouts, Todd Harris. Live local radio: 1:30 p.m. (PDT), KMPC-AM (1540 The Ticket), Pete Arbogast, Paul McDonald, John Jackson, Mark Willard, Suzy Shuster and Harvey Hyde (includes 3-and-a-half hour pre-game and 2-hour post-game shows. Eight other stations are included on the USC radio network: KSPA-AM 1510 in Ontario/ Orange County, XEMM-AM 800 in San Diego, KGEO-AM 1230 in Bakersfield, KXPS-AM 1010 in Palm Springs, KVEN-AM 1450 in Ventura, KSZL-AM 1230 in Barstow, KSFB-AM 1220 in San Francisco and KFSN-AM 1140 in Las Vegas. Fans also can hear the live KMPC broad-cast on www.usctrojans.com, on SIRIUS satellite ra-dio or by dialing 1-800-846-4675 ext. 5933. Live local Spanish-language radio: 5 p.m. (PDT), KMXE-AM (830), John Laguna, Jose Mantilla. USC Sports Magazine Show : 11 p.m., Friday (Sept. 10), FOX Sports Net West 2, Lindsay Soto. USC Insider Show : 7 p.m. (PDT), Tuesdays dur-ing football season, KMPC-AM (1540) and KPLS-AM (830), Pete Arbogast, Petros Papadakis. USC Trojan Talk: 7 p.m. (PDT), Sundays during football season, KDWN-AM (720), Harvey Hyde, Chuck Hayes. Fans also can hear the live KDWN broadcast on www.usctrojans.com.

USC ONLINE-- The USC athletic department has an official "home page" on the World Wide Web, fea-turing current and historical information about Trojan sports. For access, type www.usctrojans.com.

IT'S NOT SOUTHERN CAL-- Note to the media: In edi-torial references to athletic teams of the University of Southern California, the following are preferred: USC, Southern California, So. California, Troy, Trojans and (for women's teams) Women of Troy. PLEASE do not use Southern Cal.

PAC-10 ONLINE-- Pac-10 information, press releases, statistics and links to all league schools are available online at www.pac-10.org.

PAC-10 SATELLITE FEED-- The Pac-10 provides a weekly satellite feed featuring interviews with coaches and players regarding upcoming games along with highlight footage. The half-hour feed airs every Wednesday (through Dec. 1) at 11:30 a.m. (PDT). Coordinates are IA5/14 (formerly Telestar 5/ 14 C-Band). Trouble numbers: (310) 543-1835, (805) 231-3229 (888-451-5861 pager) or 925-932-4411.

PAC-10 COACHES TELECONFERENCE-- Pac-10 foot-ball coaches are available for 10 minutes each on a media teleconference beginning at 10 a.m. (PDT) every Tuesday (through Nov. 16) during the season. USC coach Pete Carroll comes on at 10:40 a.m. (PST). Beginning at 2:30 p.m. (PDT) each of those Tuesdays, a taped replay of the teleconference is available until the next call. Call the Pac-10 office (925-932- 4411) or USC sports information office (213-740-8480) to obtain the media-only phone numbers for the Pac-10 Coaches Teleconference.

PETE CARROLL MEDIA LUNCHEON-- USC head coach Pete Carroll hosts a media-only luncheon in the Heri-tage Hall lounge at 11:30 a.m. (PDT) each Tuesday during the season (except bye weeks). Transcribed quotes from each session are available from the USC sports information office.

FACTS
USC (1-0 overall) vs. Colorado State (0-1), Saturday, Sept. 11, 5 p.m. PDT, Los Angeles Coliseum.

THEMES
Following a week off after its season-opening road win over Virginia Tech, the top-ranked and defending national champion USC football team now plays its home opener. It's the first time since the 1981 loss to Arizona that USC has appeared in the Coliseum while ranked No. 1. For the second game in a row, the Trojans are playing an opponent (Colorado State this week) for the first time ever. The Trojans will attempt to extend not only their 10-game winning streak, but a 15-game Coliseum victory string. It's also the first of back-to-back games against Mountain West Conference foes (next up is a road contest at BYU). The likes of Heisman Trophy candi-date Matt Leinart, "Thunder and Lightning" tailbacks Reggie Bush and LenDale White, All-Ameri-can defensive candidates Shaun Cody, Mike Patterson and Matt Grootegoed and their Trojan teammates will be making their 2004 Coliseum debuts. Colorado State, which has never be-fore faced a No. 1-ranked team, is coming off a gut-wrenching season-opening loss at Colo-rado last weekend. Coach Sonny Lubick's squad returns 8 offensive players from last year, including WR David Anderson and TE Joel Dreessen. To commemorate the third anniversary of Sept. 11, USC has proclaimed the game as "Joint Forces Day"--there will be a moment of silence, a fighter jet flyover and a special ticket deal for all military, police and fire personnel. The game will be shown live regionally by ABC-TV, with a near-sellout crowd expected in the 92,000-seat Coliseum (USC averaged 77,000-plus fans at home last season).

RANKINGS
USC is ranked first by AP and USA Today/ESPN. Colorado State is not ranked.

SERIES
This is the first meeting between USC and Colorado State.

VERSUS MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE
USC is 11-3-1 all-time against current Moun-tain West Conference teams: 6-3 versus Utah, 2-0-1 versus San Diego State and 1-0 against BYU, UNLV and Wyoming. USC's last game against a MWC foe was a 35-18 home win over BYU in 2003.

HOME OPENERS
USC's record in home openers is 84-18-7 (.803). The Trojans have won their past 6 home open-ers.

WIN STREAKS
The Trojans have captured their last 15 home games (with 2 shutouts). That's USC's longest Coliseum win streak since getting 19 in a row during the 1931 through 1933 campaigns. Besides that Pac-10 leading 15-game home winning streak, USC also has the longest cur-rent Pac-10 win streaks for overall games (10), Pac-10 games (7) and road games (6).

HIGH RANKING
USC has been ranked in the AP Top 10 for its past 20 games, its longest string since 34 in a row in 1978-80. The Trojans have been in the AP Top 5 in 15 of the last 19 polls.

RECORD WHEN NO. 1
USC has a 37-4-2 (.884) record games when it is ranked No. 1 by AP. When a No. 1-ranked Trojan team faces an unranked opponent, it is 23-1-1 (.940).

IN THE COLISEUM
USC has a 374-122-27 (.741) all-time record in the Coliseum since the stadium opened in 1923.

IN SEPTEMBER
USC has a 144-37-8 (.783) all-time record while playing in the month of September.

AFTER BYES
USC is 80-42-4 in all regular season games it has played following byes. This is the third season in the last decade that the Trojans have 3 regular-season byes (also in 1996 and 2003); before that, it hadn't happened since 1935.

CONNECTIONS
USC has 2 players (TB LenDale White and C Jeff Byers) from Colorado, while Colorado State claims 29 California natives....USC WR coach Lane Kiffin--who was an offensive line assistant at Colorado State in 1999--is the older brother of Colorado State DL Chris Kiffin...USC DE Frostee Rucker redshirted as a first-year freshman outside linebacker at Colo-rado State in 2001, then transferred to USC...USC WR Dwayne Jarrett will celebrate his 18 th birthday this Saturday (Sept. 11).

LAST GAME
TB Reggie Bush caught 3 long touchdown passes from QB Matt Leinart to propel top-ranked and defending national champion USC to a 24-13 comeback victory over unranked Virginia Tech in the collegiate sea-son- opening Black Coaches Association Foot-ball Classic before a sold-out crowd of 91,665 fans at steamy FedEx Field in Landover, Md., and an ESPN national primetime audience on Aug. 28. It extended Troy's winning streak to 10 games. Bush became the 10 th USC player to catch a school-record 3 TD passes in a game, but the first running back to do so. He had 258 all-purpose yards (127 on 5 re-ceptions, 60 on 4 punt returns, 44 on 3 kickoff returns and 27 on 9 rushes). Following an in-terception by LB Lofa Tatupu , USC opened the scoring late in the first quarter as Bush took a short pass over the middle and raced 35 yards up the middle for a TD. But the Hokies an-swered on the next series with a 35-yard field goal by PK Brandon Pace. After a missed USC field goal on the ensuing possession, Virginia Tech took the lead midway through the sec-ond quarter when QB Bryan Randall hit WR Josh Hyman on a 12-yard scoring pass. That lead held up until late into the third quarter until Bush hauled in a 53-yard Leinart bomb for a TD. But Virginia Tech pulled within 14-13 midway through the final quarter on a 42-yard Pace field goal. However, USC struck right back on the next series on a 29-yard Leinart scoring pass to a wide-open Bush. Then, fol-lowing a fumble recovery by CB Ronald Nunn, PK Ryan Killeen nailed a 41-yard field goal. Leinart was 19-of-29 for 272 yards (he was 11- of-13 for 170 yards and 2 TDs in the second half, with 11 consecutive completions at one point). TB LenDale White ran for 78 yards on 15 carries, while WR Steve Smith had 4 catches for 68 yards. USC outgained Virginia Tech, 373 yards to 294, despite having less plays (63- 58), possession time (31:31-28:29) and first downs (18-16). The Hokies had 207 yards of total offense in the first half, but managed just 87 total yards in the second half. Randall was 14-of-29 passing for 153 yards and ran for a game-high 82 yards on 17 carries (he had 96 rushing yards in the first half), with TE Jeff King catching getting 4 grabs for 65 yards. The Trojan defense posted 5 sacks, with DT Mike Patterson getting 2.5 (4 of his 6 tackles were for losses) along with a forced fumble. Tatupu added 8 tackles and S Darnell Bing had 7 stops. It was USC's first meeting against Vir-ginia Tech (playing its first game as a mem-ber of the Atlantic Coast Conference) and its second-ever appearance in Maryland. The attendance not only was a FedEx Field record and the most ever to view a Virginia Tech game, but it was USC's largest road crowd since the 1994 UCLA game and its most for an opener since the 1980 contest at Tennes-see.

SCHEDULE
USC will defend its national championship against a schedule that features 6 opponents who played in bowls last season. The chal-lenge started right away, as the Trojans opened on Aug. 28 against perennial power Virginia Tech in the Black Coaches Associa-tion Football Classic in Landover, Md. USC then hosts Colorado State and travels to BYU and Stanford before having a trio of home games (California, Arizona and Washington) followed by another pair of road contests (Washington State and Oregon State). The Trojans--who have 3 byes in 2004 for the sec-ond consecutive year--then return home to host Arizona and Notre Dame before con-cluding their season on "Championship Sat-urday" (Dec. 4) at UCLA. It's a schedule that could help USC better the average overall (72,806) and home (77,804) attendance school records it set last year...and gives cre-dence to the Trojan marketing department's 2004 slogan of " Still The Hottest Ticket In Town."

1979 DÉJÀ VU?
There were numerous similarities between last year's national champion Trojans and the USC team from 25 years earlier, the 1978 national champs. This year, again there are many coincidental repeats be-tween the 2004 Trojans and the USC team from 25 years earlier, the 1979 squad that went 11-0-1 and finished No. 2 in the polls. As in 2004, that 1979 team was a pre-sea-son No. 1 coming off a controversial split national title shared with an SEC team (Ala-bama) and a Rose Bowl win over a Top 5 Michigan team, and was led by a head coach in his fourth year at the helm (John Robinson). More similarities for both teams: an opening win against a "Tech" team (Texas Tech, Virginia Tech), an efficient left-handed quarterback in his second year as a starter (Paul McDonald, Matt Leinart) who set the school touchdown pass record the previous season, a running back named White (Charles, who wore 12, and LenDale, who is No. 21), a player named Mike McDonald (this year's Mike is the son of the 1979 quarterback, Paul), a highly-touted freshman receiver from New Jer-sey (Timmy White, Dwayne Jarrett), a top Heisman candidate (Charles White, Matt Leinart) and a No. 1-ranked recruiting class. Also, eerily, the previous season for both squads featured a Heisman winner from Oklahoma who returned for his final year (Billy Sims, Jason White).