Week 11: USC at California

If the Pac-10 had an unofficial league championship game in mind, this was supposed to be it. By the middle of last summer, this football match-up was circled on everyone’s calendar up and down the West Coast. Envisioned were two high-powered programs colliding in Berkeley, Calif., with much fanfare, both possibly unbeaten and putting everything on the line.

During the first month of the season, the concept still looked good: USC was ranked No. 1; California would rise as high as No. 2 in the polls.

Two and a half months into a far more difficult schedule than envisioned, welcome to the consolation bracket. This contest is still an intriguing one, full of NFL recruits and teams to be feared and respected, but ultimate dreams have faded in the face of sudden parity in the Pac-10 and throughout college football.

Both teams temporarily lost their starting quarterbacks – the Trojans’ John David Booty; the Golden Bears’ Nate Longshore – and with their offensive leaders’ good health likely went the titles hope of both of these two.

Cal, in particular, experienced an inexplicable midseason slump, losing three consecutive Pac-10 games to Oregon State, UCLA and Arizona State before finally righting itself last Saturday night with a 20-17 victory over Washington State.

“I’m surprised a little bit that they’re where they are,” Trojans coach Pete Carroll said. “They’ve really got good players and a great scheme. It’s just the conference. The conference is so hard it gets to you.”

Before losing games to Stanford and Oregon in October, a rare double dip in one month, USC used to fit that description, and is striving to reclaim what it once had. The Trojans still don’t have the services of All-America offensive tackle Sam Baker, out with a bad hip, or for any regular length of time its game-breaking running back Stafon Johnson, who is nursing a nagging foot problem, but Booty returned after a three-game absence last weekend and helped his team ease past Oregon State 24-3.

Booty’s presence gave the Trojans more offensive freedom, more shotgun formations, more downfield passes. Granted, the senior quarterback was rusty after his long absence, but the team seemed more self-assured, if not in confident hands again.

While USC can wait for Booty to find a rhythm again, no one on defense seems interested in holding anything back anymore. The Trojans entered the Oregon State game with a Pac-10-low 18 sacks, and padded that total with nine against the Beavers, three and a half by true freshman defensive tackle Everson Griffen, sending notice that he intends to take over the lead role up front when accomplished senior defensive linemates Sedrick Ellis and Lawrence Jackson move on. The coaches have tried to get the young guy to freelance rather than analyze so much, and he was listening this past weekend.

“So often he’s tried to work his moves and not bank on the fact that he’s so fast,” Carroll said. “We’ve been hammering away and it really came through in this game.”

While all seems well again in Trojanland, Cal still owns the home-field advantage here and will salute 18 players on Senior Day, their final home game at Memorial Stadium. The outgoing total includes 12 guys who stayed in Jeff Tedford’s program for five seasons, four junior-college transfers and a pair, running back Justin Forsett and wide receiver Robert Jordan, who will graduate in four years.

Forsett has had a productive final season, rushing 210 times for 1,005 yards, second in the league behind Oregon’s Jonathan Stewart, and scored 12 touchdowns, which leads the league.

Besides the emotions that might be stirred by a farewell appearance, there’s also a deep-rooted desire by the Golden Bears to beat their cousins from L.A. and quit taking a repeated backseat. When these teams met a year ago, with the Rose Bowl on the line for both teams, Cal hung around until the fourth quarter and then lost 23-9.

Golden Bears junior wide receiver DeSean Jackson, who has 51 catches for 586 yards and five scores, boasted out loud that he would rather beat the Trojans than win the Heisman Trophy.

He better refocus on the trophy. USC leads this series 58-29-5, has won the past three meetings, and appears ready to add to the bounty.

USC by 6