SF Chronicle: Look for mighty USC to lay down the law against Cal

Ray Ratto

The Los Angeles Times, a newspaper from south of here, has reached such extremes in its coverage of the University of Southern California Trojan football team that Thursday's offering featured (swear to Jesus) a feature on Carmen Trutanich, a backup linebacker who ... No. Carmen Trutanich, the assistant offensive coordinator who ... No, wrong again. Carmen Trutanich, who is a Los Angeles area lawyer who represents (among others) Trojan players who fall afoul of the law. Yes, that's the one. That's the Carmen Trutanich you were thinking of, of course. There is a legitimate news peg here, of course: A Trojan linebacker, Rey Maualuga, was recently arrested on suspicion of slugging a guy at a party.

But that's another story. This story is about how there are so few new things left to say about USC that the team's de facto lawyer is getting front page play. Next week: The printer repairman, and how he is Johnny-on-the-spot when Pete Carroll runs out of toner.  Forty-seven paragraphs, and not one mention of Terrell Owens. And they say we obsess.  You see, USC has become the new Notre Dame, a sort of America's Team for those college football fans not already embedded with their own local clubs.  They win all the time, usually by gum-bleeding margins. They're on TV constantly, as befits a team that hasn't lost in two years and change. They're in the TV capital of the planet, making the expense account reports much easier to submit. They have two-thirds of the viable Heisman Trophy candidates.  They are indeed the second option for those fans open-minded enough to consider a second option.  And now they are here, to face the last team to actually defeat them, the California Golden Bears, on the last field upon which they lost.  Now this game has been marked up by analysts across the land as one of USC's major tests, given that Cal has given the Trojans all it can eat twice in succession. But Cal's shortcomings have become more pronounced. Bookmakers, a notoriously unsentimental lot, have cheerfully pegged USC an 181/2-point favorite, and the smart money has been moving toward a USC rout, given Cal's vulnerabilities and SC's eagerness to exact massive revenge on their close calls.

Indeed, Cal can actually enhance its profile with a close loss, given its recent difficulties. Anything inside a touchdown will be considered a glorious triumph.  Except by Jeff Tedford, the killjoy.  It will at least be in keeping with its three frustrating defeats this year (blowing a big lead at UCLA, edged by Oregon State and then losing in overtime at Oregon), if that helps at all.  But at this point, SC would probably have to be beaten outright to get knocked off the national title game track. Struggling to beat the Bears ... well, that's been done already. It will make Tedford look like a positive wizard, given that it would be with an injured and inconsistent offense, and would certainly send Cal's truest believers home with a bounce in their hearts and a song in their shoes.  Or something like that.  Mostly though, Saturday's game will tell us not much about either team. A Trojan romp tells us that the Trojans are really as good as advertised, sharp lawyering or no, and that revelation falls under the general heading, "You think?"  A strong showing by Cal will convince people that somehow Tedford has Carroll's number, given our fixation with coaches matching wits rather than athletes matching skills.  And a Cal win? Nuclear firestorm. Joe Ayoob is resuscitated. Marshawn Lynch is forgiven for whatever it is that is held against him. The defense is pronounced brilliant. Tedford goes on America's Coaching Short List, and the line outside Top Dog goes on forever.  Oh, the pundits will writhe in rage as their dream game (SC-Texas) is burned to a briquet, and replaced with Texas-Alabama (the Crimson Tide may never score), Texas-Miami (well, OK, if you must) or even Texas-LSU (so far, not even remotely fathomable).  But an SC defeat here seems so unlikely because, well, it's been so long since there has been one. The Notre Dame win was an epochal event because SC had to go to great exertions to avoid defeat; its average margin of victory in the 31-game winning streak is nearly 27, and only five of those 31 were decided by less than a touchdown.  In other words, SC is America's Team (well, America's Backup Team, anyway) because America is a land of unabashed front-runners, always extraordinarily fond of the ridiculously dominant. And SC is the frontest runner of them all right now.  They even have depth at lawyer, we have just come to learn. Now that's attention to detail.