It has been a long time since ASU was able to celebrate a victory over Southern California.
The date was Nov. 6, 1999, to be exact.
When the Sun Devils take the field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, it will be exactly 11 years to the day since ASU defeated the Trojans.
A lot has happened in both programs since that date. Then Trojans’ coach Paul Hackett was fired a year later and replaced with Pete Carroll, who led USC to seven straight BCS bowl game appearances.
While 11 years is a long time, ASU coach Dennis Erickson isn’t concerned with the past. He knows his team has to be focused on the present.
“We are looking forward to playing them and it’s been at least ten years since we’ve beat them,” Erickson said. “More importantly we have to concentrate and try and get our fifth win. Our goal is to go to a bowl game and we don’t have much room for error.”
It certainly will be interesting to see what Trojans’ team the Sun Devils will see on Saturday.
This past summer, the NCAA handed down sanctions to the USC football program, which included a two-year postseason ban starting this season.
That means there is no possibility of a bowl at the end of the road for the Trojans. Because of this, USC put all of its effort and emotion into trying to upset No. 1 Oregon at home and knock the Ducks out of the championship picture.
That didn’t happen. UO ended up taking it to the Trojans in the second half to pull away.
After pouring so much into last week’s upset bid and essentially nothing but pride to play for from here on out, it’s hard to know what type of effort USC will show.
That challenge falls into the lap of first-year USC coach Lane Kiffin.
“He has a tough situation with the probation stuff coming down,” Erickson said. “That place recruits itself. It always has and always will. They got players and they didn’t lose a lot of them.
“The probation aspect will probably show in a couple of years, not necessarily now because they have the whole team coming back.”
Kiffin brought his father, long-time NFL defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, in to run the Trojans’ defense.
The elder Kiffin is the creator of the popular “Tampa 2” defense, but Erickson doesn’t anticipate USC running that coverage against ASU.
“You always have plans against any coverage they might give you,” Erickson said. “You have to look at what they do against third and long and different type of down situations. I try to have an answer for it.
“If they get their front four off, they’re good pass rushers. They blitz some but they don’t blitz a lot.”
Inexperience and injuries have caused USC’s defense to struggle this season. The Trojans are eighth in the Pac-10 in total defense.
Those struggles aren’t the same on the offensive side of the ball.
Sophomore quarterback Matt Barkley has vastly improved in his second season at the helm and he has plenty of weapons around him.
At the running back position, USC has two running backs that have rushed for over 500 yards on the season in Allen Bradford and Marc Tyler.
Other running backs in the program could start at a lot of other schools, such as highly touted recruits Dillon Baxter and C.J. Gable.
Senior wide receiver Ronald Johnson was expected to lead the talented group of Barkley’s targets and has lived up to expectations.
That hasn’t prevented freshman sensation Robert Woods from stealing the spotlight. Woods has come on strong as of late, including a 12-catch, 224-yard, three-touchdown day at Stanford.
“I don’t see a lot of difference from when I watched them on tape a year ago,” Erickson said. “They score a lot of points. Matt Barkley is one of the better quarterbacks in the country. He is playing a lot better than a year ago because of experience.”
The key to ending the streak will be slowing down the Trojans’ potent offense and how USC responds to the UO loss.
Regardless of how USC comes out, ASU feels ready to go.
“We’ve got a lot of guys from Southern California and it’s an important game,” ASU junior quarterback Steven Threet said. “We are 4-4 and it gives us an opportunity to continue to improve and keep moving forward with the season.”
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
