Dec. 31, 2008

By Adam Caparell
NCAA.com

It was only natural to think that a little bit of complacency would settle into the practice fields at USC these last few weeks.

After all, USC, one of the most talented teams in the country this year, a team many penciled into the BCS Championship game before the season started, found themselves in the same bowl game for the fourth straight season, after their national title hopes had officially been extinguished.

We're all pumped up about this. Everything you hear contrary, you can go ahead and know that's coming from somewhere else. USC Coach Pete Carroll

Another year, another Rose Bowl for Pete Carroll and his embarrassment of riches that are the Trojans. As far as consolation prizes go, you could do a lot worse than the Rose Bowl, but at what point does familiarity breed contempt for the Trojans?

“Every single day we walk off the practice field, we see the Rose Bowl at the end of the tunnel, everybody knows that's what we're shooting for,” Carroll said. “There's no doubt about it. We're all pumped up about this. Everything you hear contrary, you can go ahead and know that's coming from somewhere else.”

You can’t fault people for thinking that maybe USC would be a little disinterested heading into this one. The way Carroll has constructed his football factory in Los Angeles, every year it’s national championship or bust. And when you have fallen short like the Trojans have the past few years it doesn’t take long for the same old New Year’s Day routine to get stale. Except, apparently, if you’re Carroll and the Trojans.

“Watch the interviews from our players and coaches. We're pumped about this opportunity, excited, feel honored that we have this matchup,” Carroll said. “Everything else you hear to the contrary is written by people from the media side of it. That's not our guys talking. It's never what we've been about.”

What the Trojans have been all about this season is beating teams in dominating fashion with their superior defense. But doing that against Penn State in Thursday’s Rose Bowl certainly won’t be an easy task. The first traditional meeting between Pac-10 and Big Ten champs in the Rose Bowl in four years features two top 10 teams and that seems to have made any notions of complacency on the Trojans part a moot point.

That’s because Penn State caught plenty of people’s attention this year, rolling to an 11-1 record. The Nittany Lions were considered to be a good team out of the Big Ten this season, but seriously contending for a national championship seemed to be a little preposterous. But thanks to Daryll Clark and the Spread HD offense – along with a very good defense – Penn State won a share of the Big Ten championship and the right to the program’s first Rose Bowl berth since 1995.

And while the questions of complacency have dogged USC, it certainly hasn’t been a problem for the Nittany Lions during their run-up to the game considering they’ve got so much to prove. They want to show that their season wasn’t a fluke, that they were a legitimate national title contender until the upset at Iowa. And they’re also playing for the Big Ten as the conference continues to receive heavy criticism for poor play outside the league.

Penn State has all of that on its plate before it faces what can easily be called the best defense in the country in a game in which USC is considered the big favorite. And it’s understandable why.

No team over the past several seasons has allowed as few points per game as the Trojans did this year and statistically no one can match what USC has done. No. 1 in total defense, scoring defense, pass defense and pass efficiency defense, No. 4 in tackles for loss and No. 5 against the run shows how dominating USC has been this year.

"You have a lot of guys who can slide to the ball. They have a bunch of talented players who get after it each and every time they're out there,” Clark said. “Those guys are very intense in the game and the statistics show. It will be all about execution. It will be really important, every time we have an opportunity to score points, we do it."

Penn State couldn’t capitalize on its opportunities in that loss to Iowa and the opportunitnies will be few and far between against USC. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering the Trojans depth chart is littered with future NFL players. Especially up front and at linebacker where no one – including Linebacker U. – has a better contingent of backers than the Trojans this year with the likes of Rey Maualuga and Brian Cushing, a player Joe Paterno tried unsuccessfully to recruit.

“They run well, they're smart. They time blitz well. They're big time. They're big time, they really are,” the Penn State coach said. 

But don’t expect the Nittany Lions to be overwhelmed. Especially when their defense is on the field.

USC has plenty of talent on offense, led by quarterback Mark Sanchez, but as pristine as the defense has been the offense has certainly had its far share of struggles. There are times when things can stall for the Trojans and points aren’t always easy to come by.

The Trojans may be the best defense in the country, but Penn State is no slouch. The NIttany Lions find themselves in the top 10 of just about every major defensive statistical category and have even drawn some comparisons to USC.

"To be a good defense you have to have some kind of chip on your shoulder,” Penn State linebacker Tyrell Sales said. “We have to go out there and prove ourselves. We know what we are capable of. We know we're a good defense and capable of shutting down an offense. As far as making it a personal battle between one defense or the other, it’s not something we're focused on. In the back of our mind we have to realize we aren't going to get a whole lot of publicity as far as the defense."

For the time being, most of the focus in this game has been shown on Paterno. The 81-year old coach, fresh off of hip-replacement surgery, is healthier than he’s been in a while, and reveling in the fact that he’s back in Pasadena for the first time in a long time.

For all the success he’s had at Penn State, Paterno’s only coached in one Rose Bowl and Thursday’s game marks only the second time the Trojans and Nittany Lions have met in the venerable game.

“I heard that in 1923, SC played Penn State,” Carroll said. “I don't think you (Paterno) were there, but there was a fight between the coaches in the pregame. I know that you're a little under the weather recovering, but I'm sure you still got a good left hand.”

“If you got to worry about my left hand, you're in real trouble,” Paterno quipped. 

Carroll and his players have plenty to worry about. Penn State’s pretty good and should give the Trojans a stiff challenge. And even though Carroll says it’s not an issue, can he really rest assured that his team is truly amped up to play this game like he says they are?

There have been times in the past where the Trojans simply have not come ready to play – most recently against Oregon State earlier in the year. It’s easy to get complacent when so many tell you that you’re the best and that there is no way you can lose.

That’s USC for you. The praise never stops for Carroll’s crew, and deservedly so. But the most important job Carroll may have to undertake is making sure that praise hasn’t gone straight to his players’ heads. It’s happened before. He believes it hasn’t happened again. But has it?