Usc Welcomes Back Enticing Scent Of Roses

The wild scene in the USC locker room had been staged many times before, but not recently.

Rose Bowl representatives had just formally asked USC to appear in the New Year’s game in Pasadena for the 28th time. Roses were everywhere. The players spontaneously broke into the Trojan fight song.

It wasn’t a national championship, but it wasn’t bad.

John Robinson, lured back to coach the Trojans back to greatness three years ago, didn’t want to talk much about the Rose Bowl with the traditional season-ending game against UCLA yet to come.

“We’ve got more work to do. We’ve got to play UCLA,” Robinson said. “But it’s a great feeling. That’s one of our major goals.”

The team’s first Rose Bowl berth in six years became “the” major goal a month ago, when the Trojans’ national championship hopes were dashed in a 38-10 loss at Notre Dame. USC hasn’t been overpowering since then, but has been good enough to make it back to Pasadena.

Southern Cal improved to 8-1-1 overall and 6-0-1 in the Pac-10 and climbed up a notch to 11th in the national rankings after Saturday night’s 28-10 victory Oregon State.

The Trojans even made the gamblers happy, sending Delon Washington up the middle for a one-yard touchdown run on fourth down with 29 seconds to go to allow USC to beat the 15-point spread.

Washington’s recent performances have put the tailback back in the equation at a school that used to be known as “Tailback U.” The sophomore rushed for a career-high 158 yards and two scores against the Beavers on his 20th birthday.

“I think I did pretty could. I ran like I should have,” Washington said.

Washington has rushed for 302 yards in his last two games. His journey to USC is the stuff that is the making of Trojan football lore. He had promised his brother that he would go to USC, and signed his letter of intent just 15 minutes after learning his brother had been killed in a drive-by shooting.