Ugly Tie Looks Great On Trojans In Unsavory College Football World

Grand game, college football.

It’s the only one in which there’s a reward for not trying to win.

This is rich, it is. All fall, we’ve endured the mewling of the athletically correct, decrying the poll mentality that encourages - nay, demands - that bullies run up the score on the victory challenged.

Now we have USC and Washington, two of the college game’s biggest kahunas - a distinction that should be held in escrow - joining hands to finish in a 21-all tie Saturday at Husky Stadium. The aroma stopped far short of professional wrestling, thankfully, leaving the conspirators free to congratulate one another on their genius.

No harm, no foul.

No satisfaction.

“It feels like there was never a game,” said Huskies quarterback Damon Huard. “It’s just a weird taste in my mouth. Let’s just play the game over.”

Not interested. Not unless Jim Lambright and John Robinson suspend the very rules of engagement they agreed upon beforehand.

This was not chickening out at the last minute. These were two teams unbeaten in the Pacific-10 Conference standings and determined to stay that way.

This was expedience over honor. Just like real life.

So as the Trojans were completing their frantic fourth-quarter comeback from a 21-0 deficit, Robinson pulled his players aside and told them they were playing for a tie. Sure enough, they scored with 33 seconds left and kicker Adam Rendon was dispatched to end the suspense.

And the Huskies, having choked on another win that could establish some post-probation identity for Lambright’s program, completed the anticlimax with two running plays from deep in their own territory.

“If they intercept and take it to the house,” linebacker Jason Chorak said, “you lose.”

Besides, it’s hard to see downfield when you’re looking at your shoes.

“You’ve got to play for the conference race,” insisted Huskies defensive coordinator Randy Hart, “depending on the meaning of the game.

“It was a smart and prudent move on (Robinson’s) part. They had no guarantee - they did not feel good enough, confident enough, that they could put it in on us (on a two-point conversion). That’s a smart move on his part. They come from all the way back, down the way they were, and a loss hurts you. A tie doesn’t.”

“I wish they’d gone for two. That’d given us another crack at them.”

Or Notre Dame deja vu.

So neither team loses, though the Trojans win a little more than UW.

Both are 4-0-1, and all their league rivals have at least two losses. If each team runs the table, USC goes to the Rose Bowl by virtue of a better nonconference record.

“I think Washington has a tougher row to hoe ahead of them in their schedule than we do,” said Robinson, “and I felt like (going for one) was the right thing to do.”

The Trojans play Stanford, Oregon State in Corvallis and UCLA; the Huskies have Oregon, UCLA at the Rose Bowl and Washington State. Washington probably figures the worst it can do is the Cotton Bowl, but it might be lucky to finish in the first division.

Mind you, we’re talking about the Huskies of the last quarter-and-a-half - the Huskies who gave up 265 yards and a three-touchdown lead.

The Huskies of the first two-and-a-half quarters, the ones who’d out-gained USC 288-66 at intermission - well, they might just make New Year’s Day in Dallas worth a look.

Those Huskies played defense with malice and mayhem in their hearts, made blocks the way they’re drawn up on the chalkboard, ran hard and threw smart. When the new tailback find, Rashan Shehee, couldn’t hang onto the ball after reinjuring his thumb, the Huskies got Leon Neal out of mothballs and - fracture in his foot or no - Napoleon Kaufman’s former caddy rushed for a career-high 152 yards against the best run defense in the Pac-10.

Problem was, the Huskies just didn’t convert enough of those yards into points. And so paranoid were they about being beaten by the remarkable Keyshawn Johnson that they probably beat themselves.

“The offense didn’t move it when it had to and the defense didn’t hold them when it had to,” said cornerback Scott Greenlaw. “It’s sickening. We just blew it.”

Rebuttal?

“I hate to say it,” said SC quarterback Brad Otton, the pride of Tumwater. “It’s a shallow victory.”

This was a big game - you could tell by the guest list. Kaufman, getting a week off from the Raiders, was on the Washington sideline. USC countered with Randy Johnson, who was once a big man - if not the Big Unit - on campus.

Obviously, the Huskies should have called Norm Charlton, the closest closer available.

So it was a game of big names, big stakes, some players who came up big. All it lacked was a big finish.

Leave it to college football to legislate against one.

You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.

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