Trojans Set The Tone

Hold it. Hold it.

And exhale.

Go ahead.

Breathe that sigh of relief. The Pac-10 finally won a big game.

With a national TV audience watching, USC roughed up Penn State 29-5 in the Kickoff Classic.

The beating was so convincing that for the first time in eight years the Nittany Lions are out of the Top 25.

“I’m sure we haven’t answered all the questions that people have, but we made a statement that we’re here to play,” USC offensive lineman Faaesea Mailo told the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

“This was about a bunch of guys who wanted to be different from the last couple of years,” added USC coach Paul Hackett.

That was evident just from a glance at the stats. The Trojans held Penn State to 6 rushing yards. And they gained 164 yards on the ground. Quite a difference from last season when USC had minus-20 rushing yards against Arizona. Or two years ago when they had minus-23 rushing yards in the Sun Bowl.

“I think a lot of people thought we were too soft to play with Penn State,” Mailo said in the Orange County Register. “Then we went out and ran the ball all day on them.”

Of course, all that success so early has led to title speculation and motivation among the USC players.

“I’ve said all along we have a chance to be a good team,” Hackett told the L.A. Times. “I didn’t know when we would be a good team. Maybe this will accelerate it. Maybe we’ll be a good team earlier than I thought.”

“This is a starting point,” linebacker Zeke Moreno added. “We’re on the right track, the train’s moving.”

Now the other teams in the Pac-10 need to get on board.

UCLA will get a chance this weekend when No. 3 Alabama visits the Rose Bowl. Other upcoming Pac-10 opponents include Ohio State, Michigan, Illinois, Miami, Colorado, Texas and Wisconsin.

Bedeviled Sun Devils

Quarterback is the glamour position in college football.

Everybody knows your name. Everybody wants to be around you. Everyone wants your autograph.

That is unless your Arizona State’s Jeff Krohn.

At the Sun Devils picture day nobody was hanging around the freshman quarterback. Chances are that’s because nobody knew who he was.

A year ago this guy was a scout-team player. Thursday he will be the ASU starter.

“Krohn will be the most interesting (player) to watch, to see if he’s nervous or not nervous,” ASU coach Bruce Snyder told the Arizona Republic.

Nervous? Look for Krohn to be shakier than the San Andreas Fault.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Krohn only got the starting job because of Ryan Kealy’s knee injuries, which were chased with a brush with the law and a suspension. He hasn’t even thrown a pass in a game in more than a year and a half.

But wait, that’s not all.

Krohn will be missing his security blanket in the backfield. Starting tailback Delvon Flowers is out for the year with an ACL injury. His backup, Davaren Hightower may not see extended action because of an intestinal virus.

So Krohn could be handing the ball to either freshman Mike Williams or converted linebacker Stephen Trejo.

Quarterbacks’ conference

The last four Pac-10 champions were led by senior quarterbacks who were named first-team All-Pac-10 - Stanford’s Todd Husak in 1999, UCLA’s Cade McNown in 1998, Washington State’s Ryan Leaf in 1997 and Arizona State’s Jake Plummer in 1996.

The second-team all conference QB last season was Washington’s Maques Tuiasosopo. The senior was a preseason first-team pick this year. And maybe not so coincidentally his Huskies were picked to be the Pac-10 champs.

High Tide

Officials are expecting close to 80,000 people for this week’s game between UCLA and No. 3 Alabama in the Rose Bowl this Saturday.

The Bruins have not had that many attend a regular-season game since 1998. And last year the average attendance at the Rose Bowl was a paltry 55,705. But many of those expected 80,000 are not coming to see UCLA. Alabama has already sold out its allotment of 17,000 tickets and officials are expecting at least 20,000 fans of the Crimson Tide to be at the game.

“I just hope we have as many people wearing blue as they do wearing red,” UCLA coach Bob Toledo told the L.A. Times.

News and notes

The quartet of players in Oregon State’s secondary has a combined 79 career starts. That’s one of the reasons The Sporting News ranked that unit 11th in the country… . For the first time since 1994 there were no changes among the head coaches in the Pac-10… . A total of 141 starters are back in the Pac-10 this season, which comes out to 59 percent of the players. Oregon and Washington State have the fewest returning starters… . Oregon currently holds the longest winning streak in the conference with six. The Ducks also have the longest conference win streak (five), home winning streak (14) and road winning streak (two).