It’s no tunnel of love
LOS ANGELES – In the days leading up to Saturday’s game at USC, head coach Bill Doba suggested the best way to stop USC would be to attack them in the tunnel.
The humorous prognostication turned out to be closer to fact than he could have realized.
According to numerous accounts, Doba found himself in the middle of a scrum at the start of halftime as the teams converged on their way back to the locker room.
The head coach did not comment on the incident after the game, but cornerback Omowale Dada explained things as he witnessed them:
“All I saw was Coach Doba’s walking through and some of their players started to bump him,” Dada said.
“They’re not going to bump the head coach in front of me, so I came, tried to stand by his side, then some of them came over and acted like – I don’t know what’s wrong with them, man – but they kind of like taunted and (were) spitting at people and pushing.”
According to Dada and KXLY radio sideline reporter Bud Nameck, who reported on the incident on the air, the USC coaches made at least an attempt to intervene.
“He didn’t get knocked down,” Dada said, “but he got shoved around by some of their players.”
Ghost gallops again
WSU’s Jerome Harrison got his 100 yards for an 11th straight game.
The Cougars running back had gone for just 15 against USC in 2004, but since then hasn’t been under the century mark once.
And for the sixth time in eight games this season, Harrison had reached 100 yards before halftime.
In fact, Harrison went for 116 yards on nine carries in the first quarter alone, despite the fact that his team trailed 28-6.
The senior ended up with 21 carries for 147 yards.
“I don’t know if we thought we’d be able to run the ball as well as we did when we ran it well early,” offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller said.
Harrison also notched a touchdown on a 13-yard run up the gut of the USC defense.
Quarterback derby
The blowout gave backups Josh Swogger and later Gary Rogers their first entry into a Pac-10 game this season.
Swogger, who started the first six games of 2004 then lost his job to Alex Brink in fall camp this year, entered the game with 12 minutes and 40 seconds left, going 2 of 3 on two possessions including a fourth-down completion that set up the Cougars’ second touchdown.
After that, Rogers entered and completed 2 of 5 passes for 12 yards – the first throws of the redshirt freshman’s career.
In all, the three quarterbacks combined for 89 passing yards, the worst WSU total since throwing for 56 in 1985 against Montana State.
The Cougars threw 25 passes, so they averaged less than 3.6 yards per attempt.
Notes
USC’s win streak is at 30 games, and it has won 41 of 42. … Trojans wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett had 11 catches for 200 yards, including the game’s first touchdown. … Cornerbacks Lorenzo Bursey and Omowale Dada, both questionable before the game, were able to play. … Bursey did not, however, return punts as coach Bill Doba had suggested he would. That job was taken by Trandon Harvey, who had two nice returns for 31 yards. … The Cougars also did well bottling up Reggie Bush on punt returns. The Heisman Trophy candidate took four punts just 19 yards. … The Cougars, last in the conference in time of possession but hoping to fare better in an attempt to control the tempo, held the ball for just 23 minutes and 24 seconds. … Doba said after the game he did not know of any significant injuries suffered by his team.