Pac-10 notebook: USC must decide if Booty still fits
PULLMAN – What would Los Angeles be without Santa Ana winds and a quarterback controversy?
Both have been around for seemingly forever, and this week the latter is swirling around the USC football team.
Should the Trojans (6-1 overall, 3-1 in Pac-10 play) start John David Booty, out against Notre Dame with broken finger on his passing hand, or Mark Sanchez, who has filled in the last two games and led USC to victories in both?
Head coach Pete Carroll won’t be pinned down just yet, although he has said the job is Booty’s when he’s healthy.
“We just have to see if he can be effective and if he can do what he needs to do and the things we’re asking him,” Carroll told the Los Angeles Times.
In Booty’s corner is his track record. The first-team All-Pac-10 quarterback last season – when he threw for more than 3,000 yards – has completed 65 percent of his passes, thrown for 12 touchdowns and 1,239 yards.
But he also tried to play through his injured finger against Stanford, ended up throwing four interceptions and the Trojans lost 24-23, damaging any national championship hopes.
Sanchez led USC past Arizona in a must-win game, then went into Notre Dame last Saturday and keyed the Trojans’ 38-0 victory. He’s thrown for 388 yards, completed 58 percent of his passes and found the end zone five times, four of the touchdown throws against the Irish.
“Once you get the nod it totally changes, like a heavyweight fighter – you win the title and that’s it, you don’t want to look back and you don’t want to change,” Sanchez said. “That’s the way I feel and I’m working to keep the job.”
Ducks on the attack
After back-to-back routs of Washington State and Washington – the ninth- and 10th-rated defenses against the run in the Pac-10 – the Oregon Ducks face a defense of a different nature.
It’s no surprise Oregon coach Mike Bellotti told the Oregonian that USC has the best defense the Ducks have faced. The Pac-10’s best overall, the Trojans are also third in the nation in yards allowed.
But awaiting them at Autzen Stadium will not only be the loudest crowd USC’s heard this season, but probably the best offensive line.
The group showed its strength last week in Seattle, opening gaping holes in the Huskies’ defensive front. The Ducks ran for a school-best 465 yards, 251 of them from Jonathan Stewart.
“Based on productivity, certainly you’d have to rank this line as one of the best, if not the best ever,” Bellotti told the Oregonian. “They’ve obviously allowed us to keep winning. It’s easy to say they’re on track to be one of the best (offensive lines) in Oregon football history.”
The starting line, from left to right, includes junior tackle Fenuki Tupou, senior guard Josh Tschirgi, junior center Max Unger, junior guard Mark Lewis and senior tackle Geoff Schwartz.
Behind them Stewart has run for 940 yards, averaging 7.2 every time he runs. The Ducks have racked up nearly 300 yards a game on the ground, more than 250 through the air and are second in the nation with their 550.9 yards and 46.6 points per game.
Around the conference
The easy part of Arizona State’s schedule is over. The seventh-ranked Sun Devils host a hungry Cal team Saturday night, and fewer than 5,000 tickets remain. Under former coach Dirk Koetter, ASU wasn’t too successful against ranked teams, posting a 2-19 mark since 2001. Dennis Erickson, on the other hand, is 26-15 as a college coach, with many of those wins coming while he was at Miami. … Eighteenth-ranked Cal’s defense has been suspect the past three games, two of those losses, and coordinator Bob Gregory, a former Gonzaga Prep and WSU player, can’t put his finger on the problem. “When you look at the tape, it’s not like we’re terrible at zone coverage or we’re terrible at man coverage or we’re terrible at run defense. It’s a little bit here and there,” Gregory told the San Jose Mercury News. … The Wildcats’ woes have extended to recruiting, with two high school players dropping their commitment to Arizona in the past couple of weeks. … Washington offensive quarterback Tim Lappano moved from the press box to the field for the Oregon game. Quarterback Jake Locker had the best passing game of his career with 257 yards and four touchdown passes. “I felt really, really good about having him down there,” Locker told the Seattle Times. Lappano will stay on the field the rest of the season.