Victory Puts Leaf At Head Of Elite Class

Jack Thompson, Mark Rypien and Timm Rosenbach never came close. Even Drew Bledsoe couldn’t lead Washington State to a road victory over USC.

Ryan Leaf, meanwhile, will leave WSU batting a thousand.

“If he wanted to go down in history, if he really wants to be The Man, then he had to come down and beat SC,” said teammate Leon Bender, a senior defensive tackle. “Then they’ll stop comparing him to Drew.”

Leaf, a junior, may have been more spectacular during the Cougars’ season-opening victory over UCLA two weeks ago. But his performance in Saturday’s 28-21 victory over USC will do far more to cement his status in WSU lore.

The next Drew Bledsoe? Try this one: the only WSU quarterback since 1957 to lead the Cougars past the hated Trojans in Los Angeles.

“Ryan was on target all day long,” coach Mike Price said.

For the second time in his 14 college starts, Leaf led WSU to victory with a fourth-quarter drive, although last year’s comeback at Temple doesn’t quite compare.

Against the Trojans, Leaf completed 21 of 40 passes for 355 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. He was sacked seven times and lost a fumble, but none of that mattered when Leaf was leading WSU on the game-winning drive.

“We did a good job, period, of guys catching the ball late in the game and just making plays,” Leaf said. “They did the work.”

The winning drive started inauspiciously, with Leaf fumbling the snap from center Lee Harrison and falling on the ball for a 2-yard loss. Leaf then purposely took an incompletion by overthrowing Shawn McWashington, who was guarded by USC cornerback Brian Kelly.

Only 4:57 remained, and the Cougars were facing third-and-12 from their own 18-yard-line. That’s when Leaf found Kevin McKenzie for gains of 31 and 51 yards, the second one providing the winning points.

“Kevin McKenzie was the last drive,” Leaf said. “That was all him - the win was on his shoulders.”

Student Body Bereft?

Obviously, the Trojans can’t be too happy about being the first USC team to lose to Washington State in the Coliseum since 1957 - but they have bigger problems.

One, the Trojans are off to an 0-2 start for the first time since 1960 - and for only the fifth time in 105 years of football.

Two, the Trojans’ famed running game is in tatters. Having been held to just 25 yards rushing by Florida State last week, the Trojans managed just 31 against WSU. Technically, they aren’t the worst back-to-back rushing performances in USC history - Washington held the Trojans to minus-14 and Stanford surrendered just 68 in consecutive games last year - but it’s still bad.

“It was one of the most disappointing run performances I’ve been involved with,” said USC coach John Robinson. “We are just unable to find a hole and get any kind of sustaining feeling.”

Unlike last week, when Robinson stuck with starter Delon Washington most of the game, freshman backup Malaefou MacKenzie was inserted for a jump-start on USC’s third offensive series. But he had even less success - finishing with 14 yards to Washington’s 20.

The Cougars gave up 209 yards on the ground to UCLA a week ago, but defensive tackle Leon Bender said they “were better prepared to stop the run this time.”

But it probably didn’t help the Trojans that their best offensive lineman, Chris Brymer, sat out the game with an ankle injury and that starters Phalen Pounds and Travis Claridge missed parts of the game.

“Our players have to beat their players physically,” said Robinson, “and we are not doing that.”

Red-letter day for Black

While the Trojans struggled to run the ball, the Cougars got another solid performance from running back Michael Black. A senior from Los Angeles who went unrecruited by USC, Black rushed for 62 yards on 20 carries and caught four passes for 53 yards - the first two going for 13 and 35 against USC’s All-America cornerback, Daylon McCutcheon.

“This is very sweet,” he said. “It’s a great feeling. We accomplished something that hasn’t been done in 100 years, to have two big wins like this.”

Black said before the game that playing USC gave him special motivation, but afterward said the aspect of going unrecruited by his hometown school “wasn’t necessarily the reason.”

“They’re just great teams,” he said of USC and UCLA, “and to come home in front of my friends and family and beat SC is something special. It means your team is special, too.”

Kickoffs haunt Cougs

Trojans sophomore R. Jay Soward scored on the second-half kickoff for the second straight year against the Cougars, continuing what has become a USC tradition against WSU.

In 1992, after the Cougars had pulled within 24-21 with 3:19 to play, USC’s Curtis Conway returned a kickoff to the WSU 12-yard line, setting up the winning touchdown.

On Saturday, WSU sophomore kicker Rian Lindell kicked a low liner right at Soward, who raced 95 yards untouched. The TD pulled USC within 21-13 and temporarily turned the game in the Trojans’ favor.

“We wanted (Lindell) to try and kick it out (for a touchback) and we didn’t get it done, but there’s 10 other guys who didn’t do the job,” Price said. “You know, I even went out early with the team (during halftime) to run some drills, saying, ‘Hey, that will get us fired up a little bit for the second half.”’ But how do you rehab?

In addition to listing Chris Brymer (ankle) and Eric Denmon (knee), the USC injury report listed offensive lineman Faaesea Mailo (Mormon mission).

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