Posted by ESPN.com's Ted Miller
A reporter asked USC coach Pete Carroll what he thought about Oregon State running back Jacquizz Rodgers' performance against his then-top-ranked Trojans last Thursday.
Carroll let out a little laugh.
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| | AP Photo/Don Ryan |
| | USC coach Pete Carroll doesn't want to talk about Oregon State running back Jacquizz Rodgers' performance against the Trojans anymore but that doesn't mean he's forgotten. |
It may have been a "that's a stupid question" laugh. Or a "what the heck do you think I thought about it?" laugh. Or a "do I really have to talk about it again almost a week later?" laugh.
Whatever of the subtext of the laugh that operated as a sigh, Carroll aptly -- if a bit tersely -- described the performance.
"He played great," he said. "He probably had the best game of his life."
Rodgers, a true freshman from Richmond, Texas, gained 186 yards on 37 carries with two TDs in the Beavers' 27-21 upset victory over USC.
He gained all those yards against the nation's most physically talented defense, one that had throttled two previous opponents -- including Ohio State -- and had given up only 51.5 yards on the ground per game and yielded a scant 1.9 yards per carry.
"I had expected more of them," Rodgers said. "I thought they were a good run-stop team."
While much has been made of how shocking it was that the USC defensive linemen and linebackers couldn't get off blocks, Rodgers made many of those yards on his own, breaking tackles and slashing through cracks before the Trojans could react.
"It was unbelievable how he got through some of those holes," said Oregon coach Mike Bellotti, who is preparing his Ducks for a critical trip to USC on Saturday.
Oh, by the way, Oregon State visits No. 15 Utah on Thursday.
That's the thing. Lots of folks -- read: reporters and fans -- still want to talk about the USC game when Oregon State faces a huge task ahead: A hungry, 5-0 Mountain West team eyeballing a potential BCS berth that wants to whip a little more rear end for the conference that is presently 5-1 vs. the Pac-10.
The Beavers, however, seem abundantly aware that they will be relegated to the heap of one-hit wonders humming "My Sharona" while the college football nation turns away if they don't come out and produce an impressive encore at Utah.
"If you stick on this -- last week's win -- you won't get better," Rodgers said. "You'll just be living off that one win. The season goes on after that."
That, by the way, qualifies as a positively loquacious moment from the laid-back, 5-foot-6, 180-pound Rodgers, who seems not terribly taken by all the new attention.
"He's kind of unflappable," offered Beavers coach Mike Riley.
Of course, the problem for the Beavers is they seem to get flapped on the road in nonconference games, like the humiliation of a 45-14 loss at Penn State on Sept. 6, which isn't much different than a 42-14 loss at Boise State in 2006 and a 34-3 loss at Cincinnati in 2007.
Those two Beavers squads got off the carpet and rallied for bowl victories and combined for 19 wins.
This, though, is unexplored territory: Oregon State hasn't had a chance recently to redeem itself on the road against a tough nonconference foe after apparently beginning its annual turnaround from a slow start.
That makes this a big test for the Beavers, who have been hungry for national recognition since the program's fortunes changed in 1999 with their first winning season in 28 years.
Beat Utah, and the Penn State game becomes the fluke. Lose, and the Beavers 15 minutes of fame in 2008 ends.
"It's a tremendous mental challenge as well as physical," Riley said. "It can be a trap, because everybody is patting you on the back."
Utah will come at the Beavers with a balanced offense and a stout defense, which ranks No. 5 in the nation overall (231.4 yards per game) and is particularly tough against the run (60.2 yards per game).
And a night game on the road is always tougher than one at home.
So Rodgers and the Beavers need to come out with the same focus and intensity as they displayed against USC. Or it could be a long night.
As Riley pointed out, the Beavers still are only a 2-2 football team with a 1-1 Pac-10 mark.
For all the hullabaloo, beating USC only counts once.
Ted Miller has been covering college football since 1997, starting with Auburn and then heading West to Washington and the Pac-10. His columns for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer won first place in 2007 APSE Best Writing contest. The Atlanta native and University of Richmond graduate presently lives with his wife in Scottsdale, Ariz.
