Trojans demolish Cougars

Published 11:55 pm Saturday, September 22, 2007

LOS ANGELES — The search, apparently, is over.

USC began its quest for a sixth consecutive Pacific 10 Conference title on Saturday determined to step up its passing attack and find a receiver willing to step up and become quarterback John David Booty’s go-to receiver.

The top-ranked Trojans achieved both goals and more in a 47-14 victory over Washington State before 86,876 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Booty kick-started his Heisman Trophy campaign by passing for 279 yards and four touchdowns, spreading the wealth to nine receivers. But the fifth-year senior repeatedly turned to another fifth-year senior, tight end Fred Davis, as the Trojans improved their record to 3-0 and extended their home winning streak to 35 games.

“They just kept feeding me the rock and letting me do what I do,” said the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Davis, who caught a career-best nine passes for 125 yards and two touchdowns.

USC built a 27-7 halftime lead and then scored on its first three possessions of the second half to cruise to the victory.

“That was an old-fashioned butt-whipping,” Washington State Coach Bill Doba said. “They’re the No. 1 team in the nation for a reason.”

Through USC’s first two games, the passing game certainly was not the reason.

But a week after running over and through Nebraska for an easier-than-expected road victory, USC turned to an aerial attack that sputtered at times against Idaho and was often ineffective against the Cornhuskers.

Trojans receivers had struggled against Nebraska, furthering the belief by some that the Trojans could not replace All-Americans Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith.

But junior Patrick Turner rebounded from a poor performance against Nebraska by catching six passes for 64 yards against Washington State. Turner had three receptions for 34 yards during the Trojans’ first drive that culminated with a six-yard touchdown pass from Booty to Davis.

“When you have a bad game you always want to come back and try to make good things happen to get out of that slump,” Turner said.

Sophomore Vidal Hazelton added six receptions for 47 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter for USC’s final points.

“The Nebraska game was real tough on us receivers because we weren’t really getting after the passing game,” Hazelton said. “But the running game was working so good, if I was a coach I wouldn’t have passed myself.”

It was clear from the outset that offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian was going to get Booty into a rhythm.

Booty completed nine of 10 passes during the opening 12-play scoring drive, mostly short throws to six different receivers. He built on that drive and finished 28 of 35 with one interception.

“The first two (games) we were running, running — we’d have to throw on third downs here and there, but it was first and second down tonight,” said Booty, who had one pass intercepted. “We were gunning it, just letting everybody get involved and letting it all hang loose.”

None was better than Davis who did most of his damage after he caught the ball.

“The thing we want Freddy to do is run with the ball, you know, get him some space,” USC coach Pete Carroll said. “You can see he’s jumping over guys, bouncing off people and making things happen.”

Washington State (2-2, 0-1) was hoping to remain on track after rebounding from a season-opening loss against Wisconsin with routs of San Diego State and Idaho.

The Cougars also were buoyed by hope sprung from last season’s game against the Trojans, which was not decided until USC safety Taylor Mays intercepted a pass by quarterback Alex Brink in the final seconds.

But Brink was under pressure throughout Saturday’s game. He was sacked twice and also was forced into throwing an interception that led to the first of David Buehler’s two field goals and a 27-7 halftime lead.

Brink finished 17 of 31 for 165 yards and two touchdowns. He burned the Trojans for a 44-yard gain on the Cougars’ first series but was otherwise neutralized.

“We did a good job of limiting the big plays for the most part,” USC safety Kevin Ellison said. “They did what we expected they would do, and we kept them under control.”