[ UH FOOTBALL ]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Southern California's LenDale White tried to get past Hawaii's Abraham Elimimian yesterday. White rushed for 58 yards on 10 carries, as the Trojans amassed 164 yards on the ground.
‘Tailback U’ takes
Hawaii for a test drive
LOS ANGELES -- Southern California isn't known as Tailback University for nothing.
The tradition oozes from every crevice at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Four of USC's five Heisman Trophy winners (Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson, Charles White, Marcus Allen) were running backs. Replicas of their jerseys are sprawled on the East side of the Coliseum. Allen, a recent NFL Hall of Fame inductee, was seen cruising the sideline yesterday.
For all of USC's storied history, the running game had barely been visible this season. In victories over Auburn and Brigham Young, the fourth-ranked Trojans averaged only 97 yards rushing as their offense struggled.
USC coach Pete Carroll spoke earlier this week of finding more balance and consistency in the Trojans' running game. His rotation of four ballcarriers came through yesterday. Freshmen LenDale White (58 yards, two touchdowns), Reggie Bush (54 yards, two touchdowns) and Chauncey Washington (8 yards) and sophomore Hershel Dennis (52 yards) helped the Trojans run a balanced offense as USC routed Hawaii 61-32.
"We wanted to see what our young guys would look like as part of the running attack," Carroll said. "It was as we had hoped. Reggie would be flashy and make people miss and bust the big plays.
"LenDale and Chauncey would pound away at them as they come off the bench. Both Reggie and LenDale had terrific games to show you what they're all about. We finally found the continuity up front to allow those guys to play the game."
Bush got the offense going with a 23-yard run to score the offense's first touchdown with 4:58 left on the clock in the second quarter. His 32-yard cutback in the third period on which he recovered his own fumble helped the Trojans pad the score at 38-6.
"First of all, I'm just happy that I did score. If I didn't, I'm sure my coach would have ripped a hole in me," Bush said jokingly. "The offensive line provided great blocks and it was about being an athlete from there."
White had jitters about scoring his first collegiate touchdown, but USC had been rehearsing the run all week in practice.
"We knew we were going to run the ball a lot. I just wanted to get into the end zone and get that first college touchdown," White said. "Me and Chauncey try to get down the field as fast as we can and look for the end zone. Wherever the end zone is, we try to get to it."
They found it four times, as USC rushed for 164 yards and four TDs. Sophomore quarterback Matt Leinart completed 15 of 21 passes for 220 yards in the aerial assault to complement the running game.
For Leinart, having a ground game made him a lot more comfortable in only his third start.
"We did exactly what we wanted. We wanted to establish the run," said Leinart, who replaced Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer. "All of our running backs ran really well and the O-line blocked well. It was good to get that kind of running game going against Hawaii.
"Everything was there. Coach (Norm) Chow had a great game plan and we just executed what we had to do."
"It wasn't about Hawaii. It was about us," added Chow, a Punahou alumnus. "We want to establish the run because it opens up everything else."
The Warriors did little to contain any of it. Hawaii held the Trojans to three points in the first quarter, but the rest of the day was spent chasing USC as its tailbacks streaked down the field.
"They hit us with outside runs all day," said UH linebacker Keani Alapa. "If we stopped some of them, we make them one-dimensional but we didn't."
