Pac-12 goodbye tour: Remembering USC football’s 2004 unbeaten season
As the final year of Pac-12 football begins this Saturday with USC’s home opener, we have been remembering USC’s unbeaten seasons. It’s part of our Pac-12 goodbye tour. USC’s first unbeaten season was back in 1928. Someone who is 105 years old might remember that season, but that’s not a large percentage of our readership.
A very large percentage of our readers will be familiar with this next USC football unbeaten season. It’s the last one forged by the Trojans, their 2004 march to the BCS national championship under Pete Carroll, with Matt Leinart winning the Heisman Trophy. USC was at the very height of its powers, in the midst of a 34-game winning streak which put the rest of college football at the Trojans’ feet. USC gobbled up every award in sight. The celebrities came to the Coliseum and made USC the destination event in Los Angeles sports in the fall. The Lakers had April through June, but from September through November in those days, it was all Trojans. The Dodgers weren’t relevant or particularly good back then. USC was the October showcase in Los Angeles sports.
Let’s relive the 2004 USC football season:
VIRGINIA TECH
USC beat Virginia Tech, 24-13, in Landover, Maryland, on August 28. The game was technically a neutral-site game but was essentially a road game on the East Coast, not that far from Blacksburg, Va. The Trojan defense showed just how good it was. There would be no regression from 2003.
COLORADO STATE
USC beat Colorado State, 49-0, on September 11, 2004.
BYU
USC defeated BYU, 42-10, on September 18.
STANFORD
This one was too close for comfort. USC squeaked by Stanford, 31-28, on September 25. The Trojans got away with a relatively shaky performance, the kind of game they couldn’t solve in other seasons when they stumbled on the road in the Pac-10 (such as 2006 and 2008 at Oregon State).
CALIFORNIA
This is the game everyone remembers from 2004, on October 9. USC was frankly outplayed for large portions of the proceedings, but Pete Carroll’s defense came up clutch against Aaron Rodgers and the Cal offense, producing a red-zone stop in the final moments to hang on for a 23-17 win. Cal moved the ball effortlessly between the 20s, more than doubling USC’s yardage, 424-205. Cal had 28 first downs to USC’s 12.
Rodgers completed 29 of his first 31 passes, but he then threw three incompletions on first and goal on the defining sequence of the game inside the final two minutes. USC was the better red-zone team in this game, and the Trojans scored a touchdown thanks to a botched punt by Cal. The Golden Bears also missed a field goal and fumbled five times.
Aaron Rodgers outplayed Matt Leinart, but Leinart’s teammates gave him a lot more help. No one who watched this game will ever forget it.
ARIZONA STATE
USC, confident and relaxed after surviving Cal the week before, drilled Arizona State 45-7 on October 16.
WASHINGTON
USC began to flex its muscles after the Cal win. The Trojans won by 38 points for the second straight week. They bullied Washington by a 38-0 score on October 23.
WASHINGTON STATE
USC blitzed Washington State, 42-12, on October 30.
OREGON STATE
Oregon State tripped up USC in 2006 and 2008, but in 2004, the Trojans survived the fog of Corvallis, winning 28-20 on November 6 and taking another step toward a perfect season.
ARIZONA
USC crushed Arizona, 49-9, on November 13.
NOTRE DAME
USC smothered Notre Dame, 41-10, on November 27.
UCLA
USC knew it would be in for a fight against archrival UCLA. The Trojans survived, 29-24, to complete a perfect regular season and advance to the BCS National Championship Game at the 2005 Orange Bowl in Miami versus Oklahoma.
OKLAHOMA
Our friends at Sooners Wire would like to forget this game. Trojan fans never will. USC pounced on a muffed punt by Oklahoma’s Mark Bradley — the hinge point of the game — and then dominated the Sooners the rest of the way. OU scored first, and the game was tied at 7-7 late in the first quarter when Bradley muffed his punt. USC scored 45 of the game’s next 48 points. The Trojans outscored OU 24-3 in the second quarter. USC, after giving up an early touchdown to the Sooners, did not allow another touchdown until it led 55-12 with four minutes left in regulation. The final was 55-19. USC had its BCS national championship and its last perfect season to date.
