Trojans squeeze in practices during busy week

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- In a whirl of visits to a theme park, a fancy restaurant, a Lakers' game, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, plus a string of news conferences, the USC Trojans have managed to squeeze in time for practice.

It's been a blur of a week for the top-ranked Trojans and the No. 4 Michigan Wolverines, who meet Thursday in the Rose Bowl.

USC coach Pete Carroll said the Trojans have been able to get in all their work.

"We've done everything we wanted to do. There's been a bit of switching around with coaches' meeting times," Carroll said Monday as the team headed from their campus practice field to Burbank and the Leno taping.

"We pretty well finished preparations the week before. The players shouldn't notice much difference from any of our games," Carroll said.

Ready for a close-up

USC's Omar Nazel played TV reporter at Rose Bowl media day, chuckling and questioning his teammates about their preparations for the game against Michigan. He plans to be even more involved on New Year's Day.

Nazel has been cleared to play after missing three games and undergoing what was thought to be season-ending hand surgery.

"I'm ready to go," said the senior defensive end who had four sacks, two fumble recoveries and returned an interception for a touchdown before being hurt.

Coach Pete Carroll said sophomore Frostee Rucker again would start, but that he expects Nazel to play.

Nazel, an aspiring broadcaster, said he had no difficulty eliciting good answers from his teammates when he stuck a mike in their face.

"Who better to get intelligent answers from them than me?" he said, grinning.

Champions of the West?

Going West hasn't been good for Michigan in recent years.

Since winning the 1998 Rose Bowl against Washington State and a share of the national title, the Wolverines have struggled out West, losing at UCLA in 2000, Washington in 2001 and Oregon earlier this year.

That's particularly irksome to Wolverines defensive end Larry Stevens, who grew up in Tacoma, Wash.

"Michigan has to win out West. It's part of our song: 'the champions of the West,"' Stevens said, referring to the final words of Michigan's fight song. The song was written in earlier days, when Michigan was still considered "West" in the United States.

Recruiting battle

USC quarterback Matt Leinart could have just as easily been on the other side of the field for the Rose Bowl.

His final recruiting decision came down to Michigan and USC.

Leinart, who went to high school in nearby Santa Ana, chose staying home over going to the Midwest.

"I loved every part of Michigan. It was a great place with great coaches," he said. "But I just wanted to be here. I felt like this was the place for me."

Even Steven

Michigan and USC have met eight times, with the series tied 4-4. Six of the games were in the Rose Bowl, where the Trojans won in 1970, 1977, 1979 and 1990.

Ricky Ervins scored on a 14-yard run with 1:10 remaining to give the Trojans a 17-10 win in Pasadena in 1990. That was the most recent meeting between the teams and also Bo Schembechler's final game as Michigan coach.

The Wolverines beat USC in the Rose Bowl in 1948 and 1989, and won regular-season meetings in 1957 and 1958.