That's Not Thunder You Hear, It's Usc

The I-Bone lives and reigns supreme. The I-Bone belongs to USC and John McKay, who announced earlier in the week of that social event known as the UCLA game that all his Trojans intended to do was kick heads and take names. This is exactly what they did, and it was as easy as their other nine victories this season because the Trojans have so much talent they look like they could play two or three different sports at once. And win them all. USC has a bunch of guys who can wrestle, push the shot, run the quarter mile, field fly balls, long jump, high jump and shoot one-hand push shots, and they bring these abilities to the football field along with an appalling confidence. Last Saturday against the hated Bruins in what was expected to be the usual old emotional showdown for the Rose Bowl bid, McKay's Trojans laughed it up while whipping what they called "the best team your taxes can buy."

The score was 24-7 and it well might have been worse if McKay had been playing Stanford again, Stanford being the Pacific Eight school that McKay enjoys referring to as the "Radcliffe of the West," the school he wanted to beat 2,000-0 this year on his way to what he expects will be a third national championship.

John McKay has a neat sense of humor and he has always brought it to the game he coaches so well. The I-Bone was McKay's answer to UCLA's Wishbone, which USC linebackers turned into a drumstick last Saturday. He is one of the few good coaches in the country who has stuck to the Shifting-T or Limping-I or Strolling-I-T formations throughout these five years that the Wishbone has been the vogue. Nebraska's Bob Devaney is another, and the systems of USC and Nebraska are very similar in that they look more like the type of formations you will see from a pro team. The I-backs, the slots, flankers, split ends and so forth.

One might also say that the talent of USC and Nebraska is not that much different from the pros, either. The Trojans are big and fast and capable, and they simply do everything well, from passing to playing defense. It is not usual for a team that relies as much on the pass as the Trojans do to maintain a strong running game, but they have plays with names like Blast Orbit and Student-body Right tailored for the exceptional running ability of their sophomore streak, Anthony Davis, and they run and run and run, just as they did on the Bruins.

Davis, who puts on some kind of a cloak of invisibility and sort of scoots along underneath people, got 178 yards. He is near 1,000 for the season, which is not bad for a youngster who used to wrestle and play the outfield.

"I coach him not to get tackled," smiles McKay in his sumptuous office (one of two, actually) in USC's new Heritage Hall.

It was raining on Thursday just as it had been raining most of the week, and McKay seemed as unconcerned about the lack of work his Trojans had done preparing for UCLA as he seemed unconcerned about the Bruins themselves.

"If I can find the gymnasium in the old building, I'll show you some fantastic athletes," McKay said, drawing on his traditional cigar. "We might be better than we've ever been. At least we've never before had a former basketball star at tight end [ Charles Young], a shot putter at fullback [ Sam Cunningham], a quarter-miler at split end [Edesel Garrison], a flanker who can long jump [ Lynn Swann] and a linebacker who can high jump 6'6" [Ray Rodriguez]. Plus my son."

That's J.K. McKay, the team's leading pass receiver who alternates with Garrison bringing in plays from McKay to Quarterback Mike Rae, who throws well and boots field goals and used to be a baseball and basketball star.

That Thursday the Trojans were in the gymnasium out of the rain, running through a few plays and laughing, working for a whole 26 minutes.