Carroll can’t look at Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh as his team celebrates its 24-23 dagger to the heart, dancing in the night on USC’s field, the battleground of a war lost on one play.

A year later, USC still remembers that night and the pressure again is on Carroll to avoid another upset similar to the one the Trojans encountered against Oregon State earlier this season.

USC kept pace with the Beavers in the race for the Rose Bowl by knocking off California last Saturday, a sputtering dull victory in which the Trojans were assessed over 100 yards in penalties. The team that looked so brilliant against Ohio State in September, is locked down in the No. 6 position in the BCS standings with nowhere to move up.

Harbaugh’s team, which had only one win when it played USC last season, might be the most improved in the Pacific 10. The Cardinal is 4-3 in conference play, with wins against Oregon State and Arizona. Stanford barely lost to Oregon last week by touchdown.

So, with the cool November winds fanning the heated race to Pasadena on New Year’s day, USC must avoid playing with a “payback” mentality and act as cool as the Palo Alto breezes to keep its date with Penn State at the Rose Bowl.

•

The 0-9 Washington Huskies have a good chance of winning their first game when they play host to the UCLA Bruins on Saturday in Seattle. The two teams are evenly matched…in ineptitude and frustration, especially UCLA which played Oregon State even for a half last week, then lost it in the second, 34-6.

Coach Rick Neuheisel was nearly at a loss for words in trying to find something positive to say about the Bruins’ play. The word “frustrating” was repeated in his post-game interview with media, and it seems now that Neuheisel’s first season is certainly a disappointment with the Bruins fading out against Arizona State and USC after they play the Huskies.

•

Alabama and Texas Tech still hold the two top spots in the BCS standings, and if the title game were held today, they both would play for the national championship. But the Watcher is going out on a limb to predict an Oklahoma-Florida match-up in Miami after the final poll is released on Dec. 7.